Every great social movement has its heroes. But when it comes to queer history, almost no one knows their names.
Minus those who live in the great state of California or are home-schooled by lesbian moms, the majority of students just aren’t taught L…
Category: Identities
Hollywood hasn’t gotten any better about LGBTQ inclusivity onscreen
/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F778838%2F2941b2a3-453a-45e2-af5f-64b115cf8631.jpg)
Hollywood isn’t just dragging its feet when it comes to LGBTQ representation. In 2017, it actually took a step back.
According to GLAAD’s annual Studio Responsibility Index, the percentage of mainstream releases featuring queer characters actually dropped to 12.8% in 2017, down from 18.4% the year before.
That’s just 14 of the 109 films released by the seven major studios (Fox, Universal, Warner Bros., Disney, Sony, Lionsgate, and Paramount). Indeed, the 2017 percentage is the lowest ever tallied by GLAAD since it started releasing these annual report cards in 2012. Read more…
More about Movies, Glaad, Entertainment, Movies Tv Shows, and Identities
View More Hollywood hasn’t gotten any better about LGBTQ inclusivity onscreenRay Ray finds out where she’s really from
/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fstory%2Fthumbnail%2F74758%2Fb4ea1384-c2f8-45a0-98ad-c677601e778a.jpg)
On What’s Your Mutt?, we test the doggy DNA of one pooch to reveal its exact breed mix and genetic makeup. Don’t miss the shocking results of our “pawternity” tests, each week!
The genetic makeup of young pup Ray Ray is quite the mystery to her owner. Let’s see if her guesses are correct!
Subscribe for more episodes of What’s Your Mutt?: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLusYuStjel-UL2fF5K4z8M6Otw1PE-4fi Read more…
More about Dogs, Dna Test, Watercooler, Identities, and Animals
View More Ray Ray finds out where she’s really fromWhat Yanny vs. Laurel taught us: We yearn to be divided
Remember the optical illusion known simply as the dress? Sure you do. Black and blue or white and gold? This was the question that divided the internet back in the more innocent time of February 2015. The fault lines ran through marriages and f…
View More What Yanny vs. Laurel taught us: We yearn to be dividedBoy Scouts to drop ‘boy’ from namesake program upon welcoming girls
In 2017, the Boy Scouts of America announced after 107 years that the organization would finally allow girls to join in 2018.
Now, before the historical change takes place, the BSA organization announced it’s dropping the word “boy” from its na…
‘God of War’ shows how far the video game industry has come… and how far it has to go
A new God of War game has arrived. It’s a signpost of maturity for the video game industry, but it’s also a symbol of problems that still persist.
For seven games, an ash-covered man with chains fused to his forearms battled his way through the Olymp…
How advertisers target female runners like those in the Boston Marathon
/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F754478%2F4ff60363-f03c-4046-92d7-7e4a0c9cd765.jpg)
On an April morning in 1967, Kathrine Switzer ate a late breakfast of bacon, eggs, pancakes, and toast. The Boston Marathon wasn’t due to begin until noon, so she had plenty of time to get to the starting line.
When the time came, she pinned the number 261 to her chest and started running through the Boston streets with her boyfriend, coach, and friend in tow. Then, in a surprising contrast to the crowd’s cheers, she was attacked by a race official who’d noticed her ponytail and lipstick.
At this time, the Boston Marathon was a men’s-only race, and Switzer wasn’t exactly welcome in the field. After Switzer’s boyfriend warded off the race official by tackling him, Kathrine (registered as K. V. Switzer) crossed the finish line. Her efforts helped make the sport of endurance running more welcoming to women in the decades that followed. Read more…
More about Social Good, Boston Marathon, Boston Marathon 2018, Social Good, and Identities
View More How advertisers target female runners like those in the Boston MarathonThe Trump administration is hellbent on erasing the reality of people’s lives
/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F752086%2F6cdd11e5-7aad-4a9f-b939-ab348fe92894.jpg)
Donald Trump’s authoritarian leanings are on full display nearly every day in his grandiose, paranoid tweets. The president’s anti-democratic impulses are one thing to behold — they often feel like an anomalous attack on America’s key norms and institutions.
But make no mistake: A similar strain of autocratic thinking has popped up across the Trump administration. Specifically, some of the president’s political appointees and their staffs have a habit of disappearing information they don’t like, without explanation.
SEE ALSO: Trump’s HHS removes key lesbian and bisexual women’s health info from Office of Women’s Health website Read more…
More about Politics, Social Good, Donald Trump, Identities, and Social Good
View More The Trump administration is hellbent on erasing the reality of people’s livesMeet the man whose voice became Stephen Hawking’s
/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F733889%2Fee0cc16f-63ae-4137-9fef-8173f0b89ba0.jpg)
Stephen Hawking’s computer-generated voice is so iconic that it’s trademarked — The filmmakers behind The Theory of Everything had to get Hawking’s personal permission to use the voice in his biopic.
But that voice has an interesting origin story of its own.
Back in the ’80s, when Hawking was first exploring text-to-speech communication options after he lost the power of speech, a pioneer in computer-generated speech algorithms was working at MIT on that very thing. His name was Dennis Klatt.
As Wired uncovered, Klatt’s work was incorporated into one of the first devices that translated speech into text: the DECtalk. The company that made the speech synthesizer for Hawking’s very first computer used the voice Klatt had recorded for computer synthesis. The voice was called ‘Perfect Paul,’ and it was based on recordings of Klatt himself. Read more…
More about Stephen Hawking, Als, Voice, Tech, and Identities
6 brands contributing to feminist causes for International Women’s Day
/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F729184%2F48689aec-0678-41a9-afd6-3511225c2d2c.jpg)
Every product here is independently selected by Mashable journalists. If you buy something featured, we may earn an affiliate commission which helps support our work.
March 8 marks International Women’s Day, a time to both celebrate the accomplishments of women and to raise awareness for issues that still affect women worldwide.
To mark the day we’ve highlighted the young women making a difference with their activism and laid out everything you need to know about International Women’s Day.
Several brands are making statements of solidarity. Sometimes corporate celebrations of feminism fall through — just look at McDonald’s, which decided to flip its golden arches to a “W” instead of providing paid maternity leave. Read more…
More about Fashion, Feminism, International Women S Day, Culture, and Identities
Why do women invest less than men?
/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F713103%2Fbc55a2a4-6e56-4ce9-8e20-586b75855c2e.jpg)
Gender equality is the topic du jour — from the gender wage gap to gender bias in the workplace, people are discussing the issues like never before, and it’s about time. But one iteration of gender equality hasn’t received the attention it deserves, and truly needs — the gender gap in investing.
In a study by Moneyfarm, over half of women without financial investments in Britain cite a lack of funds as the most common barrier to investing. And almost 25 per cent say they do not have any disposable income in a typical month – versus just 14 per cent of men.
Women’s aversion to investing is well documented, but little progress has been made in the way of a solution. Due to different career trajectories and predicted longer lifespans, among other factors, women need to be investing for their futures now. Read more…
More about Investing, Gender Equality, Gender Pay Gap, Culture, and Identities
Female Uber drivers make less than their male counterparts, but it’s not what you think
/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F710120%2F729ab741-467a-4490-94fa-902408c1e867.jpg)
Even driving Uber while female comes with a pay gap — but it’s different from the systemic problem of lower pay seen in other industries.
Stanford, University of Chicago, and Uber economists looked at more than a million Uber rides in the U.S. from January 2015 through March 2017 and found a roughly 7 percent gap. This lower hourly pay rate is due to several factors including driving speed and experience gaming the app.
Drivers are paid based on a formula that doesn’t include gender — just miles, time on the road, a surge multiplier, and some other ride-based incentives — so gender shouldn’t impact pay. But the gap exists anyhow. Women on average earn $20.04 an hour, while men bring in $21.28. Read more…
More about Uber, Gender Pay Gap, Tech, Identities, and Transportation