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Issa Rae Had the Best Response After Announcing the All-Male Oscar Noms for Best Director


This morning (January 13), Issa Rae and John Cho helped announce the 2020 Oscar nominations from Los Angeles.

So many of your faves received nods, including Florence Pugh and Saoirse Ronan (Little Women), Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit), Laura Dern (Marriage Story), and Charlize Theron (Bombshell). But much of the discussion online has been centered on who didn’t get a nomination. Some of the biggest snubs included Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers, Awkwafina for The Farewell, and Lupita Nyong’o for Us. And yet again, not a single woman was nominated in the Best Director category, where many thought Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Lorene Scarfaria (Hustlers), or Lulu Wang (The Farewell) deserved recognition.

And Issa Rae had a perfect response—and facial expression—to this news. After reading the list of names, she simply said, “Congratulations to those men.”

Twitter, of course, loved it. “‘Congratulations to those men.’ – Issa Rae introducing the Best Director category is a MOOD. #OscarNoms,” one person tweeted. “‘Congratulations to those men.’ @IssaRae is all of us, mad about the lack of a directing nod for Greta Gerwig,” another wrote, alongside a GIF of Pugh as Amy March.

This isn’t the first time a famous woman has called out an awards show for its lack of female directing nominees. In 2018, Natalie Portman was announcing the winner of the Best Director category at the Golden Globes when she said, “And here are the all-male nominees” before reading off the names. It was a fantastic burn, as well.

All internet fun aside, it’s ridiculous that we have to keep having this same conversation, year in and year out. There are so many worthy female directors that could have been nominated this year (and in the years past), and yet we still continue to see projects viewed through the male lens as more worthy of esteem and awards.

Do better, Hollywood.



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Men Behaved Pretty Much How You'd Expect at an All-Male Fundraiser in London


On Tuesday, the Financial Times published an exclusive story by writer Madison Marriage, who went undercover to report what really goes on inside an event known as the Presidents’ Club charity dinner at the Dorchester Hotel in London, which attracts hundreds of powerful men in business, politics, finance, and sports. It does not, however, appear to attract people particularly concerned with a few things known as #MeToo or Time’s Up.

Marriage—whose Twitter bio says is the Financial Times‘ accounting and tax correspondent—posed as a “hostess” for the evening and, according to the Financial Times, was met with over 300 tuxedo-clad men, as no women are allowed inside the event. That is, except for the 130-member hostess staff. And that staff, all required to be “tall, thin, and pretty,” were both verbally and physically harassed throughout the night. “Over the course of six hours, many of the hostesses were subjected to groping, lewd comments and repeated requests to join diners in bedrooms elsewhere in the Dorchester,” she wrote.

Other complaints Marriage heard from hostesses included how men allegedly reached up women’s skirts, and another who thought it was perfectly OK to expose his penis during the night.

Though really, Marriage noted, these actions could have been foreshadowed by a few of the charitable auction’s prizes, which included a night at a local strip club and a round of plastic surgery to “add spice to your wife.”

Even during their interviews for the gig, hostesses were reportedly told by Caroline Dandridge, founder of Artista, an agency that specializes in hiring women to staff these types of events, “Some girls love it, and for other girls, it’s the worst job of their life and they will never do it again . . . You just have to put up with the annoying men and if you can do that it’s fine.”

Not that fine, though: As one 19-year-old recounted to Marriage, an attendee nearing his 70s outright asked her if she was a prostitute. She replied that she was not and told Marriage, “I’ve never done this before, and I’m never doing it again.” She added. “It’s fucking scary.”

Marriage also added that a security guard was stationed outside the women’s bathroom, but it wasn’t for their protection, but rather to call out any women who took too much time inside, perhaps to compose themselves after being harassed, and forced them back into the ballroom to interact with male guests.

At the end of the night, the women were paid the equivalent of—wait for it—$210 for their troubles, along with a little extra for a cab ride home. For their part, the Dorchester Hotel claims it’s unaware of the alleged actions that took place at the event, and the Presidents Club also told the Financial Times that it “recently hosted its annual dinner, raising several million pounds for disadvantaged children. The organizers are appalled by the allegations of bad behavior at the event asserted by the Financial Times reporters. Such behavior is totally unacceptable. The allegations will be investigated fully and promptly and appropriate action taken.”

Read the full story here.

Related Content:
Denouncing #MeToo Is Feminism Devouring Itself
I’m Ready to Say ‘Me Too’—Now Men Need to Say ‘I’m Sorry’
Time’s Up Empowers American Women—Now It’s Our Duty to Empower Others Around the World





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