Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is blunt—the women have been pushed out.
In late August, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) exited the 2020 presidential race. Earlier this month, Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) announced she would end her campaign too. Meanwhile, over a dozen candidates—most of whom are less well known than those two women—remain in the contest, with the field somewhat narrower and much, much more male than it was even 12 weeks ago. As some on social media have noted, there are now more billionaires up for the Democratic nomination than there are black women. And of the six candidates who qualified for this week’s Democratic debate, zero are people of color.
The problem is bigger than just who gets to stand behind a podium. With candidates like Gillibrand and Harris out of contention, their ideas risk elimination too. And Warren—who has put a feminist spin on retirement benefits and student debt—refuses to let that happen.
“We’ve seen a record number of women in this race,” Warren tells Glamour. “That means, together, we’ve been able to shape the national conversation, to highlight issues impacting people in America.” But, she adds, as men who can afford to pour tens of millions of dollars into their own runs declare their candidacies, that discussion suffers.
After Warren announced her bid, she unveiled her plan to make affordable childcare available to families nationwide. Gillibrand pioneered paid leave legislation. Harris prioritized reproductive healthcare. “These are powerful issues, not just for women, but for families,” Warren says. And of course, the fact that Gillibrand and Harris aren’t on the trail doesn’t mean we’ve solved them. So, Warren reached out to her former rivals and asked their permission—both to add their policies to her platform and to attribute those plans to the women responsible for them.
So while I’m enjoying all of this unprecedented—and, frankly, a little bit uncomfortable—attention and personal success, in large part due to my activism off the field, Colin Kaepernick is still effectively banned from the NFL, for kneeling during the national anthem in protest of known and systematic police brutality against people of color, known and systematic racial injustice, and known and systematic white supremacy. I see no clearer example of that system being alive and well than me standing before you right now. It would be a slap in the face to Colin, and to so many other faces not to acknowledge, and for me personally, to work relentlessly to dismantle that system that benefits some over the detriment of others, and frankly is quite literally tearing us apart in this country.
While we all have injustices we are facing—for me personally, a very public fight with our [US Soccer] Federation over why we don’t deserve to be paid equally; some people even say we do our job better. I don’t know! It’s crazy!—I still know in my heart of hearts and my bones that I can do more. And that we can do more. And I know that because we just have to. We must. It’s imperative that we. do more.
My mom, who’s here today, looking stunning, by the way—shout-out to mom—impressed upon me and my twin sister at a very young age, ‘You ain’t shit cause your good at sports. You ain’t shit cause you’re popular. You’re gonna be a good person. You’re gonna be kind. And you’re gonna do the right thing. You’re gonna stand up for yourself, always. You’re gonna stand up for each other, always. And you’re damn sure ‘gonna stand up for other people. Always.
She taught us that in kindness and in caring and in giving a shit and sharing—that’s abundance. That’s the kind of culture we want to live in. I feel like we live in this scarcity type culture; one of my best friends always says that. That’s not the world I wanna live in. I think we can move on from losing alone to the belief in winning together.
With that abundance in mind, I want to re-imagine what it means to be successful, what it means to have influence, what it means to have power, and what that all looks like.
I’ve gained this incredible platform in such a short period of time, but I’m not gonna stand on it alone. I refuse to do that. There’s gonna be ladders on every side, all over the place. And I’m not gonna act like it wasn’t Colin Kaepernick, Tarana Burke and the #MeToo Movement, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi of Black Lives Matter, the women of Time’s Up, Harvey Milk, Gloria Steinem Audre Lorde, Travon Martin, Sandra Bland, and the injustices that so many others face that have put me in this very position. And I’m not gonna act like my whiteness has nothing to do with me standing before you now. I don’t want to live in that kind of world. I don’t think that kind of world is the world that suits everybody and is gonna move us forward in the direction that we need to go.
We’ve gotta switch the game up.
Caring is cool.
Lending your platform to others is cool.
Sharing your knowledge and your success and your influence and you power, is cool.
Giving all the fucks is cool. Doing more is cool.
I don’t need to say that to all the other women who are being honored tonight. Everyone is doing that. But to everyone else in this room, we have such an incredible opportunity to redefine what power and influence and success looks like. From the looks of it, this looks like a room full of powerful and influential and successful people. So share that platform. Throw your ladders down. It’s our time. We’re ready for this. And it needs to happen. This is such a pivotal movement for us. There’s so much momentum, but we have to move forward and we have to be better. So everybody: We have to do more. We’re here. We’re ready. Everyone’s ready to do more? Good!
Thank you so much for this amazing award. Thank you, everyone.
Find out more about Glamour‘s 2019 Women of the Year here.
The year is 2019, but fashion trends would suggest it’s 1994. Bucket hats are all over Coachella. Marc Jacobs’ grunge collection for Perry Ellis is back. Bedazzled hair clips are the biggest trend from Fashion Week. Riding the surge of nostalgia that’s brought all of these things—plus tie-dye, plus nylon bags—out from storage, one brand is reissuing its biggest “It” item from the ‘90s, just in time for summer.
In an exclusive capsule for Urban Outfitters, Steve Madden is revisiting its early hits by releasing two of its most well-known sandals—yup, the sky-high platforms everyone wore in middle school.
The Scrunchy (a slide-on platform sandal, previously known as the Slinky) and the Contempo (a platform flip flop) have been updated with stretchy straps and new color ways. Don’t worry, though: The super-thick soles are exactly like you remember.
Prices have gone up a tad since you last saved your allowance for a pair: The Scrunchy will sell for $60 while the Contempo is $70.
Steve Madden first released its Slinky platform in 1994. Over 20 years later, the brand says that platforms are still known as one of its core styles—and it’s time to bring them back. “Since the very beginning, it’s been all about platforms for us,” Steve Madden (the designer) said in a press release. “We figured now was the best time to reinvent these styles.”
Once upon a time, you would have needed a ride to the mall to pick up a pair. Now, they’re available online at Urban Outfitters. Start working on your balance, then check out Steve Madden’s new-old platform sandals, below.
On any (and almost every) given morning you can find me in a cold sweat sitting at the edge of my bed, wishing desperately that I was a morning person whilst complaining to my (still) sleeping boyfriend that our going to bed late and waking up late routine is actually, seriously his fault and how I can’t live my life this way any more. Basically, I’m really fun to wake up next to.
While some people work out in the morning, I treat myself to a nice panic induced sweat, rapidly pull a handful of different things out of the closet, throw almost all of them on the floor and inevitably reach for the same couple of things I know will work every time. It’s exhausting and I could just avoid the stress of putting together an outfit ten minutes before I have to leave my apartment by you know, just going to bed earlier, or I can just accept that this is who I am and prepare.
Preparing in this instance means shopping, which is always my favorite coping mechanism. My go-to outfit pieces though aren’t exactly what people would call basics but that’s what I think makes them so indispensable. The pieces that don’t stay on the floor–the ones I aim to buy–are always the ones that have the most going on. They’re always the loudest, the puffiest, the most colorful. I can depend on them because no matter how rushed or sweaty or tired I am, I know they’ll not only make me look good and like a presentable human but also like I actually tried. And when I don’t know what to wear, they always do the trick.
Until pretty recently I had no boots, no shoes, no footwear at all that fell into this category. Sure, I could slip into my favorite pair of white sneakers but that feels too obvious. Plain black loafers feel boring. Boots with any heel take too much effort (and I can’t run very efficiently to the subway while wearing them). A couple months ago, I finally found the perfect shoe that I could throw on and it would automatically make every outfit look better. It has the comfort of a sneaker, the versatility of a loafer and the height of a tall boot: Dr. Martens Jadon Boot.
Buy Now: Dr. Martens Jadon 8 Eye Boots, $170, Shopbop
Dr. Martens Jadon Boot is a platform combat boot that only costs $170. You’ve definitely seen it before because it’s perfect and everyone else on Instagram seems to agree. Eva Chen frequently links to them on her Instagram story because so many people DM her asking where they’re from. Instagram editors and influencers alike wear them with everything from jeans and a t-shirt to Acne dresses and Prada pantsuits.
The Jadon boot frequently goes out of stock on Dr. Marten’s website and all of the reviews on it read more like love letters. Over at Urban Outfitters there are over one hundred five star reviews on the Jadon boot, the most recent was written just two weeks ago with the headline: “Best purchase ever!!!!!!” That’s six exclamation points!
It’s not hard to see why the boots are so popular. For one, at just under $200, they’re pretty affordable for an “it-shoe”. Combat boots are also incredibly versatile and they evoke a punk rock vibe that will never not be desirable look. Dr. Martens Jadon boot is also comfortable and at just 1 ¾ inches, the platform gives some height without making walking painful. And like all other Dr. Martens shoes, the Jadon boot is durable and weather resistant so you can literally wear them any day of the year, rain or shine.
Enthusiasm for platform boots isn’t just on the streets or online but also on the runway. Platforms, combat boots and platform combat boots are emerging as a new wardrobe essential for the modern day women. In recent seasons, designers have displayed a strong inclination for protective clothing–not just combat boots but thick duvet coats you can sheathe yourself in and blazers with shoulders reminiscent of a football player’s –the kind that you can say, destroy the patriarchy in while also shielding yourself from the frightening circumstances of today. Even on Dr. Martens website the two adjectives used to describe the Jadon Boots platform sole are “chunky” and “empowering”.
The Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment and sexual assault scandal has taken down one of Hollywood’s most powerful power players and producers, and in the days that have followed the New York Times‘ bombshell report sharing women’s accounts of his misconduct, more women have stepped forward with their own accounts of business meetings or auditions that Weinstein allegedly set up to get women alone with him. For these women, the power dynamic was an undeniable factor in their encounters: pissing off Weinstein could essentially shutter their (often aspiring or beginning) careers in Hollywood, while to give in to his coercive alleged demands for a massage or more would compromise the person they were (not to mention leaving emotional scars).
Sadly, it’s not an usual dynamic: men in power across many industries have, not infrequently, taken advantage of women who had something to gain from a positive, professional relationship with them. The world of fashion isn’t immune to this, either—and one model, Cameron Russell, is taking a stand in Weinstein’s wake to give her colleagues, friends, and fellow models a platform to share their own accounts of abuse while on the job.
Her social media movement began when a friend reached out to Russell, and it has since spawned its own Twitter hashtag, #MyJobShouldNotIncludeAbuse, which has been buzzing with accounts from women or their experiences.
“We need a way to begin breaking the silence while remaining protected. We are not talking about one, five, or even twenty men,” wrote Russell in her initial post. “We are talking about a culture of exploitation and it must stop.”
The accounts don’t make for easy reading. Even more heartbreaking is the fact that many models begin working in the industry when they’re still underage. The fashion industry is also notorious for not setting up adequate protections for models—in the accounts below, more than one mentions being sent on a shoot alone to a photographer’s apartment or studio.
“We talked about how hard it is to share stories of assault. When they are the norm, calling them out can feel disruptive and unprofessional…” she continued. “And because the response has always been ‘are you surprised?’ or ‘that’s part of the job’ I tolerated them. When the offenses were bigger, calling them out is terrifying, and demands a level of exposure and backlash to what is already painful and sometimes shameful.”
Since this initial post, she’s shared the stories of dozens of others in the industry. Note: most of the accounts come with trigger warnings.
Russell also pointed out a telling sentence in one email: “It’s just the way he is.”
It’s also not only women who are the targets.
Russell’s work is opening up a new platform for women to band together—let’s hope that some real, effective change comes out of it. Some in the industry, like casting director James Scully, are actively working to make it a safer place for models, but there’s still a long, long way to go.
If there’s one thing about fashion week you can count on, it’s that a handful of designers will debut something so radical, jaw-dropping, or amazing that it’ll get people outside the industry talking—and tweeting. And this season, Balenciaga takes the cake, as it sent models down the runway in platform Crocs for its Spring 2018 show in Paris. Yep, those are Crocs. Except these came with a nearly four-inch platform and patch-like “charms” plugged into the shoe’s signature pinholes. Take a look.
Can’t decide how you feel about them? Neither can the Internet. As soon as yellow, pink, and grey versions of the platform clogs were seen in Paris on Sunday, people immediately went to Twitter to voice their reactions.
The fashion house actually teamed up with Crocs to create this “very innovative” foam shoe that, according to a press release, the Crocs team was very excited about and that they feel “once once again demonstrates the relevance of our iconic clog in today’s fashion and style world.”
They certainly are iconic. And some people seem to be really into the elevated (literally) version of these very not-fashion shoes.
It may seem like a crazy concept right now, but then again, white platform Tevas were one of 2016’s hottest shoes among street style stars. And who would have guessed that? These seem a bit less accessible, what with their super-high platform, super-bright color, and—we assume—super-high price tag, but we’ll all just have to wait until spring of next year when these are available for purchase to see if they can make it out in the real world—and not get mocked.
