Amy Schumer has a lot going on these days. From her new book The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo to a recent controversy surrounding one of her show’s writers, Schumer has been going non-stop. 

This past week, comedian and “Inside Amy Schumer” writer Kurt Metzger went on a lengthy tirade about rape allegations, which was widely criticized as misogynistic and victim-blaming. Schumer was forced to comment on the mess because of her close connection with Metzger. 

On Aug. 17, Schumer tweeted that she “couldn’t be more against [Metzger’s] recent actions.” On Thursday night, she spoke in greater detail about the matter during an interview with PBS’ Charlie Rose.

Although she made it clear that she considers Metzger to be a good friend and feels that his differing perspectives are an asset in the writers room, Schumer also reiterated that Metzger’s commentary on women and rape is not her own. 

Schumer explained to Rose: 

Kurt’s my friend, I love him, I’m not on Facebook so I don’t read his crazy rants… he gets something from going after people and making them mad that is not representative of me at all. I’ve asked him, “can you just stop because it comes back to me.” Because he writes for the show it becomes a bigger story, because of our connection. Whatever tangent he’s gone off on, I have not agreed with and it’s been really upsetting to see someone I care about hurt themselves like this.

She added that she wishes fans would not attach her to to his Facebook and Twitter rants. “I think people want his head, they want to burn him at the stake,” she said. “And I want them to not attach me to what he’s writing.”

Watch a clip from her interview with Charlie Rose below. 

Schumer explained she wishes the entire conversation could be refocused away from Metzger and onto rape and the importance of consent. “[Metzger] baits people, he’s the problem no question,” she said. “But the focus is on him rather than on what the real, main problem is.”

The topic of sexual assault and rape is a personal one to Schumer, since the 35-year-old comedian recently revealed that her first sexual encounter was not a consensual one. 

In a July interview with Marie Claire, Schumer described the moment she realized she had been assaulted ― something she also writes about in her new book, The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo.

“My first sexual experience was not a good one. I didn’t think about it until I started reading my journal again,” she told Marie Claire. “When it happened, I wrote about it almost like a throwaway. It was like, And then I looked down and realized he was inside me. He was saying, ‘I’m so sorry’ and ‘I can’t believe I did this.’” 

Schumer explained to Rose that she hopes the conversation surrounding Metzger’s comments can be shifted to help victims of rape and sexual assault.

I was sexually assaulted, I encourage women to come out and I want men to hear what happened so that there’s no confusion.
Amy Schumer

“I was sexually assaulted, I encourage women to come out and I want men to hear what happened so that there’s no confusion,” she said. “Because people have different understandings of what sexual assault is, what rape is. So let’s all get on the same page so it happens less.”

In an Aug. 19 interview with NPR, Schumer described why it was so hard to write about her assault in The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo.

“Just talking about being sexually assaulted in any way, you know, for women, it’s never like, ‘Oh, I’m really sorry that happened to you.’ Which is really how it should be, and how you would think it would be,” Schumer said. “But it’s more, we look for problems we have with how that woman has spoken about her sexual assault.”

Schumer also spoke about the need for people to understand that cases of sexual assault and rape don’t always play out in super clear cut ways, which is why she decided to tell her story:

I call it “grape,” because it’s this gray area. Not of whether or not it was rape, but it’s not the way we think of, like, a “Law and Order” episode. And when it’s not as black and white for everyone, it makes it harder for them to digest. So it’s this very personal thing to me, that I decided to share. And I’m only looking for people to feel less alone reading it, and maybe for a guy to read it and think, “Oh.” Maybe that’ll stop somebody in their tracks, I don’t know. 

Listen to Schumer’s full NPR interview below. 

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The ladies of Twitter never fail to brighten our days with their brilliant ― but succinct ― wisdom. Each week, HuffPost Women rounds up hilarious 140-character musings. For this week’s great tweets from women, scroll through the list below. Then visit our Funniest Tweets From Women page for our past collections.     

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In case you don’t know Danell Leyva, here’s a quick recap: He’s a Cuban-American Olympic gymnast, who, representing Team U.S.A., took home a bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympics and two silver medals in Rio. He’s also got a knack for giving the people what they want. 

At the Gymnastics Gala in Rio on Wednesday, he did just that, with a delightful, crowd-pleasing performance on the parallel bars that may or may not have involved light stripping.

Treat yo’self this Friday and watch the full performance below.

For more Olympics coverage:

• So Simone Biles Finally Met Zac Efron, And He Gave Her A Kiss


• Here’s Why Fencing Is Called Fencing


• This Video Of Young Laurie Hernandez Will Melt Your Damn Heart


• Here’s The Real Reason We Love Watching Olympic Gymnastics

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We all know “Dick” is short for Richard. It’s one of those facts of life you learn at an early age (especially if your name is Richard), but no one ever tells you the origin. 

Well, the very studious people at Today I Found Out have the answer, and it’s chock-full of history.

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For nearly 35 years, Raimundo Arruda Sobrinho was homeless, living on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He mostly kept to himself, writing poetry from the same spot every single day ― a median that he called “The Island.” Locals came to know of Sobrinho, but no one seemed to pay him much mind. Until, that is, Shalla Monteiro walked by.

Monteiro befriended the unkempt man and soon learned that he had been holding onto a big dream over the decades. 

“Raimundo always wanted to publish a book of his poems, and as a person who lived in the streets, [this] became an impossible dream,” Monteiro says. “I felt I needed to do something.”

Sobrinho signed each piece of poetry as “The Conditioned,” so Monteiro set up a Facebook page called Ocondicionado to publish his works. Soon after, passersby started seeing Sobrinho differently.

“People started to get close to him,” Monteiro says. “To talk to him, to go there, just say, ‘Hey, I saw you. I want to know you. I always wanted to know, but I didn’t have the courage to come and talk.’”

Then, something life-changing happened.

“I got a message from his brother,” Monteiro says.

Sobrinho’s brother reached out and then went to see Sobrinho in person. “When I arrived at The Island, I found a man in the midst of garbage, hairy and unshaved, with no hygiene whatsoever,” he recalls. “This person was my brother.”

Sobrinho’s brother asked Sobrinho come to live with him, and the family reunited after decades apart. 

“My brothers are still alive. They’re all alive. He was the one missing to complete the emptiness we had,” Sobrinho’s brother says. “He is not a guest. He is part of the family. With my children and my wife, he is an integral part.”

No longer homeless, Sobrinho was then able to take his poetry to the next level, with Monteiro’s help: His book of poetry, #Inconditional, was published in December of 2015. One of Sobrinho’s own pieces of poetry beautifully sums up the power of his story.

Damned is the man who abandons himself. These six words show that the worse the situation is, never, ever should a man consider it lost.

“His dreams [are] coming true,” Monteiro says. “After so long.”

Another inspiring piece:

Prince Ea’s powerful message about labels

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When word got out that “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway was creating an Amazon pilot based on Chris Kraus’ 1997 novel I Love Dick, I was excited and afraid. The book ― a schizophrenic, psychological road trip through the mind of a woman in lust ― is part memoir, part fiction, part juicy gossip, part critical theory, part radical work of feminist art. It doesn’t make for easy television. 

The story begins when Chris, an experimental filmmaker, and her husband Sylvere, a college professor, meet a cultural critic named Dick at a Sushi bar in Pasadena, Calif. The couple hasn’t had sex in years, but when Chris becomes suddenly infatuated with Dick, she and Sylvere begin a bizarre sort of game, or a conceptual art project, in which they obsessively write Dick letters in an attempt to rekindle their own intimacy.

When their marriage eventually unravels, Chris continues her lopsided relationship with Dick on her own, pursuing him both abstractly and concretely. Her unrequited obsession changes Chris, luring her into a sort of madness that brings with it desire and strength. She sees her life, her work, herself, differently after giving her emotional mania the philosophical gravity more often granted to men.

Though Chris continues to write to Dick about her revelations, he becomes less of a human being and more of a vessel. In a library full of women characters who exist solely to please and compliment men, Kraus transforms Dick, the object of Chris’ unwavering desire, into just that: an object. Or, if you like, a big, hard dick. 

Kraus’ book is revolutionary in its ability to speak in a woman’s voice ― one that embraces fantasy as much as reality, emotion as much as storytelling. Before Sheila Heti, before Lena Dunham, before “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” Kraus spilled her neuroses, showed her difficult parts, unwaveringly expressed her wants and needs. “I aim to be a female monster too,” she wrote. 

Soloway’s take on I Love Dick doesn’t aim to recreate the book. It can’t. Instead of taking place in the so-unglamorous-it’s-cool landscape of 1990s Southern California, where Chris frequents strip mall sushi joints and Trader Joe’s, the story goes down in Marfa, Texas, a cosmic no-man’s-land-turned-SoHo-outpost, in present day. Rompers and talks of Uber rides quickly dislodged the hopes I had for a different kind of ‘90s nostalgia, one more Cindy Sherman than Lisa Frank. 

“I think it makes a lot of sense,” Kraus told The Huffington Post of the location swap. “I think originally they were talking about making it upstate New York, the Catskills, Hudson, or something. But that’s such a New York Times cliche. You know it before you even think about it. Marfa is completely something else, people come from all over the place.” 

Marfa seems an appropriate spot for a television reboot of a cult-classic novel, given the fact that the place itself is a living example of inexplicable magic juiced for all its worth. Since artist Donald Judd migrated there in the 1970s, seduced by its open space and alien light, the small city has become a present-day mecca for the artistic millennial bourgeoisie. The character of the space has changed, and certain enchanted qualities have been lost as a result, but the destination has a new kind of power ― the uncanny mixture of then and now, local and transplant, art installation and fancy grilled cheese shop. 

The space also presents a perfect stage for Soloway to do what she does best: lovingly make fun of bougie intellectuals as they clumsily make their way through existential crises. “What I love about the pilot is that it’s so funny and sad at the same time,” Kraus said. “The casting is perfect. Kathryn Hahn so remarkably conveys that existential crisis ― albeit perhaps a minor, petty one. That perpetual unease where you don’t know where to put yourself in the world.”

There’s clearly a connection between Kraus’ mission and Soloway’s, though the two are in slight disagreement over what exactly it may be. “I read a quote where she said she’s interested in somewhat unlikeable, Jewish women,” Kraus said. “I never thought of myself as doing that. I wouldn’t have even thought the Chris character was that unlikeable,” she said, laughing. “I connect more on the level of comedy. She does close, psychological comedy and that’s something I connect with.” 

When Kraus wrote I Love Dick in 1997, the act of a woman writing smartly, sloppily, deliriously, obscenely and without permission, was radical. Nowadays, things have improved, but, just a day after Redditors sabotaged Amy Schumer’s debut book with one-star reviews, there’s still plenty of work to be done. The current climate is perfectly summed up by none other than Dick himself, who, on his first dinner date with Chris and Sylvere, quips: “Most films made by women ultimately aren’t … that … good.” 

The statement is meant to be incendiary, subversive, but also flirtatious, which makes it all the more infuriating. We’re not supposed to be sexist anymore, Dick implies, but look at what a bad boy I am. “That was hilarious,” Kraus said of the moment. “He’s trying to bait her. I don’t think anyone who says that even really believes it.” Soloway’s moment is not one of flagrant oppression and discrimination, but one more insidious. One characterized by, in Dana Schwartz’s words, “the men who know that objectification and sexism is wrong but still secretly wonder if all this fuss isn’t over nothing.”

One of the most famous lines in Kraus’ novel reads: “I think the sheer fact of women talking, being, paradoxical, inexplicable, flip, self-destructive but above all else public is the most revolutionary thing in the world.” Soloway is revolutionary not only for the stories she writes and the ways she tells them, but the representation they make space for, on- and off-screen. Her production company is called Topple, like “topple the patriarchy.” Her brand, which the New Yorker’s Ariel Levy described as “post-patriarchal television,” holds cooperation, feminism and queerness among its values. 

The set of “Transparent” was lauded for its diversity and good vibes. “I Love Dick” seems to follow suit. “The set is characteristically inclusive, chill, and collaborative,” Jason McBride wrote for Vulture. “Partners, spouses, and children are everywhere. The mobile bathrooms are gender-neutral, and each morning begins with a ritual called ‘Box,’ during which Soloway climbs atop an apple box and makes a brief inspirational speech to the assembled cast and crew.” The question, for Soloway, is not only what can women say, but where can they work, and how? 

While Kraus changed the game for women writers in the ‘90s, Soloway pulls a similar move for women, queers, and people of color in the age of contemporary television, both on screen and behind the scenes. Her added touches include a sexy, butch ranch hand played by Roberta Colindrez and her hipster buddy played by Phoebe Robinson of “Two Dope Queens.” Like Marfa itself, Soloway’s work can, at times, feel a bit try-hard or too cool, but its overall effect is undeniably good, and maybe even magical. 

“Become your own myth,” feminist artist Hannah Wilke said, quoted in Kraus’ book. Wilke was once considered radical for baring her naked body in her work; in 1980, then-Village Voice critic Guy Trebay wrote that her vagina had eventually become “as familiar to us as an old shoe.” Despite the gross sexism embedded in Trebay’s “critique,” there is something satisfying about the idea that something as radical, transgressive and taboo as an exposed vagina can become familiar, normal, even status quo.

Thanks to I Love Dick, women can now more freely express their art, their sexuality and their smarts in one fell swoop, and be taken seriously as a result. Thanks to women like Wilke, Kraus and Soloway, what was once radical is now familiar, what past generations had to fight tooth and nail for, we 21st-century women can comfortably build on and expand into new, revolutionary terrain. 

Men may still be dicks, but all that’s certainly familiar to us by now. Truly, an old fucking shoe. 

Watch the pilot of “I Love Dick” on Amazon Prime now. 

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The struggle to fit in is real for many bicultural Latinas, according to Latina@Work, a workplace survey released Monday by People en Español and Lieberman Research Worldwide.

The study, which surveyed 500 Latinas and 250 white, non-Latina women ages 25 to 54, underscores “how today’s Latina is living in two worlds, struggling between two identities yet yearning for the opportunity to ‘just be herself,’” according to a statement released by People. This feeling of “otherness” is especially acute in the workplace. 

One of the key findings of the study was that though an overwhelming number of Latinas (80 percent) agreed with the statement, “At work, I want to be seen as who I really am, including being Latina,” many of them felt they had to change some aspect of themselves in order to be taken seriously. 

According to the study, 31 percent of Latina women surveyed feel they need to dress more conservatively than their peers in the workplace in order to be taken seriously, and 35 percent said they feel the way they style their hair impacts how successful they are at work.

The study also found Latina respondents were twice as likely as their white, non-Latina counterparts to agree with the statement: “I have to work twice as hard as my co-workers because of my cultural background.”

The purpose of the study was “to uncover how Latinas, who are experiencing more professional and educational growth than ever before, are modulating two opposing versions of themselves,” according the statement. 

“Our Latina@Work study highlights new insights depicting the struggle faced by today’s Latinas as they battle disparate perceptions, overwhelming stereotypes and pre-conceived notions in a corporate environment,” said People en Español brand sales director Monique Manso. 

Manso went on to explain that the study will “lay the foundation for a critical conversation among corporations and brands around the success, equality and inclusion of Latinas in the workplace.”

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“12 Years a Slave”; the remake of “Roots”; “Django Unchained”; “Birth of a Nation” and the upcoming TV series “Underground.”

As author Colson Whitehead has frequently discussed in interviews about his blockbuster new novel, The Underground Railroad, it seems like stories of slavery have surged into the spotlight in American entertainment recently. The Nigerian author Ben Okri even argued that an expectation of writing about slavery and racial injustice presents an obstacle to black writers, an imposition on their artistic freedom.

But Whitehead, the author of acclaimed novels such as The Intuitionist and Zone One, doesn’t quite see it that way. “There are more writers and directors and screenwriters dealing with Black history. Still too few,” he told Kima Jones in an interview for GQ. “I think if you want to understand Black history, it’s slavery. If you want to understand America, it’s slavery.”

In a political moment when conservative figures might still say that black people were happier during slavery, or had more family stability, and even white liberals are prone to thoughtless moves like proclaiming “All Lives Matter” in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, we can’t pretend that Americans (at least white Americans) have been close to well-educated about the historical realities of slavery.

The Underground Railroad, which hit bookstores for a surprise early release this month in conjunction with a major Oprah endorsement, aims to understand black history in America ― and America’s messy, messed-up evolution ― through slavery. Fans of Whitehead won’t be surprised by his less-than-faithful historical approach, which melds vivid researched detail with speculative alternative history, and plays fast and loose with chronology and setting to create a more cohesive, overarching thematic exploration. 

In the book, Cora, a young woman enslaved on a Georgia plantation, bears daily witness to the vicious discipline and grueling labor of the estate. When a new master with a particularly baroque taste in punishment arrives, she joins forces with Caesar, a newly purchased slave, who has asked her to flee with him, as a lucky charm, because her mother was the only slave who, years before, successfully escaped, never to return. They know the unspeakable torments and gruesome deaths that await them if they’re caught as they flee, or brought back by the dogged slave-catcher Ridgeway. But Caesar has a contact on the Underground Railroad.

Here the novel takes its first dip into the fantastical: The Underground Railroad is made manifest, not as a metaphorical name, but as a literal subway system shuttling runaways up north in rickety boxcars. Cora is grateful to the white station agents who usher her down to hidden platforms, but not blinded by worshipful gratitude to a white savior. Some are well-meaning but weak, quick to turn informant. Some only help to hide Cora to save their own skins from draconian punishments exacted upon those who aid escapees.

She and Caesar first stop off in South Carolina, and decide to stay there for some time. In Underground Railroad, the state represents a more insidious brand of white-on-black violence. The government buys up the slaves’ contracts to allow them to live freely, work for wages, and mingle with white people in the town. But each time they go to their mandated doctor appointments at the town’s new hospital, their blood is drawn for vague “testing,” and Cora is incessantly pressured to opt for sterilization. (For women with children or diagnosed “mental defects,” the sterilization is mandatory.) This eerie society, seemingly plunked into the novel from a dystopian fantasy, in fact draws in historically accurate ― and horrifying ― medical atrocities committed against black Americans, from the Tuskegee syphilis experiments to forced sterilization of black women.

As Cora flees, first to North Carolina, which has established a slave-free white supremacist state with enforcement tactics reminiscent of the Holocaust, and later to Indiana, Ridgeway remains relentlessly in pursuit. At one point, he catches her and tosses her in his wagon along with Jasper, an escaped slave whose ceaseless singing irritates Ridgeway so badly that he finally does the calculations, decides to forfeit the bounty from Jasper’s owner, and just shoots the slave in the head. It’s a chilling moment, for Cora as well as the reader, a realization that while the slave-catcher would personally benefit no more from shooting a runaway than from simply letting him go free, he still would choose to end the slave man’s life in bondage. “I’m a notion of order,” he tells Cora. “The slave that disappears ― it’s a notion, too. Of hope.”

The depressing drawback to Whitehead’s compelling, fluid blend of historical and speculative fiction, and his brilliant collapsing-together of time and place, might just be that so many readers today have been taught too little about America’s true, unvarnished history of slavery to easily spot how much gruesome truth the novel holds up, unflinchingly, to the light. And yet these glimpses of a buried history, too little discussed, embedded in Whitehead’s daringly crafted novel, should inspire more of us to keep talking, keep learning and keep reading.

In the journey of Cora, one determined and ingenious yet all-too-vulnerable woman, The Underground Railroad doesn’t present simply one journey from slave to free, one escape, one life of torment. This isn’t a neat narrative with a winning white savior or an indomitable black escapee at its heart; it resists optimism and a comfortable conclusion. Instead, Whitehead layers in racial injustices and atrocities typical of different times and places, and in doing so reveals the full range of how such crimes can be perpetrated.

Some were so shocking they may seem straight out of a slasher novel, others more insidious, but the relentless inhumanity toward black people in America changed only in presentation. Even once you’ve escaped, Cora comes to realize, you aren’t necessarily free.

The Bottom Line:

The Underground Railroad is an instant classic that makes vivid the darkest, most horrific corners of America’s history of brutality against black people. 

What other reviewers think:

The New York Times: “[I]t is carefully built and stunningly daring; it is also, both in expected and unexpected ways, dense, substantial and important.”

NPR: “The Underground Railroad is an American masterpiece, as much a searing document of a cruel history as a uniquely brilliant work of fiction.”

Who wrote it?

Colson Whitehead has previously published several novels, including Zone One, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, and Sag Harbor. He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and has received a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honors. 

Who will read it?

Readers who love dark speculative fiction, books that explore the jagged edges of America’s racial divide, and anyone who wants to read a really f**king great book.

Opening lines:

“The first time Caesar approached Cora about running north, she said no.”

Notable passage:

“Ridgeway watched them stagger down the gangplanks, rheumy and bewildered, overcome by the city. The possibilities lay before these pilgrims like a banquet, and they’d been so hungry their whole lives. They’d never seen the likes of this, but they’d leave their mark on this new lank, as surely as those famous souls at Jamestown, making it theirs through unstoppable racial logic. If niggers were supposed to have their freedom, they wouldn’t be in chains. If the red man was supposed to keep hold of his land, it’d still be his. If the white man wasn’t destined to take this new world, he wouldn’t own it now.”

The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead
Doubleday, $26.95
Published Aug. 2, 2016

The Bottom Line is a weekly review combining plot description and analysis with fun tidbits about the book.

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Rihanna posed alongside a monstrous sculpture of her headless self with giant boobs while visiting Berlin, and uploaded the evidence yesterday to Instagram.

The work, titled “Ewaipanoma (Rihanna),” by Colombian artist Juan Sebastián Peláez, features RiRi’s giant image photoshopped as an Acéfalo ― a headless monster with a face in its chest, an image used by early European explorers to depict Caribbean natives. Peláez remixed celebrities from the Caribbean region including J.Lo, Ricky Martin, Sofia Vergara and her holiness Rihanna in his takedown of cultural exploitation and image-hungry celebrity culture. 

“It’s all the same today as it was 500 years ago,” Peláez explained to 032c. “Propaganda, advertisement, the creation of an image to reinforce power. Today we just have glossier paper.”

Rihanna blessed the work as “too wild,” and for a moment, all the terrible bullshit in the world vanished, just like Rihanna’s head and neck. 

This is @badgrlpripri, ON THE CASE. 

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Warning: This article contains explicit imagery and may not be suitable for work environments. 

Rap sensation and cunnilingus connoisseur Lil Wayne once said, “I got a sweet tooth. Now can I eat you?” This inspiring, sex positive sentiment is at the core of Junior High’s group exhibition “Eat It,” which is all about the art of going down. That’s right, a whole art show dedicated to eating pussy. Welcome to 2016. 

The show, curated by comedian and writer Alison Stevenson and filmmaker and artist Elizabeth Vazquez, is all about normalizing a sex act that, for some odd reason because sexism, remains somewhat taboo. “It’s an act that’s not as celebrated as other sex acts,” Stevenson explained in an interview with The Huffington Post. 

Cunnilingus has long been a topic of interest for Stevenson, who writes a column about lady issues on Vice. “It’s kind of my thing ― I know that’s weird to say,” she said. “I write about it a lot, I tweet about it a lot. But for a few years I’ve been feeling like I want to do something more.” 

In March 2015, Stevenson published a Vice column titled “Why I Don’t Give Blowjobs,” which discussed that while giving men head is viewed (by men at least) as standard protocol, going down on women remains a privilege. “My declaration was, basically, if you’re not going to eat me out, I’m not going to such your dick,” she summarized. “A lot of straight men are under the impression that penetrative sex is a way for us to orgasm when it’s not. We need clitoral stimulation.” 

In an effort to hammer her point home, for the good, good pleasure of women everywhere, Stevenson has organized a group art show that will show, not tell, the mystical powers of muff diving. She’s recruited some truly badass feminist artists, including Frances Canon, Fahren Feingold, and Priyanka Paul, to show just how beautiful cunnilingus can be. 

One of Stevenson’s goals, aside from spreading her gospel far and wide, is dispelling the archaic myth that feminists aren’t funny. Thus, the exhibition spotlights artists who make art with irreverence, hard-core hotness, and a heavy dose of sass. If you’re not down to see a bunch of naked parts, this is probably not the show for you. “The philosophy was basically, the more graphic the better,” Stevenson said. 

The exhibition opens Saturday August 20, 2016 and closes Sunday, August 21, at Junior High gallery in Hollywood, Calif. So, yes, you have approximately 48 hours to bask in the glory of nature’s best pocket. There will be a comedy show opening night at 8 p.m., as well as a raffle giving away sex toys. 

If you’re not based in the L.A. area, let Stevenson’s sage advice guide you on your future sexual path: “Speak up!” she said. “Say what’s on your mind, say what you’re thinking. And for men — if you want the overall sexual experience to be better, if you want her to be more into your sex, put the effort into seeing what pleasures her. Ask! Communicate! Communication is a really important part of sex. People shy away from it, they think it ruins the moment, but it will actually make the moment a lot better.” 

You heard it people. It’s good for you! To close, another word from resident “pussy monster” Lil Wayne: “It’s like I gotta eat it just to stay alive.”

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Celebrity speakers and performers converged on the United Nations headquarters in New York City to highlight the plight of refugees on World Humanitarian Day. Friday’s celebrity show of support for efforts to aid refugees around the world came ahead of next month’s U.N. summit there to address the dire global crisis. 

“I just hope that people will be reminded of our common humanity,” writer and keynote speaker Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie told The Huffington Post before the event, themed around the motto “One Humanity.”

“I’ve generally been troubled by the ways in which refugees and immigrants are talked about as though they are not fully human.” 

“Game of Thrones” actress Natalie Dormer, “The Voice” winner Alisan Porter, former “Hamilton” actor Leslie Odom Jr. were among the artists onstage at the event, which fell on the anniversary of the 2003 bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, which killed 22 people. Each celebrity spoke with heartfelt messages for humanitarian support in between clips from a 2016 PBS Frontline documentary, “Children of Syria,” telling the story of the Kamil family’s life in Aleppo, Syria, and migration to Germany. Dormer specifically called on the international community to protect women and girls from sexual violence and “engage men and boys in the conversation,” echoing U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson’s words as the British actress kicked off the feminist HeForShe campaign in 2014. 

“In most of the conflicts around the world, rape has become a weapon of war, with women directly targeted by fighting parties,” Dormer said.

After performances that included the vocal stylings of an “Arab Idol” winner from Palestine, the audience of press, nongovernmental organization workers and members of the public heard from Hala Kamil, who spoke passionately against the violence in her home country. Soldiers took her husband in Aleppo and she’s not heard from him since.

A message appeared on screens behind the stage: “tweet your leader” with a designated hashtag, #ShareHumanity. 

The New York City event comes three months after the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Turkey, where 55 heads of state and government gathered along with representatives from 173 member nations. However, President Barack Obama did not attend, nor did Secretary of State John Kerry. Also absent were Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, France’s Francois Hollande and Britain’s then-Prime Minister David Cameron. In fact, Germany’s Angela Merkel was the only leader from the largest global powers to attend the Istanbul summit. (Aid group Doctors Without Borders boycotted the summit, which it dismissed as a “fig leaf of good intentions.”) U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that he considered the turnout from the world’s richest countries “disappointing.”

Conflict in Syria alone has led 12 million people to flee, according to leader of the U.N., which stated in January that humanitarian efforts would require an additional $15 billion in funding. 

However, “Quantico” actress Yasmine Al Massri stressed before the New York City event the small actions ordinary people could take to help refugees abroad.

“You don’t have to belong to an organization. Your government does not have to have a plan or a budget to help refugees. You and your neighbors can buy three suitcases, put some clothes [in] them, put some coats, put some baby things, and find somewhere to send them,” she told HuffPost. “Go online. Go on the United Nations website.”

The U.N. will hold its summit to address issues related to refugees and migrants on September 19 in New York City.

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Even flipbook artists struggle to keep up with Olympic champion Usain Bolt.

Ben Zurawski ― a.k.a. The Flippist ― paid tribute to the fastest man on the planet this week by illustrating an amusing hand-drawn booklet (see above).

But instead of drawing one of the Jamaican track star’s historic gold medal runs at Rio 2016, the cartoonist opted to show just how far the sprinter was ahead of his rivals.

“Dang he’s fast!” Zurwaski commented on the YouTube video which shows him flipping through the book. “Get that gold Bolt!”

Check it out in the clip above.

For more Olympics coverage:

• Snake Catching Makes Its Olympic Debut At Rio 2016


• 11 Weird Sports That Were Actually In The Olympics


• Amorous Couple Interrupts BBC’s Live Olympic Coverage


• Chinese Diver Pops The Question In Olympically Romantic Proposal


• Athlete Bows Out Of Rio 2016 With Olympic-Sized McDonald’s Meal

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Looking for a reason to hit the yoga mat today? Take a gander at these stunning photos.

The surreal images, which were snapped by photographer Elena Kalis, feature yoga instructor Britta Jade as she masterfully executes yoga poses under water. They’re a truly majestic display of how yoga can be both athletic and a work of art.

The photos are an inspirational reminder that the practice can be one of the best ways to move your body. Research shows yoga can reduce stress and lower your risk for heart disease. It also can improve your sleep and boost your brain function. Not to mention the fact that yoga can be an excellent form of strength training, which can help maintain a healthy weight.

While not everyone can exactly run off to the crystal shores of a remote island to nail these moves, there are some added perks to taking your yoga practice to the water. Studies suggest being near the ocean can make you calmer and more creative. The sea also puts your brain in a more meditative state.

If you’ve been slacking on a yoga routine (or hesitant to try one at all), take a look at the pictures below. Then check out these healthy reasons to prioritize the practice for additional motivation.

Nirvana: achieved.

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J.K. Rowling had to police the internet again.

The “Harry Potter” author called out the United Kingdom-based Christian Voice for a homophobic tweet about British Olympic diver Tom Daley.

The prayer and lobby group posted an anti-gay message after the 22-year-old, who is engaged to screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, failed to qualify for the 10-meter platform final at Rio 2016.

The organization didn’t go into further detail to reveal what possible link there could be between Daley’s sexuality and his athletic performance. But Rowling, who has a laudable history of schooling bigots online (see examples 1, 2, 3, 4) immediately leapt to her fellow countryman’s defense.

Her tweet is now going viral, with dozens of other Twitter users going after the organization ― and even calling for Rowling to unleash some dark magic on its members.

The online backlash hasn’t deterred Christian Voice, which later posted this message:

A brief look through the Christian Voice’s Twitter timeline revealed similar contempt for gay marriage, Islam and gender identity.

The Huffington Post has reached out to Christian Voice for comment.

For more Olympics coverage:

• Snake Catching Makes Its Olympic Debut At Rio 2016


• 11 Weird Sports That Were Actually In The Olympics


• Amorous Couple Interrupts BBC’s Live Olympic Coverage


• Usain Bolt Is Just Too Flippin’ Quick For This Flipbook Artist


• Chinese Diver Pops The Question In Olympically Romantic Proposal


• Athlete Bows Out Of Rio 2016 With Olympic-Sized McDonald’s Meal

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“Sherlock” is back, but as you’ve never seen it before.

YouTube parody masters “The Hillywood Show” is treating the crime-fighting sleuth’s fans to a special, rap-inspired spoof episode.

Set to the tune of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop,” vlogging sisters Hilly and Hannah Hindi dress up like Benedict Cumberbatch’s Holmes and Martin Freeman’s Dr. John Watson and crack a case. 

The clip was filmed in some of the actual locations used in the hit show, and there’s even a cameo from “Sherlock” co-creator Steven Moffat toward the end.

Check it out in the clip above and watch the extended behind-the-scenes footage below.

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Dating is hard. And while we millennials may think it’s especially difficult with the commodification of desire that quick-swiping apps and hookup culture have wrought, the truth is, it’s always been freaking hard. 

Look no further than the words of early 20th-century writer and critic Dorothy Parker to find that angst and doubt in love, sprinkled with a little self-deprecation, is not a new invention. 

It was Parker who coined the phrase, “Men seldom make passes / at girls who wear glasses.” The lines make up the entirety of a poem called “News Item.” The neat, direct lines and title make one imagine that Parker was not admonishing the glasses-wearing women — something this bespectacled writer long thought — but more so the fallibility of humans to place too much importance on looks.

Wry observations abound in the rest of Parker’s poetry and stories. Her self-deprecating humor makes it easy to imagine that she’d skewer Tinder, Bumble, etc., with the same sharp eye, were she alive today. Her legacy remains: Writer Sloane Crosley, who has been hailed as a contemporary Parker, recently named her as an inspiration in a recent episode of the “OTHERPPL” podcast, expressing appreciation for the inimitable Parker line, “You can bring a horticulture but you can’t make her think.” One can spot a tone similar to Parker’s own real, if sometimes bleak, view on love typified by the great @sosadtoday Twitter account and brands like Stay Home Club that sell shirts emblazoned with a simple message: “Awful.” 

Parker herself might not agree, as she said in an interview with The Paris Review, “Let’s face it, honey, my verse is terribly dated ― as anything once fashionable is dreadful now.” Still, if reading Dorothy Parker makes you wish she and her wordy sharpness were still around to be your social media soul sister to guide you in this universe, look no further than the legacy she left behind after her death in 1967.

Lesson 1: Don’t get caught up in infatuation. 

Dorothy Parker told it like she saw it, often addressing the brutal truths of love, marriage, relationships, and the hypocritical things humans do and say in the name of finding the one. Take her poem “Unfortunate Coincidence,” from the collection Enough Rope:

By the time you swear you’re his,

     Shivering and sighing,

And he vows his passion is

      Infinite, undying—

Lady, make a note of this:

      One of you is lying.

Tell us how you really feel, Dorothy. She’s Carrie Bradshaw long before “Sex and the City” was a twinkle in HBO’s eye (and with less cloying voice-overs to boot). The takeaway? Sure, it’s easy to get swept up in the throes of new love, but the truth of the matter is that those feelings don’t typically last in the long term. Make sure you’re truly compatible with a partner before professing undying love.

Lesson 2: Put yourself first when dating. 

It can be tempting, when you can see your own singlehood stretching out like an unending, super lonely desert highway before you, to think that you need to change in order to attract someone. Let Parker extinguish that notion in her poem “Indian Summer.”

But now I know the things I know,

     And do the things I do;

And if you do not love me so,

To hell, my love, with you!

The more experience you gain, the better you know yourself; the better you know yourself, the better you’ll be able to determine whether a person is truly worth pursuing.  

Lesson 3: Allow yourself time to grieve after a breakup.

In another poem from Enough Rope, “The False Friends,” Parker muses about advice a brokenhearted narrator receives from friends: “... time could heal a hurt, they said / And time could dim a vow.” If she’d gotten dumped in April, she’d surely be fine in May. 

Nope: “For June was nearly spent away / Before my heart was whole.” If you need to be sad after a relationship is over, be sad. It’s better to discard encouraging “Get out there again!” remarks, or calculations of the proper time to “get over it.” You’ll know when you’re ready to reboot that OkCupid profile.

Lesson 4: Don’t wait for someone to call (or, in 2016, text).

We’ve left so many archaic dating rituals in the past by now, yet the debate over whether or not to call text a love interest lives on. How many days after a first date can you text someone? How many hours should you take to respond to someone so it looks like you’re not just waiting for them to text you? At what point do texts become overeager? Above all: What the hell was that smirking emoji supposed to mean?!

It’s maddening, yet when we we brush away all the tingly-giddy feelings of a new prospect and our reluctance to mess up a delicate connection, we know the truth: If someone likes you, a misplaced eggplant emoji or the overuse of exclamation marks isn’t going to turn them off. 

And if you need more reassurance that it’s way better to simply pick up the phone and get in touch, just read Parker’s story, “A Telephone Call.”

A brief excerpt: 

If I didn’t think about it, maybe the telephone might ring. Sometimes it does that. If I could think of something else. If I could think of something else. Maybe if I counted five hundred by fives, it might ring by that time. I’ll count slowly. I won’t cheat. And if it rings when I get to three hundred, I won’t stop’ I won’t answer until I get to five hundred. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty ... Oh, please ring. Please.

Lesson 5: Maintain a little healthy cynicism.

Perhaps, when getting a particularly weird message from a suitor, you might have shouted out, “What fresh hell is this?” 

Apparently, Parker answered her door with a similar phrase — “What fresh hell can this be?” — and the other interjection was attributed to the writer in a 1989 biography by Marion Meade titled Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? There’s something about the phrase that maintains a little humor while, at face value, being pessimistic.

So much of dating brings to mind the old “If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry” mantra. Know that you are brave for putting yourself out there, and that bravery brings with it enough mettle to get through the undeniably shitty parts of trying to fall in love.

Don’t despair after an awkward meeting at a bar, a small letdown, a casual ghosting — chalk it up to the “fresh hell” that dating unfortunately and occasionally involves and text your friends for a drink. Dorothy would have your back.  

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Summer vacation is coming to an end (and in some places, is already a distant memory). ‘Tis the season for school supplies, new schedules and the return of homework. 

While sending the kids back to school is heart-wrenching for some parents, it’s euphoric for many others. And in all cases, it can offer a source of comedic relief.

Here are 21 hilarious comics for parents in the throes of back-to-school season.

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China just can’t stop building terrifying glass walkways.

An attraction that calls itself the highest and longest glass bridge in the world opened this weekend in the country’s Zhangjiajie National Forest. Visitors were quick to risk their lives er, visit the bridge, which is made of 99 glass panels that dangle more than 980 feet over the rocky forest below.

At first, this may sound like a walk in the park. But when you see how high the bridge truly is, it’s a wonder any visitors showed up at all.

China has no shortage of these sky-high attractions, which are known to provide stunning photo opps. There’s the epic “Coiling Dragon” skywalk, the vertigo-inducing Haohan Qiao, or “Brave Man’s Bridge,” and another glass skywalk that famously cracked just a few weeks after opening last year. 

Officials made a big show of testing China’s newest glass bridge for safety, even driving an SUV across to prove its strength. To visit, you’ll need to get yourself to China’s “Avatar Mountains,” the natural wonder known for inspiring the popular movie. 

Oh, and pick up some bravery along the way. Happy travels!

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This article originally appeared on artnet News.

How did a song by the photographer and artist Wolfgang Tillmans end up on Frank Ocean’s visual album “Endless”? Considered the hottest record release of the year, Ocean dropped the album on Friday, and followed up a day later with the release of another long-player titled Blond. (Or “Blonde” according to Apple Music).

Tillmans announced the inclusion of his electronic music track “Device Control” in the outro of Ocean’s album via Instagram this past Friday, just as he had found out about it.

In a photo caption, Tillmans explained, “Three weeks ago I showed him [Ocean] a few songs, which I had written and produced for myself, and he replied ‘Device Control is brilliant. Love. Can I sample it for the intro of my album?’ I agreed and to my excited surprise this morning he didn’t just sample it. He released my complete original track as the end of this amazing album.”

Ocean also used a photograph shot by Tillmans for the cover of “Blond,” the long awaited follow-up to his 2011 hit album “Channel Orange.” In an interview with Pitchfork, the artist opened up on how he met Ocean and how the pair’s collaboration came about.

“We were brought together by the wonderful people at Fantastic Man magazine, who had set up an exclusive cover story for their 10th anniversary album early last year,” the photographer said. “The shoot turned out to be almost impossible to set up…I had given up hope and said I had to go the Berlin next day. He said he would prefer to do it there. I didn’t think he meant it, but two days later he showed up at my Berlin studio.”

But, as Tillmans went on to explain, in true pop star fashion Ocean made a u-turn. “All seemed well, but a couple weeks later Fantastic Man got a letter from his lawyers in Los Angeles barring them from using the pictures,” Tillmans added. “It was a huge disappointment and felt very unfair, but we stayed in touch and he later wanted to use images for his book to accompany a future album.”

The Turner Prize winner is known for his involvement in music. His popular “playback rooms” were exhibited in Munich and Berlin, and he is due to release a techno EP titled [2016/1986] on September 16.

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