What’s your nude?

Adding yet another thing to the list of stuff white people take for granted: Undergarments that more or less match their skin tones. While I distinctly remember thinking the “nude” crayon in my big box of Crayolas seemed strange (and indeed, after public outcry, it was changed), and that “skin-colored” bandaids were anything but for darker people’s scraped knees or banged thumbs, I never thought about lingerie. That’s probably because I’m white.

If you are like most (white) women, you probably have white bras, black bras, riotously colorful bras, and at least one or two “nude” colored bras – they’re as great for tees as the classic white button down. There’s the NuBra that’s just two cups that adhere to each breast and attach in the middle – but it only comes in white women’s skin tone (though evidently, only Caucasian women buy this product anyway, according to their customer page).

But NuBra’s not the only guilty party here; Victoria’s Secret’s new BioFit bra comes in both nude and buff, in case you are a really pale white woman instead of a normal pale one. Look at any conventional or boutique brand of bra and you’ll see plenty for white women to cover up with – but little for women of other skin tones.

So what’s a bra-wearing black woman to do? Make change herself, of course. Tara Raines is an African-American psychologist who decided to lobby for darker-hued nude bras. This came not only after her own fruitless searches, but when she discovered that friends and family would buy buff and nude colored bras and dye the bras themselves.

Raines says: “Women of color have tremendous spending power in the U.S. and it’s absurd to think that in 2012 we are essentially disenfranchised when we shop for lingerie,” says Raines. “It’s my hope that this campaign will drive not only awareness, but swift action by bra makers.”

The What’s Your Nude campaign has a simple aim: To get lingerie manufacturers to make bras in a wider variety of skin tones. The campaign is asking women of all colors to “contact their preferred bra manufacturer or bra retailer on February 1st via phone, email, social media or snail mail.” However, you can still call in and participate in social media. Follow the What’s Your Nude campaign on Twitter and spread the word by using the #WhatsYourNude hashtag.

“I don’t think it’s too much to ask that bra makers include darker hues when manufacturing their collections,” says Raines. “Women of color deserve to look and feel sexy, and a big part of that is looking like ourselves.”

Perhaps brands should do away with the “nude” descriptive entirely. As Alexandra Phoner-Faury writes in Essence (regarding the nude trend for F/W 2011), “While beige may be ‘nude’ for most white women, ‘nude’ for me would be brown. This isn’t the first time this loaded word has been used in the pages of glossies, but it is the first time that the fashion world’s hidden racism has been exposed on such a large scale and caused many to finally take a closer look at the ingrained language of fashion.”

Image: tanakawho

A collection of inspiring, controversial, and downright outrageous quotes on feminism.

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a door mat or a prostitute. -Rebecca West

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, “She doesn’t have what it takes.” They will say, “Women don’t have what it takes.” -Clare Boothe Luce

The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, “It’s a girl.” -Shirley Chisholm

Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels. -Faith Whittlesey

No one should have to dance backward all of their lives. -Jill Ruckelshaus

The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it. -Roseanne Barr

I’m tough, I’m ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay. -Madonna

[Feminism is] a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. -Pat Robertson

Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women access to the mainstream of society. -Rush Limbaugh

You don’t have to be anti-man to be pro-woman. -Jane Galvin Lewis

You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation. -Brigham Young

Some of us are becoming the men we wanted to marry. -Gloria Steinem 

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union … Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less. -Susan B. Anthony

One of the things about equality is not just that you be treated equally to a man, but that you treat yourself equally to the way you treat a man. -Marlo Thomas

I’ve yet to be on a campus where most women weren’t worrying about some aspect of combining marriage, children, and a career. I’ve yet to find one where many men were worrying about the same thing. -Gloria Steinem

The only jobs for which no man is qualified are human incubators and wet nurse. Likewise, the only job for which no woman is or can be qualified is sperm donor. -Wilma Scott Heide

My idea of feminism is self-determination, and it’s very open-ended: every woman has the right to become herself, and do whatever she needs to do. -Ani DiFranco

When a woman behaves like a man, why doesn’t she behave like a nice man? -Edith Evans

People have accepted the media’s idea of what feminism is, but that doesn’t mean that it’s right or true or real. Feminism is not monolithic. Within feminism, there is an array of opinions. -Judy Chicago

What, do you think that feminism means you hate men? -Cyndi Lauper

Feminism’s agenda is basic: It asks that women not be forced to “choose” between public justice and private happiness. It asks that women be free to define themselves – instead of having their identity defined for them, time and again, by their culture and their men. -Susan Faludi

People think at the end of the day that a man is the only answer [to fulfillment]. Actually a job is better for me. -Princess Diana

The word, and the concept of feminism, was a gift because it gave me a sense of identity and a way of defining how I wished to live my life. -Betty Buckley

Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. -Eleanor Roosevelt

Women get more unhappy the more they try to liberate themselves. -Brigitte Bardot

No man is as anti-feminist as a really feminine woman. -Frank O’Connor

Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who’ll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings? To me it’s the latter, so I sign up. -Margaret Atwood

Until women learn to want economic independence, and until they work out a way to get this independence without denying themselves the joys of love and motherhood, it seems to me feminism has no roots. -Crystal Eastman

Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition. -Timothy Leary 

Feminism is dated? Yes, for privileged women like my daughter and all of us here today, but not for most of our sisters in the rest of the world who are still forced into premature marriage, prostitution, forced labor – they have children that they don’t want or they cannot feed. -Isabel Allende

Male supremacy has kept woman down. It has not knocked her out. -Clare Boothe Luce

The day will come when men will recognize woman as his peer, not only at the fireside, but in councils of the nation. Then, and not until then, will there be the perfect comradeship, the ideal union between the sexes that shall result in the highest development of the race. -Susan B. Anthony

I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He’s just incapable of it. -Barbara Jordan

The modern woman is the curse of the universe. A disaster, that’s what. She thinks that before her arrival on the scene no woman ever did anything worthwhile before, no woman was ever liberated until her time, no woman really ever amounted to anything. -Adela Rogers St. Johns

A good part – and definitely the most fun part – of being a feminist is about frightening men. -Julie Burchill

Nobody will ever win the Battle of the Sexes. There’s just too much fraternizing with the enemy. -Henry Kissinger

Instead of getting hard on ourselves and trying to compete, women should try and give their best qualities to men – bring them softness, teach them how to cry. -Joan Baez

My advice to the women’s clubs of America is to raise more hell and fewer dahlias. -James McNeill Whistler

When a man gives his opinion, he’s a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she’s a bitch. -Bette Davis

Why do people say “grow some balls?” Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding. -Betty White

Image: Karen Horton, James Vaughan, The U.S. National Archives, David Shankbone.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

30 Best Quotes on Living Small

40 Inspirational Quotes on New Beginnings

30 Best Quotes About Travel

50 Best Quotes About Love

40 Best Quotes About Solitude

30 Best Quotes About Being Present

30 Best Quotes About Nature

Classic Quotes from Hollywood’s Original Leading Ladies

All Creatures Great and Small: 30 Best Quotes About Animals

50 Quotes About Meditation And Yoga

10 women making positive strides worldwide.

It is clear that the more power women have, the more positive change we will see on a global level.

“If you empower women, you can change the world,” said actress-activist Meg Ryan while trekking across northern India on a third world humanitarian mission with representatives from the international aid organization CARE. The goal is to break through barriers keeping so many women in poverty and without rights.  Like Ryan, the women on our list tap their armories to confront, protest and articulate what it takes to improve lives and the planet at large.

1. Kavita Ramdas

Leader of The Global Fund for Women, Ramdas has garnered unprecedented support for international human rights for her sisters by tripling grant assets during her tenure from $6 million to $21 million. Fluent in Hindi/Urdu, English, German and conversational Tamil, Spanish and French, she speaks the language most activists care about today: The wide ranging exportation of good will. The Fund’s grants have ranged from several hundred to kick start a business to $800,000 to halt human trafficking of females and sexual  abuse. In an interview with journalist Lynn Sherr, Ramdas says this is the moment for women in making a difference and an impact on poverty, ongoing war and militarization, which perpetuates a culture of violence against women: “Violence against women continues to be condoned on some level,” she shared. “Why is it that you have statistics like a woman being raped every six minutes in this country, in the United States?”

 2. Hillary Clinton

“Obviously, we and many other nations are quite hopeful that these ‘flickers of progress’ as President Obama called them will be ignited into a movement for change that will benefit the people of the country,” the 67th Secretary of State Clinton articulated upon arriving in reform-ready Burma as the first senior American diplomat to visit in 50 years. Taking the high road in standing by her man-boss, Clinton’s brilliance and measurable experience makes many wonder what if she had been elected president? Hillary-speak ranges from talking gay rights at the UN to gauging parliamentary elections in Russia and passionately seeking an end to the horrendous treatment of women in post-revolution Egypt. The always eloquent and former first lady proves resourcefulness and resiliency are DNA advantages which allow women like her to lead, shine and earn their very own spots in history.

3. Rachel Maddow

Demonstrating the growing popularity of the MSNBC talk show host was her edging out Michael Moore in an Alternet poll of the Most Influential Progressive Media Figures of the year. A charismatic, somewhat androgynous counterpart to the neo-conservative women of Fox News, Maddow clearly holds her own sans the biting wit and sarcasm of John Stewart or shameless flirtatious fluttering of a Piers Morgan. She’s real – the Christiane Amanpour of her time who doesn’t need to risk life and limb in wartime to gain worldwide attention. The Rachel Maddow Show is the second highest-rated program in its time slot ahead of Larry King Live, behind only Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity Show. Whether or not they dig the liberal pundit, viewers who tune in certainly are enlightened on why crucial change in jobs, healthcare, housing and hunger are occurring so slowly – with a mirror held up to the GOP.

4. Asmaa Mahfouz

Call it the vlog that sparked a revolution – and it was delivered by one Egyptian woman who had had enough. Thousands fled to Tahrir Square, the Egyptian government tried to block Facebook and you know the rest. One of  five recipients awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2011, Asmaa Mahfouz went from relative obscurity to overnight becoming a hero, credited with spurring on that mass uprising. So many who watched her on YouTube were moved by her bravery. As one wrote: “Asmaa, you have inspired the whole world with your strength of spirit and courage. As you know, governments don’t speak for the people; Governments usually speak only for the rich and powerful. ” Hopefully, she can lend the same courage to combating the systematic violence against women in post-revolution Egypt – where journalists and protesters are stripped and brutalized in the same streets where women risked their lives to effect change.

5. Maude Barlow

“Do not listen to those who say there is nothing you can do to the very real and large social and environmental issues of our time,” warns Maude Barlow, a charismatic Canadian who serves as national chairperson of the Council of Canadians and the Washington-based Food and Water Watch. She also founded the San Francisco-based International Forum on Globalization and a Councilor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council. Barlow practices what she preaches when it comes to water woes and climate change issues – earning 11 honorary doctorates and countless awards including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (alternative Nobel) and the 2009 Earth Day Canada Outstanding Environmental Achievement Award. More recently, she was named the U.N Senior Advisor on Water Issues – the ideal person to convince governments that clean water is a fundamental legal human right that must be preserved through laws and immediate action.

6. Meg Ryan

It would be cliche to describe this former “Sally” as the quintessential girl next door (since it has been done repeatedly) as now she is a full fledged woman, who seeks to empower the disadvantaged – exporting good will to the third world. Ryan’s four-day trip across northern India with CARE signaled she has entered another phase of stardom, getting comfortable in her own skin to “hold hands” with some of the world’s most disadvantaged women. Ryan, like other Hollywood do-gooders (Oprah, Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie, Christina Applegate, Isabella Rossellini) has the gift of visibility; wherever she goes the cameras follow and that leads to public awareness.

7. Michelle Goldberg
 

Former Senior writer for Salon and current author and Senior Contributing Writer for The Daily Beast and Newsweek, Goldberg counters the radical extremism of the Michelle Bachmann’s of the world in pushing for reproductive freedom for women and affordable healthcare for all – in addition to other progressive platforms. Her first book, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 2007 New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. More recently she made a solid platform in her Feminist Case for Flawed Reform - penning a manifesto of sorts  which puts forth the inequities of the health-insurance system and how legislation will further erode abortion coverage for women – a major step backward for reproductive rights. Yet feminists should support it anyway, she argues: “More than 17 million women are uninsured, and millions more are under-insured. Women are more likely to rely on their spouse’s insurance coverage leaving them vulnerable if they’re divorced or widowed, if their husband becomes old enough to qualify for Medicare or if their partner’s employer decides to drop dependent coverage, which is happening with increasing frequency.”

8. Kate Stohr

Grassroots design for the greater good is what Architecture For Humanity envisions. So with that, Stohr and co-founder, Cameron Sinclair, endeavored to direct $4 million in disaster relief and rebuilding in post-Katrina New Orleans and tsunami ravaged Southeast Asia. What started as a humanitarian non-profit has expanded into an international force with 40 chapters on five continents which networks with local partners to develop innovative models in sustainable and humanitarian design solutions. No wonder she was named one of the great green giants by Tree Hugger as well as being honored as the recipient of Wired magazine’s 2006 Rave Award for Architecture. A former journalist, she has tapped her background in project management, website development and deep understanding of urban planning issues as managing director of AFH. Smart urban planning might be the very thing that saves cities, as well as denizens who will be facing increasing shortages in resources as the U.S. continues to be late to the plate when it comes to taking action.

9. Anita Acevedo

Warm healing hands as insight into the body over western meds and cutting? Acevedo is booked months in advance as word has spread that this rolfer and former family therapist offers the integrated alternative approach to modern medicine with a track record of healing patients with herniated disks, pinched nerves, drop foot injuries, and all other debilitating neurological and physical impairments brought on by activity or age. She also has aided infants suffering from chronic earaches and colic and children with ADD, scoliosis and autism as well as teens dealing with anxiety and hormonal shifts. The fact the southerner practices in Marin County is further testament to her positioning herself in the hub of the naturopathic and homeopathic revolution in health care – teaming with psychotherapists and other well known practitioners like Dr. Todd Maderis to take away acute pain. It all was born of her own healing when she was an endurance athlete in Alaska competing in 100 mile adventure races that took a toll. “My body was compressed, achy, tight and off balance with chronic pain in my low back and my jaw was so tight I was experiencing migraines,” she recalls. “Through Dr. Rolf’s life study of manipulating and organizing connective tissue, I became taller, more flexible and graceful. Many of the unresolved childhood traumas I had been processing began to be uncovered as my body unfolded and opened.”

10. Laura Kimpton

Her mammoth Burning Man installations  go beyond her highly collected montages and encaustic works to spread messages such as “MOM” and “LOVE” and “OINK.” Her book Who Gave Birth that came out in 2010 was described by the Northern California artist as “a celebration of all MOMS and the feminine energy that comprises the true understanding that the original MOM is the earth.” Kimpton salvages recycled objects for her mixed media – found objects, bird skulls, original photos, picture frames, books and resin to let her creativity take flight. If you consider art to be effective communication, then you can see how one persuasive Kimpton picture is worth a thousand words.

Image: Perfecto Insecto, Lilianwagdy, Laura Kimpton, CARE, Architect, Council of Canadians, Paulagordon, RolfingMarin, NYDailyNews

The shoppy ones? Check, please.

As if to match the excess of cakes and cookies and champagne of the holidays, the run up to the new year has been a media glut of roundups, predictions, trend pieces, and years-in-review – and not just at EcoSalon. Today is the first day of 2012, and while our managing editor has reminded me it’s better late than never for my own take on all the things, I’m not sure it’s better on the whole, on account of what I’ve learned in the process of writing this article.

I’ve learned that if you Google “culture trends 2012″ to research ideas for this article, you will turn up all sorts of trend forecasts, pages and pages of them, only they will not have anything at all to do with culture: not the kind of culture you wrote thirty pages about in graduate school that in hindsight seems so much less annoying than Powerpoint, not the hipster-meets-highbrow culture of McSweeney’s and Harper’s and the New Yorker of which you are so publicly fond, not even the pop culture slizzurp of “Last Friday Night” and dubstep of which you are merely privately fond in your car at extremely loud volumes until you pull up to a stop sign.

No, if you search for anything about cultural trends to attempt to pull together a thoughtful few paragraphs, you will instead be directed to all things consumer. Specifically, what consumers are going to want. And how to sell it to them more. You don’t even need to search “consumer trends” to learn about consumer trends. “Cultural trends 2012″ gets you the same ample linkbelly of commercial conflation:

Business News Daily ranks second in the first page of Google search results returned for my search on “cultural trends” despite having nothing at all to do with culture and everything to do with, I see what you did there, consumption. And this goes on and on for pages, for any number of culture trend related searches, on multiple engines. It would appear the most important cultural trends to watch in 2012 are the ones that make people shop, or help us understand how and why and where and when they shop or what they’re going to expect from their shop experience as they shop. And, shopping.

Has my Latin grown so rusty I’ve forgotten “culture” and “consumption” are one in the same? No, just my American.

The trouble with digging up meaningful ideas as societal guideposts for the coming year is that the sort of people and publications discussing these things aren’t about to do it in an easy-to-glean listicle for our ADHD-in-an-app convenience. The listicle, then, is the baby of the Marketing Firm PDF and FaceHuffBeastTwit.

There are the tech topics: screens, apps, mobile, are-we-or-are-we-not-doing-QR, all of which kind of makes me want to hurl my iPad at the next kid with a beard and a flannel shirt that is supported (crucially) by an arm band. The internet is the greatest thing, and the most important thing, of our lives. Think Wikileaks and the Arab Spring; think mass reorganization of production and the coming end of The Job; think information at your fingertips and GPS when you get lost. That doesn’t make me want to hurl my magical, revolutionary device. What does? That if they censor the internet, we will simply build a new one. That we shouldn’t just make more internet, but better internet.

There are the color trends of Pantone, where mugs help remind you that orange is for so much more than just annual squash slaughter. It’s for your stuff in your house, too! There are the 10 consumer trends of JWT, key among them: food as the defining eco issue to watch, the engineering of randomness for delight and discovery, and marriage? Optional. (Which would seem rather more like culture and less like consumer.)

Style, you’re going to need a cocktail (ring). There are Coolhunter, Coolhunting, Polyvore, PSFK. There are the glossy fashion predictions and Tumblr trendhunters and street style bloggers ad infinitum.

There are the inevitable, but inevitably useful, portmanteaus. Flawsome: Grow up, angry customer, and adore ye slightly imperfect but authentic brands, you’ll feel more human. Aw. Recommerce: One woman’s remorse purchase is another woman’s Craigslist score. Maturialism: Because we’re grownups and we can talk about sex without referring to it as “riding the ride.”

There are the gems.

The excellent curation of Paola DeLuca for IED Firenze, whose Trend Book is filled with exceptional insights into four distinctive cultural personality types: the Alter-Eco (nature, localized, junk to funk), the Lessential (transparency, cutting edge, all in one), the Youniverse (androgyny, moi, je joue), the Showstopper (electrofied, geomatrix, stating your status). They speak to the continuing importance of design in our lives, the electric vitality in indulging a superficial yet essential joy that is playful and exuberant over narcissistic and…Kardashian.

A pop lyric I caught on the radio months ago still pings in my skull: “La, la, la, whatever!” is the chorus from “Tonight, Tonight.” Song writing of this kind should be grounds for a visit to the shrink, yet it isn’t. We can all, for the love of god, lighten up now: A burst of innocence is hardly exclusive to an inner life. We’re going to want, and need, both.

Gaping Void: Hugh MacLeod’s prescient insights into mediocrity (including Kathy Sierra!) and millionaires.

There are the rising cultural trends. Some poised to burst, some nascent, some redux, some radical, some required, some holistic: cities, mobile, populism, intuition, connection that allows for silence, integrity in every sense. (We’ll explore all of these in 2012.)

There are the new definitions. It’s going to be good to be gay, and not just for our voyeuristic decorating pleasure on a cable television show. How about them genders? Men are far from over (really, really, really), but women are hot, hot, hot (so nevermind the TechCrunch games, which will soon be an embarrassment). What is an American, anyway? Rick Perry and his ilk are on the wrong side of history.

There are new roles for us all, and we’ll be talking about it a lot.

A word about green. There will be the arguments in environmentalism, from consumption and media to marketing and energy policy. We must learn that “borrowing a page” – modeling – is no recipe for innovation but is simply doing the same old thing with a green sticker slapped on it; we must understand that no end justifies any means, for the means are ends themselves. We must learn that myopic sacrifice is asking people to participate in cult, not culture. We must accept that luxury can be our word. Luxury is simplicity and sustainability, it is living well and doing well, it is intent and heart over letter and law.

There are the messy bits to get through first. I fear reality television will only get worse before we all get better. Teen moms? Toddler beauty pageants? There will be so many apps, we will have apps just to organize our apps, and “There’s an app for that” will become the new “That’s what she said,” if it hasn’t already. And let’s not forget the Election. Obama will win, but not before the politicians and pundits execute their special mission to exhaust us by March with the exact same black/white, red/blue “thinking” they’ve traded in for the last twenty years. This time, we won’t just change the channel – we’ll create different ones. (Moveon.org 2008? Only the beginning.)

Messy. But we’ll begin to appreciate this, gradually finding confidence and inspiration – even laughter – in the emergence of real argument. I suspect that in place of Maturialism in the trend forecasts for 2013, we may just see Maturity.

And on the other side, men and women will begin to breathe – or at least text – a little easier around each other. We’ll learn that people do give a damn about the planet (nearly every major American city will work to ban the plastic bag, we’ll finally catch on to the fish problem, and everyone will want companies to recycle their used products).

And most important, Grandpa will finally learn to Google it himself.

Image: Patrick Hoesly

ColumnWhat defines the new chic? Grit and glimmer in conscious measure.

Over dinner recently, a colleague and I abandoned a hot and heavy discussion about the political zeitgeist for something decidedly more dessert-appropriate: women. The End of Men, the death of the the Death of Marriage myth, Lady Gaga, gay marriage, the endless debates about women getting funded in Silicon Valley – XX as cultural object is too hot to handle right now, but it’s less What Women Want and more What Women Are (and fools who confuse the two shall soon be parted from their money). If Superwoman is mercifully out, so is Single Girl. Women no longer fit into neat boxes, if they ever did: Wife. Mother. Career Woman. Bohemian. Twentysomething. Fortysomething. Old. Nope. Not your .xls, not your funnel, not your category. An extremely palpable swirl of chutzpah and quirk, charm and cojones, rock solid and rock star? Yep. And just in time. “It’s like there’s a new chic going on,” started my creme brulee compadre.

“She’s cool like confident.”

“She’s not afraid to say she wants a relationship.”

“But only if she wants one. Which she might not.” This, with a wink.

“She thinks ‘feminist’ is a pretty word.”

“Aw. Because it is.”

How to spot The New Chic? It’s motorcycle boots in your minivan. It’s courage, it’s eschewing Christmas if you feel like it, it’s not being afraid to be less liked and more respected, it’s borrowing the best traits from the boys and making us all more human in the process.

The New Chic means dropping the fear of fat. Bring on the butter. It’s good for your brain.

The New Chic likes girls, or boys, or both, and sometimes out of order, and don’t worry so much about it.

It’s breaking rules in accordance with her limits, which she knows intimately.

It’s leading the conversation in mixed company; something that can still stun a man. Try it, it’s fun!

Also? The New Chic doesn’t consider singledom a thorny brambles of broken GPS on the proper path to the soul’s completion, formerly known as a wedding day.

“This could go on all night!”

The New Chic often does.

The New Chic doesn’t go gaga over babies by default; in fact, she may not even notice them.

Did you hear? She brags and delivers.

She tells The Nagging Voice to fuck off so fast it scurries.

You’ll never catch her judging another woman with her eyes in group company.

She hasn’t done it all. She hasn’t seen it all. She isn’t everything and everyone.

She might have a hot pink stripe in her hair. Over 40? She still wears it long.

The New Chic is a forever fan of chivalry and that means: she extends it to others including and especially men.

Fact: a good thick moisturizer beats caking on the foundation any day.

The New Chic means walking out the door looking good; not made up, good.

She wouldn’t be caught dead in fast fashion.

She can drive a stick shift but prefers to bike in her heels instead. Because she wears heels. Sneakers. Are. For. Running.

She doesn’t prefer to text with the men she sees.

She is scrupulously honest because it just feels wonderful.

She is on time, every time.

She blurs the lines and doesn’t look back because she has nothing to hide on Facebook.

Two words: black coffee.

The New Chic does not drink Diet Coke. Does not diet (exception: the three hours before a date).

You can spot her because she stands up straight, sucks in her tummy tight, squares her shoulders and doesn’t pad the living daylights out of her nipples.

To err is human, to never brush your teeth in front of him, divine.

The New Chic is loving what you own to the greatest degree but letting it all go just as readily. Think of it as If the Buddha Consumed (and hey, he did). Example: A friend’s grandmother, who is something like a bonus grandma to me, has built a vast fortune in her life, and she has the personal drapery of diamonds to prove it. I’m talking the kind so big, they slide to the sides of her fingers whether she wants them to or not. Not bad for a girl from Oklahoma whose first crib was a drawer. “We never have insured these old things,” she drawled to me over brunch one cold Dallas day. “If a piece gets lost or stolen: eh, so what? I’ve enjoyed it.”

On that note: celebrates old people.

It’s being inspired by men rather than finding them merely useful. (We are all going to be better off for that one.)

It’s having the courage to build towards the best.

The New Chic has better things to do and hires people to help.

The most timely thing about The New Chic, though, is the sheer fun of it.

Your turn.

This is the latest installment in your editor’s column, The Insider’s Guide to Life.

Image: Whatshername?

A century of women’s cycling in photos. 

Cycling isn’t just a sport, a passion or a hobby. It’s a lifestyle. There is lots of talk of the rise of the bike movement, that it’s becoming more and more a part of the cultural consciousness. But cycling isn’t a trend; pedaling to get from point A to point B goes back many decades.

In many places, cycling isn’t a choice, it simply is. Bike capitals Copenhagen and Amdsterdam come to mind, cities where cycling is the norm, cyclists reap an array of infrastructural benefits and the cities themselves can devote to continuing to curb carbon emissions. In other places, bicycles are simply the most efficient way to get things done. Take the bikes on the streets of a country like Vietnam, where people push bikes overloaded with bamboo, chickens, vegetables or whatever else the owner is carting that day.

And yet in our industrialized country, a two wheeled lifestyle has yet to be the norm. We ride for fun, or to train, and maybe a few times a week we hop on the bike to bust out a commute, but the bicycle has yet to be an assumed part of everyday life.

So why aren’t more of us riding? In many places, cycling for women is affected by a serious gender gap. But women have been riding through the ages, changing gender stereotypes along the way.

As Susan B. Anthony once said, “I think [the bicycle] has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.”

From the first woman to bicycle around the world, to using the bicycle to promote cultural change, biking has been an empowering tool for women throughout the ages. In honor of female cyclists, here’s a visual look at women on two wheels from the last century.

1900s:

1920s:

1930s:

1940s:

1950s:

1960s:

1970s:

1980s:

1990s:

2000s:

2011:

ALSO CHECK OUT:

Slideshow: Cycle Chic in Berlin

8 Bike Share Capitals of the World

6 Places to Get Your Coffee By Bike

Images: University of Illinois, radlmax, Toronto History, Toronto History, Stylesight, Amsterdamize, UC Davis, Stylesight, Prolly is Not Probably, The Independent, Mikael Colville-Andersen, Copenhagen Cycle Chic, comrade foot

Did you know that women hold 39% of leadership positions in the sustainability sector?

Compare that statistic with research that shows women holding only 8% of general management positions in the United States and we’ve got plenty of reason to be excited about this constantly growing industry, not only because it’s providing sustainable solutions for our future, but because women are nearly equal players in terms of representation.

Ecomagination is celebrating some of the women of the clean tech industry by highlighting their efforts. From biofuels to efficiently storing energy, these women are leading the way for the industry as a whole.

But what is it like to be a female in this sector? What does it take to run a successful operation in the clean tech industry? As part of the series by Ecomagination, Solar Sister founder Katherine Lucey will answer community submitted questions on video next week.

Lucey does some inspiring work, empowering women in “remote African villages to become entrepreneurs, selling solar lamps to light the homes of their friends and families using their most plentiful natural resource: the sun.”

To make sure we get your questions for Lucey on Twitter, submit them to @ecosalon and @ecomagination and use the hashtag #ctwomen. You can also leave your question in the comments below by Thursday, October 27, 2011 and we’ll be sure to get it submitted.

ColumnI ♥ you.

As I write these words, I’m sitting in a cafe in Pacific Palisades, Calif., a place that in a way is my forever home. My heart is full to breaking with gratitude for the women in my life. And I have to say that here, in the presence of our readers, because while I believe you must know if you’re here in the first place, I want to make certain you do: the women behind the words at EcoSalon are extraordinary. They’re the women you want to know, and should. Some days I can’t believe my luck that I do.

They are a glowing collage of oddball refinement, complexity and consciousness, beauty and such beautiful scars. Color, fire, humor, creativity, verve, style, yes; yet something else distinct runs throughout. That thing is love.

Recently, while in Los Angeles for the EMAs with two of our team, Johanna Bjork and Rowena Ritchie, we were able to meet up with another of our editors based in Los Angeles, Katherine Butler, along with beloved former senior editor Kim Derby. After a chatter-filled brunch, we stopped by Kim’s house to meet her puppy, Blue. Kim and Rowena discussed Byron Katie, marriage, love, and other topics as I sat listening. Back in the car, I told Rowena how blessed I feel to have such wise women in my life, not only as colleagues but as friends. “It’s quite a group you’ve got here, Sara,” she remarked. I practically ran away from her when she dropped me at the cafe moments later so I could burst into tears of happiness in solitude. Sometimes, the good in women is almost too much.

To the one who ordered me that book because I was too busy to get around to ordering it myself; to the one who saved me thousands in therapy in a single Zinfandel-fueled night; to the one I’m only beginning to know, lucky me, who is always up for an adventure, road trip detours included; to the one who got me through more than two years (you know who you are); to the beautiful soul who grows with me year after year; to the brave one who gave it all up to try something new; you amaze me.

When EcoSalon began, I didn’t yet have an idea of just what it would become. I was a driven, imaginative kid with a sponge where a brain usually is. What do I want to do with my life? Ha! It’s nice if you know, but for me? Not my M.O. Instead, I just go do the thing. So I just about wanted to marry Mike Rowe when I read his piece about passion and “following it” as an artist. He says to stop worrying about what “it” is and just show up. Just bring the passion; don’t wait to find the thing, bring your passion to the thing and it becomes your thing. It almost doesn’t matter what it is we’re doing – just that we do it. EcoSalon is a work in progress because we are each a work in progress – editors, readers, writers. We should never forget we are each changing every moment.

At dinner once with one of our investors, we were talking about the future of EcoSalon and what we might be capable of. “The answer’s in you,” he said, matter-of-fact.

But with all due respect, he was wrong.

The answer is in us.

This is the latest installment in your editor’s column, The Insider’s Guide to Life.

Women hold only 3% of clout positions in mainstream media. What’s wrong with this picture?

Women and media are a common topic of discussion in my close circles, as it’s something that we all care strongly about. Be it the role of female filmmakers in a male dominated industry or the portrayal of women in television and film, when it comes to my gender and the media there’s never a lack of things to talk about.

Here at EcoSalon, where we are steeped in both worlds, things are no different. So when a good friend in the film industry posted a link to a trailer for Miss Representation - a documentary that explores the misrepresentation of women in culture and media and how that influences the under representation of women in other realms, like politics and business - it got my attention immediately.

Constantly inundated with all forms of media on a practically 24/7 basis, it is rare that something truly moves me. Call it desensitized, but in the era of short audio and video clips it’s easy to scan, fast forward and move on. But this trailer was different. It gave me chills. It left me staring at the screen frustrated. Some statistics that I couldn’t get over:

While women have made great strides in leadership over the past few decades, the United States is still 90th in the world for women in national legislatures, women hold only 3% of clout positions in mainstream media, and 65% of women and girls have disordered eating behaviors.

And yet there was a sense of empowerment to be garnered; the sense that rallying together we can make serious change.

That’s the idea that the film’s writer and producer, Jennifer Siebel Newsom wants to get across. In between dealing with her daughter’s bout of pink eye and breast feeding her 4-month old son, she took time to talk about the inspiration behind the film and why she is driven to work on this question of women and their portrayal in the media.

In the entertainment industry since the age of 28, Siebel Newsom knows what she’s talking about, having seen the portrayal of women and its effects early on. “I was [already] very very concerned about what it would be like raising a child in our modern culture… I had a daughter and my concern increased,” says Siebel Newsom.

That concern was fueled even more during the 2008 presidential campaign. “[I] witnessed all the campaigns directed against Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin and couldn’t help but recognize what was happening to them and what was happening to women aspiring towards leadership,” says Siebel Newsom, adding that those types of negative campaigns “would discourage anyone from aspiring to be a leader.”

Ultimately she saw the difficult cultural obstacles that women were up against, and tied them back to media. Why aren’t there more women in leadership roles? “It’s sort of a chicken and the egg, both the media and our culture don’t value women enough,” she says. That leads to an image that, as Siebel Newsom puts it, is ”disparaging and hyper-sexualized and ultimately relays to the culture that that’s what women are.”

Which means women are up against some very difficult obstacles when it comes to changing these embedded values. “97% of what you see and hear comes from the male perspective, I’m not saying that it’s wrong but it’s a limited perspective,” Siebel Newsom says.

Women’s portrayal in media, as well as their role in guiding it, is a multi-faceted issue, influenced by numerous factors. From education to commercialization of gender roles, women’s identities are shaped from a young age. As a mother, Siebel Newsom knows this all too well, “Disney is now selling to kids as early as newborns.” She adds, “your pink little onesie… reinforces gender.”

Start girls off with that role early, exacerbate it with an over sexualized image in the media, and the effects later in life aren’t pretty. Women end up “willingly thinking that it’s their role to please and satisfy,” says Siebel Newsom. With that idea drilled into our subconscious, it’s no surprise that we invest millions of dollars into making ourselves look better, going under the knife to attain a media defined ideal.

As the film highlights, the number of cosmetic surgical procedures performed on youths 18 or younger more than tripled from 1997 to 2007. Those are valuable dollars, and if we’re going to make change we need to rethink where our priorities lie. “Instead of investing that money in their own beauty and investing it in changing our cultural landscape, that would be huge,” says Siebel Newsom.

In the midst of a slew of disheartening statistics, it is easy to get overwhelmed, but if there’s one thing about Siebel Newsom, it’s that her energy and passion for this issue comes across loud and clear and it was hard to leave the call uninspired.

In the end, the answer may be as simple as joining forces. As Siebel Newsom points out, “We need a village of women supporting each other… to change the cultural landscape.”

I asked her if she were to give advice to three different generations of women, what it would be.

For younger girls, those like her daughter:

“[That] they’re each unique. Whatever is unique about us makes us special.”

For women in their 20s-40s:

“Figure out what you’re passionate about and go for it and don’t let anything stop you. Surround yourself with women that are like minded and supportive.”

For women in their 50s and 60s:

“Embrace your wisdom… empower younger women that need support.”

Siebel Newsom encourages people to take the Miss Representation pledge or host a screening of the film, as well as follow these five action steps:

1. Tell five people about the film and share one thing you learned from watching it.

2. Parents- watch TV and films with your children. Raise questions like “What if that character had been a girl instead?”

3. Remember your actions influence others. Mothers, aunts and loved ones- don’t downgrade or judge yourself by your looks. Fathers, uncles and loved ones—treat women around you with respect. Remember children in your life are watching and learning from you.

4. Use your consumer power. Stop buying tabloid magazines and watching shows that degrade women. Go see movies that are written and directed by women (especially on opening weekend to boost the box office ratings). Avoid products that resort to sexism in their advertising.

5. Mentor others! It’s as easy as taking a young woman to lunch. Start by having open and honest conversations with young people in your life.

Having already made the festival circuit, Miss Representation has its broadcast premiere this week. You can catch it on Thursday, October 20 at 9 p.m. on OWN.

Images: Miss Representation

The winds of change are always blowing.

With Occupy Wall Street serving as a gauge for U.S. contentment, it’s not hard to see we just aren’t a very happy nation. As with any cause, however, there are always bands of people who do more than walk the talk – they shout from the rooftops and actively work to move us away from the negative and into the positive.

In Seeing The Gulf From Above, Anna Brones writes, “A picture is worth a thousand words. The expression may sound cliche, but in the conservation movement, it couldn’t be more true.” In her story, Brones highlights Tom Hutchings, who takes Gulf of Mexico visitors up in his Cessna 182, knowing very well the visual power of seeing the Gulf oil spill’s environmental catastrophe from above. Giving people the ability to see outside of their immediate life circle to see we’re all very connected? Now that’s what we’re talking about.

Occupy Wall Street is giving people a voice to express their frustration with the status quo. But who are the leaders and participants and who are they to think they can rally and invigorate when they themselves lack social skills? In Sex by Numbers: What We Can Learn From #occupywallstreet, columnist Abigail Wick writes: “It is my conviction that the quality of our relationships – how we engage with and support one another – can have profound societal implications.”

Vacant spots as eyesores? Seed bomb ‘em. That’s what groups of guerrilla gardeners are doing to forcefully create change in their neighborhoods. In Flowers of War: Seed Bombing Gets Political, London writer Sarah Lewis-Hammond quotes seed bomber Vera Zakharov, “Seed bombing is activism. It allows us to continue a relationship with the spaces around us, even if the law says we can’t.”

Writer Scott Adelson did a series for EcoSalon on Angel Investors “examining equity investment’s relationship with businesses that have traditionally been out of its mainstream, including women-owned, green and long-term-growth-oriented.” What Adelson uncovered in his series VC’s, Angels and Investing in Women: What Are They Not Thinking? was pretty startling and worth the read on how successful women are running businesses with little investment from Angels (and how that should change).

Remember the food pyramid when you were little? Well the triangle has changed quite a few times over the years and it’s because food and diets have actually gotten very complex. Writer Anna Brones interviews Dr. Marion Nestle who weighs in on how food guidelines have changed in Foodie Underground: Dr Marion Nestle On The Complexity of Food Issues.