Femininity

Beyoncé and Dolly Parton’s versions of Jolene represent two sides of southern femininity

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Wind, Negotiation, Lemonade, Hatred, Head, Marriage, Modesty, Noise, Betrayal, Beauty, Femininity, Sleep, Attitude, African Americans, Rest, Hope, Woman, Male, Skin, The Golden Girls, Language, Pain, Linguistics, Movement, Human, Music

On her new album, Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé puts a new spin on Dolly Parton’s classic song, Jolene.

Key Points: 
  • On her new album, Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé puts a new spin on Dolly Parton’s classic song, Jolene.
  • Some people commenting online were vocal about not liking Beyoncé’s version, often citing its lack of vulnerability when compared to Parton’s version.
  • There are upwards of 80 covers of Jolene, but Beyoncé’s is a departure from the rest.
  • The Houston native’s Jolene is decidedly Black, and therein lies the crux of the different reactions towards the song.
  • It is important to examine the story Dolly Parton tells on Jolene because it, too, is rooted in her racial and gendered identity as much as Beyoncé’s Jolene is.

How is Beyoncé’s story the same but different?

  • Towards the end of the song, Beyoncé and her partner turn a corner and offer hope against the disruption that Jolene represents.
  • Beyoncé’s Jolene is introduced by Dolly Parton herself in a short interlude.
  • Parton makes a clear association between her experience with Jolene and Beyoncé’s experience with “Becky with the good hair” (or “hussy” as Parton says).
  • But the term has evolved to encompass racially ambiguous women with European or Asian features, lighter skin and loose curls or straight hair.
  • Why would we expect the song to be the same when these two women are far from?


Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.
Kadian Pow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Mango Teams up With Victoria Beckham for the Design of a New Capsule Collection

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Fashion, Retail, Consumer, Women, Manufacturing, Specialty, Textiles, Victoria Beckham, Femininity, Multimedia, Collection, Creativity, DNA, Plan, Ecosystem, Elevate

Mango, one of Europe’s leading fashion industry groups, is teaming up with Victoria Beckham to launch a new capsule collection, which will be available internationally on April 23, 2024.

Key Points: 
  • Mango, one of Europe’s leading fashion industry groups, is teaming up with Victoria Beckham to launch a new capsule collection, which will be available internationally on April 23, 2024.
  • Victoria Beckham x Mango has been designed by Victoria Beckham and reflects the essence of the designer's eponymous label, considered the perfect blend of classic British luxury with a subtle contemporary twist, as well as the shared values of both fashion brands, such as quality and femininity.
  • It follows the latest edition in Mango’s Capsule collection, a collection of eventwear for woman differentiated by the quality of its materials and finishes, which was released in March 2024 after being launched in 2023.
  • Since its inception, Mango has a very clear DNA and its own design and style proposal, whose main attribute is a positioning of superior quality to its competitors.

EMS Kegel Trainer BODYDOCTOR Opens New Era of Health Care Solutions in Global Femcare Market

Retrieved on: 
Friday, March 29, 2024
Consumer Electronics, Health, Consumer, Technology, Women, Fitness & Nutrition, Hardware, KRW, Yong In University, Uterus, Exercise, Lifting, Relaxation, Beauty, Pelvis, Rectum, Pregnancy, PMS, Menstruation, Femininity, Nocturia, Uterine prolapse, Pelvic floor, Traction, Urinary incontinence, Elasticity, Premenstrual syndrome, EMS, Multimedia, Dietary supplement

This innovative solution enables people to do Kegel exercises easily by sitting on it, heralding a new era of K-HEALTH CARE.

Key Points: 
  • This innovative solution enables people to do Kegel exercises easily by sitting on it, heralding a new era of K-HEALTH CARE.
  • View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240327264174/en/
    The EMS Kegel Trainer BODYDOCTOR FEMFIT has been launched in Japan.
  • (Photo: GENERALNET CORP)
    Derived from combining 'Feminine' and 'Care', the term 'Femcare' encompasses products and services designed to care for women’s bodies and health.
  • Understanding how important it is to strengthen pelvic floor muscles to address these health issues, GENERALNET CORP, a company dedicated to women's health and beauty, launched the EMS Kegel exerciser BODYDOCTOR in January 2019.

Spring Blossoms at the Macy’s Flower Show ®

Retrieved on: 
Monday, March 18, 2024
Footwear, Fashion, Online Retail, Cosmetics, Retail, Luxury, Department Stores, Macy's, Miss Dior, Garden, Perfume, Category:Flower shows, Christian Dior, Femininity, History, Parfums Christian Dior, Sculpture, Plant, Monsieur, Exhibition, Multimedia, Tree, Grasse, Tune

“As we celebrate the start of the spring season, thousands of unique flowers, plants, and trees will bloom throughout the store in unison.

Key Points: 
  • “As we celebrate the start of the spring season, thousands of unique flowers, plants, and trees will bloom throughout the store in unison.
  • From a variety of landscapes and climates, the Macy’s Flower Show provides visitors with a one-of-a-kind opportunity to experience these florals blossoming in unison.
  • For further information on the Miss Dior: From Flower to Fragrance Macy’s Flower Show experience and pop-up, please visit macys.com .
  • For additional information about the 2024 Macy’s Flower Show, including a listing of Christian Dior Parfums special events, please visit macys.com/flowershow .

Nakery Beauty Receives Prestigious HSN Vendor Excellence Awards for Vendor of the Year and Merchandising Excellence in Beauty

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
HSN, Femininity, Woman, Vendor

NEW YORK, March 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Nakery Beauty, a leading beauty brand that celebrates femininity with clean, high-performance skin and body care products, proudly announces its remarkable achievement as the recipient of two HSN Vendor Excellence Awards for Vendor of the Year and Merchandising Excellence in Beauty.

Key Points: 
  • NEW YORK, March 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Nakery Beauty, a leading beauty brand that celebrates femininity with clean, high-performance skin and body care products, proudly announces its remarkable achievement as the recipient of two HSN Vendor Excellence Awards for Vendor of the Year and Merchandising Excellence in Beauty.
  • This dual recognition underscores Nakery's unwavering commitment to excellence, innovation, and delivering exceptional beauty solutions that elevate the HSN customer experience.
  • "Receiving the Vendor of the Year and Merchandising Excellence in Beauty awards from HSN is a tremendous honor.
  • Additionally, the Merchandising Excellence in Beauty Award honors Nakery Beauty's exceptional merchandising strategies that have catapulted its products to the forefront of HSN's engaged community of savvy shoppers.

Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art – Barbican show reveals the medium’s subversive nature

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Element, Sheila Hicks, COVID, Politics, Prevalence, Female, Noise, Museum, HIV, Painting, Femininity, History, Movement, Wall Hangings (exhibition), Woman, Male, Exhibition, Social movement, Artprice, Power, Tate Modern, MeToo movement, Frances Morris, Weaving

Textile art is having a revival, as the artists on show at the Barbican exhibition, Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, attest.

Key Points: 
  • Textile art is having a revival, as the artists on show at the Barbican exhibition, Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, attest.
  • But it also invites deeper reflection on the societal shifts that have prompted a revival of the art form.
  • The exhibition focuses on this subversive nature of textiles in contemporary art through works by artists including Feliciano Centurión.

The changing landscape of exhibiting textiles

  • Their three-dimensional fibre structures both physically and metaphorically reclaimed space in an art world largely dominated by their male counterparts.
  • Their practices often employ textiles and recycled elements, transcending the European dichotomy between art and craft.
  • Private galleries are exerting a growing influence on the art world, and have contributed significantly to the visibility of fibre art and textiles.
  • Moreover, the practicality of textiles, being easier to transport and install compared to paintings, further enhances their appeal to galleries.
  • The resurgence of textiles in contemporary art provides a vital opportunity for conversation and revision within both the art world and society at large.


Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.
Francesca Stocco does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Menstrual health literacy is alarmingly low – what you don’t know can harm you

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Well, Meigs's syndrome, Anxiety, Premenstrual dysphoric disorder, Woman, Bleeding, Diet, Menstrual cycle, Education, Anemia, Temperature, Inflammation, Hormone, Pain, Fetus, Hysterical, Female, Growth, Endometriosis, Asthma, Menstruation, Swelling, Human, Femininity, Physiology, Pregnancy, Fibroid, Syndrome, Migraine, Irritable bowel syndrome, Ovulation, Premenstrual syndrome, Puberty, Mother, Mammal, Patient, Employment, Prisoner, Miscarriage, Medicine, Epilepsy, Health literacy, Urine, Science, Vagina, Biology, Mortality, Research, Depression, Birth control

When I ask my menstrual health workshop participants – including clinicians – there’s usually a lot of shrugging and shaking of heads.

Key Points: 
  • When I ask my menstrual health workshop participants – including clinicians – there’s usually a lot of shrugging and shaking of heads.
  • If given multiple choice options, most think that periods either “clean the womb” or somehow “help prepare for pregnancy”.
  • Yes, the blood part can stain clothing, but there is nothing pathological, contaminating, or dangerous about periods.

So, why do we have periods?

  • Periods likely evolved as a kind of preemptive abortion, to protect women from unviable or dangerous pregnancies.
  • As a result, we have low rates of conception, high rates of miscarriage, and extremely high rates of maternal mortality in comparison to other mammals.
  • The menstrual cycle is critical for facilitation of the initial steps of this raison d’être of the female reproductive system.
  • The menstrual cycle is critical for facilitation of the initial steps of this raison d’être of the female reproductive system.

What else don’t we know?

  • Perhaps with the fact that the second phase of the cycle from ovulation to menstruation is a series of highly inflammatory processes.
  • This was only very briefly mentioned in three out of 16 textbooks.
  • We really ought to be taught from puberty how to reduce period pain and blood loss – this is not difficult science.

Why aren’t we taught this stuff?

  • My research shows that the exclusive focus on the female sex hormones in menstrual education is informed by societal influences, such as the myth of the hysterical or hormonal female.
  • This gender myth is still alive and well, although now we tend to blame the (female sex) hormones.
  • Again, there was no scientific reason for this change in focus, although it reflected existing societal beliefs about the inherently irrational behaviour of women.
  • Unfortunately, menstrual health literacy has not yet recovered from this shift in physiological models.

So what?

  • It also becomes much easier to differentiate premenstrual changes from underlying health conditions, since the latter will not be substantially alleviated by anti-inflammatory interventions alone.
  • Teaching the reductive hormonal model of the menstrual cycle unintentionally provides pseudo-scientific evidence for the damaging hormonal or hysterical female gender myth.


Sally King is the founder of Menstrual Matters- the world's first evidence-based info hub on menstrual health and rights www.menstrual-matters.com. Her doctoral research and current research fellowship were funded by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council).

Monkee's of Williamsburg Owner Thrilled to Share 'Personal Favorites' with Community

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Woman, Merchants Square, Multimedia, Dog, Femininity, Virginia Tech, Blue, Heart, Oliphant

WILLIAMSBURG, Va., Feb. 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Monkee's Franchising welcomes new Virginia location.

Key Points: 
  • Christina Wallace, the operator of Monkee's of Williamsburg and an enterprising store owner, has always been firmly rooted in the state of Virginia.
  • Originally from Poquoson, Va, Christina attended Virginia Tech and has worked in Williamsburg real estate since 2004.
  • In 2017, Christina and her husband Nick moved to Williamsburg and now live here with their daughter Waverly and two dogs Rosie and Sydney.
  • For more information about the store opening and Monkee's Franchising, visit @monkeesofwilliamsburg on Instagram and shopmonkees.com
    View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/monkees-of-williamsburg-owner-t...

YSL BEAUTY WELCOMES DUA LIPA AS GLOBAL MAKEUP AMBASSADOR IN AN ICONIC PARTNERSHIP CHAMPIONING INDIVIDUALITY & CELEBRATING CULTURE

Retrieved on: 
Monday, February 26, 2024
International, Love, Light, Woman, Freedom, Beauty, Multimedia, Individual, Libre, Culture, Empowerment, Femininity, YSL, House, Creativity, OOH, Lip, Cassandre, Attitude, Cosmetics

PARIS, Feb. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Since 2019, Dua Lipa has fronted the Libre franchise as a YSL Beauty Global Brand Ambassador; today, she continues to unapologetically embody modern femininity as the newly appointed Global Makeup Ambassador for YSL Beauty.

Key Points: 
  • PARIS, Feb. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Since 2019, Dua Lipa has fronted the Libre franchise as a YSL Beauty Global Brand Ambassador; today, she continues to unapologetically embody modern femininity as the newly appointed Global Makeup Ambassador for YSL Beauty.
  • For me, fragrances and makeup are another form of self-expression, a way to explore my playfulness, my creativity and my individuality.
  • I am thrilled to be on this journey as part of the YSL Beauty family."
  • – New Global Makeup Ambassador, Dua Lipa.

The New Look: Apple TV drama shows how Dior brought optimism to a war-weary world

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Collection, Sorbonne University, Chanel, Woman, Freedom, Student, Individual, Nazism, Female, Noise, Dior, Pleasure, Perfume, Hope, Femininity, Lord & Taylor, Food, Life, Couture, History, Post-war, World war, Optimism, Q&A, Snow, French people

Dior’s haute couture collection remains a historical moment for post-war fashion, and lends its name to Apple’s new ten-part series.

Key Points: 
  • Dior’s haute couture collection remains a historical moment for post-war fashion, and lends its name to Apple’s new ten-part series.
  • The drama explores the state of Parisian couture in the final year of the second world war and the years that followed through the lives of important designers.
  • This includes Dior and his contemporaries Coco Chanel, Pierre Balmain, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Lucien Lelong, Hubert de Givenchy and Pierre Cardin.

French fashion during wartime

  • Once Nazi forces invaded, Paris and its international fashion markets were effectively cut off from the rest of the world.
  • As fashion designers were forced to limit the amount of material they used, unnecessary decorative additions such as ruffles and pockets became expendable.
  • Instead, wartime couturiers turned to embroidery and beading for decoration – trends that continue to characterise haute couture today.

The rival ‘American look’

  • Its biggest rival was the American ready-to-wear apparel industry, an aspect of the story this new series dramatises to great effect.
  • Though the American industry also faced fabric rationing during the second world war, it was not occupied, and the restrictions weren’t as debilitating.

Dior’s beacon of hope

  • Dior’s 1947 Carolle collection, was renamed the “new look” at first viewing by American fashion editor Carmel Snow.
  • Snow claimed it represented the creation of a new femininity – which Dior would later call “the golden age of couture”.
  • Rather, it celebrated the end of the grim years of wartime trauma, misery and lack.


Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.
Elizabeth Kealy-Morris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.