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The Met's $25 Admission Is Now 'Suggested,' No Longer 'Recommended'

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There are certain things in life that are recommended but not required. Tipping your waiter, sleeping eight hours a night, deodorizing your sweaty body in hot weather. And of course, the most culturally savvy recommendation of the bunch -- paying the full $25 admission fee to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


That is, until now. 


Visitors to New York City's art haven can technically pay whatever they want to get into the storied collection, though The Met's chosen signage has made this caveat somewhat opaque. Until recently, signage at the museum's entrance put the "recommended" aspect of the $25 entrance fee in a notably teeny font, arguably misleading visitors.


A couple lawsuits and one Groupon debacle later, the notoriously confusing lingo surrounding The Met's recommended admission price has finally changed. Although, not all that much. The long contested "recommended" price is now only "suggested." So instead of feeling like you should absolutely, definitely pay the $25 without being a total miscreant, you'll now face a slightly softer, passive-aggressive whisper in your ear, nudging you ever so softly to pay


Will the linguistic shift save you money on your next museum visit? Only time will tell. 


Perhaps more meaningful than the death of the storied recommended price is the additional signage to be displayed around the museum entrance, explicitly stating: "The amount you pay is up to you." Now, like a subtle form of psychological torture, The Met cashiers will wait with bated, judgmental breath while you fumble in your wallet wondering how much you should be paying and what kind of subtle psychological warfare is underway. 


Only, you shouldn't feel that guilty about not paying the full $25. A 1983 New York State law mandates the public should be admitted for free at least five days and two evenings per week. On top of that, the museum receives annual grants from the city without paying taxes or rent, and has a $2.5 billion investment portfolio. In fact, the sale of admission tickets only covers 11 percent of its operating costs.


So feel free to save some of that $25 for a post-museum snack. 


News of this newfangled signage comes shortly after The Met revealed its new, rebranded logo, which was met with a less-than-lackluster public reaction. Hopefully the updated ticket signs will be met with a more enthusiastic response. 

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Data Artist Proves Just How Unique Shakespeare's 154 Sonnets Really Are

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Humans are creatures of staggering complexity, each of the billions on the planet different from the rest in innumerable ways. Our uniqueness can't simply be reduced to one sign or symbol -- but when it must be, perhaps to verify the use of our credit card, something as succinct as a scribbled signature of our name will do. 


Can literature, like humanity, make use of such a shorthand? 


William Shakespeare's sonnets probably don't have credit cards or the ability to form contracts, so perhaps a sonnet signature isn't of much practical value. But sonnets, after all, aren't about practicality. In data artist Nicholas Rougeux's new series of Shakespeare sonnet signatures, each poem is summarized with its own distinctive scribble -- a shorthand that may not help them with Capital One, but allows readers to quickly visualize the individuality of each poem. 


"No two are the same -- or even similar," Rougeux noted in an email to The Huffington Post. The signatures, which are mapped based on his unique formula, aren't intended to reveal new information about the sonnets, but to "inspir[e] others to think or feel about something differently," he said.



Sonnets are one of the more rigid poetic structures, and Shakespearean sonnets specifically are known to have strict meter and rhyme scheme limitations. Looking at the full collection of sonnets represented by their signatures, however, is a swift reminder that infinite possibilities exist within those boundaries. Each of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets is entirely different from the rest of the collection -- which is clear both from reading them or from taking a look at these data art images drawn from them. 










View the full collection of sonnet signatures at Nicholas Rougeux's website.

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Meet The Dogs Who Hang Out At The American Ballet Theater To Reduce Stress

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Stumble upon the hashtag #dogsofabt and you'll be introduced to one of the most adorable practices of the American Ballet Theater.


The New York-based company allows dancers to bring their dogs to work, both at home in NYC and when they are on the road touring. A scroll through Instagram will give you just a taste of what the tradition actually looks like. There are not just one or two or three puppies invading the studios of the nearly 80-year-old company. There are many.


There's Hudson, a 9-month-old English sheepdog; Cora and Maya, 4-year-old shih tzus; Sofie, a 2-year-old yorkiepoo; Ranger, a 4-year-old terrier mix; Jimi and Lua, 12-year-old dachshunds; and the oft-featured Pickles, a 6-year-old Shiffon (Shih Tzu/Brussels Griffon mix). The list goes on.


You can see a group shot of the lucky puppies, thanks to a visit from a beloved pet photographer, the Dogist, one of several photographers who've ventured to ABT to capture the canine custom.




In summary, the studios are swarming with dogs and you probably had no idea. But what prompted the pro-dog policy at ABT? A need to alleviate stress, of course.


“Because it’s a very stressful work environment, there’s so much competition -- it’s friendly competition -- it’s very exhausting, emotionally and physically,” artistic administrator Tina Escoda explained to The Wall Street Journal. “The dogs provide such a great relief.


According to a 2009 study in Veterinary Clinics of North America, "pet ownership, or just being in the presence of a companion animal, is associated with health benefits, including improvements in mental, social, and physiologic health status." Both college campuses and professional work places have experimented with pet therapy as an anxiety reducer.


And it turns out there's a history of bringing dogs into the ballet studio to help cut through the tension. Escoda, who danced with the company in the 1980s when Mikhail Baryshnikov was director, remembers touring with golden retrievers and Dalmatians. 





Trying to stay awake through Swan Lake rehearsal. #dogsofabt

A photo posted by Lauren Post (@laurenclaire88) on





Natash... #ballerina #dogsofnyc #pointeshoes studios #dogsofabt ❤️❤️❤️

A photo posted by Luciana Voltolini (@lucianavoltolini) on









Got to hang with ABT's newest addition today! Meet Craig Salstein's little puppy, Snickers. #dogsofabt

A photo posted by Lauren Post (@laurenclaire88) on





Pickles reallllly wanted some of my apple. #dogsofabt @laurenclaire88

A photo posted by Alexandra Basmagy Diaz (@alexbasmagy_diaz) on





@tballerina7 and Riley before "diamond" rehearsal with Alexei Ratmansky today #dogsofabt @abtofficial

A photo posted by Isabella Boylston (@isabellaboylston) on





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21 Photos That Prove Lips Of All Shapes And Sizes Are Beautiful

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There's been a lot of talk about lips in the media lately. And for once, Kylie Jenner isn't at the center of it all.


The conversation recently shifted when MAC Cosmetics posted this Instagram photo of Ugandan-born beauty Aamito Lagum wearing purple lipstick. For many individuals, it was a "gorgeous" backstage beauty snapshot at New York Fashion Week. However, there were countless others who made racist and offensive remarks about the black model's lips.


Lagum initially proved that she was unfazed by the haters with a concise and classy response. She eventually joined the #PrettyLipsPeriod social media campaign, which was championed by North Carolina Central University Dan Blue Endowed Chair in Political Science Yaba Blay's Pretty Period transmedia project, to turn those negative responses into a positive movement that celebrates the beauty of all lips. 


Inspired by Lagum and Blay, we challenged a group of HuffPost editors to step outside of their comfort zones, swipe on some of the boldest lipstick colors and proudly show off their lips.



Check out their beautiful portraits below, read their lip love stories and then profess your fondness for this physical feature in the comments section. 




Alanna




I love my lips so much. I love how big and plump they are. They make me feel sexy. You think my lips aren't beautiful? Good thing I don't give a shit about what you think.



Lilly




I've always been told I've had small lips, but I've never let comments like that phase me. I love my lips and make sure to treat them right -- whether that's with proper, daily moisturizing or dressing them up with a little color to make them pop. My lipgloss is always poppin'.



Julia




As part of a beauty experiment at my old job, I once attempted to plump them up Kylie Jenner style (not as drastic, mind you). Even though they only looked a little bigger, it felt so strange to me. I hated it. Anything other than the lips I have just aren't me, and I'm totally OK with that.



Riley




When I was about 12, I had an accident. I fell and busted my lip open. My mom offered to take me to the hospital, but told me I'd have a scar if I got stitches. So I waited until the following day when it was clear stitches were needed. The doctor scolded me and told me the scarring wouldn't have been as pronounced if I'd come after the accident. I blamed myself for the accident and for the scar. It was a particularly difficult time for me. I grew up a minority and was bullied a lot so I didn't want another reason to stand out. For years, the first thing I saw when I looked in the mirror was the scar, and it still is today -- although now its with acceptance. I've had this scar on my lip for more years than not, it will outlive me.



Chanel




I love the fullness and shape of them. It's always fun to fill them in with lipstick. I also love how they contribute to my shining smile.



Emma




I love my lips because I speak with them and kiss with them -- two of the most powerful things humans can do.



Lindsay




I have a tiny freckle on my bottom lip that I adore. I think it's a cute feature that makes my lips more unique.



Julee




I've always loved my lips. I'm very outspoken so they have obviously been very important in delivering my ideas and energy. But mostly, I love that they allow me to kiss my husband and baby every morning and every night.



Damon




This was my first time trying on lipstick and it definitely made me feel sexy albeit a little awkward!



Shonitria




My bottom lip is a bit bigger than my top and that makes them look imperfect which I love. I think that the unique shape of my lips is just something that makes my pout look even more beautiful with lipstick on. When I wear lipstick I feel empowered and so damn sexy. A dope lippie transforms me into ... Beyoncé!



Gabby




I love that they are naturally pinkish so I never feel the need to add color. I usually just stick with Chapstick or a little clear gloss.



Lexi




I love my lips for their expressiveness. They tell a story about how I'm feeling and what I'm thinking. They're a signal of what's going on in my life, which I think is pretty cool.



Lauren




Wearing lipstick makes me feel like a badass bitch who commands attention. If I'm wearing a hot pink shade I feel feminine and confident like Elle Woods.



Taryn




I didn't struggle with loving my lips until sixth grade when kids started telling me they looked like a smoker's because they were so dark. I heard this often throughout high school, too. Little did I know, half of the knuckle-headed boys making this comment had a crush on me. I don't know what the rest of the negative Nancys' problems were but I eventually charged it to the game and tuned the haters out. I've grown to love every part of my lips. They're perfectly made for me.



Jenna




There's nothing sexier than a woman in red lipstick so it definitely makes me feel more confident. Though, full disclosure, I'm also super paranoid when I have bright lipstick on because I love to eat and... lipstick + food/alcohol = a busted lip sitch. But, ya know, a little reapplication never hurt nobody.



James




I've always thought my lips were basic, never really loved them or hated them. My girlfriend tells me they're soft, but maybe it just means I need to work them out more.



Michelle




To the full lip (or slender lip) haters, I say... haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.



Carolina




I've struggled with loving a lot of different parts of my face and body in my life. My lips were never part of that struggle. Perhaps that's why I like them.



Choyce




My lips allow me to express the bold side of my personality and they're always on trend.



Dana




I love how my lips play a prominent part in how I express my innermost feelings. Whether they're turned up in a smile or turned down in a frown, these lips never lie.



Marcos




I love that my lips are smooth, soft, and full.



Do you want to be more mindful about eating healthy foods that'll keep your mind and body at their best? Sign up for our newsletter and join our EatWell, Feel Great challenge to learn how to fuel your body in the healthiest way possible. We'll deliver tips, challenges and advice to your inbox every day. 


 

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Powerful Street Art Mural Documents Family's Escape From Syria

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A striking street art mural in England documents a family's escape from war-torn Syria.


The poignant portrait of Ayman Hirh, who fled Damascus with his wife and two young sons in late 2011, was painted by London-based graffiti artist PANG on a wall in Camden in northern London.


Hirh decided to leave his country after a crackdown on demonstrators in which nine of his friends were killed, reports the British Red Cross.


He added his own hand-written and thought-provoking message just below his portrait in PANG's piece.


"I was a successful businessman, selling marble and granite across Syria and living with my wife and two sons in the Jobar district of Syria's capital Damascus," he inked on the wall.



"Every night before we go to sleep, we remember our home. I love my flat in Damascus more than Buckingham Palace," he added.


The British Red Cross commissioned the artwork in a bid to raise the public's awareness about the plight of refugees. The U.K. is planning to take in 20,000 more Syrian refugees by the end of 2020. Eleven million people have been displaced by war in Syria and 4 million have left the country since 2011.


Hirh arrived in England with his family on Jan. 1, 2012, and now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he's studying English and business part-time at Edinburgh College.


It was "great to meet PANG and share my story," Hirh said in a statement. "I hope that my experience will encourage people to think about the reasons people like me are forced to leave home before they judge us," he added.



PANG said it was "an honor" to be asked to create the artwork. "I hope that it spreads the message that refugees are all individuals, like you and me, who have no choice other than to seek sanctuary in the country that they arrive."


Hirh's story has also inspired a song called "The Retelling" by the British musician Adam Bainbridge, known by his stage name, Kindness. It appears on an album coordinated by the British Red Cross called "The Long Road." 


Released on Friday, the album highlights migrants and refugees' experiences in the U.K. -- and also features music by rock star Robert Plant, hip-hop artist Scroobius Pip, and bands like Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars and Tinariwen.





The British Red Cross is also asking famous artists, celebrities and members of the public to design postcards portraying the themes of home, hope or humanity.


They will then be auctioned online, with all proceeds going to the organization's Syria Crisis Appeal. The deadline for submissions is March 7. 





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The Notorious RBG Coloring Book Of Our Feminist Dreams Is Here

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Peak adult-coloring-book-hype has officially been reached. Grab some colored pencils and get creative with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 


It's the perfect Women's History Month activity!



Women's media group SheKnows has released the ten printable pictures, because who better to ring in a monthly celebration of influential women than the Notorious RBG herself?


She has consistently supported issues of women's reproductive justice and income inequality as well as same-sex marriage, all while becoming a worshipped Internet icon and unapologetic badass. 





These pictures give us the ever notorious Supreme Court Justice as we never knew we wanted her: riding a unicorn into a rainbow and taking over the world. 



You can access and print the entire coloring book from SheKnows here

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Music's Most Underrated Artist, According To Industry Exec L.A. Reid

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No doubt today's music industry is flooded with talented artists, some of them far more high-profile than others. But buried within the constant chatter about the usual suspects is one particular performer that we really should pay more attention to, according to industry veteran L.A. Reid.


Reid, of Epic Records, is the man who discovered both Usher and Justin Bieber, and he recently opened up about who he views as the most underrated artist in today's musical landscape.


"There's no one more talented than Future -- and no one more overlooked," Reid says. "My intuition tells me that it won't be that way for long."


Future is signed to Epic Records, and if his track record is any indication, Reid may be right.


"He has not had what we call a top-40, mainstream hit, but this guy has put out three albums in the last five months -- they've all gone to number one," Reid points out. "No one else in the world has done that."



Related:Alicia Keys almost made a big mistake when signing her first record deal


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45 Awesome Beatles-Themed Baby Products

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If you're a Beatles fan and a parent (or parent-to-be), you may want to introduce your kids to the magic of the Fab Four early on ... like, from birth.


From nursery decor to onesies to lullaby cover albums, there are countless ways to share the Beatles love with your baby. We've scoured the Internet for the cutest infant-sized tributes to John, Paul, George and Ringo.


Without further ado, here are 45 adorable baby and toddler products for growing families that love the Fab Four.


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12 Buddhist Books To Read On Your Path To Enlightenment

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Buddhism is one of the world's oldest religions. Founded by Siddhartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha, circa the 5th century BCE, Buddhism outlines a path of personal spiritual enrichment through meditation and insight. Following in the Buddha's footsteps, Buddhists seek to reach nirvana, or enlightenment, a state of transcendence free from suffering, desire and the cycle of death and rebirth.


Unlike Christianity or Islam, Buddhism does not have one central text that sums up the religion's basic tenets. What people call "Buddhism" today is really a collection of different philosophies and schools of thought, ranging from Zen to Mahayana to Theravada.


If you're seeking to explore Buddhism more deeply, here are 12 books that both practitioners and religious seekers can use to learn more about this ancient tradition.


Are there any books that we missed? Tell us in the comments below. And check out our other ReligionReads lists on Sikhism, Paganism and Seeker Spirituality.


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Gorgeous Photos Show Yellowstone Only Gets Better With Age

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On March 1, 1872 President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law, making Yellowstone the first national park and ensuring its 3,500 square miles of land were protected for future generations. 


The photos below show the awe-inspiring beauty of Yellowstone, courtesy of the National Park Service and its photographic community, ShareTheExperience.org. For more amazing images of our national parks, follow the U.S. Department of the Interior on Instagram.


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29 Inspiring Essays And Illustrations That Explore The State Of Black Future

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On Black Voices, we honor black history year-round, but this February, we doubled-down on our efforts to recognize and celebrate the work of so many astounding African Americans. 


We collaborated with Darnell L. Moore and Tanya Lucia Bernard of the Black Lives Matter Network to not only examine black past and present but also explore how we can collectively achieve a better black future. 


We brought back our #BlackFutureMonth series, through which we invited 29 black writers to examine 29 different topics and envision ways we can work together to address them. Each piece was accompanied with beautiful original artwork from various talented artists, which reflected upon the respective themes, including educationemployment and black excellence.


Through our collaborative series, we not only wanted to celebrate the achievements of yesterday but also explore what we can do NOW to create a better tomorrow for black America. With that in mind, here are the 29 pieces we published last month. We hope they inspire you.


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Astronaut Scott Kelly Shares Final Sunrise From Year In Space

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Before heading back to Earth on Tuesday, American astronaut Scott Kelly snapped one last sunrise from his vantage point aboard the International Space Station.


Kelly has experienced nearly 11,000 sunrises and sunsets during his year-long mission in space, but this just might be one of his best.






















During his #YearInSpace, the 52-year-old astronaut had an active presence on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook -- reportedly sharing about 1,000 images. (Check out some of his best shots here).


Here's a look at his final goodnight:






And one last departing moon shot: 






Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to Earth after 340 straight days in space.





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'The Bachelor' Season 20 Episode 9 Recap: Ben Higgins Is In Love... x2

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"The Bachelor" franchise has returned, this time with all-American family man Ben "Unlovable" Higgins at its center. And on "Here To Make Friends," we talk about all of it -- for the right reasons.


In this week's "Here To Make Friends" podcast, hosts Claire Fallon and Emma Gray recap Episode 9 of "The Bachelor," Season 20. We'll discuss Ben's brutal breakup with Caila and the double -- reciprocal -- "I love you."





And we get to catch up with former Bachelorette Emily Maynard Johnson!



 


Check out the full recap of Episode 9 by listening to the podcast:


 





 


Do people love "The Bachelor," "The Bachelorette" and "Bachelor in Paradise," or do they love to hate these shows? It's unclear. But here at "Here To Make Friends," we both love and love to hate them -- and we love to snarkily dissect each episode in vivid detail. Podcast edited by Nick Offenberg.


The best tweets about this week's episode of "The Bachelor"...


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The Radical Power Of American Single Women

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"Single female life is not prescription, but its opposite: liberation," writes Rebecca Traister in the introduction of her new book. 


The aptly-titled All The Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation looks at what Traister calls the "creation of an entirely new population: adult women who are no longer economically, socially, sexually, or reproductively dependent on or defined by the men they marry." It's a time in which women are remaining unmarried later and in greater numbers than ever before. As of 2011, just 20 percent of Americans between 18 and 29 were married, compared to nearly 60 percent in 1960. "This is a radical shift in how we conceive of adult life for American women," said Traister.


Traister positions these revolutionary demographic patterns within a historical context and looks forward to what these unmarried women could collectively accomplish. (Because, spoiler alert: We're still pretty far away from gender equality.)


I am part of this demographic shift. I'm 28, single and living in Brooklyn, with a fulfilling job and a fantastic community of near-familial friends. Romantic partnership is something I desire deeply, but the marriage bit doesn't feel imminent or even altogether necessary -- and I'm surrounded by women, both coupled and uncoupled, who feel similarly. After all, there are places to travel, career milestones to reach, houses to be saved up for, friendships to be forged, people to date, people to love, people to sleep with (maybe even all three at once).


It's an odd experience to read a book that so incisively examines a demographic of which you are a part. Especially because, as Traister pointed out, when we're living in these moments, we rarely consciously think about the patterns we're contributing to.


"A very small percentage of those who are changing the marriage patterns are motivated by any kind of politicized or feminist mission," she said. "Mostly it’s just that the pattern has fully changed and we don’t even think of these things."


For those of us who have remained unmarried into our late 20s and beyond, we are living smack dab in the middle of what Susan B. Anthony once dubbed an "epoch of single women." I spoke with Traister to discuss what this age of single womanhood really looks like. 


The Huffington Post: What made you want to write about single women in the first place?


Rebecca Traister: It started with this acknowledgment that my adulthood was built outside of marriage, because I was someone who didn’t have a lot of boyfriends and didn't have a ton of sexual partners. I was really single -- through high school, through college, through most of my 20s and into my 30s. And I had built my work life, my home life, my social life, my relationship to the city I lived in, and none of those things had to do with any specific man.


That was so different than the stories of female adulthood I had spent my formative years looking to as models of what my life would be like. And my life was nothing like that! And it was clear that it wasn’t just my life. My own experience told me that I was not alone, and when I started to look at numbers, I realized that nationally I was really not alone. I didn’t think that enough had been made in the press of these startling numbers of women who are living independent of marriage, and how new this is historically. 



Goals. (by @anndanger)

A photo posted by HuffPost Women (@huffpostwomen) on




How has marriage historically limited women’s opportunities?


This country was organized based on heterosexual, legal pairings. And very early on and until well into the 19th century and parts of the 20th, marriage law was based on English Common Law and the idea of coverture, which literally meant the covering of women’s identities by their husband’s identities. Women’s property and women’s wages became their husbands’ property and wages. Up until 1920 women couldn’t vote. Until 1974, married women couldn’t get their own credit cards or in some cases their own loans. Basically, the husband’s professional, social, and economic identity covered the individual identity of the wife. Lots of women managed to assert their agency despite these laws. We have had generations of women who exerted their will, and were pioneers and had robust careers and lives. But the legal structures made it much harder.



This is a radical shift in how we conceive of adult life for American women.



How do those structures play out in modern America?


There are all kinds of structures that we don’t see as oppressive, but they show that the country is still built on the idea that there’s one kind of American who earns in the public sphere -- and that’s probably a dude -- and one kind of American who picks up kids at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and figures out what to do with them during three months summer vacation. And that’s probably not a dude. The vast majority of women who marry still take their husband’s name. And I’m not vilifying that behavior! But that’s a pattern where women are truly still taking on their husbands’ identities. We don’t have any systems in place that acknowledge the majority of families no longer have a full-time parent at home. And the only other option is paying for childcare, which can be prohibitively expensive. Our systems just aren’t working.


That means we should not only subsidize various forms of childcare, it should also mean that we limit the kinds of workdays and create workplace flexibility. Half of this is that we need to put in more programs to support women’s ability to be in the workforce full-time, but it also means we need to reconsider what being in the workforce full-time means for women and men.


How are unmarried women impacting our country’s legislative priorities?


So far, the actual impact they’ve made is limited. We’re still waiting for maternity leave, we’re still waiting for raising the minimum wage. But what they are doing, in increasing numbers, is voting. And they’re voting Left. They’re voting for Bernie Sanders, though in South Carolina, they voted for Hillary Clinton. Not all of them, but, in vast numbers, single women tend to vote for Democrats.


How influential are unmarried women as a voting bloc?


Getting single women to come out and vote is a challenge. Our larger social structure isn’t built for them. There’s a dissociation between what government can do and single women. The second issue is that a lot single women are economically imperiled and don’t have access to the resources that allow them to vote. They don't have time to stand in the polls forever, they don’t have time to jump through hoops to get certain kinds of identification cards or registration. It’s a very vulnerable voting demographic: lots of low-income women, lots of single mothers, lots of women of color -- and those are the people who are hit hardest by voting restrictions. But in 2012 they were almost a quarter of the electorate. They could be responsible for electing the president if they came out in force and voted as strongly Democrat as they have in the past.



[Single women] could be responsible for electing the president if they came out in force.



When you looked back at the history of unmarried women, what did you learn that most surprised you?


I learned that in the 19th century there was a huge population of women who didn’t marry. Lots of men went west for exploration, and lots of men were killed during the Civil War, so there was kind of a man shortage on the East Coast. And we’re [talking specifically about] middle-class white women, because before Emancipation, black women who were slaves in the South didn’t have marital freedom. Marriage was often forced on them and slave marriages weren’t legally recognized in most states, so marriage was used as a tool to further subjugate slaves. After Emancipation, black marriage rates actually rose, because there was marital liberty. But for middle-class white women whose potential husbands were killed in the Civil War or went west, when their lives weren’t subsumed by wifeliness and motherhood, they wound up committing themselves to all these revolutionary causes: abolition, suffrage, the labor movement. They expanded the ranks of women teachers and nurses and secondary education, and they really transformed the country for women in a powerful way that sort of culminated with the passage of the 19th amendment in 1919.


You argue that it might actually be the women who have pushed back on traditional ideas of what marriage should be, who have ultimately saved marriage as an institution. Can you explain that idea?


What we’re trying to get to is a nation in which we have more equitable institutions and opportunities for men and women. To get there, the institution that has historically set limits on adult female independence, as marriage has, has to be reformed. Susan B. Anthony predicted in 1877 that before we could get to an age of gender equality, we must live through an epoch where women cease to marry. Because even if we change the laws -- which we have to some degree -- that wouldn’t change our hearts and minds and social attitudes about the natural power relationship between men and women.


How might these changing marital patterns impact straight couples positively?


Living independently of each other maritally [helps men and women] regard each other as peers. What happens when men and women aren’t marrying at 20, but are in workplaces together, are at bars with each other, are having affairs with each other, and are understanding each other as peers, as colleagues, as friends, and as sexual partners who are not legally bound to each other? It increases the chance of them seeing each other as equals. It also increases the likelihood that each gender will learn to fend for itself in ways that historically they weren’t trained to do. Women become more stable earners and establish more stable professional bases, while men learn to do their own laundry and feed themselves. So when and if they do end up partnering as hetero pairs, those jobs won’t be automatically assigned to one gender or another. 



What we have is increased liberty to pursue more options that hopefully get us towards outcomes that suit us individually, as opposed to what culture demands of us.



You also offer a really nuanced look at the role sex plays (or doesn’t play) in single women’s lives. Why do you think there’s so much hand-wringing and anxiety when it comes to women having sex outside of marriage?


Women’s liberation of any sort engenders intense anxiety. If women are liberated, who is gonna pick up the kids at 3? Who might be challenging men for their salaries and their college admissions letters and their political jobs? And sexual liberation is particularly frightening. Female sexuality in the 1950s was so associated with a disruptive political force that terms like bombshell were developed to describe sexual women. Women’s sexuality, when unleashed, is extremely threatening, in part because it threatens how we trace reproduction. Marriage has been a way of attempting to ensure the replication of power and wealth from one generation of another, passing it down from men to men. But if sexuality happens and is not contained by marriage then it threatens men’s power.


What role did you find female friendships played in the lives of the single women you spoke to for the book?


Female friends -- and also male friends -- really play the role that marriages did for a long time, and perhaps a far better role than marriages did for a very long time. The intimacies of friendships outside of marriage can really be spousal or familial. It’s about who you come home to and talk to at the end of the day. Who you grieve with, who you experience stress with, who you bicker with, who you get bored with, who you talk about politics with. And for many people, [friends are] who we raise our children with, who we deal with our parents’ health crises with, who we go to for financial support and advice. Pretty much everything outside of sex can be accomplished within the framework of a non-sexual friendship. And often those friendships provide more than the marriages that might have provided sex (or might not have provided sex), but that we’re taught to aspire to.



The world is filled with married women who feel lonely, who feel unfulfilled, who yearn for love, who yearn for sex, who feel regret... And we don’t diagnose that as symptomatic of marriage.



We also seem to be living in a moment where single women have unprecedented power, influence and freedom, yet we haven’t quite escaped the expectation that women should eventually enter into a long-term (heterosexual) partnership. What would you say to women who are trying to navigate that reality?


Of course, there is human impulse and unhappiness and a drive towards love. Not for everyone. Not everyone is yearning for a committed partner for the rest of their lives. But a huge amount of people want to fall in love, want to have sex, want to be known, and that is human. But as the marriage pattern changes, the patterns of when people meet and fall in love has so extended. The possibilities for love and for marriage extend not just through your 30s and 40s, but into your 50s and 60s. This is a less and less unusual story.


The other thing that I would say is that it’s very easy for us to talk about loneliness and lack of fulfillment and regret -- all of which are felt by single women, often in relation to having not found a satisfying relationship, and that’s so real. But it’s easy for us to see those feelings as symptomatic of singleness. And here’s something we too rarely consider: The world is also filled with married women who feel lonely, who feel unfulfilled, who yearn for love, who yearn for sex, who feel regret over chances they didn’t take or that life hasn’t turned out the way they wanted it to. And we don’t diagnose that as symptomatic of marriage. That is not to minimize the genuine pain that people sometimes feel in singlehood, it is simply to say these things are not necessarily caused by singlehood or inoculated against by marriage. 


The thing that I’m writing about is not that any path guarantees happiness -- and, in fact, lots of paths bring all kinds of unhappiness. But rather what we have is increased liberty to pursue more options that hopefully get us towards outcomes that suit us individually, as opposed to what culture demands of us. 


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11 Wild Revelations From 'Bachelorette' Emily Maynard's New Book

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With the hair and features of a life-sized Barbie, and the accent and manners of a Southern belle, sweet single mom Emily Maynard won hearts across Bachelor Nation when she stepped out of the limo on the first episode of Brad Womack's second season of "The Bachelor."


That included Brad's heart -- the Bachelor got down on one knee on the season finale and proposed to Maynard. When their engagement didn't last the year, ABC begged Maynard to come back as the Bachelorette, and she ended up plighting her troth on another finale, this time to Jef Holm, a floppy-haired, skateboarding entrepreneur. 







When that relationship also fell apart, however, Maynard found love in the most appropriate of places -- back home, with a friend from her church in Charlotte.


Now, several years away from her "Bachelor" adventures, Maynard is married to Tyler Johnson, with whom she has a baby son, Jennings. The couple recently announced that they're expecting another child, making her 10-year-old daughter Ricki an older sister twice over. But Maynard isn't quite done with her past "Bachelor" life; in a new book, I Said Yes, she opens up about the tragic death of her first love and daughter's father, Ricky Hendrick, her experiences on "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette," and how she's managed since the show. 



Maynard is no Courtney Robertson -- this book isn't about salacious gossip or steamy revelations -- but her book still reveals some hilarious, intriguing, and even shocking truths about the show and Maynard herself:




  1. When Emily met Ricky Hendrick, the father of her daughter, Ricki, she was just 16, while he was 21. But she told him she was 19 and a student at NYU. The couple didn't start dating until they met again a year and a half later.




  2. Emily's first night dress on "The Bachelor" had been freshly altered and was wayyyy too tight. "[T]he dress was choking the living daylights out of my ribs and pushing my lady parts to my chin," she writes.




  3. Prior to editing and musical effects, Emily's dates with Brad were often awkward and lacking in natural chemistry: "I liked him. He was warm, kind, sweet, a gentleman. I admired the same qualities now as I had when we first started getting to know each other. Yet, he wasn't as funny as I wanted him to be and even though we had a great time together, he always seemed a big uptight."




  4. While Emily liked to stay comfy during their homebound visits post-filming, Brad would get all dressed up in jeans and fancy shoes, even to hang out inside all day. During the post-show secrecy period, the relationship was very strained; once, Brad even broke up with Emily by cc-ing her on an email to the producers saying, "Sorry but things didn't work out with Emily and I. It wasn't the fairy tale I thought it would be."




  5. Emily didn't like Kalon's entrance, or anything about him -- even though she kept him on for a few weeks for the sake of entertainment. Of Kalon's dramatic helicopter arrival, she writes, "I wasn't impressed by his showy entrance. It was a tacky, off-putting gimmick that came off as pretentious." Still, she writes later, "can you imagine how boring the show would be if I only kept the nice guys around the whole time?"




  6. Emily gave Doug the first impression rose because he wouldn't be "threatening" to the other guys, but the real first impression was made by Arie. Emily implies that producers guided her in selecting her first impression rose recipient strategically, but Arie stood out the most for making her laugh. Oh, and he was "smoldering."




  7. Even though it was 50 degrees during the show's stay in Bermuda, Emily had to dress as skimpily as if it were boiling. Need those bikini shots! 




  8. Before a rose ceremony in London, Emily accidentally took a sleeping pill and had to chug Red Bull to stay vertical through filming that night. "I tried to save face and pull myself together. But it's kinda hard when you think you're walking, but you're really stumbling and your eyes can barely stay open."




  9. Jef had a rule-breaking streak -- and Emily liked it. "I wasn't bored any minute of the time we spent together," she writes. "One time Jef stole a pair of surfboards from this random dock, assuring me with a wink in his eye not to worry because, 'It's not like we're going to keep them. We're going to return them after we're done using them.' The better part of my nature thought it was rude and disrespectful, but another part of me, the former Emily who had a thing for bad boys, thought it was amusing." 




  10. As soon as Emily saw her daughter running to join her and Jef post-proposal, she knew getting engaged was a mistake. On the show, the shot of Ricki running to join the newly engaged couple was meant to be a joyful one, but inside, Emily, who hadn't wanted to get engaged on the show, was freaking out about "how a relationship with Jef was going to work, how he would fit into Ricki's life, if he was, in fact, ready to be a stepparent."




  11. Before Emily went on "The Bachelorette," her future husband, Tyler Johnson, suggested that they go out if she wasn't engaged after the show. After the show and the breakup with Jef, in January 2013, Emily was the one who asked him out officially -- and they lived happily ever after.




 Roll those credits, y'all.







For more from Emily Maynard, check out her interview on HuffPost's podcast "Here to Make Friends," below.


 




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11 Middle-Aged Women Strip Down To Reclaim 'Sexy' On Their Own Terms

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Warning: This post contains erotic imagery and may not be suitable for work environments.


Sometimes, to be a woman over 50 is to feel invisible. It's walking into a bar or restaurant and no longer being on the receiving end of an admiring glance. It's feeling like people on the street are looking past you, as if you aren't even there. Ask a middle-aged woman, and she might say these slights have whittled away at her self-confidence, tricking her into believing the best years are behind her. 


We live in a culture that often equates beauty and energy with youth. But we'd like to turn that way of thinking on its head. We believe women can be smart and sassy, beautiful and confident -- and that they can continue to shake things up in the world around them -- whether they're 50 or 75 or 100. 


With that idea in mind, Huff/Post50 photographed 11 very sexy women between the ages of 48 and 67. A few are cancer survivors. A few are grandmothers. A few are single and a few are married. But what they all have in common is that not one is a shrinking violet. They feel better about themselves today than they ever have. We asked each woman to wear whatever makes them feel sexy, and to talk about what being sexy means to them now compared to when they were, say, 21. The resulting photos are stunning -- and entirely un-retouched. 




For more images from the photo shoots click through our gallery of outtakes!


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Your Favorite Classic Books, Redesigned For Contemporary Readers

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If The Picture of Dorian Gray was assigned to you in high school or college, you know the cover belies the weirdness within the story. In most versions a man stands near a painting, posed stiffly, lending the whole thing a stuffy air. If you read the book, you know that’s not the case at all. Wilde’s lively language and surreal scenes make for a moving, peculiar read. So why doesn’t the cover match the book’s vibrancy?


Roberlan Borges designed one that does, with florescent greens and hot pinks sloshing inside a floating head, and bursting beyond a white mask. His design is part of a project organized by The Creative Action Network and DailyLit called "Recovering the Classics," in which designers were asked to pep up the vibe of stodgy book covers. 


“People wouldn’t say ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’ if it weren’t something people do all the time," Max Slavkin, co-founder of The Creative Action Network, said in an email with The Huffington Post. "The classics are some of the greatest works of art there are, and deserve covers to match.”


One of the main objectives of the projects is to make covers available for digital versions of books like Pride and Prejudice and Little Women, which have entered the public domain and are available for free on e-readers, but are often packaged in unappealing ways. 


“We hope 'Recovering The Classics' can highlight the value and beauty of making information free, like the classics in the public domain,” Slavkin said. “We believe that when content is free, we all win, and that the copyright laws we have today are far too restrictive.”


Another aim is to make classics appealing to younger readers, who might be put-off by coverless or dusty-covered tomes, but might reconsider an older book with a splash of color on its cover. 


“For kids reading these books in school, like all of us did, the cover can be especially important when they’re reading the classics on their iPads.” Slavkin said. “Fresh covers bring new life to the books, and make them more inviting to today’s students who browse online all the time.”












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Future PhotoMakers Is Fostering A New Generation Of Artists In Atlanta

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Meet Aida, Bryce, Colin, Earicka, Hasina, Jade, Jalin, Laila, Lauren, Nate and Ruth. They are sixth, seventh and eighth graders from Sutton Middle School in Atlanta, Georgia, who share one thing in common: they love photography.


In fact, they love it so much that they spent seven weekends in the fall of 2015 studying the art of capturing an image, trudging around a 150-year-old industrial complex with an Instax camera and a box of film. All thanks to an initiative called Future PhotoMakers, a project dedicated to addressing the lack of arts funding in Georgia and inspiring a new class of creative people along the way.


"Future Photomakers emerged out of a need that we saw in Atlanta public school arts funding which has been drastically decreasing for years," program creators Tim Lampe and Keith Weaver explain online. "It’s no secret that the state of Georgia sits at the bottom of the pile in this category and that there is an incredible need for children’s art programming."



Atlanta might be a hub for music and creativity, but Georgia ranks pretty low in terms of its public arts funding. According to data from 2015, it gives less per resident to the arts than any other state -- approximately 6 cents. In comparison, fellow Southern states like South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee give 63 cents, 61 cents, 82 cents and $1.07, respectively. 


Lampe and Weaver launched Future PhotoMakers with these abysmal statistics in mind. They submitted a proposal to the VSCO Artist Initiative in 2014 and -- upon receiving funding and support -- reached out to Sutton art teacher Erin Ray the next year. Over the course of a month, Ray connected the two with 12 students from Sutton who would go on to become the first group of Future Photomakers. They found a home in Atlanta’s Goat Farm Arts Center, where Lampe, Weaver and the dozen middle schoolers spent three hours every week learning the ins and outs of making photos.


Fast forward to March of 2016, and the Future PhotoMakers are showcasing the fruits of their labor. The exhibition will take place at the same Goat Farm, where the students' photographs will be on view and on sale. All proceeds from the show will go directly to the Sutton art program for future projects at the school. For most of the students, this will the first time they have shown artwork in a public place.



Compared to the 51,500 students enrolled in Atlanta public schools in the fall of 2015, the 12-person Future PhotoMakers initiative may be small, but Lampe and Weaver consider even the smallest effort to combat lack of arts funding a win. Meanwhile, PhotoMakers is just one of the projects funded by the VSCO Artist Initiative, a group that provides artists with an array of resources and grants, no matter the medium. 


"In our own small way we want to make a difference in the lives of kids and pass along our passion for photography and storytelling to this next generation of image makers," Lampe and Weaver state online. 


"Our goal was to inspire these kids to pick up a camera, make pictures, have fun, and share their world," they added on Facebook. "The program was a huge success and now we're excited to celebrate that collective work and the creativity of each of these wonderful kids."


See a preview of the Future PhotoMakers' work (below), along with more images from the program. For more information on the March 6 exhibition, check out the event page on Facebook.



Note: All instant images were taken by the students of Future PhotoMakers.

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15 Witty Comebacks To Every Sleazy Pickup Line

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Poet Desireé Dallagiacomo has the perfect antidote to dreadful, groan-worthy pickup lines: the drop-off. 


Dallagiacomo performed her slam poem, "Where Did You Get That Pickup Line? You Should Drop it Back Off," last week in a video produced by Button Poetry. It's ripe with responses to so many of the pickup lines that are annoying at best -- and offensive or threatening at worst -- to which women have grown so accustomed.


Here are all 15 of Dallagiacomo's powerful and hilarious "drop-off" lines: 





1. Excuse me, sir? Are you the moon? Because I need you 238,000 miles away from me.


 


2. You make me want to go to Hogwarts so I can make you disappear. 


 


3. Oh my God, you're so funny... Looking. 





4. Are we at the rodeo? Because this conversation is bullshit. 


 


5. You look so strong. Why don't you go take down the patriarchy and heteronormative ideals while I sit over here and watch? 


 


6. Your advances and excess touching and jokes are all so funny, I decided to tell them to my lawyer. 





7. You make me think all kinds of naughty things -- like where to hide a body. 


 


8. If I had a nickel for every time I heard that line I would throw them all at you. 


 


9. Damn dude, your ego is almost brighter than my future. And these lights. 








10. You want to know how I got these guns? Working out, because I'm terrified of violent masculinity. 


 


11. You remind me of 1919, the way I don't have a say in this. 


 


12. Can I please have 78 percent of the time you're giving me? Please? 


 


13. You and my bra have something in common: you're both annoying and make everything less enjoyable. 


 


14. You look like a wonderful piece of meat. You would look great under a butcher knife. 


 


15. You must be a tree -- the way I see you and think, leave.





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If Toddlers Ran Their Own Restaurants

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Those Fisher-Price kitchen sets are a classic playtime staple for little kids, but have you ever wondered if they have even greater potential?


That's a question the funny moms of The BreakWomb address in their latest video, "Tomothy's Kitchen -- L.A.'s Hottest New Restaurant." In the video, the ladies review an interesting new restaurant that appears to be owned and operated by a toddler.


"We didn't have to wait long for a table, which was great, but the table was one foot high," they begin their review.


The service is apparently "atrocious" and food looks rather ... er, plastic, but ultimately, the ladies can't wait to get back to the "hip, trendy" restaurant.


We have a feeling parents who don't reside in Los Angeles will be able to find similar restaurants in their local areas as well.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











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