This week Alabama passed the most restrictive abortion ban in America, outlawing the procedure from the moment of conception onward. There are no exceptions for cases of rape or incest, with a lone allowance made for instances in which a woman’s health is at risk. As Glamour has reported, doctors who administer an abortion could be prosecuted and face up to 99 years in prison. One headline summed it up well: “Under Alabama’s Abortion Ban, Doctors Who Perform Abortions on Rape Victims Could Get More Prison Time Than Rapists.” The article goes on to explain that even doctors who just attempt to administer one could be sentenced to up to 10 years behind bars.
So who voted to strip women of their reproductive freedom, a right that has been enshrined in our law at the national level since 1973? Well, in Alabama, the antichoice movement has a look. All 25 state senators who voted for the bill are Republican white men; there are just four women in the chamber and all of them are Democrats, who opposed the bill.
This means that despite widespread support for Roe v. Wade nationwide and in both parties, just over two dozen men have voted for a bill whose explicit purpose is to challenge the Supreme Court decision. In other words, 25 men who will never need this procedure (but who can, of course, put a woman in a position where she might need one) have limited the medical options available to 51 percent of the population. The lopsidedness of this equation was not lost to people on social media, some of whom pointed out that just nine women have ever served in the Alabama state senate.
Here are the names of the senators who’ve decided that, in Alabama, women don’t deserve the right to make their own health care decisions: Greg Albritton, Gerald H. Allen, Will Barfoot, Tom Butler, Clyde Chambliss, Donnie Chesteen, Chris Elliott, Sam Givhan, Garlan Gudger, Andrew Jones, Steve Livingston, Del Marsh, Jim McClendon, Tim Melson, Arthur Orr, Randy Price, Greg Reed, Dan Roberts, Clay Scofield, David R. Sessions, Shay Shelnutt, Larry Collins Stutts, James Thomas “Jabo” Waggoner, Cam Ward, and Jack Williams.
It should be noted that the bill will now head to Alabama’s female governor, Kay Ivey, who has not commented on the law but who is antichoice. If she signs it, it could take effect within six months. Women, and white women in particular, have of course supported antichoice legislation. But no matter what Gov. Ivey decides to do, the optics of the bill at this point are impossible to ignore.
When the 27-year-old French guy I recently matched with on Tinder says he wants to cook me dinner at his house for our first date, I’m not all that surprised. The French tend to be more romantic than Americans, even when it’s just about sex. But six hours before our date, he blows up my phone with food questions.
“You eat goat cheese, sweet Melanie?”
Yup!
How about salmon? Crepes for dessert? This or that for appetizers? What kind of wine?
“I’m sure I’ll love whatever you cook, don’t worry,” I say, partly touched, partly annoyed.
“But it’s the first time I see you. I want everything to be perfect!” he texts back.
I’m sure it will be, I assure him. I’m a 41-year-old woman with the sex drive of a teenage boy and we’d already established that we’re both just looking for a “sex friend,” as they call it here in France. All this effort on his part is nice but totally unnecessary.
When I arrive at his place, damn does it smell amazing. The table is so heavy with platters it looks straight out of a medieval feast. And even more food is cooking in the oven! “I made this sauce just for you,” he says, holding up a platter of breads, spreads, and fancy French cheeses. This special sauce—which, he informs me, is called “Melanie’s Special Sauce”—makes my knees buckle.
Over appetizers, he waxes poetic about what a strong American woman I am—I climb mountains, travel the world alone, I’m fearless. He launches into a monologue about how impressed he is with all I’ve done with my life so far and how he hopes I’ll find him even half as interesting. “I’m just so happy you’re willing to date someone as young as me,” he adds.
Of course I am. Who else is there, anyway?
I was so worried about turning 40, certain I’d suddenly become invisible to men—like Cinderella turning into a pumpkin in the middle of a party full of twenty-somethings. If my Tinder matches are any indication, that fear isn’t totally unfounded: Dudes my own age just aren’t interested anymore.
At first, I worried this meant I had in fact become an unfuckable dried-up old hag. Society has told women our entire lives that men won’t want us after 35. Hollywood casts age-inappropriate women for almost every leading man while at the same time casting women my age as the mothers of their peers. For women in America, turning 40 is a death of sorts. The loss of all our sexual capital. Nobody will want us or our bat wings. And bless your heart if you’re a woman in Los Angeles who refuses to get Botox and is edging toward 40.
I’ve come to realize, in my infinite old-woman wisdom, that this all bullshit. And if men in their forties no longer want to date me, well, that’s a good thing. Frustrated with my desolate Tinder inbox, I finally thought, Screw it, and set the age minimum on my dating app to 25. Whew, boy! Almost immediately my inbox caught on fire, filled with twenty- and thirty-something men just dying to take me on a date. Younger men not only want to date older women; they think we’re amazing.
I didn’t set out to be a “cougar,” but it seems like Tinder is chock-full of lonely cubs. I have never had this much sex—let alone good sex—in my life. These younger guys are more progressive, have less emotional baggage, and love dating a confident woman who knows what she wants and tells them what to do. I’ve never felt so sexy and attractive.
In The Hustle, two badass women are all it takes to scam men out of millions (if not billions) of dollars.
Thanks to Anna Delvey, who notoriously grifted her way through SoHo (and ended up inspiring not one but two competing TV shows about her con) and the entire Fyre Festival fiasco, the word “scammer” has been on the tip of everyone’s tongues for at least two years now. Of course, Hollywood has followed suit and made a blockbuster for our times with The Hustle.
In this adaptation of Frank Oz’s 1988 film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which starred Steve Martin and Michael Caine, it appears that Rebel Wilson has met her match in Anne Hathaway. Hathaway plays a seasoned scammer who teaches Wilson “her sugar baby ways,” which include performative vulnerability, knife-throwing skills, and blending in with one’s surroundings. This is all so they can work together to swindle a young tech dynamo (played by Alex Sharp) out of his millions (or possibly billions, as Wilson points out). Why shake down so many rich men out of jewels and money, you ask? The answer is simple: because they can. Do you need a better reason than that?
“Why are women better suited for the con than men?” Hathaway asks in the movie. “Because no man will ever believe a woman is smarter than he is.”
Hathaway is no-doubt bringing her Ocean’s 8–honed heist chops to The Hustle (she was the best part of that movie, and I won’t be challenged), while Wilson delivers the riotous physical comedy she’s known for in movies like Pitch Perfect and the recently-released romantic comedy Isn’t It Romantic.
Check out the full trailer for The Hustle, below:
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It looks like scammer season has just been extended to May 10, 2019, which is when The Hustle hits theaters nationwide.
One of the most cutting moments in Taraji P. Henson‘s new movie What Men Want is when her character, Ali, is overlooked for a promotion she thought was hers. It’s an embarrassing scene—her boss tosses a football to the man who’s getting the job, but Ali intercepts. There’s an element of slapstick here, of course, but the feeling is something women know all too well: losing an opportunity over “boys’ club bullshit,” as Ali so accurately puts it.
What Men Want addresses this injustice with humor…and a little magic. After drinking a Haitian tea brewed by a questionable psychic, played by Erykah Badu, Ali gains the ability to read men’s thoughts. She uses this power to get into the minds of the guys she works with and, soon enough, she’s on top. That Ali has to develop psychic abilities to get ahead at work is baffling, but it illustrates the uphill battle so many women face in their professional lives.
“The message of this movie is ‘the fight continues,'” Taraji P. Henson tells Glamour. “Just like so many women before us fought so that we could sit here. Now’s not the time to drop the torch. We have to continue fighting so that the ones coming behind us—maybe one day this is not their narrative. So we have to keep fighting. It’s an important enough subject matter for us to write a movie about it, so it’s very real.”
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Real, and also timely. What Men Want is hitting theaters in the middle of #MeToo and Time’s Up, two movements aiming to end sexual harassment and gender inequality at work. The movie addresses the former head on when Ali’s boss tells her, “If it weren’t for #MeToo, I would fire you.”
“You know men are thinking that. You know that,” Henson says. “It’s the first time I actually heard [#MeToo] spoken [in a movie]. I hope that this will spark more things to be written. The only way we can change it is if we deal with the truth. You can’t change anything and ignore the pink elephant in the room.”
But What Men Want isn’t anti-men—Henson wants to make that very clear. “I don’t want to bash men,” she says. “We don’t want to make this a male-bashing film. I love the men in my life. We want them to come see the movie and laugh and learn, as well.”
And they will. The film does an excellent job at highlighting blindspots men often have when interacting with women, either professionally or personally. One great example is Ali’s father (Richard Roundtree), a widow, who admits in an emotional scene that raising her was difficult without his wife. “[He realizes], ‘Wow maybe there are some places that I did fault, or maybe there are some things that I didn’t equip you with [because I’m not a woman],'” Henson says. “Him coming to that realization and being man enough to say it—that’s beautiful. That, to me, was one of the most beautiful scenes in the film.”
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Another important scene is when a character played by Tracy Morgan tells Ali he doesn’t trust women who don’t have spouses or children. It’s yet another example of the disparity between women and men (who are usually seen as cool bachelors when they’re single). Henson, however, thinks both genders experience the judgment her character faces.
“It’s that way with men too,” she says. “My fiancé [NFL star Kelvin Hayden] says people don’t take you seriously unless you’re married. Even men in business: The tone changes when you say, ‘Oh, this is so-and-so, and he has a wife.’ I see them light up. I think it’s both sides.” Hopefully, What Men Want helps break this stigma.
Over the weekend Pete Davidson and Kate Beckinsale were spotted leaving a Los Angeles comedy club holding hands. In the paparazzi photo, seen above, Beckinsale, 45, with her open coat, knee-high boots, and sky-high ponytail, looks hot AF. Davidson, 25, leads the way in a graphic sweatshirt as a lollipop dangles from his mouth.
Nick Jonas, 26, put a ring on Priyanka Chopra, 36.
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The paparazzi shot called to mind another photo of Davidson, one from this summer that captured him with Ariana Grande as they left their then shared apartment. (This was before she said “Thank u, next” to their engagement.) In it, Grande wears an oversize sweatshirt with her signature thigh-high boots and sky-high ponytail, clasping hands with Davidson. They have matching lollipops. The photo spurred tons of memes, and quickly became one of 2018’s most popular Halloween costumes.
But it also signified something greater: The pic seemed to kick off a sea change in celebrity coupledom. Grande and Davidson had just announced their engagement, after only about a month of dating, and were happily flaunting their newfound love and commitment to the world. Soon after, their peers started following suit. Justin Bieber popped the question to Hailey Baldwin, Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra made it official, and so on. As Glamour put it at the time, suddenly marriage and babies had become the new naked selfie.
Naomi Campbell, 48, isn’t the first older woman Liam Payne, 25, has dated. His ex, Cheryl Cole, was 10 years his senior.
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Davidson’s first boo’d up candy-coated pic might have kicked off the summer of love, but his latest shot with Beckinsale is announcing the current trend in celebrity relationships: More women in Hollywood are dating much younger men. There’s Beckinsale and Davidson and their 20-year age difference, of course. Meanwhile, Naomi Campbell, 48, is reportedly getting it on with One Direction–er Liam Payne, 25. This Is Us star Chrissy Metz, 38, is dating Hal Rosenfeld, a 25-year-old composer. Kourtney Kardashian, 39, may or may not be seeing Luka Sabbat, the 21-year-old Grown-ish star. And, as previously mentioned, Chopra, 36, and Jonas, 26, recently tied the knot.
Chrissy Metz, 38, and her boyfriend, Hal Rosenfeld, 25, tear up the red carpet.
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Older women with younger beaux is even becoming more normalized on television. In this season of Grace and Frankie, for example, Jane Fonda, 81, has a love interest in Peter Gallagher, 63. This is, of course, only a recent example—I have to hat-tip Golden Girls for pairing Blanche Devereaux with a much younger aerobics instructor all the way back in 1985. We’re breaking age barriers in politics too: French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte, is 24 years his senior, and they’re nothing short of couple goals.
People on Twitter are here for all of it. “Pete Davidson and Kate Beckinsale hooking up is foreshadowing how dope 2019 is going to be. Let’s go,” said one user. Another said, “I was not aware of Priyanka and Nick Jonas’ age difference until today and while before I didn’t particularly care about this couple I am in full Shakira-Pique support. GET IT LADIES.”
What’s even more surprising, given the garbage fire of hate that often comes with social media commentary? There’s very little outrage about their age differences. In the past we might have seen countless tweets and think pieces questioning what these men could possibly see in an older woman. Now, though, the narrative has shifted: People are valuing these relationships for what they really are—a hot, successful woman at the top of her game getting her life. People may have criticized the overt spon-con of Chopra and Jonas’ wedding, but nobody batted an eye at their age gap. In all the fanfare around Beckinsale and Davidson, people are only questioning why she’d be into him.
Studies say women don’t hit their sexual peak until they turn 36—why the hell wouldn’t these dudes want to get in on that?
It hasn’t always been this way. In the past, society gave men like actor Jason Statham, 51, a pat on the back for dating Victoria Secret’s model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 31. Or praised Michael Douglas, 74, for landing Catherine Zeta-Jones, 49. But do you remember the backlash when the OGs of this trend, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, first began dating in 2009? It shocked the world. “People made such a fuss about it you would have thought the world had never seen it before,” Moore once said of the public fascination. “Age wasn’t what I was thinking about, but to the rest of the world, it was a very big deal.”
Kourtney Kardashian, 39, is the patron saint of dating below her age bracket. Luka Sabbat, her current fling, is 21. Scott Disick is 35. Her ex Younes Bendjima is 25.
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It’s 2019. Women are running for president in spades, taking back our power in Hollywood, and fully owning our sexuality. Isn’t it time to change the fact that women in Hollywood are told they’ve “peaked” at 30, while men age like a fine wine? Who knows, maybe more women dating a pretty young thing can change that mind-set. I mean, I’d love to watch a rom-com in which recent red-carpet BFFs Glenn Close and Timothée Chalamet (also known as Glennothée) fall madly in love. The more we honor these women as the sexy and powerful figures they are—whether it’s by respecting their desirability to younger men or simply validating their right to exist onscreen—the better off we’ll all be. In the meantime, I’ll just be here, setting my age limits on Bumble back by a few years.
We talk a lot about body hair around here, whether those are ways to help you remove it (laser hair removal, anyone?), celebrities who prefer to show it off, and this month’s #Januhairy pro-stubble movement. And we haven’t forgotten about the razor brands themselves, who have made strides to present a more inclusive attitude toward body hair, including showing it in their advertising instead of the unrealistically hairless bodies historically depicted. Women have applauded the changes, seen as both overdue and refreshing—which makes it even more of a head-scratcher that men have picked up their pitchforks and logged onto Twitter in order to voice their disdain over a new Gillette commercial.
The new commercial poses Gillette’s tagline, “The Best a Man Can Get,” as more of a question, forcing viewers to come to terms with the bullying, sexual aggression, and toxic masculinity that often accompanies “manliness.” (It’s worth noting that the American Psychological Association recently released a paper tying toxic masculinity to depression and other adverse health effects.)
Because while some men think of a sort of masculinity epitomized by the mustachioed, woodworking Ron Swanson, it often takes an insidious turn instead. The commercial depicts physical fighting, a quick but perfect demonstration of mansplaining, and catcalling—along with the usual excuses of “boys will be boys”—followed by human decency prevailing, whether it’s men breaking up said fights or intervening in sexual harassment. The ultimate lesson: Teach the next generation of boys to be a little more decent.
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Doesn’t that sound nice—and sort of how you’d want to raise your kids anyway? Not really, according to certain men of the Internet. (If you’re wondering whether noted mysoginist Piers Morgan, recently owned by both Sophie Turner and Ariana Grande in recent days, has weighed in, you’re right!)
Gillette isn’t just relying on the advertisement to incite change, though. The brand will also donate $1 million every year for the next three years to organizations that help men become good role models, starting with The Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The multi-pronged effort will help keep them true to their goal.
“The heart of this effort is a desire to see men at their best and highlight the positive examples they set for the next generation,” says the brand via a spokesperson. “We believe in the best in men—and we want to show that. We believe in men as positive role models. We believe in men who lead with respect and inclusion. We believe in men who are doing everything they can to raise the next generation in the best way they can.”
We can’t argue with that. And despite the backlash and inevitable boycott, it’s nice to see a men’s shaving brand taking a stance.
