Get serious about road safety by watching these shocking versions of the #MannequinChallenge craze.

Police and fire rescue departments around the world are putting their own graphic spin on the viral trend, in which participants stand motionless while a camera pans around the eerily static scene.

Instead of a lighthearted look at their jobs, however, these emergency service crews are documenting what could be the consequences of car crashes caused by drunk, distracted or cell phone-using drivers.

Here are some of the most hard-hitting clips produced so far:

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In “Miss Sloane,” Jessica Chastain plays a no-frills Washington lobbyist who’d sooner burn everyone in her path than fail. A fan of black power suits and pill-popping, Elizabeth Sloane is brash and intimidating ― the exact opposite of Chastain, whose 12-year career has lent her a reputation as one of the nice ones in Hollywood. 

Opening in limited release this weekend, “Miss Sloane” once again places Chastain in the middle of a congested Best Actress race. It would mark her third Oscar nomination, after “The Help” and “Zero Dark Thirty.” I sat down with Chastain last month to discuss the movie, women’s roles in the lobbying world, preparing to play Tammy Wynette and why she can’t watch “The Tree of Life.”

Elizabeth Sloane is like Olivia Pope from “Scandal” meets Carrie Mathieson from “Homeland.”

[Laughs] That’s a really interesting parallel to make. For me, “Sloane” is a story about addiction because she’s addicted to the win. I think Carrie is like that in “Homeland.” But also, too, it’s the example of the woman who is over-prepared, one step ahead of everyone else, which probably is the “Scandal” parallel. In our society, we sometimes have difficulty relating to women that are over-prepared and ambitious. I was really excited to explore playing a character like that.

It’s easy to determine that her urge to succeed stems from needing to work harder than her male counterparts to prove herself.

Exactly. Less than 10 percent of lobbyists in D.C. are women.

What did this role make you think of lobbyists who go against their own political interests in the name of big money?

It’s interesting because the film surrounds the gun debate, right? But actually, it could be around any issue. It could be about climate change or immigration right now because it’s an example of, “When you have a public majority that wants something, why is it so difficult to get a bill passed?”

I didn’t realize until I went to D.C. and did research on what was going on there. I had not realized that senators and congressmen, in many cases, go to three fundraisers a day. And then how can your priority be representing the people when your focus is on raising money to keep your seat in office? That means you’re being bought by whoever is giving you money. I think that is the situation we need to look at.

You’ve played a few characters with ties to political issues of the moment, particularly Maya in “Zero Dark Thirty.” Do you ever feel the need to assess what that does for you as a public figure, knowing performers are sometimes inextricably identified by their characters?

My goal is to create a discussion. I’m not here to tell people how to live their lives. I’m not here to lecture. I am nowhere near a perfect person and I don’t want to judge anyone else and I don’t want anyone to judge me. I’m very “live and let live.” But a few years ago I had this moment where I just thought, “What am I doing? How am I contributing in this world? I have the best job. I’m so lucky, I’m so grateful. But it’s like eating cake every day. I want to share the cake.” Now I’m trying to participate in projects that I’m acting in, and also the ones with my production company that I’m making but not even going to act in. What an incredible industry where we can inspire conversation.

What led you to that moment?

Well, I’ve had the moment before, but I can tell you what created action in me. I was at the Critics’ Choice Awards and I gave a speech about diversity. I’d won an award that was for a body of work instead of just one film, so I was like, “What do I talk about?” It was Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, so I thought, “I’m going to talk about diversity and the fact that we need it in the industry.” This was a few years ago, and then the next week I went to England to do some press on “A Most Violent Year,” and they said, “We loved your speech, but what are you going to do now?” And you’re like, “Oh, god, what am I going to do now? You’re right!”

It’s not enough to talk. We have to be accountable. If you are part of the industry, you’re part of the problem. If you’re part of society and there are people who are disenfranchised, you’re part of the problem because we’re all connected. I just looked at that and I said, “OK, I’m starting a production company.” I just started being active with more than just the roles I choose. I started asking what opportunities I could create for others.

Does ambition make you feel like you must always keep going, like Elizabeth?

Yeah, except I guess the difference that I don’t relate to at all in Sloane is about the kill, the win, the competition. I am the least competitive. I don’t play sports games. I like motocross and jet-skiing, but that’s when you’re by yourself. Even when we’re all together on Christmas and people say “let’s play a board game,” they make me very uncomfortable because I find that people’s feeling get hurt. I’m not like, “I won! I’m kicking your butt!” That’s not interesting to me. Even when I watch the World Series or the World Cup, I feel terrible for the team at the end that’s crying on the field. Oh god, my heart is breaking.

Another watershed for “Miss Sloane” is that you get to make a bad boy out of Jake Lacy, who plays an escort. 

Fine with me!

After “Obvious Child” and “Carol,” he was the eternal nice guy.

And “Girls.” I remember walking into that first scene, with him lying there with his shirt off, like, “Really? Are you kidding me?” My job is so funny. And he’s great in the movie. Thank God for those scenes because that’s when you really get to see her when she’s not working. It’s her only form of a relationship.

Tell me about developing Elizabeth’s look with John Madden, who also directed you in another political thriller, “The Debt.”

When I first read the script, I always assumed she’d look a certain way. I assumed she’d hardly have any makeup on and she’d be looking tired all the time. And then I went to D.C. and I met with all these lobbyists with black nail polish. I couldn’t believe what I saw and how they, working in an industry that’s all men, used their outfits as their uniform.

She can’t afford to look tired or checked out.

No, exactly. And when I came back and I was telling John about it and we did the camera test, it was so different from how we had discussed the character. It was this hair that looks like a shark’s tooth, and it’s a red that’s stronger than my natural color and eye makeup with suits was such a strong, aggressive look. I know to John it was like, “What is going on here?” But I said, “Please trust me. You just gotta trust me. I really feel like this is the way in.” And he did. 

What’s been the movie where your character most came to life after slipping on the costume?

Celia Foote [from “The Help”].

I knew that would be your answer. There’s so much in the essence of how she presents herself.

Right, and also people would relate to me differently. It changes your energy completely. I’ve never experienced this, but the entire crew ― you know, 100 people, mostly men, in films ― the way they would look at me when I was dressed as Celia Foote, and the energy that I would feel from them, and then I would go into the makeup trailer and take off the wig and take off the makeup and put on my sweats and walk out, and immediately there was this, “Huh.”

Were they more sympathetic to you as Celia?

As Celia, they were just more interested. More people were looking at me. They weren’t being mean to me when I wasn’t dressed, but you could see the power in that sexuality.

That’s interesting, considering Celia is someone who just wants to be liked by the other women in town.

Think of all of my characters. Think of Lucille from “Crimson Peak.” There’s definitely something about the way she dresses. You put it on and you go, [snaps her fingers] “OK.” The exterior is informed by what’s going on in the interior.

Celia Foote, her favorite actress is Marilyn Monroe. It says it in the book. I think someone, when she was a little girl, told her she looked like Marilyn Monroe, so she then wanted to project this. And Lucille, there’s a restraint to her. It’s almost like she’s in a straitjacket. She’s got this rage inside and this loneliness and this fear. You can see her being held back, but then at the end of the movie when she’s wearing her nightgown and there’s this freedom, she is batshit crazy. To me, it all goes hand in hand.

You’re good at playing people who have odd disconnects from others, either by choice or by an inability to see themselves for who they are. I’m picturing you unravelling in “Miss Julie.”

Yeah, it’s a long night for Miss Julie. That’s interesting. Recently someone asked me how many movies I’ve been in and I didn’t know, so I went to IMDb and I counted, just feature films in the cinema. It’s 27 films that I’ve done, which is shocking. If you think of Lucille, or Maya from “Zero Dark Thirty,” there are definitely characters who have difficulty being vulnerable with another person or connecting emotionally. But then I also have the characters that are the opposite. If you think of Celia Foote, she is just one ginormous beating heart.

She wants to connect with everyone, but she can’t quite figure out how.

But she just throws herself in. Minnie, Octavia Spencer’s character, is just like, “Girl, you need to play hard to get. You’re just throwing yourself right out there.” Or “Tree of Life,” where the character is just this angel of love. I think, for me, I want to play all different kinds of women. Or “Take Shelter.”

Oh yes, in “Take Shelter,” she’s desperate to connect with her husband.

And she’s all about love and compassion. Wait till you see “The Zookeeper’s Wife.” I love this movie so much. She has a huge heart too. She’s so loving, so gentle. She’s someone who works with animals. It’s a true story. You have to be very calm and grounded to be able to work with animals.

Have you gotten to see “Voyage of Time,” Terrence Malick’s documentary that uses footage from “The Tree of Life”?

I would be really happy to. From the very beginning, Terry had said “Voyage of Time” was supposed to come out at the same time as “Tree of Life,” so we were all prepared for that movie. I’ve been shooting in Santa Fe and I haven’t had an opportunity to see that movie, but “Tree of Life” is one of my favorite films. I haven’t been able to watch it since it came out because it’s so emotional for me. It was the high point of my life.

Because you were so young in your career?

That, and also I was playing a character who was the embodiment of love, so every day was just filled with so much joy. I was meditating on expanding my heart space and living with an open heart. Of course it affects you and how you treat other people. I loved those little boys so much, and I loved Terry so much. Watching the movie and seeing Mrs. O’Brien running through the streets with those little boys, I remember how wonderful it was. I’m heartsick for it.

You’re playing Tammy Wynette in a biopic soon. How are you preparing?

Oh, my god, I love Tammy Wynette. Well, there’s going to be some preparation in terms of music.

Are you singing?

Yeah.

Have we seen you sing before?

In “Crimson Peak,” I sing a really disturbing lullaby. But that’s not very earthy. Listen, I’m an actor who sings. I’m never going to go and open a band. I’m terrified about it. We’ll see how it goes when I go and start prep. Who knows? I may not sing. I’m leaving every option open. I read the daughter’s book, The Three of Us, which I found so interesting, and of course I’m watching a lot of videos. I’m just super excited to work with Josh Brolin. I can’t imagine anyone else playing George Jones. He’s so right for that. I don’t know if you’ve read the script, but it’s so dynamic and so exciting and sexy. They’re like the Sid and Nancy of the country scene.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length. “Miss Sloane” expands to wide release Dec. 9.

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No one at Chizuru Akitani’s school saw it coming. Quiet, bookish, the butt of bully jokes, her coping mechanisms were the usual methods of disenfranchised 12-year-olds. She sought solace in her teacher, Miss Danny; she turned inward, binge-eating sweets after class. 

A hafu growing up in Tokushima, Japan, she’s the daughter of a brazen Texas artist and a violinist famous for his skills and fabled dance with death. Her father’s notoriety doesn’t earn her the respect of her classmates, though. Not being fully Japanese stamps her as “other,” and her weight solidifies her status as outcast. She’s picked on, particularly by her classmate Tomoya Yu. Until, once day ― shortly after she learns that her mother has committed suicide ― she stabs him in the neck with a letter opener, landing her in a juvenile detention center for the next eight years.

There she processes her kireru (to split, or snap) while enduring a separation of another kind. No one she expects to visit her, including her father and beloved teacher, ever does. To cope, she engages with the physical world, learning to garden, taking up running. She continues to educate herself, but only in English; her Japanese reading skills quickly drop off. At 20 ― the legal age for an adult in Japan ― she is forced to choose between her American and Japanese citizenships. She elects the former, applying to colleges in California and Colorado, where she winds up studying nursing.

In Colorado, she slowly crafts a new identity for herself. She changes her first name to “Rio,” a word her mother adored and her father abhorred; she starts running ultra marathons, taking pleasure in a newfound control of her body; she falls in love with and marries a man, Sal, whose penchant for stability she admires; together with him she has a daughter, Lily.

Their family dynamic is rooted in constancy. They take pleasure in their habits. Although Rio comes close to telling her husband about her past, she never does. Instead, she bristles at the mention of returning to Japan, and tries to transfer Lily to a new school when a kid brings a pocketknife to class.

Her happy life moves pleasantly forward, until she receives a package notifying her that her father has died from a stroke. He bequeathed her his violin bow, which she used to clean for him, and a note written in Japanese that she’s unable to read. On a whim, she decides to return to Japan for his funeral, in spite of Sal’s protestations that they should go together as a family.

Once she’s moved past the anxiety of being discovered as the famous bully-killer Chizuru Akitani, Rio endeavors to reacquaint herself with her home, to genuinely engage with the person she used to be and has since covered up in a sheeny mask. At her father’s funeral she runs into Danny, her former teacher, and invites herself on a pilgrimage that Danny’s planned for herself. The two trek through a series of temples, where Rio’s memories of her daughter’s childhood collide with her own heritage in beautifully wrought scenes. They learn about fertility statues, weather a raging storm, and befriend an aspiring lawyer, Shinobu, who eventually learns of Rio’s former identity.

Soon, Rio is forced to reconcile who she was with who she’s decided to be, a conquest that feels relatable and unique to her story. But for all of the emotionally rich territory Pull Me Under covers, Luce leaves some of the questions she raises unsatisfyingly unexplored. When Sal asks Rio toward the end of the novel, “Do you feel like a murderer?” she’s evasive, and we get the sense that she doesn’t know the answer herself.

She responds, finally, that she no longer feels like the girl she used to be. But this sentiment isn’t supported by her feelings or actions. Rio attributes the act of murder she committed as a child to what she calls “the black organ,” a thumping inner compulsion to behave violently, which she occasionally feels resurging. The almost surreal nature of her dark side feels out of her control, and allows us to forgive her, to love her in spite of what she’s done.

“The black organ” is a stand-in for many things: for Rio’s mourning of her mother, for her dislike of the Western value of forgiveness, which she sees as Puritanical rather than emotionally honest. Neither of these deep motivations are given enough consideration in Pull Me Under. Still, the book remains a thoughtful look at performance, identity, and the ways in which our pasts can haunt us.

The bottom line

A gripping story that blossoms into a lively look at the delicacy of familial relationships. 

Who wrote it

Kelly Luce is the author of Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail. She’s a contributing editor at Electric Literature, and lives in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Who will read it

Anyone interested in fast-paced stories, crime stories with heart, or books with a feminist bent.

What reviewers think

NPR: “This is a suspense novel with a female protagonist that gets more right about women than so many others I’ve read in the past few years. Note there’s no use of “girl” in the title, even though a great deal of the book concerns the childhood and adolescence of one.”

Houston Chronicle: “Luce offers a thoughtful look at the struggle to bridge two cultures, not belonging entirely to one or the other. And she presents a solid portrait of a damaged, imperfect character struggling to reconcile the woman she is with the girl she used to be.”

Opening lines

“On a cloudless afternoon in the peaceful Shikoku city Tokushima, twelve-year-old Chizuru Akitani, Japanese-American daughter of acclaimed violinist and Living National Treasure Hiro Akitani, walked into the staff room at Motomachi Elementary, covered with blood and clutching a letter opener.”

Notable passage

“Finally, real night falls. The storm quiets. I step outside and pee in the bushes. A sliver of moon shines beyond the branches overhead. A frog fives a tentative croak, and all at once a thousand frog-voices respond from the darkness and bring the night to life.”

Pull Me Under
By Kelly Luce
FSG, $26.00
Published November 1

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

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A graphic designer in Miami Beach has designs on turning Donald Trump’s last name into a new euphemism for “poop.”

The way he’s doing it will strike many as crappy: He’s putting Trump’s face and, occasionally, his quotes on pieces of dog poop he sees around his South Beach neighborhood.

Every day, the artist, who goes by the name “Allan Adler” to avoid detection, walks around looking for pieces of dog crap suitable for his purposes. 

“I don’t want it too old,” he told The Huffington Post. 

Once he finds a piece of poop that fits his purposes, Adler sticks a toothpick with Trump’s face glued to it into the doggy defecation. Sometimes, he adds one of Trump’s infamous quotes, “such as ‘grab her by the pussy’ or ‘I like soldiers who weren’t captured.’” 

Then he photographs the Trumped-up dog poop and posts it on Facebook at “Pieces Of Trump.”

The end result not only is a commentary on people who don’t bother to clean up after their pets, but also a subtle suggestion on what kind of president Adler believes Trump will be. 

Spoiler alert: Adler doesn’t think he’ll be a good one. 

“He’s a piece of shit,” Adler explained. “When Trump won, I was depressed, but my friends said, ‘Don’t be. Now is the time to get your voice heard.’” 

And his way of doing that is through dog poop. 

“He’s said a lot of crappy things and I still can’t understand how someone who’s said things like this could get elected,” Adler said. 

Adler first started doodoo-ing his poop protests November 15. He has averaged one a day since then.

The “installations,” as he calls them, are easy since “there is literally dog poop everywhere here ― it’s a big problem here.”

Still, Adler is seeing benefits from the project.

“It’s been therapeutic for me,” he said. “I can laugh about the situation and I’m not super depressed. It’s hilarious because you know everyone who is picking one up is a Trump supporter.”

There have been some embarrassing moments too.

“I haven’t been caught put his face on the poop, but I’ve been caught taking photos of them and I get weird looks,” Adler laughed.

Adler has two big goals for his lowbrow protest.

First, he’d like to make Trump’s last name into an alternative for defecation, such as “That’s a bunch of Trump” or “I almost stepped in that Trump.”

Second, he hopes to join “SNL” and the “Hamilton” cast as the subject of Trump twitter storm.

“I am worried about hate mail, but it would be funny if Trump commented on it,” Adler said. “It’s possible he could get unhinged about it.”

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Thanksgiving is over, which means the holiday commercials just kicked up a notch as we head into the most wonderful time of the year. 

If you’re feeling a cozy month ahead at home ― complete with hot cocoa, pajamas and decorations ― look into turning on one of these holiday movies to keep you company. This list was officially curated by your friendly editors at HuffPost Entertainment.

Stay warm! 

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“Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life” debuted on Netflix Friday, and fans all around the world went nuts. 

From the return of Lorelai and Rory to the various celebrity cameos, viewers laughed, cried and ate as they spent winter, spring, summer and fall in Stars Hollow. 

Here are some of the best spoiler-free reactions to the revival for your reading pleasure: 

So we can all agree, THOSE LAST FOUR WORDS THOUGH??

“Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life” is now streaming on Netflix. 

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Tom Hanks can’t get enough of how good his butt looked while starring as the titular character in the 1994 movie “Forrest Gump.”

“I had worked out quite a bit, it was all about running and I must say my buttocks, as Forrest would say, were as firm as tinned hams,” he told “The Graham Norton Show” in footage aired in the United Kingdom on Friday.

Hanks noted how his wife, Rita Wilson, reacts each time she sees the movie on cable television. “I want to see that one scene where you’re running away from the camera, and we can look at that fine Hanks ass!”

Some 22 years later, Hanks admitted his rear now looked different. “But in the day, man, I must say I even think it’s a beautiful thing to behold,” he added.

Check it out in the clip above.

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The wife of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesman Dmitry Peskov has sparked anger after she performed a Holocaust-themed ice skating routine on a reality television show Saturday night.

Former Olympic figure skating champion Tatiana Navka and actor Andrey Burkovsky wore striped concentration camp uniforms and yellow Stars of David for their performance on state-owned Channel 1’s “Ice Age” show, in which professional skaters are paired with celebrities, The Times of Israel reported.

The pair skated to Israeli singer Achinoam “Noa” Nini’s song “Beautiful That Way,” which was featured in the 1997 Italian-language Oscar-winning Holocaust film “Life is Beautiful.”

Navka posted photographs of their performance to Instagram after the show. She explained the routine was “based on one of my favorite movies” and that it was important for children to know about the Holocaust.

As the show’s official YouTube clip above appears to show, the routine was well-received by audience members.

But it drew considerable ire from social media users after New York Magazine and Daily Beast contributing writer Yashar Ali tweeted the clip to his 11,000-plus followers. Many dubbed the performance “offensive” and “tactless.”

The Jerusalem Post described the performance as “chilling,” while noting that Russia’s version of “Dancing with the Stars” also featured a similar Holocaust-themed segment in April.

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The women in Angela Fraleigh’s paintings are facsimiles of the painted muses rendered by the so-called “old masters,” specifically those who created Baroque and Rococo paintings in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Most often, these painted women are culled from the depths of Greek mythology, from tales including “Diana After the Hunt,” “The Rape of Europa,” and “The Allegory of Fertility,” where they appeared not as heroes or even protagonists but objects of desire or targets of violence. The dearth of stories revolving around women, both in ancient tales and the annals of art history, was both troubling and intriguing to Fraleigh.

“Since my earliest adult paintings, I’ve been interested in how meaning is made, how we construct the stories we come to believe over time, and how this affects power dynamics in terms of race, gender and class,” the artist told The Huffington Post.

In 2013, while on sabbatical, Fraleigh delved deeper into the relationship between gender and myth, hungry for a space when women drove narratives, made choices and became heroes.

She was dismayed to learn about an incident in which author Maureen Murdock asked her professor Joseph Campbell, a mythologist and author of the influential book The Hero’s Journey, why women were never the ones to embark on the literary voyage. “Women don’t need to make the journey,” he told her. “All she has to do is realize that she’s the place people are trying to get to.”

Fraleigh did notice, however, one domain in which women appeared as primary characters with diverse and complex attributes: fairy tales. Not the sanitized Disney versions, but the tales passed between generations of otherwise voiceless women ― stories full of sex, violence and feminine power. 

For example, the earliest iterations of Little Red Riding Hood vary greatly from the version we know today. Circulated orally by French peasants in the 10th century, the story features gory details that were later omitted, such as when Little Red unwittingly eats her grandmother after the Wolf prepares her body as meat. In the end, Little Red escapes due to her own instinct and cunning; no male figure saves the day. It wasn’t until the Grimm Brothers printed the story in the 19th century that the character of the Huntsman ― the male father figure ― intervenes to save her.  

“You see a lot of fairy tales being addressed in cinema now,” Fraleigh said. “And there are all these alternative narratives popping up.” She cited “Frozen” and “Maleficent,” both of which feature strong, self-determining female characters. “I started thinking, what if I were to turn the same alternative narrative lens to art history?” 

Fraleigh is knowingly following in the footsteps of feminist artists who have exposed the dominion of the male gaze over the history of Western art, devoting their life’s work to subverting it. “Looking at art history, we see a bunch of naked, passive female characters,” she said. “But what if we go back and look at those passive figures as subversive female characters?” 

Another major influence on Fraleigh’s practice has been writer and mythographer Marina Warner, who deconstructed early fairy tales in relation to the historical silencing of women. In medieval times, when fairy tales were orally exchanged, Warner wrote, there was a preponderance of propaganda broadcasting the danger of women congregating in large groups, sharing information and gaining power.

Through her artistic practice, Fraleigh wanted to uncover such instances ― when women’s voices become dangerous. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, such moments are rare in classical paintings due to the lack of women-driven narratives. The few instances Fraleigh could find ― depicting myths like “Diana at the Bath” and “The Rape of Europa” ― featured women as eye candy, or what the artist called “a pervy version of a locker room.”

Fraleigh’s mission was to keep the content but flip the tone. “What if these characters were up to something?” she said. “What if these were intelligent, able-bodied women? Not giggling little nymphs that are vapid visual feasts but thinking, breathing characters that are at work plotting?”

While the characters in Fraleigh’s painted interpretations remain for the most part faithful to their Rococo origins, they are subsumed in a backdrop of ornate abstraction, allowing the viewer to focus her attention on the figures in play. “I want to expose the body language ― the intimacy among women that isn’t necessarily sexual,” she said. “It’s just tender sharing amongst female characters in a utopian feminine space.”

Along with the backdrops, Fraleigh also modified the paintings’ sizes, augmenting them to a heroic scale. Many of the original works served as boudoir paintings, meant to stimulate in the bedroom. Through adjusting the size, Fraleigh gives intimate moments political import while also giving the viewer ample chance to study every detail of the female characters’ expressions and body language. 

In one image, based on François Boucher’s “The Rape of Europa,” Fraleigh zooms in on the chorus of women in the background, removing them from their previous context and plopping them into an enchanted forest. “They are colluding in the darkness, like witches in the woods,” she said. “Before, they were just on the sidelines of another rape story.”

Fraleigh’s interest in re-contextualizing the corners of art regarded as feminine and discriminated against accordingly extends to her interest in the Rococo period as well. Notorious for its hyperrealistic sensuality, unbridled opulence and privileging of the canvas’ surface, the movement is often shoved to the sidelines of art history and regarded as being frivolous, superficial and ― yes ― feminine. 

Through reframing the love interests, nymphs, chamber maids and chorus girls, Fraleigh conjures art historical moments that never were, where women once relegated to supporting roles are endowed with agency, freedom and momentum.

“I am really fascinated by how editing literally changes the course of history,” Fraleigh said, referencing the sanitized fairy tales that continue to inform children on how the world works. Perhaps her edited takes on art history will have a similarly powerful effect. 

“Angela Fraleigh: Between Tongue and Teeth” is on view until Dec. 31 at the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York.

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Mom Betty Strachan believes the key to erasing the stigma around breastfeeding is education. That’s why she’s created a breastfeeding doll for kids.

Strachan ― who has two sons, ages 3 and 5 ― lives in Brisbane, Australia and has made a hobby of repainting dolls over the past four years. She calls her new breastfeeding mother doll the “Mamas Worldwide Barbie.”

”The decision to make a breastfeeding doll didn’t come consciously,” Strachan told The Huffington Post. “I’m a member of a mothers’ group that’s comprised of very lovely and supportive women. I remember one day, I was drawing the new face on a Barbie doll, and she just seemed to be the embodiment of the entire group.”

She continued, “So I mimicked the positioning of a latched baby with an old figurine I had and called her the ‘Mamas Worldwide Barbie.’”

Strachan listed the mother and baby dolls and their accessories on her Etsy shop, where they sold quickly. In the past, she has also offered pregnant dolls.

“I make a few sales here and there, but it’s really only enough to buy the materials to make more and sell them on again,” the mom explained. “Most of the sales I’ve made have gone to mothers with children, and I’ve received a few pictures of happy customers playing with their dolls.”

Strachan’s breastfeeding doll got the seal of approval from the people who inspired it.

“Everyone in my mother’s group thought it was great, so I posted her on my Instagram page,” the mom explained. “After that, I received a few requests to make more, and I realized that it was really something that should be available ― because, like most things that society deems unacceptable, educating children is the way to erase the stigma behind it.”

To learn more about Strachan’s doll projects, visit her Instagram and Facebook page. 

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It’s just like “The Darjeeling Limited,” but with H&M clothing.

Wes Anderson, everyone’s favorite purveyor of precious cult films, tried his hand at commercials again for H&M’s new holiday campaign. Let’s just say this video is more classic Anderson than a Margot Tenenbaum Halloween costume.

“Come Together” is equipped with many an Anderson film staple ― a gathering of supplies, a train, a cute little kid and, naturally, Adrien Brody. The short film centers on a group of solo passengers aboard a train that experiences an absurdly long delay on Christmas. 

The passengers, all wearing what the brand calls the “relaxed, wearable elegance” of H&M’s holiday collection, come together for a holiday celebration that Brody and his crew magically whip up in a mere (time-lapsed) 19 minutes.  

It’s charming and fun and, as Brody himself said in a press release, pretty timely. “This story may resonate more than ever at a time in the world where we could all do with giving a stranger a hug,” he said. 

Watch the whole video above. 

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There were a lot of surprises to come out of 2016, but “xenophobia” being named Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year is not one of them.

When you consider the rhetoric that galvanized people in this year’s Brexit vote and the U.S. presidential race, the proof that “xenophobia” is the word that most represents the zeitgeist of 2016 is, well, in the pudding.

According to Dictionary.com, the word’s origins stem from two Greek terms meaning “stranger” (”xénos”) and “fear” or “panic” (”phóbo”).

Searches for “xenophobia” on the site surged right after the Brexit vote in June. There was an even larger spike days later, when President Obama delivered a speech stating that language used by Donald Trump, current President-elect, was not an example of populism, but rather “nativism or xenophobia.” (Hear Obama’s comments below.)

“Xenophobia and other words tied to global news and political rhetoric reflected the worldwide interest in the unfortunate rise of fear of otherness in 2016, making it the clear choice for Word of the Year,” said Liz McMillan, CEO of Dictionary.com, in a statement.

“While we can never know the exact reasons why xenophobia trended in our lookups this year, this reflects a desire in our users to understand the significant discourse surrounding global events.”

Dictionary.com’s selection of “xenophobia” is far from the only indicator of our tumultuous year. Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year was “post-truth,” a term that means “objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”

In 2013, Oxford gave “selfie” the same honor. If only we could go back to those simpler times.

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Books are discussed as emblems for openness, ports in rocky political storms.

So, when librarians at the Evanston Public Library in Illinois discovered that some of their books ― copies of the Quran and other Islam-centered titles ― had been vandalized, they issued a statement and opened an investigation.

In a copy of Opening the Qur’an: Introducing Islam’s Holy Book by Walter H. Wagner, a swastika was drawn in pencil along with the words, “bullshit hatred cover to cover.” It appears that the book, along with the others that were discovered to contain hate speech, hadn’t been checked out since 2014 or 2015.

Evanston librarian Lorena Neal wrote in a Facebook post last week:

Evanstonians like to think we are safe in a bubble of tolerance, but none of us can afford to pretend that we are not affected by the hatred that surrounds us now. None of us can afford to sit this out, to hope it goes away, and leaves us untouched.

Libraries ― of course ― are far from the only institutions impacted by a surge of post-election hate crimes. The New York Times reported that 2015 saw a 67 percent increase in hate crimes targeting Muslims from the previous year, and Southern Poverty Law Center reported over 700 incidents since the election, most of them occurring within the first three days after. Most of those hate crimes reported were committed in K-12 schools, businesses and universities. 

In response, students and teachers have banded together to declare their schools sanctuaries; musical groups have ventured to do the same. Hopefully, going forward, libraries can be seen as sanctuaries, too ― safe spaces where everyone is welcome to visit, learn and grow. 

H/T Melville House

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Disney princesses are the embodiment of youth, beauty and epic romance. But what if they never got the so-called fairytale ending? Tokyo-based photographer Kenta Nakamura ponders this question in his photo series, “SnowSilver.”

Most of us are familiar with the story of Snow White, who wakes up from a spell only after a loving kiss from a prince. But Nakamura’s photo series relays a very different tale.

“[It’s] based on a story of my grandfather who abandoned my family,” Nakamura told The Huffington Post. “I thought of a different version of Snow White. What if the prince never came to her? She would probably have had an ordinary life just like my grandmother has had.”

The photos feature Nakamura’s own 87-year-old grandmother, beautifully dressed as the princess. However, instead of being surrounded by a prince and riches, the aged SnowSilver lives the quieter life of a common 80-something woman.

Nakamura often features mature women as his subjects, not shying away from the realities of growing older.

He’s said that capturing these womens’ “inner child” through his lens has made him “realize how beautiful women can be in any age.”

With Japan’s rapidly aging population, perhaps Nakamura, who says photography is a “communication tool,” is sending a powerful message. 

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says she was “ambushed” during a news segment in which she was pitted against a staunch supporter of President-elect Donald Trump. Now, she’s calling out the BBC. 

In an appearance on the BBC’s “Newsnight” which aired Nov. 11, Adichie shut down Trump supporter R. Emmett Tyrrel during a post-election debate. Tyrell insisted that the president-elect did not stoke fires of racism and hatred amongst Americans, with which Adichie strongly disagreed. 

In the video, below, Adichie responded:

“I’m sorry, but as a white man, you don’t get to define what racism is, you really don’t. You don’t get to sit there and say he hasn’t been racist when objectively he has.”

The video has gone viral in the two weeks since it appeared online, receiving close to a million views on YouTube alone.

On Nov. 25, Adichie issued a statement about the heated exchange via her official Facebook. The Americanah author accused the BBC of failing to inform her that she would not be interviewed about the election individually but joined by a Trump supporter for a panel debate. She wrote that by “sneakily” pitting her against a Tyrell, the network was using “a deliberately adversarial strategy” in order to get good TV. 

“I wanted to walk away, but decided not to. I was already there. And I did want to talk about the election, which I had experienced in a deeply personal way,” Adichie continues in her statement.

The novelist says her biggest issue with the segment was the moment when Tyrell stated that she was responding too “emotionally” to the election.

“To say that I responded ‘emotionally’ to the election was to say that I had not engaged my intellect,” Adichie explained.

“‘Emotional’ is a word that has been used to dismiss many necessary conversations especially about gender or race. ‘Emotional’ is a way of discounting what you have said without engaging with it.”

The BBC has since responded with an apology on Adichie’s Facebook page, stating they are “terribly sorry you felt ambushed by the encounter.” The BBC insisted, however, that the casting was not an “adversarial strategy” as Adichie suggested, but a way to reflect the views on both sides. 

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Photographers with HuffPost RYOT have captured beautiful and mesmerizing images in the last three months as they’ve covered the Standing Rock protests and protesters, who call themselves “water protectors.” 

Though the team at HuffPost RYOT is used to capturing events in 360-degree video, they can also capture those emotional and quiet moments that have made up this protest for the past seven months in remote North Dakota. 

Check out the images below and then head to HuffPost RYOT’s YouTube page to see amazing 360-degree news videos. 

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News of Fidel Castro’s death on Friday night sparked hundreds of Cuban-Americans to flood the streets of Little Havana in celebration. Or as comedian Jenny Lorenzo put it, Miami looked “like the Marlins World Series and Miami Heat Championships combined.” 

Lorenzo, who is of Cuban ancestry, recently uploaded a video to her Facebook page in which she explained why the former Cuban head of state’s death was so important to her and fellow Cuban-Americans. 

“After decades of human rights abuses and disregard for the welfare and freedom of the Cuban people, Fidel Castro is finally dead,” Lorenzo says in the beginning of the video. “My entire life, my family, friends, fellow Cubans around me growing up in Miami have been waiting for this day.” 

The video blogger then explained a little bit about how her family came to reside in Miami, saying her parents fled Cuba in the 1960s thanks to President Lyndon Johnson’s “freedom flights.” Lorenzo began to get choked up talking about her maternal grandparents, who she said uprooted their life five decades ago thinking leaving Cuba would be temporary. They recently passed away in Miami.

“I really wish that they were here to see this,” she said. “It upsets me because, God they lived a long time. You know? My grandfather was 93. My grandma was 88. And you would think they would’ve been alive to see something like this happen and to join in on the celebrations. So it’s heartbreaking that they couldn’t be here. And I just hope that they are aware.” 

Watch the comedian’s emotional video above. 

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When it comes to rumors on “The Walking Dead,” only Jesus can save us. Thankfully, that’s exactly what just happened.

Sunday’s episode of the show was all about Tara discovering a new community, but the buzz lately is solely focused on Carl Grimes. 

Will he be killed off? That would sound completely nuts if there wasn’t so much evidence. 

For instance, Chandler Riggs, the actor who plays Carl, recently announced his acceptance into college. (Spoiler alert: College takes a lot of time.) Though, this probably wouldn’t seem like a big deal if the actor’s father didn’t also post about his son’s seven-year contact expiring with “The Walking Dead.” Riggs’ dad included the hashtag “#freedom” with the post.

Also, with Daryl being located at the Saviors’ compound and Negan taking a “shine” to him, he’s kind of stepping in for Carl’s role in the comics. Plus, the last we saw Carl, he was headed to the Saviors’ sanctuary in the back of a truck. Oh, and his aim is currently terrible.

To sum it up, things aren’t looking good for Carl.

So in our time of need, we turn to Jesus.

Actor Tom Payne, who plays Jesus on the show and is also currently headed to the Saviors’ sanctuary with Carl, chatted with The Huffington Post on AOL’s Build Series Monday and shared his thoughts. He said he can’t comment specifically on what Riggs will do, but has a strong argument against the Carl death rumors:

”I think Carl is the future of the show,” Payne said, before correcting himself. “I mean, is the future of the comic books, I think.” 

“At the end of the day, I think Carl is the guy at the end on the last page,” he continued. “And I don’t know if they’ll go that way on the TV show, but I think it would be a logical place for them to go.”

“Who knows?” added the actor.

Well, from his response, it kind of sounds like we know.

As HuffPost reported, “Walking Dead” comic creator Robert Kirkman already said Carl is his favorite character, and as Forbes notes, Carl still has a big role to play in the Negan storyline. So, like Payne said, keeping Carl around is a “logical place” for the show to go.

Get used to Riggs. The younger Grimes is probably going to be around for a long time.

Thanks, Jesus. You’re a real savior.

”The Walking Dead” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.

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France returned a 16th century painting sold by a Jewish couple fleeing the Nazis, presenting the artwork to the family’s grandchildren in a ceremony Monday.

Henry and Hertha Bromberg sold the portrait, which has been attributed to the Dutch artist Joos van Cleve or his son, in Paris in 1938. 

According to The New York Times, Mr. Bromberg’s father purchased the painting at a Berlin auction in 1912. His son and daughter-in-law sold it as they were escaping Nazi Germany for the United States. 

Before being recovered by allied forces in 1945, the painting was sold to the German government in 1941, according to Jewish Telegraphic Agency, with plans to display the artwork in Hitler’s hometown. Since the war, it has been considered one of 2,000 “orphaned” art pieces in France, with its original owners unknown. 

The Associated Press reported that Henrietta Schubert, the Brombergs’ granddaughter, thought she was being scammed when she was first contacted about the painting belonging to her grandparents. 

 “The painting doesn’t even have to have any monetary value,” Schubert’s cousin, Christopher Bromberg, told the Associated Press. “It’s about connecting us to our past and the story of our family that was lost.”

Schubert, who lives in Vienna, was born in the same Austrian town as Adolf Hitler. 

The painting is one of thousands that were sold, seized or stolen during World War II and given to the German government.

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Pauline Oliveros – the avant-garde composer who died on Thursday at the age of 84 – made listening her life’s work.

Throughout her life, Oliveros worked tirelessly toward a single mission: to listen, deeply, by creating music that defied categorization, writing and teaching about the healing properties of sound, and elucidating the crucial difference between hearing and listening. The latter, especially, is of critical importance today, when truly listening to one another becomes a more and more elusive feat. 

“The ear hears, the brain listens, the body senses vibrations,” Oliveros explained in a 2015 TED Talk. In other interviews she’d clarify that listening, however, is done with the heart. 

The difference between hearing and listening is often referenced colloquially in conversations ― or, more likely, arguments ― in which one party feels the essence of his or her sentiments are not being digested. “You may hear me but you are not listening,” one might say. Words go, as the idiom says, in one ear and out the other. 

For Oliveros, the disparity is similar, though it extends far beyond the realm of language, to encapsulate every burping frog, every humming air conditioner, every whisper of every sentient and technological thing on this earth. “To hear is the physical means that enables perception,” she said. “To listen is to give attention to what is perceived, both acoustically and psychologically.”

While hearing is an involuntary and unconscious act of the body, listening is a complicated, mysterious and entirely human activity, one that involves consciously selecting and absorbing certain sounds, while excluding others. For Oliveros, the challenge is to expand the field of what we consciously internalize, minimizing the field of things heard but not listened to, deeming every distant vibration and sigh as valuable as a speech utterance. 

By this logic, the space in which music was performed held equal importance as the instruments or vocals used in said performance. In 1988, Oliveros descended a 14-foot ladder with musicians Stuart Dempster and Panaiotis to a cistern in Fort Worden, Washington, to perform in the dark, underground reservoir. Their goal was to experience the way sound’s shadows reverberate and fold over within cavernous walls. “Consider what fun it is to sing in the shower,” Oliveros said, explaining her motivation. 

The experiment was dubbed “Deep Listening” ― a pun on the depth of the cistern itself, though the turn of phrase contained plenty of depth itself. Oliveros eventually made deep listening one of the core practices of her life’s work, founding the Deep Listening Institute to expand her practice.

“Deep listening for me,” Oliveros said, “is learning to expand the perception of sounds to include the whole space time continuum of sound, encountering the vastness and complexities as much as possible.”

When making music, Oliveros turned to electronic instruments to mimic the noises she encountered in the outside world often deemed inconsequential by traditional western classical tradition, such as the buzz of a cicada or the distant beep of a car alarm. When she began such experiments in San Francisco in the 1960s, she was in the vanguard of the movement along with John Cage, Terry Riley and Steve Reich, with whom she collaborated. 

Although Oliveros was wary of the dangers of technology, she saw technical progress ― from early tape machines to computers ― as a means to connect human beings with each other and themselves. There is, after all, something about a murmuring engine reminiscent of a cricket’s call. Her music lands somewhere between the two, eschewing traditional melodies for stretches that connect physical landscapes with those of the imagination, exercises in sound with memories dragged into the present tense. 

Many of Oliveros’ fans also valued the political ramifications of her uprooting of Western musical tradition, finding within her expansive and unorthodox musical vocabulary space for women and queer musicians, often omitted from the classical canon. In her 1970 New York Times piece, “And Don’t Call Them ‘Lady’ Composers,” Oliveros, herself a lesbian, argues for the recognition and championing of women composers and musicians. 

Along with deep listening, Oliveros is most well-known for her 1971 “Sonic Meditations,” poetic instructions that illuminate the magical and challenging properties embedded in the act of listening. Each sonic meditation, as Oliveros explains in her introduction, guides individuals on “actually making sounds,” “actively imagining sounds, “listening to present sounds” and “remembering sounds.”

The meditations produce healing effects in those who practice them. The healing results from being in tune with one’s surroundings, connecting one’s interior experience with external surroundings and integrating memories with the present. 

Reminiscent of Yoko Ono’s “Acorn” and “Grapefruit,” the instructions include, “Take a walk at night. Walk so silently that the bottoms of your feet become ears.” Another meditation, titled “One Word,” reads: “Choose one word. Dwell silently on this word. When you are ready, explore every sound in this work extremely slowly, repeatedly. Gradually, imperceptibly bring the word up to normal speed, then continue until you are repeating the word as fast as possible. Continue at top speed until ‘it stops.’”

Oliveros died at a moment when truly taking others’ thoughts and words into consideration feels like a daunting if not impossible task, when volume often overpowers content, when technology separates instead of connects, when the fate of listening is frighteningly uncertain.

It is more important than ever to listen, softly yet fiercely, with great attention and generosity. 

“Listen to everything all the time and remind yourself when you are not listening.” Oliveros made this sentiment her mantra. It may take years to accomplish, perhaps even more than a lifetime can hold, but we must try. 

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