TIME harassment

Watch This Guy Try to Defend Catcalling and Totally Fail

"I want to start a coalition against women who don't compliment men."

Over the weekend, author Steve Santagati appeared on CNN to defend the men in the street harassment video that went viral last week.

“If you don’t compliment me when I walk by, that’s abuse,” he said. “You didn’t bolster my self-esteem.” Santagati is the author of The MANual and Code of Honor. “I want to start a coalition against women who don’t compliment men,” he added.

Comedian Amanda Seales, who appeared on the segment with Santgati, was appalled by his comments. “The reality is, a lot of women, when we leave the house, we are not looking for compliments,” she said. “If we say we don’t like it, and we are demonstrating that, then you should actually, as a man who is a man of honor and wrote a book about this, should be saying ‘well let’s discuss how to make you feel more comfortable.'”

But Santagati couldn’t avoid hitting all the nerves in what has now become a hot-button issue. “The type of guys who made those comments speak for itself,” he said. “That’s part of maybe their culture, part of how they were brought up.” The street-harassment video, made by Hollaback, has recently been under scrutiny for racial bias, for editing out white catcallers and only showing black and Latino ones.

Watch the full segment here:

Santagati had some advice for women who don’t like being catcalled. “If you don’t like it as a woman, turn around and tell them to shut up,” he said. And for women who don’t feel safe? “Carry a gun.”

 

 

TIME Music

Taylor Swift Just Removed Her Music From Spotify

Taylor Swift Performs On ABC's "Good Morning America"
Taylor Swift performs on ABC's "Good Morning America" in Times Square on October 30, 2014 in New York City. (D Dipasupil--FilmMagic) D Dipasupil—FilmMagic

And Spotify can't shake it off

Taylor Swift has decided to remove her music from Spotify, the company announced in a pleading blog post Monday. The only song of hers remaining on the service is ‘Safe & Sound,’ from The Hunger Games soundtrack.

“We hope she’ll change her mind and join us in building a new music economy that works for everyone,” Spotify posted, noting that 16 million of its users have played Taylor Swift music in the last 30 days and that she appears on 19 million playlists.

Swift refused to allow her 2012 album, Red, on Spotify when it first debuted, but it later appeared for Spotify users to enjoy. Her most recent release, 1989, never appeared on Spotify. The artist has also been vocal about her thoughts on music sharing.

“Piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically, and every artist has handled this blow differently,” Swift wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this year. “It’s my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is. I hope they don’t underestimate themselves or undervalue their art.

Spotify even created a playlist in honor of the absent superstar, called “What to Play While Taylor’s Away.” It includes artists like Katy Perry, Leagues, Ed Sheeran, and One Direction — which is awkward for Taylor’s ex, One Direction’s Harry Styles.

The post ended on a note of desperation, “P.S. Taylor, we were both young when we first saw you, but now there’s more than 40 million of us who want you to stay, stay, stay. It’s a love story, baby, just say, Yes.”

Read next: Find the Perfect Taylor Swift Lyric for Your Mood

TIME Opinion

Instagram Is Right to Censor Chelsea Handler

2014 Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize For American Humor Honoring Jay Leno
Chelsea Handler at the 2014 Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize For Americacn Humor at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on October 19, 2014 in Washington, DC. Kris Connor--Getty Images) Kris Connor—Getty Images

Allowing nudity on Instagram would hurt more women than it would help

It’s Halloween, which means it’s the perfect time to stir up a smoking hot gender-politics brouhaha in the Internet cauldron. This time, it’s over comedian Chelsea Handler’s nipples, and whether she should be able to post pictures of them on Instagram.

The drama started Thursday night, when Handler posted a topless photo of herself riding a horse on Instagram, to mock Vladimir Putin’s topless horseback selfie from 2009. Her photo was accompanied with the caption, “Anything a man can do, a woman has the right to do better. #kremlin.” But Instagram took the photo down, citing its Community Guidelines, which prohibit sharing of “nudity or mature content.” Handler posted the notice that her post had been removed, with the caption “If a man posts a photo of his nipples, it’s ok, but not a woman? Are we in 1825?” She then took to Twitter, calling the removal “sexist.”

Breastfeeding moms have voiced similar outrage at social networks like Facebook and Instagram, complaining that their nursing photos have been taken down for being too revealing. And pro-nudity movements like the Free the Nipple campaign have argued that nudity laws policies like this amount to “female oppression.”

Yes, in an ideal world, women’s nipples would seem just as unsexy and random as men’s. But we don’t live in that world, and Instagram is right to censor Handler and other women who post topless pictures. Not because there’s anything wrong with female nudity, but because that kind of monitoring helps keep revenge porn and child porn off of the network. It’s not that kids on Instagram need to be protected from seeing naked photos of Chelsea Handler–it’s they need to be protected from themselves.

See, kids love taking nude selfies, and they have notoriously bad judgement when it comes to putting stuff on the Internet. A study in June by Drexel University found that 28% of undergrads said they had sent photographic sexts while underage. Another study, published in Pediatrics in September, also found that 28% of surveyed teens admitted to sending naked photos, and 57% said they’d been asked for a sext. At the same time, Instagram is quickly eclipsing Facebook as the social network of choice for young teens. According to a survey by investment banking company Piper Jaffray, 76% of teens say they use Instagram, while only 59% use Twitter and 45% use Facebook. So if Instagram didn’t have its nudity policy, it stands to reason that teens might just start posting their naked selfies there.

The nudity policy also keeps Instagram from being a revenge porn destination. A 2013 study by McAfee security company found that 13% of adults have had their personal content leaked without their permission, and 1 in 10 say they’ve had exes threaten to post personal photos. Of those who threatened to leak photos, 60% followed through. Without their policy, Instagram would be a destination for revenge porn as well.

To be fair, Instagram doesn’t have a share mechanism, so it would be harder for porn to go viral. But on the other hand, Instagram profiles can also contain personal details about users’ immediate surroundings, which could make teens or potential revenge porn victims even more vulnerable.

This is also a question of practicality. Ideally, Instagram would be able to distinguish between a naked 13-year old and a breastfeeding mom. In reality, it would be unrealistic to expect Instagram to comb through their content, keeping track of when every user turns 18, whether the user is posting photos of themselves or of someone else, and whether every naked photo was posted with consent. And even if they could do that, would you really want Instagram calling you up to verify you knew about that whipped-cream photo your ex posted? It would be creepy.

This kind of policy is what makes Instagram different than Tumblr, which has fewer restrictions and much more porn. Granted, Tumblr has recently made that content harder to find on its site, but it’s still a destination for revenge porn. And as Maureen O’Connor wrote for New York Magazine, the process of getting revenge porn taken down can be humiliating: victims have to send Tumblr a picture of themselves holding a piece of paper with their full name, to verify they’re the person in the pictures.

So which is more important: the rights of a few bold comedians or breastfeeding moms to feel validated by their Facebook followers, or the privacy of people who might have their private photos posted without consent? I would side with the latter any day of the week.

TIME Parenting

This Twitter Feed of a Fake Overprotective Daycare Will Make Your Day

Especially if you're a parent

Are you surrounded by touchy-feely, super-appropriate parents? Do you dread questions about soy milk in the daycare pickup line? Then the fake Twitter feed of Los Feliz Day Care is for you.

L.A. comedian Jason Shapiro gathered parenting inspiration from his girlfriend (who is getting a PhD in education) and from eavesdropping around Los Feliz. And while he originally started this genius account as a way to prank his co-workers, the results are still pretty incredible:

Shapiro doesn’t have kids, but says he would probably be a pretty hip dad. “I think that I would 100% fall into the category of dressing my kids of up in hip clothes and Beastie Boys T-shirts,” he says. “I think I would still try to make fun of it and make light of it, but this parody is really coming from a place of understanding.”

What’s the most ridiculous parenting trope he’s lampooning? The anti-vaxxers, he says. Los Feliz’s twitter bio specifies that “**we do not accept immunized children**” and Shapiro says he thinks the trend against vaccination is ridiculous. “It has the potential to be dangerous for other kids,” he says.

Shapiros says he wants his fake Twitter to be funny, but he also has an ulterior motive: to meet “comedy legend” Jon Cryer, but Barack Obama would also be cool.

“If he thinks this is funny and wants to invite me to the White House, that would be awesome”

TIME beauty

Julia Roberts: In Hollywood, Not Getting Plastic Surgery Is a ‘Big Risk’

Star speaks out about Hollywood pressures

On the heels of the brouhaha surrounding Renee Zellweger’s new, more youthful look, Julia Roberts said in an interview that for older women in Hollywood, not getting a plastic surgery touchup is a “big risk.”

“By Hollywood standards, I guess I’ve already taken a big risk in not having had a facelift, but I’ve told Lancome that I want to be an aging model – so they have to keep me for at least five more years until I’m over 50,” the Pretty Woman star told Mail on Sunday’s YOU magazine. (Though from the outraged reaction to changes in Zellweger’s face and accusations that she got drastic plastic surgery, it’s just as risky to look too young.)

The 47-year old mother of three said that when she’s not on set, she rarely worries about how she looks. “Mornings are a high-humor scene. You just have to make sure everyone looks and smells clean. That’s all that matters. If I actually manage to get my teeth brushed and lip balm on, I’m good.”

She also notes that her success as a movie star means she doesn’t have to worry about some of the things other working moms have to deal with. “I often think about the reality of my life versus a mother who, say, lives in Kansas City and is struggling to pick up the kids when she gets off work, or who doesn’t get to choose not to go to work because she wants to stay at home with the kids.”

“Those mothers are my real-life heroes, and they include my girlfriends, who do this with joy and grace and with full-time jobs. I don’t have to worry about it and I’m grateful for that.”

Roberts, who won a Best Actress Oscar for Erin Brockovich in 2001, lives with her family in New Mexico when she’s not filming in Hollywood.

[The Telegraph]

TIME feminism

Emma Watson: Feminism Is ‘Not Dogmatic,’ It’s About Having Choices

HeForShe Campaign Launch
Emma Watson, Ban Ki-Moon attends the launch of the HeForShe Campaign at the United Nations on September 20, 2014 in New York City. (Steve Sands--WireImage) Steve Sands—WireImage

She'll be on the cover of Elle's feminism issue in December

The Harry Potter star and new UN Women Goodwill ambassador will grace the cover of ELLEs feminism-themed December issue.

In a sneak-peak at the full interview from ELLE’s U.K. website, here’s what she has to say about feminism:

“Feminism is not here to dictate to you. It’s not prescriptive, it’s not dogmatic. All we are here to do is give you a choice. If you want to run for President, you can. If you don’t, that’s wonderful, too.”

Watson also said her upbringing helped influence her ideas about feminism:

“I’m lucky I was raised to believe that my opinion at the dinner table was valuable. My mum and I spoke as loudly as my brothers.”

The British star made waves last month when she spoke at the UN He for She event about the importance of feminism for both women and men.

[ELLE]

TIME harassment

Watch This Woman Get Harassed 108 Times While Walking in New York City

She's just walking, wearing jeans and a crew-neck T-shirt

In a PSA for anti-harassment organization Hollaback, a volunteer in jeans and a T-shirt walked for ten hours through New York City and videotaped what people said to her. Here’s what happened:

Rob Bliss, the viral video director who filmed the video of volunteer Shoshana B. Roberts, says that none of it was staged. “What I did was walk in front of her, with earbuds in and sunglasses on, with a hole cut in the back of my shirt, wearing a hidden GoPro camera,” he wrote in an email to TIME. “I didn’t have any contact with any of these guys, the whole idea was to be a stone wall and just let everyone else bounce off us.”

“I’m harassed when I smile and I’m harassed when I don’t. I’m harassed by white men, black men, latino men,” Roberts noted in a press release accompanying the video. “Not a day goes by when I don’t experience this.”

Read next: How to Spot a Sex Trafficking Victim at a Hotel

TIME motherhood

Alyssa Milano Talks About the Joys of Breastfeeding

The actress quit her ABC show in order to avoid uprooting her young children

New mom Alyssa Milano shared a picture of herself nursing her 7-week old daughter Elizabella on Instagram Monday.

The picture was accompanied by a quote from Czech writer Milan Kundera that read: “Ah, the joys of suckling! She lovingly watched the fishlike motions of the toothless mouth and she imagined that with her milk there flowed into her little son her deepest thoughts, concepts, and dreams.”

The actress announced Sept. 30 that she would not be returning to her ABC show Mistresses, because the show was shooting season 3 in Vancouver and she did not want to uproot her two young children. Here’s the announcement she posted on her blog:

After two wonderful seasons in Los Angeles, the studio has decided to shoot season three of Mistresses in Vancouver, Canada for financial reasons. It’s with a heavy heart that I have decided that I can’t relocate. I have two babies under 4. Being a mother and wife comes first and I just can not uproot my children and separate the family by moving away.
I will miss this job desperately and wish everyone the absolute best.

In addition to baby Elizabella, Milano also has a son Milo, who is 3.

TIME Books

Here Are Some Sex Tips From Amy Poehler’s New Book (Plus Insight on Motherhood and Divorce)

2014 ELLE Women In Hollywood Awards - Arrivals
Amy Poehler arrives at the 2014 ELLE Women In Hollywood Awards at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on Oct. 20, 2014 in Beverly Hills. Steve Granitz—WireImage

The Parks & Rec star's new book, Yes Please, is out on Oct. 28

Amy Poehler’s new book, Yes Please is out today, and the title pretty much sums up everyone’s attitude when we heard the notoriously nice funnywoman was finally writing a book. An Amy Poehler book? Yes please! That’s probably where she got her title.

The Parks & Rec star explains where she got her title, in a winning yet insightful passage in the book’s introduction:

It’s called Yes Please because it is the constant struggle and often the right answer. Can we figure out what we want, ask for it, and stop talking? Yes please. Is being vulnerable a power position? Yes please. Am I allowed to take up space? Yes please. Would I like to be left alone? Yes please…”Yes Please” sounds powerful and concise. It is a response and a request. It is not about being a good girl; it is about being a real woman.”

But if you can’t pick up the book, or your bookstore is out of it, or you’re waiting in a line behind everyone else in the world and just want to know the highlights, here they are:

On hot sex tips:

In the “World Famous Sex Tips” chapter, Poehler has some choice advice for women and men about how to get it on:

For women:

Try not to fake it: I know you are tired/nervous/eager to please/unsure of how to get there. Just remember to allow yourself real pleasure and not worry about how long it takes…God punished us with the gift of being able to fake it. Show God who the real boss is by getting off and getting yours.

For men:

Be nice, tell your woman she is hot, never shame her, and never hurt her.

Also, she advises not to let your kids sleep in your bed, which is probably a good idea for both men and women.

On her mantra for women who make different choices:

Poehler describes the experience of giving birth to her first son, and making choices about delivery that were different from what her friends were doing (she opted for lots of drugs, not a “natural birth.”)

Good for her! Not for me. That is the motto women should constantly repeat over and over again. Good for her! Not for me.

Poehler also notes that her OB-GYN had delivered Sophia Loren’s children, which was fitting because she (Poehler) has “the Angelina Jolie of vaginas.” This celebrity gyno doesn’t end up delivering Poehler’s son, but you’ll have to read the book to find out why…

On motherhood, and why “every mother needs a wife:”

Poehler has an excellent chapter on motherhood, titled “Every Mother Needs a Wife.” At first, she gets into the down-and-dirty of the mommy wars (perfectly lampooning the subtle digs of working and stay-at-home moms.)

“The ‘I don’t know how you do it’ statement used to get my blood boiling. When I heard those words, I didn’t hear ‘I don’t know HOW you do it.’ I just heard ‘I don’t know how you COULD do it.’ I would be feeling overworked and guilty and overwhelmed and suddenly I would be struck over the head by what felt like someone else’s bullsh*t. It was an emotional drive-by. A random act of woman-on-woman violence…

But then Poehler gets to what she actually means by “every mother needs a wife.” The chapter ends with a touching tribute to the nannies who care for her children, similar to the tear-jerking toast she gave at the TIME100 gala in 2011. These women, she says, are her wives.

“Do you know how I do it? I can do it because I have a wife. Every mother needs a wife… Some mothers’ wives are their mothers. Some mothers’ wives are their husbands. Some mothers’ wives are their friends and neighbors. Every working person needs a wife who takes care of her and helps her become a better mother… the biggest lie and biggest crime is that we all do this alone and look down on people who can’t.

On divorce:

True to form, Poehler doesn’t dish any juicy details at all about her 2013 divorce from comedian Will Arnett, but does write insightfully about how difficult the process was.

“Imagine spreading everything you care about on a blanket and then tossing the whole thing up in the air. The process of divorce is about loading up that blanket, throwing it up, watching it all spin, and worrying what stuff will break when it lands.

She notes that she isn’t going to get into any specifics, because it’s “too sad and too personal,” but she will say this:

“I am proud of how my ex husband, Will, and I have been taking care of our children; I am beyond grateful he is their father and I don’t think a ten-year marriage constitutes failure. That being said, getting a divorce really sucks. But as my dear friend and relationship sponsor Louis CK has noted, “divorce is always good news because no good marriage has ever ended in divorce.

On awards shows:

Poehler has been nominated for many acting awards (mostly for Parks & Rec, although she was nominated for two Emmys for her time at SNL, and for some movies). Although she has not yet won an Emmy for Parks & Rec, she is known for staging “bits” with other nominees to take some of the pressure off who wins. Here’s why:

“The worst part of being nominated for any award is that despite your best efforts, you start to want the pudding. You spend weeks thinking about how it doesn’t matter and it’s all just an honor, and then seconds before the name of the winner is announced everything inside you screams… “GIMME THAT PUDDING!!” Then comes the adrenaline dump, followed by shame.

She describes all the various stunts she’s pulled at awards shows, from wearing fake mustaches to pretending to be in a beauty pageant to switching speeches with Julia Louis Dreyfus, to a fake flirtation with George Clooney.

“The lessons? Women are mighty. George Clooney loves bits. Doing something together is often more fun than doing it alone. And you don’t always have to win to get the pudding.”

On doing drugs:

She’s pretty open about her drug use, which is kind of awesome. The verdict: weed rocks, cocaine feels great but terrible the next day, and everything else ruins lives.

“In my twenties I tried cocaine, which I instantly loved but eventually hated. Cocaine is terrific if you want to hang out with people you don’t know very well and play Ping-Pong all night. It’s bad for almost everything else… The day after cocaine is rough…The next day is the thing I can’t pull off anymore. How do you explain to a four-and-six-year old that you can’t play Rescue Bots because you have to spend all day in bed eating Cape Cod potato chips and watching The Bicycle Thief?

But is she worried that her kids will read the book and think drugs are okay? Nah.

“What’s more boring than your own mother’s take on her own life? Yawn. Also, I am counting on everyone living on the moon by the time my children are teenagers, and that they’ll have really interesting space friends who are kind and good students and think drugs are lame and “totally, like, Earthish.”

More, please!

Read next: Marcel the Shell (With Shoes On) Is Back

TIME celebrity

Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Martin Split Up

Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Martin
Getty Images (2)

Oscar-winning actress no longer dating Gwyneth Paltrow's ex

Chris Martin and Jennifer Lawrence are no longer dating, People Magazine confirmed Monday.

The Oscar-winning actress, 24, was first linked to Gwyneth Paltrow’s 37-year old ex (and Coldplay frontman) in August, after she split from her boyfriend, X-Men co-star Nicholas Hoult. They haven’t been publicly out and about much, aside from two occasions where Lawrence came to see Martin perform, and neither has ever publicly confirmed the relationship.

They were last seen together on Oct. 21, after Martin’s “friendly dinner” with his ex, Gwyneth Paltrow, with whom he has two kids.

In her interview with Vanity Fair published earlier this month, Jennifer Lawrence said she was looking for a guy who “isn’t afraid to fart in front of me [rather] than to have big, passionate love. I’d rather have just a peaceful time. [Those relationships] are deeper because you can be your true self with somebody, and somebody can be their true self with you.”

Now that they’ve broken up, there go all the “Martin Lawrence” jokes you never made.

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