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After Abortion Ban in Alabama, State Representative Rolanda Hollis Introduces Bill Requiring Vasectomies for Men at Age 50


In May 2019, lawmakers in Alabama passed a wide-ranging abortion ban that would, among other things, punish doctors who performed the procedure on women at any stage of pregnancy with up to 99 years in prison. (A federal judge blocked the ban from taking effect in October 2019 until the matter is settled in the courts.)

Now, in response, a Democratic state representative in Alabama has introduced a bill that would require men to get vasectomies within a month of turning 50, or after their third child is born—whichever happens first. Per HuffPost, Rep. Rolanda Hollis acknowledges the bill is not a serious proposal, but rather a symbol meant to “send a message that men should not be legislating what women do with their bodies”—either through a straightforward abortion ban or through smaller incursions into women’s reproductive freedom.

“Year after year the majority party continues to introduce new legislation that tries to dictate [rules for] a woman’s body and her reproductive rights. We should view this as the same outrageous overstep in authority,” she said in a statement.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) responded to the proposed legislation on Twitter—and was then summarily mocked for his hypocrisy, given his support of limiting women’s reproductive rights. “Yikes. A government big enough to give you everything is big enough to take everything…literally!” he wrote. “Alabama Democrat proposes bill mandating all men have vasectomy at age 50 or after third child.”

“Yes, the government shouldn’t be involved in private reproductive health choices, yes, that’s a great point you made, yes,” historian and author Kevin Kruse replied to his tweet. The actor Patricia Arquette wrote, “Thought you wanted to stop unwanted pregnancies.”

“Wow how awful that the government is trying to interfere with bodily autonomy! What’s that feel like?” another Twitter user said.

And just in case the irony was lost on Cruz, one person laid it out super clearly for him. “This bill was not meant to pass; it was introduced to demonstrate how wrong it is to restrict people’s reproductive rights. In other words, the argument you’re applying to this bill shows how your own views on women’s reproductive rights are indefensible!” he wrote.

Cruz, unsurprisingly, has not responded to those calling out his double standard. Meanwhile, the assault on women’s reproductive rights continues.



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7 Women in Journalism on Impeachment, Iowa, and the State of Their Snack Game


On sleep: Since the second official day of the [impeachment] trial began, I’ve been getting up in the mornings at 5 a.m., get into the office at 9 a.m., and then leave the office at 7 p.m. and then continuing to work until it’s over at 1:30 a.m. from home. The schedule is that [the senators] would go from 1 p.m. until about 9 p.m., if they took no breaks…and that’s not going to happen. We’re going as long as they’re going.

On running a literal marathon: I think this is the biggest impact that is happening—I still have to do my long runs. [Beesch will run the DC Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon on March 28.] This morning I had an eight-mile run; Friday, I have to do five; and Saturday, I’ll have to do 18. The trial will just change how much I’m able to rest for the next week or so.

On breaks: I usually just go get a coffee or take a walk around the block. I go into Union Station, if anything is still open.

On unwinding: Cooking and watching The Bachelor.

On making history: Working for C-Span is a truly unique experience at this point in our history, when so much of the public is divided on who to turn to for their news and information. The long hours can be jarring, but I feel grateful at this point in my career to be given the opportunity and responsibility to help cover an event of this magnitude.

Rachel Stassen-Berger, politics editor, the Des Moines Register

Stassen-Berger has been politics editor at the Des Moines Register since 2018. Before that she was capitol bureau chief at the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota.

Olivia Sun/Des Moines Register

On a normal work day: I generally wake up just before dawn, check my phones, and the work begins. My day at the office begins with a 9 a.m. news meeting with other editors, and then I go until I can go no more. [During the lead up to the] Iowa caucuses, I work seven days a week. Most of those days are long—between 12 and 14 hours.

On snacks: I am a snack provider, not a snack eater. I have six candy dishes (chocolate, wild card, hard candy, Starbursts, Altoids, and lollipops) and, currently, two mini gumball machines on my desk. I do nearly constantly chew nicotine gum (though I quit smoking more than a decade ago) and almost always have a big glass of water from which I guzzle.

On breaks: I don’t take actual breaks, but I occasionally break my concentration. And when I do, it’s to sing badly, groan at puns, and sometimes dance (also badly).

On unwinding: I’m currently streaming Bob’s Burgers. That and my lab-mix dog, the very smart and demanding Joplin, help me unwind.

On motivation: I truly believe in the work we do at the Des Moines Register. Covering the Iowa caucuses, being exposed to the people who want to be president and delivering needed news to Iowa, the nation, and the world is a thrill and an honor. The reporters and colleagues with whom I have the opportunity to work help make the work fun and inspiring.

Jenny Singer is a staff writer for Glamour.



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Nancy Pelosi Ripped Donald Trump's State of the Union Speech in Half…While He Was Still on the Podium


At the end of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address—before he even stepped down from the dais—Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made her opinion of the speech clear. She seemed to rip one of the copies she had of it clean in two.

While Trump spoke, Pelosi’s anger seemed to mount. At times, she shuffled her papers while he railed against measures that Democrats have undertaken to shield immigrants from deportation. Her expression as he touted questionable statistics on jobs and claimed to have taken a stand on the cost of pharmaceutical drugs was steely. (Per the live New York Times fact check, the assertions were “misleading.”) After over an hour, she had had it, and Twitter got to watch.

The night had gotten off to a poor start. Seconds before Trump approached the podium to deliver the annual speech, Trump seemed to rebuff one of the occasion’s few attempts at bipartisan friendliness. Pelosi—who as Speaker of the House presides over the event—had reached out her hand to offer him a handshake, but Trump seemed to refuse the overture.

He had just walked onto the floor of the House of Representatives to loud applause from Republicans, handing copies of his address (as is tradition) to Vice President Mike Pence and Pelosi. That’s when Pelosi extended a hand—and Trump ignored it.

Reminder: Trump is still impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of justice, although it’s expected that the Senate will move to acquit him on both counts within the week. Given that it was Pelosi who delivered the articles of impeachment and unified her caucus around the move in December, it shouldn’t come as a terrible shock that relations between the two leaders remain just the tiniest bit tense. (Also, Pelosi is a woman in a position of power—accorded the kind of status in politics with which Trump has never seemed quite comfortable.) Still, Pelosi did seem somewhat surprised, grimacing as Trump turned on his heel.

Despite the olive branch, she found her own moment to sneak in a dig—and that was before she tore up his speech on prime time television. While speakers tend to stick to a familiar script at the event, Pelosi made one not-so-subtle edit. Where she would have otherwise read the line, “Members of Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the President of the United States,” she instead opted for, uh, more straightforward language. “Members of Congress,” she said, “the President of the United States.”

Some on Twitter took notice of the perceived snubs—but if there was still some question as to how Pelosi felt, well, she clarified.



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New York Is the Latest State to Ban Discrimination Against Natural Hair


New York is officially the second state to make it illegal for employers to discriminate against employees because of the way they wear their hair.

Last week, Governor Andrew Cuomo passed Assembly Bill 07797, legislation that would “prohibit race discrimination based on natural hair or hairstyles.” This law will also impact previous efforts to curb discrimination in the state. For example, it will solidify recently introduced human rights guidelines, which called for the protection of citizens’ right to wear natural hair, treated or untreated, in hairstyles such as locs, cornrows, twists, braids, or Bantu knots. The bill is also an amendment to New York state’s Human Rights Law and Dignity for All Students Act, which outlines racial discrimination as “traits historically associated with race, including but not limited to hair texture and protective hairstyles.”

The signing of this law comes on the heels of California’s recently enacted CROWN Act, which made the state the first in the country to ban employers from discriminating against people with natural hair. “By introducing the bill, I wanted to use it as an opportunity to educate my colleagues about the unique experience and opportunities of having black hair. I didn’t want them to see it as a negative,” Los Angeles Democratic senator Holly Mitchell told Glamour. “Because of my natural hair texture, I have the unique opportunity to wear these amazing natural hairstyles.”

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Through the bill, Mitchell also aimed to highlight that locs are no less “professional” than straightened hair or a blowout. “Our knowledge and ideas of what’s ‘appropriate,’ what’s ‘professional,’ what’s ‘beautiful,’ are based on a very Eurocentric standard,” she said. “This bill and my mere presence in presenting the bill was going to challenge that.”

New York becoming the second state to pass this type of anti-discrimination law sends a powerful message to women who have faced issues in the workplace because of how they wear their hair. A recent study from Dove found that black women are 50% more likely to be sent home, or to know a black woman who has been sent home from work because of her hair. Which doesn’t even account for the countless microagressions women face when wearing their hair natural in school or at work.

While it’s too soon to tell how cases of discrimination will be handled under these new laws, it’s a vital step in the right direction for workplace inclusion.



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California Is Set to Become the First State to Pass a Hair Discrimination Ban


The first time I realized how much my hair had an impact on how others saw me, I was interviewing for my first real adult job. My friends and family helped me run through the checklist women—especially black women—have to be extra cognizant of about their appearance: What would I wear? How should I do my nails? My makeup? And the most crucial, how should I do my hair? I change my hair all the time, and it didn’t occur to me that the way I wore it could make or break my chances of getting hired. Or worse, if I decide to later change it, could potentially get me fired.

So when I told my mom I wanted to get box braids, I could see the concern in her eyes. She didn’t think braids would be a good first impression and warned me they could be viewed as “unprofessional.” I couldn’t blame her, though. That had forever been her reality. To her—to so many of us—looking “professional” meant looking more “mainstream,” which meant wearing your hair straight. This all, of course, was really just a coded way of saying look more white.

I showed up to that interview in a glue-in weave, despite the fact it was a black-owned company. After I got the job, I promised myself I’d never alter the way I look to get hired again. I later landed my dream job wearing box braids.

It’s a decision not unique to me, but solely unique to black women. We are routinely discriminated against for wearing our hair the way it grows out of our scalps or in styles endemic to our culture. There’s no reason box braids or twists should be viewed any differently from a ponytail or bouncy blowout, and yet, we’re reprimanded by managers for looking too “urban” or “unkempt”—like Destiny Tompkins, who was pulled aside by her (white, female) district manager at a New York Banana Republic in 2017 for wearing box braids. She was so “uncomfortable” and “overwhelmed” she chose not to finish her shift.

The list goes on: In 2010, Chastity Jones said she was let go from an Alabama insurance claims–processing company for wearing her hair in dreadlocks. The courts at the time ruled it wasn’t racial discrimination because hair wasn’t an “immutable” (i.e. unchangeable) characteristic. Or take Rachel Sakabo, an experienced employee at New York’s prestigious St. Regis hotel, who claimed she was let go in 2013 after being told she wasn’t a “good fit” with the brand’s “culture,” a decision she’d attributed to her locs.

These are just the viral stories. A recent study from Dove found that black women are 50 percent more likely to be sent home or to know a black woman who has been sent home from work because of her hair. And that’s if she even gets the job.

“During my first months at a major news network, one of the managers wanted to speak with the new hires to see where we saw ourselves growing within the company,” says Blake, 23. “At the time, my hair was in a perm rod set, so it was big and curly.” She told the manager she eventually wanted to be on-air, to which the manager responded: “That comes with a lot of responsibility. Your hair always has to be done and always in the same style. If you’ve ever taken a look at our anchors, they keep their hair clean and sleek.”

Offended, yet brand-new to the company, Blake felt helpless. “I wanted to speak up. How dare she imply my natural hair was somehow the opposite of ‘done’ and ‘clean?’ says Blake. But afraid she’d be painted as “the combative black woman,” she felt silenced.



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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Wore a Cape to the 2019 State of the Union


At the 2019 State of the Union, female lawmakers, all in white, stood out among the more traditionally-suited crowd—a result of a call from the Democratic Women’s Working Group to wear white to President Donald Trump’s address to the nation, as an homage to the women’s suffrage movement. (Some men in Congress pinned white ribbons to their jackets in solidarity.) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi participated in the white-out, as did many new members of Congress, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

Ocasio-Cortez inspired plenty of social reactions throughout the speech, including her stone-faced reaction as President Trump criticized socialist policies (“We are born free, and we will stay free,” he said. “Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.”) The image of her and her fellow legislators standing up and cheering when he said, “No one has benefited more from our thriving economy than women, who have filled 58 percent of the newly created jobs last year,” also got people talking. And as she often has done on Capitol Hill, Ocasio-Cortez used fashion to send a message.

For her first State of the Union, Ocasio-Cortez joined the Democratic Women’s Working Group in wearing white to the State of the Union. And her interpretation of the dress code was… well, pretty epic.

SAUL LOEB

Instead of a traditional suit, she chose a blazer cape and trousers. She accessorized with red lips and gold hoop earrings, like the ones she wore to be sworn in to Congress.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez and Ana Maria Archila both wearing white to the State of the Union
Bill Clark

As soon as Ocasio-Cortez arrived with her guest—Ana María Archila, the woman who confronted Jeff Flake in an elevator during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings—Twitter started responding to the Congresswoman’s look.

On her jacket, Ocasio-Cortez wore three pins. She teased one of them ahead of the speech: a button that reads, “Well-behaved women rarely make history.”

She also wore a button with what appeared to be a picture of Jakelin Caal Maquin, the seven-year-old Guatemalan child who died while in Border Patrol custody last year. (Rep. Rashida Tlaib had one, too.)

U.S. Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez wearing a white blazer with three pins to the State of the Union
Win McNamee

And Ocasio-Cortez’s blazer cape? Twitter users speculated the Congresswoman procured it at Zara.

Dubbed Cape With Slits, it’s available in white and black, and is currently in stock for $89.90, if you want to channel your inner AOC.





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