Our latest blog roundup includes Fashion Week news from Nia Online, calling out the media on sexism in the locker room, and a gimlet-eyed look at on those “revolutionary” anti-aging skin products.
- Nia Online’s Girl! Get Me Started notes a happy milestone in the fashion world: “As New York Fashion Week presented designers’ visions of Spring 2011, black women were a big part of the conversation.” Highlighting designers Lois Smalls, Alice Samuels and Korto Momolu, she describes their designs in language nearly as vivid as the photos: “Trends seen included minimalism – lots of austere creations in white and taupe; bursts of bold colors like jade, cobalt blue, hot pink, ochre yellow and burnt orange; the ’70s influence (high waisted pants, loose sleeved tops and dresses, belted shirt dresses…” Click on the link for more, including some stunning designs.
- Helene Atwan, director of Beacon Press, writes at Guernica about some sane responses to recent religious hysteria: “While one man and his small group of followers in Gainesville, Florida are talking about burning copies of the Quran on 9/11, it’s been thrilling to see America’s secular and religious communities reacting in solidarity. Religious leaders, including Peter Morales, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, are calling on their communities to read the Quran,” and the Massachusetts Bible Society has offered to provide two Qurans for any that are burned. Information is power, Atwan adds: “For those who would like to take the opportunity to read at least some passages from the Quran, you’ll find some excerpts” on a few linked sites.
- Ruth Martin at Moms Rising is deeply concerned about the Paycheck Fairness Act, which has passed the House but still needs to clear the Senate: “We need to move this bill forward before the Senators go home in two weeks,” she writes. In “Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act in 60 Seconds,” Martin provides a useful set of links and talking points for our calls to Washington. We might tell them, for example, that “our Senators can take comfort voting for the Paycheck Fairness Act knowing that in a nationwide poll of registered voters, 84% said they support a new law that would provide women more tools to get fair pay in the workplace.”
- Ever wondered about those $900-an-ounce wrinkle creams you read about? Ronni Bennett decided to put some to the test, and tells us at Time Goes By: “I bought a small bottle of one of the most popular and well-known anti-aging skin creams. I wanted to see for myself if it softens the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, as the hype maintains, and if my skin would appear ‘significantly firmer after just five days.’ Five days later, my face was no firmer, but it and my neck were as splotchy and red as I might look if I’d been a heavy drinker for many years. I gave up the experiment, tossed the bottle of cream and three days later my face was clear again…. It’s amazing what people will endure in the name of false youth. A Google search for ‘anti-aging’ returns more than 17 million results.” Bennett then puts the knife to some of the most popular claims, most long-disproven, for products from human growth hormone to Resveratrol to our favorite (not!) bioidentical hormones.
