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Everyone Else Is Just Looking at Themselves on Zoom Video Calls Too, Right?


The silver lining to isolating during the coronavirus pandemic is that I’ve gotten significantly hotter.

I glow throughout Zoom video calls and FaceTime catchups, since I’m no longer wearing thick foundation or breathing in excess pollutants. Taking a break from hot tools and heavy bleach has left me with perfect mermaid hair. And now that I don’t have to factor in a commute, my day simply flows from one yoga practice into another, broken up only by the small nibbles I take of a single square of dark chocolate.

Now that my enemies have closed this tab, let’s be clear: Appearance-wise, things could not be worse.

I’ve hit week five of self-isolation, and my physical form has taken on the qualities of a porcelain doll stored for many moons in a damp attic—stiff, cobwebby, inexplicably sprouting long hairs. While other people report cracking open some kind of personal smog cocoon to reveal their untamed natural beauty, quarantine has only served to remind me that my everyday makeup look involves a tremendous amount of trompe l’oeil visual deception.

Left alone inside my home, I could lie and say I grew to be more accepting of my natural appearance during quarantine and now devote my time to baking sourdough bread for my neighbors. But this would not be true, and the reason is telework software. Thanks to the omnipresence of Zoom and FaceTime, I am constantly, literally, faced with myself.

I catch my own eye in the upper-right-hand corner of our screen and squirm. I try to subtly change angles while holding a conversation with 13 people. I try to temporarily mimic the effects of plastic surgery by sucking in my cheeks and widening my eyes. I wonder, “Is this what I really look like?”

Life has turned into one never-ending selfie.

The combination of work-from-home slovenliness and the unforgiving Zoom viewfinder is a self-esteem free-fall. In the mirror just before a 7:30 a.m. call, I looked rested and, if nothing else, clean. But in my Zoom reflection moments later, I see my eyes look both beady and strangely dazed. My pores are Russian dolls, with smaller pores residing inside of them. My face seems expansive and craterous, like something a thrill-seeking athlete would walk across without protective gear in an Oscar-winning documentary.

Offline, things fluctuate. Sometimes catching my reflection in a mirror these days is a borderline biblical experience—I feel that a hoard of my enemies has risen up against me and are pursuing me with great speed; I pray for deliverance. But other times, growing adjusted to my actual face without giant bat-wings of black eyeliner flapping up towards my temples, I feel like my own movie boyfriend, reaching out, placing a wet-from-the-shower hand on my cheek. “You’re even more beautiful without makeup,” I whisper to myself, fogging up the mirror.

This fantasia of personal acceptance shatters every time I look into a front-facing camera. Make no mistake—it’s a privilege to be able to work from home, with access to technology that lets me do my job remotely. But even the most luxe quarantine situation comes with a peculiar sort of hell. Between meetings, virtual happy hours, and the emergence of Zoom dating, we are spending hundreds of hours on video conferencing software.

The constancy of Zoom—and Google Hangouts, and FaceTime, and House Party, and that aging former beauty queen of the video conferencing world, Skype—means that, for all intents and purposes, your entire day is spent looking in a mirror.

This cannot be psychologically healthy.

It doesn’t help that Zoom video calls at Glamour have the aesthetic of a YouTube lifestyle guru convention. My colleague Shanna Shipin wears jeans (with shoes?!) every single day. West Coast editor Jess Radloff appears to be beaming in directly from one of those commercials for people who only feed their pets food that humans could also eat. She wears a chunky sweater and gently rests her manicured fingers on her photogenic cat. A halo of light seems to follow digital producer Khaliha Hawkins wherever she goes. Commerce writer Talia Abbas lifts a mug of tea. “I want that mug,” I think. “And I want her skin.”

Sure, with some apps, it’s possible to cover up or minimize your own image. But then you would have no idea what other people were seeing, and you’d lose the illusion that you could control your appearance by tilting your head 10 degrees! You could turn your camera off completely, but then your coworkers will be left to assume you’re Zooming from your bathtub. Better to find the best light, the best angle, and accept that your entire personal and professional life now takes place in the mirrored walls of a Target changing room.

So I pacify myself with this thought: No one else is looking at me. While I’m staring at the corner of my screen, wondering if I’m really cut out for a life of human interaction, other people are doing the same. No one can see that my eyes are locked, in horror, on my own reflection. Everyone else is just looking at themselves on Zoom calls too.

They are—right?

Jenny Singer is a staff writer for Glamour. You can follow her on Twitter.





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Rose McGowan Calls Natalie Portman's Oscars Cape Highlighting Female Directors ‘Offensive’


She calls Portman “part of the problem” with her “fake support of other women.”

“There is no law that says you need to hire women, work with women, or support women. By all means, you do you. But I am saying stop pretending you’re some kind of champion for anything other than yourself,” McGowan continued. “As for me, I’ll be over here raising my voice and fighting for change without any compensation. That is activism. Until you and your fellow actresses get real, do us all a favor and hang up your embroidered activist cloak, it doesn’t hang right.”

McGowan continued in her post, “I was at a Women in Film event that you spoke at once, Natalie. You reeled off depressing statistics and then we all went back to our salads. I quickly realized you and the other women speakers (and that joke of an organization) are just… frauds. You say nothing, you do nothing.”

Portman responded with a statement of her own, per The Hollywood Reporter. “I agree with Ms. McGowan that it is inaccurate to call me ‘brave’ for wearing a garment with women’s names on it. ‘Brave’ is a term I more strongly associate with actions like those of the women who have been testifying against Harvey Weinstein the last few weeks, under incredible pressure,” she said.

She also acknowledged the fact that she has not worked with a huge number of female directors over the course of her career. “It is true I’ve only made a few films with women. In my long career, I’ve only gotten the chance to work with female directors a few times—I’ve made shorts, commercials, music videos and features with Marya Cohen, Mira Nair, Rebecca Zlotowski, Anna Rose Holmer, Sofia Coppola, Shirin Neshat and myself,” Portman said. “Unfortunately, the unmade films I have tried to make are a ghost history.”

But, she says, that doesn’t account for all the projects that never went forward. “I have had the experience a few times of helping get female directors hired on projects which they were then forced out of because of the conditions they faced at work,” she said. “So I want to say, I have tried, and I will keep trying. While I have not yet been successful, I am hopeful that we are stepping into a new day.”

Director Marielle Heller said hers was one of those projects Portman is referencing.

Rose McGowan has not commented on Natalie Portman’s statement.



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If One More Person Calls Miley Cyrus and Kaitlynn Carter ‘Gal Pals,’ I’m Gonna Scream


Hi, hello. It’s me, your Friendly Lesbian Media Overlord, checking in on the right way to talk about queer relationships—which, yes, apparently we still need. This week’s case: On Saturday it was announced that Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth are separating after less than a year of marriage. Soon after, photographs of Cyrus kissing The Hills star Kaitlynn Carter, who also recently ended her relationship with Brody Jenner, surfaced.

A source told People the women are “having fun” together while on vacation in Italy.

So okay, this may not be a long-term relationship—but that doesn’t stop me from cringing and going into a “gal pal” spiral when I see comments reducing their potential romance to two besties in need of “girl time” or a “fake” ploy to “mess with their two ex-husbands.”

Here’s what we’re not gonna do: We’re not going to say Cyrus (who has made it clear, multiple times, that she identifies as queer) “can’t be tamed,” call her a “wild child,” or conflate women who love women to feral animals. We’re not going to suggest that being queer is a rebound, a result of emotional trauma that leads to something as insane as trying on a sexual identity for size. We’re also not going to minimize queer female relationships the way we’ve historically done. (Yes, I’m available for hire in LGBTQ media sensitivity training, and I’m very expensive.)

What’s a “gal pal spiral,” you ask? Historically, headlines have dubbed women in same-sex relationships as “gal pals.” It’s reductive, as it insinuates that women who are close or openly involved sexually or romantically are just #BFFgoals. Cara Delevingne and Ashley Benson recently went through the “gal pal” cycle after the two were photographed wearing matching gold bands; reports claimed the women got matching “friendship rings,” despite the fact that Delevingne and Benson confirmed their relationship with an Instagram of themselves kissing labeled #PRIDE. Even after reports surfaced that they got married in Vegas, outlets countered it was only a “friendship ceremony.” Wow, I can’t wait to have a friendship ceremony and hook up with my platonic female partner on our friendshipmoon! Goals!

Delevingne was also gal pal-ed with Michelle Rodriguez when photos of the women kissing surfaced in 2014. Ireland Baldwin once kissed her “gal pal” Angel Haze. And never forget the time Kristen Stewart kept things “low-key in a denim jacket and skin-tight jeans as she steps out with live-in gal pal Alicia Cargile.” Live. In. Gal. Pal!





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Evan Rachel Wood Calls Out Jim Hopper's 'Unacceptable' Behavior on Stranger Things


This post contains spoilers for Stranger Things. Consider yourself warned.

If you spent the Fourth of July weekend watching the latest season of Stranger Things on Netflix, you’re definitely not alone—in fact, over 40 million accounts tuned in.

But actor Evan Rachel Wood is one viewer who was less than thrilled with the third installment. More specifically, she felt the behavior of Jim Hopper (played by David Harbour) was “unacceptable” and took to Twitter to express her thoughts, igniting a heated conversation online. “You should never date a guy like the cop from #strangerthings,” she tweeted. “Extreme jealousy and violent rages are not flattering or sexy like TV would have you believe. That is all.”

She followed up in a thread, writing, “Yes I am aware its ‘just a show’ and its set ‘in the 80s’ even though this stuff was unacceptable then too, but thats exactly my point. It’s just a show and this is a gentle reminder not to fall for this crap in real life. Red flags galore.”

Many agreed with her. “YES, THANK YOU!!!! I was thinking this from the moment he manipulated Mike into breaking up with El. The man is chock-full of red flags,” one person tweeted. “Yeah, I’ve liked Hop generally, but this season the way he’s furious that his daughter is dating, & jealous of a guy who Joyce spoke to (despite emphasizing to her that it wasn’t a date) wasn’t a good look. He had a right to be upset at being stood up, but the Scott thing was ?,” another wrote.

But others didn’t agree with her criticism, citing both the time period the show takes place in and the fact that Hopper is a fictional character. “It was the 80’s. That’s how it was. I survived it and so should you,” one Twitter user wrote. Another added, “So now we should avoid writing flawed human beings into TV shows and film? Toxic masculinity was an unfortunate trait from the 80s, and probably the show is doing an accurate depiction of it through Hopper! Do I root for it? No.”

The conversations surrounding her initial tweet were so heated, Wood took to Twitter to address them again. “Cue all the abusive people attacking me on twitter for posting a warning not to fall for abusive behavior like a popular tv character exhibited on a popular show because it reminds them of themselves and they feel personally attacked?” she wrote. “Bring it on guys.”

“This isnt to say everyone who disagrees is an abuser,” she adds. “But it is very telling to see who agrees with the behavior.”





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Priyanka Chopra Calls Out Press Treatment of Meghan Markle: 'It Has to Do With Racism'


Priyanka Chopra and Meghan Markle have been friends for a while, and they’re both used to being frequent tabloid fixtures (they’ve even had to deal with fake stories written about their relationship). But although Chopra knowns firsthand what it’s like to be unfairly scrutinized in the media, she made sure to point out that the British press has been especially “unfortunate” when it comes to Markle, saying that some of the portrayals of the Duchess of Sussex have been fueled by racism.

In an interview with the Sunday Times published this weekend, Chopra praised how resilient and strong Markle has been in the face of negative press. Still, she didn’t shy away from noting that racism has been a factor in what’s been written about the royal.

“Of course it has to do with racism, it’s an obvious reason. But the beauty of Meg is that she’s been herself through all of this,” Chopra told the Times. “A lot of people got to know her after everything [once she started dating Harry], but I knew her before, and she’s the same chick. Now that she’s got a real platform, she talks about the same things she always did. We spent hours speaking about the difference that influence and dialogue can make to the world before this whole thing happened, so what you see now is authentically her. She’s always been the girl wanting to move the needle.”

It’s not the first time someone close to Markle has blasted the racist harassment she’s received. When he was dating her in 2016, Prince Harry issued a public statement through Kensington Palace condoning the behavior toward her. “Some of this has been very public—the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments,” the statement read. “Prince Harry is worried about Ms. Markle’s safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her.”

Markle herself addressed the scrutiny around her ethnicity when she spoke about her engagement publicly for the first time. When asked how she’d dealt with scrutiny around her ethnicity, her response was self-aware and eloquent, showing off the grace Chopra mentioned in her interview.

“Of course it’s disheartening,” Markle said. “It’s a shame that that is the climate in this world, to focus that much on that…but at the end of the day, I’m really proud of who I am and where I come from.”



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Jameela Jamil Calls Her Abortion 'The Best Decision I Have Ever Made'


Last week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, signed a six-week abortion ban in the state, prompting widespread condemnation nationwide. Now, actress Jameela Jamil has taken to Twitter to reveal that she once had an abortion—and that she doesn’t regret it.

“I had an abortion when I was young, and it was the best decision I have ever made,” Jamil wrote on Twitter. “Both for me, and for the baby I didn’t want, and wasn’t ready for, emotionally, psychologically and financially. So many children will end up in foster homes. So many lives ruined. So very cruel,” she said of the bill, which is due to take effect in January 2020 but will likely be challenged in court.

“This anti-abortion law in Georgia is so upsetting, inhumane, and blatantly demonstrative of a hatred of women, a disregard for our rights, bodies, mental health, and essentially a punishment for rape victims, forcing to carry the baby of their rapist,” she wrote in the thread. Jamil also went on to make clear that she wasn’t criticizing foster care, but rather the burden the abortion ban would place on the overwhelmed foster care system. “Ps.. this isn’t any diss at ALL to foster homes. I’m in awe of people who take in children in need of a family and a home: but if Georgia becomes inundated with children who are unwanted or unable to be cared for, it will be hard to find great fostering for them all.”

As Glamour has reported, under the abortion ban—the most extreme abortion ban nationwide—women who get the procedure could face life in prison and even be sentenced to death. If a woman travels to another state to have an abortion, she could be charged with conspiracy to commit murder and could face a decade behind bars. In a follow-up tweet, Jamil wrote that “the anti-abortion law is also especially targeted at those without the means/ability to move state[s]. Women who are marginalized, poor or disabled will, as ever, be the ones to suffer the most. The wealthy will have so much more freedom.”

Other stars have been quick to come out against the bill. On her talk show, Busy Tonight, Busy Philips shared her own abortion story. “I had an abortion when I was 15-years-old. I’m telling you this because I’m genuinely really scared for women and girls all over this country,” Philips said. And activist and actress Alyssa Milano proposed a now-controversial sex strike to fight all anti-abortion laws.

“Our reproductive rights are being erased. Until women have legal control over our own bodies we just cannot risk pregnancy. JOIN ME by not having sex until we get bodily autonomy back. I’m calling for a #SexStrike. Pass it on,” she tweeted.





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