1. The much-anticipated Netflix documentary At the Heart of Gold debuted this week on HBO, chronicling the biggest sexual abuse scandal in US sports history - the trial of former USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. Director Erin Lee Carr dives deeper than the headlines that shocked our nation to share dozens of girls’ stories, from Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and more. The documentary ultimately shines a light on the unfortunate cycle of how elite gymnastics too-often silences the young girls who sacrifice their bodies and minds in pursuit of the “Olympic dream.” A deeply moving must-see. Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison.
2. Women hockey players across the NWHL have come together to break the sport’s glass ice ceiling! Together, a group of more than 200 players announced that they will not participate in the next season to protest their substandard wages - some women only earn $2,000 a year - and to push the NHL to formally support a women’s league with resources that the men’s league so enjoys (read: health insurance). Currently, the NWHL is the ONLY remaining professional women’s hockey league in North America - Canada’s CWHL folded last year - so all eyes are on the NWHL to see how they’ll salvage the sport.
3. Women in Poland have made #bananaselfies a thing...in the name of feminism of course! The viral movement came after the capital’s National Museum removed a video by feminist artist Natalia LL, which depicted women suggestivley eating bananas as a metaphor for women’s sexual sovereignity. Poland’s authorities deemed the video obscene. Cue hundreds of artists and activists sharing photos and videos of themselves eating the forbidden fruit. This culminated in a massive gathering outside the museum for a collective banana-infused protest against this form of censorship. The movement honors Natalia LL’s legacy as one of the first artists to criticize the double-standard of female sexuality in conceptual art, which we’re clearly still dealing with in 2019.
4. The one and only Madonna has released a surprising second single from her upcoming album Madame X, complete with a hard-hitting political and cultural message. “I Rise,” which dropped on Friday, samples Parkland survivor turned gun reform activist Emma Gonzales’ viral speech at the March For Our Lives rally in 2018 (“We call BS!”). Madonna says she wrote the tune to give a voice to ALL marginalized people, as well as anyone who feels like they don’t have the opportunity to speak their mind. As this year marks the 50th anniversary of Pride, she also hopes the song serves as its unofficial anthem to encourage “all individuals to be who they are, to speak their minds and to love themselves.”
5. Two badass Sicilian women have photobombed Italy’s anti-LGBT and far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, with a perfectly executed same-sex kiss during an election rally in Caltanissetta this week. Our sheroes Gaia Parisi and Matilde Rizzo approached Salvini “for a selfie” (lol), and while the leader of the League party was focused on the photographer, the pair shared a smooch alongside him. The kiss was in protest against his recent anti-LGBT, anti-feminist, and anti-abortion agenda at the World Congress of Families (WCF) in Verona this March. Quite literally in your face Salvini!
6. CNN shared the story of “Jinwar” this week - a Syrian village built by women, for women - as a refuge from ISIS, civil war, and the unimaginable daily oppression women face there. Kurdish for “women's land", Jinwar welcomes ALL Syrian women and children - yes, boys too - regardless of religion, ethnicity and political views. Today, Jinwar is home to 16 women and 32 children, completely self-sustained and governed by women, with over 30 houses and stores, a bakery, farm, and alternative-medicine hospital. This village is truly a safe haven for women, and highlights the harsh reality that in order for these women to feel free and experience democracy, they had to build it for themselves.
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