The origins of this trend were unclear some claimed it was inspired by Alexandra Ocasio-Cortezs speech in US Congress about misogyny (AOC notably didnottake up the challenge) while others claimed the source was a movement protesting the high rates of femicide in Turkey.

However, very few of the millions of #challengeaccepted photos on Instagram contain the original Turkish hashtag#istanbulszlemesiyaatr, which demands enforcement of a human rights convention to fight violence against women.

Without any call to action, all that these photos have succeed in achieving is diluting the #challengeaccepted hashtag so that pictures of murdered women in Turkey now appear alongside pouting shots of Cindy Crawford and Eva Longoria.

Aside from the question of whether one can be challenged to do something that isnt remotely challenging (challenge: a stimulating task or problem), I would also ask what is empowering about posting a photo on a platform that is designed precisely for this function.

empowerment| im-pau(-)r-mnt: the granting of the power, right, or authority to perform various acts or duties

In the era of social media marketing via buzzwords and hashtags, empowerment is frequently co-opted by advertising campaigns particularly those aimed at women. Consumerism now thrives on selling female empowerment back to women:Want to be empowered, ladies? Use this shampoo, buy this car, join this weight loss program, wear this lipstick!

As a concept, female empowerment has been reduced to signifying literally anything that a woman does.

Take Khloe Kardashian signing up to be a brand ambassador for a protein shake to empower young women by showing their ex what he is missing. It shouldnt need pointing out, but apparently it does, but there is nothing particularly powerful about women drinking protein shakes instead of eating so they lose weight for the sake of a man who dumped them.

Khloe Kardashians passionate advocacy for female empowerment has not stopped there. Her denim clothing line too isall about empowerment making the women feel great about themselves.As if gender inequities can somehow be addressed by wearing the right pair of expensive jeans.

Meanwhile, when her sister Kim broke the internet by posting a nude selfie for International Womens Day, she spurred a debate about whether or not this was an act of female empowerment.Kim Kardashian herself said: I am empowered by my body. I am empowered by my sexuality. I am empowered by feeling comfortable in my skin I hope that through this platform, I can encourage the same empowerment for girls and women all over the world.

She has since createda womens empowerment add-on for her personal emoji collection successfully monetising feminism and turning it into yet another Kardashian product. I personally couldnt care less whether Kim Kardashian posts nude selfies, but she is a woman of immense power and she is simply exercising that power, not reclaiming it for girls and women around the world who are powerless.

It might look like I blame the Kardashians, but whatever other talents they lack, they are truly masterful in marketing themselves (and the brands that pay them a fortune to do so) in the modern age. They understand that the appeal of social media lies in its simplicity in flattening the world to pretty pictures and aspirational hashtags. In doing so, it voids terms like empowerment of any actual meaning and transforms them into tools for capitalism.

According to its dictionary definition, empowerment refers to the act of placing power in the hands of those who have been excluded from it. So what does posting a selfie on social media do to empower women? Very little, unless they live in a country where women are specifically banned from posting black-and-white photos of themselves on Instagram.

When a woman does something, it is not inherently empowering just because a woman is doing it despite what the hashtags would have you believe. It only becomes a form of empowerment if the woman has been denied the right to perform this action by existing power structures.

So by all means, post your selfies and drink your protein shakes just dont call it female empowerment. Much like the millions of black tiles shared on Instagram in performative support of the Black Lives Matter movement, it only serves to make us feel like were doing something of any substance.

But no matter how many products we buy or pictures we post that are supposed to empower us as women, we still havent closed the gender pay gap or given women worldwide the right to control their own bodies. Women still cant live without fear of sexual harassment or abuse. And the women in Turkey continue to be murdered, their faces appearing in black and white media images.

Nowthatis the real challenge.

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Celebrities have literally stripped 'empowerment' of all meaning - The Big Smoke Australia

Ole Miss

Published on August 10th, 2020 | by TLV News

Amanda Winburn, associate professor of counselor education at the University of Mississippi, has been awarded the Outstanding Contributor Research Professional Award from theMississippi Counseling Association.

Michael Russo, a doctoral candidate in the counselor education and supervision program, also was awarded the Outstanding Contributor Research Student Award.

The Outstanding Contributor Research Award encourages counselors to carry out organized research in their respective fields in both the professional and student categories. The selection criteria include research applicability to counseling, originality, validity and presentation.

Faculty and students who contribute to research do so in a way that eventually bridges research to practice and impacts services in counseling and education, said Rick Balkin, UM professor of leadership and counselor education. Dr. Winburn is the real deal with exemplary contributions in all areas of teaching, research and service, and Michael Russo has had a very successful doctoral program experience with state and national recognitions and publications.

Winburns research areas include advocacy in school counseling, bullying, wellness and, more specifically, play therapy. Her research has recently been featured in journals including the International Journal of Play Therapy and Professional School Counseling.

I am interested in this line of research because I believe that advocacy is at the heart of everything that we do as school counselors and play therapists, Winburn said. Learning how to become stronger, more effective advocates for our profession or our programming ultimately impacts our students and clients in very positive ways.

Winburn also won the School of Educations 2019 Outstanding Teacher Award. She has been involved with play therapy at UM both in a clinical setting and by actively conducting research.

I think conducting research is just a natural extension of my passion for school counseling, Winburn said. When you believe in something as strongly as I do, you want to explore the field and try and answer as many questions as possible.

Russo, a Dayton Beach, Florida, native, came to Ole Miss in 2018 to join the doctoral program. He was recognized with the student award based on his overall research agenda, which focuses on neuroscience-informed counseling.

Much of my published work is focused around the integration of neuroscience into counseling as well as the empowerment of individuals to reduce symptoms associated with anxiety and trauma through neurofeedback, Russo said. Through counseling processes, such as neurofeedback, individuals can reduce clinical symptoms associated with mental health diagnoses.

Russo recently co-authored an article with Balkin that was published in Counseling Outcome, Research and Evaluation. Together, they evaluated adolescent male perceptions of working alliance, problem severity, well-being and crisis stabilization throughout a 10-week course of residential treatment.

To be blunt, this award isnt about me, Russo said. This award is about the clients that I have had the honor to watch grow and have had the courage to challenge stigma, sign up for a research study and reclaim control of their brain to promote greater regulation within their lives.

The MCA is a branch of theAmerican Counseling Association. It works in Mississippi to encourage the personal and professional development of counselors, influence decisions that affect the counseling profession, and promote the progress of counseling.

The MCA will honor Winburn and Russo at a virtual conference on November 11th.

By Meaghan Flores

Tags: Amanda Winburn, education, Michael Russo

TLV News The Local Voice is a bimonthly entertainment guide and newspaper based in Oxford, Mississippi, covering and distributed in North Central Mississippi, including Oxford, Ole Miss, Taylor, Abbeville, Water Valley, Lafayette County, Yalobusha County, and parts of Panola County, Marshall County, and Tupelo . The Local Voice is distributed free to over 255 locations in North Mississippi and also available as a full color PDF download worldwide on the internet.

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Education Professor, Ph.D. Student Recognized for Counseling Research - The Local Voice

August 10, 2020

Summer is upon us and this year, more than ever, it feels pertinent to pick holiday reads that will uplift and inspire. Where better to turn to, then, than artists memoirs and biographies filled as they are with tales of overcoming lifes hardships, fights for justice and recognition in and outside of the art world, the quest to forge a legacy through art, and, more often than not, a juicy scandal or two to keep the readers interest piqued. Here, weve selected 15 of our favourites for your perusal, spanning the empowering, the ephemeral, the political and the downright provocative (Diego Rivera, were looking at you).

Faith Ringgold is one of Americas most renowned artists and activists, whose inherently political, exquisitely executed work from story quilts to paintings tackle civil rights and gender inequality head on. But Ringgold has had to fight hard for her successes, a story she shares in her stunning, illustrated memoir We Flew over the Bridge. In it, Ringgold details the many prejudices shes battled and the challenges shes faced in balancing her thriving artistic career with motherhood, sharing words of advice and empowerment along the way. It makes for magical reading; in the words of Maya Angelou: Faith Ringgold has already won my heart as an artist, as a woman, as an African American, and now with her entry into the world of autobiography (where I dwell), she has taken my heart again. She writes so beautifully.

Amazing Grace paints a poignant picture of the celebrated African American artist Beauford Delaney, a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, and later following a move to Paris in the 1950s a noted abstract expressionist. Delaneys tale is both remarkable and heartbreaking: he was a much loved character, who counted Henry Miller and James Baldwin among his close friends, yet he often felt isolated and underappreciated, struggling with mental illness throughout his life. His wonderfully vibrant paintings boast an extraordinary psychological depth, betraying the hardships he faced and his determination to keep going no matter what. He has been menaced more than any other man I know by his social circumstances and also by all the emotional and psychological stratagems he has been forced to use to survive; and, more than any other man I know, he has transcended both the inner and the outer darkness, Baldwin once wrote.

A memoir quite unlike any other, this book by American photographer Sally Mann weaves together words and images to form a vivid personal history, revealing the ways in which Manns ancestry has informed the themes that dominate her work (namely family, race, mortality, and the storied landscape of the American South). Mann decided to write the book after unearthing a whole host of unexpected family secrets deceit and scandal ... clandestine affairs, dearly loved and disputed family land ... racial complications, vast sums of money made and lost, the return of the prodigal son, and maybe even bloody murder while sorting through boxes of old family papers and photographs. In gripping prose, she allows us to follow her on her resulting journey of self-discovery, shedding pertinent light on her image-making practice at every turn.

David Wojnarowiczs beloved collection of creative essays, Close to the Knives, remains a vital work a scathing, sexy, sublimely humorous and honest personal testimony to the Fear of Diversity in America (as per its inside flap). Its an intensely powerful memoir that guides the reader across the American artists life from his violent suburban childhood through a period of homelessness in New York City to his ascent to fame (and infamy) as one of Americas most provocative creators and queer icons inciting action and self-examination on every page. In the words of Publishers Weekly: What Kerouac was to a generation of alienated youth, what Genet was to the gay demimonde in postwar Europe, Wojnarowicz may well be to a new cadre of artists compelled by circumstance to speak out in behalf of personal freedom.

Patricia Bosworths fantasticDiane Arbus biography takes a deep dive into the turbulent life of the seminal American imagemaker, whose unflinching photographs of marginalised groups sought to challenge preconceived notions of normality and abnormality with extraordinary results. Through Bosworths shrewd investigation, and interviews with Arbus friends, colleagues and family members, we learn of the ideas and inspirations that drove her, the fears and anguish that plagued her, her pampered childhood and passionate marriage, and the tragic turn her life took in spite of growing artistic acclaim resulting in her suicide in 1971.

This book is the brilliant tale of five brilliant women artists: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler, who burst onto the male-dominated New York art scene in the 1950s, smashing down gender barriers along the way. Each was an indomitable force in their own right Krasner, an assertive leader and hellraiser; de Kooning, a great thinker; Hartigan, a fiercely determined housewife-turned-painter; Mitchell, a vulnerable soul with a steely exterior and prodigious talent; Frankenthaler, a well-schooled New Yorker, who shunned a traditional career path to follow her dreams. But together, from their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved, they changed the face of postwar American art and society forever.

Gordon Parks autobiography Voices in the Mirror is a compelling and empowering read. It traces the American photographers difficult early life in Minnesota where he became homeless, following his mothers death through his groundbreaking and meteoric rise as an image-maker (the first Black photographer at Vogue and Life, no less) and thereafter as a Hollywood screenwriter, director and novelist. Parks was a man of great compassion and courageous vision, whose work spanned intimate portrayals of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini; of the Muslim and African American icons Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad and Muhammad Ali; of the young militants of the civil rights and black power movements; and of the tragic experiences of the less famous, like the Brazilian youngster Flavio. Suffice to say that incredible stories andwords of wisdom abound.

Ai Weiweihas spent his entire career creating very beautiful, deeply political works that challenge and confront his countrys totalitarian regime to global acclaim. But rising the ranks to become Chinas most famous living artist and activist has come at a price. In April of 2011, just six months after his vast, thought-provoking sculpture Sunflower Seeds was installed in Tate Moderns Turbine Hall, Weiwei was arrested at the Beijing Capital International Airport and detained illegally for over two months in dire conditions. Shortly after his release, Barnaby Martin travelled to Beijing to interview the artist about his imprisonment and to discover more about what is really going on behind the scenes in the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist Party. Hanging Man is the result a highly informative and stirring account of Weiweis life, art, and activism, as well as a meditation on the creative process, and on the history of art in modern China.

In Gluck, author Diana Souhami examines the radical life and work of British painter Hannah Gluckstein (1895-1978), who took on the name Gluck, with no prefix, suffix, or quotes, in her twenties to reflect her gender non-conforming identity. Famed for her masculine, undeniably chic style of dress, her passionate affairs with society women, and her emotive portraits, flower paintings and landscapes, Gluck was provocative and tender, fierce and gifted in equal measure and decades ahead of her time. This excellent biography captures this paradoxical ... woman in all her complexity, to page-turning effect.

As its title suggests, this book is not a biography as such, but a series of nine interviews with the inimitable figurative painter, Francis Bacon. They were conducted by the late art critic and curator David Sylvester over the course of 25 years, from 1962 to 1986, and thereafter compiled into what has long been heralded a classic, offering an illuminating glimpse into one of the great creative minds of the 20th century. In it, the British painter contemplates the fundamental problems involved in making art, as well as his own obsessive thinking about how to remake the human form in paint (to quote the books back cover), revealing a great deal about his radical practice and storied past in the process. Cited by David Bowie as one of his all-time favourite books, it is essential reading not just for Bacon fans, but for anyone in search of creative impetus.

My Art, My Life by Diego Rivera is a wild read, offering juicy first-person insight into the world of the larger-than-life Mexican painter. Rivera recounted his lifes story to the young American writer Gladys March over the course of 13 years, leading up to his death in 1957. The book sheds fascinating light on Riveras radical approach to modern mural painting, his strong political ideology and his equally unerring devotion to women (he marriedFrida Kahlo not once but twice, youll remember). In the words of the San Francisco Chronicle:There is no lack of exciting material. A lover at nine, a cannibal at 18, by his own account, Rivera was prodigiously productive of art and controversy.

First published in French in 1994, and since expanded and printed in English, True Stories, by the French conceptual artist Sophie Calle, is a real gem. Calles idiosyncratic oeuvre comprises controversial explorations of the tensions between the observed, the reported, the secret and the unsaid, in the words of the books cover, spanning photography, film, and text. Many of her pieces revolve around the documentation of other peoples lives, and the insertion of herself into them (think: her 1980 work Suite Vnitienne, where she followed a stranger from Venice to Paris), but True Stories is entirely focused on Calle herself. Through a montage of typically poetic and fragmented autobiographical texts, and photographs, the artist offers up her own story childhood, marriage, sex, death with brilliant humour, insight and pleasure.

This book centres on the late Japanese American artist Ruth Asawa best known for her breathtaking hanging-wire sculptures and bold, urban installations and fountains. Asawa survived an adolescence spent in World War Two Japanese-American internment camps, before securing a place at the revolutionary art school Black Mountain College. There she discovered her signature medium as a lyrical means of challenging the conventions of material and form. Later, Asawa would become a pioneering advocate for arts education in her adopted hometown of San Francisco, while raising six children, battling lupus and continuing to work. By incorporating Asawas own writing and sketches, photographs, and interviews with her loved ones, Marilyn Chase conjures up a fully rounded image of a visionary creator, who wielded imagination and hope in the face of intolerance and transformed everything she touched into art.

German Dadaist and collage artist Hannah Hchs esteemed career spanned two world wars and most of the 20th century, and by the age of 83, she was ready to reflect. The result was her final, largest photo-collage, Life Portrait (1972-3), comprising 38 sections and measuring nearly four by five feet. It is a self portrait-cum-memoir, alluding to the different periods of Hchs life and work, while ironically and poetically commenting on key political, social and artistic events from the previous 50 years. It also includes imagery of her favoured themes and inspirations (fashion imagery, news photographs, African art and pictures of plants and animals) as well as multiple pictures of herself, identifiable by her signature bob haircut. This unique book presents the collage section by section, alongside relevant quotes and explanatory texts by Alma-Elisa Kittner, acting as a brilliant meditation on Hchs final masterpiece, and the lifes work it represents.

Roxana Robinsons acclaimedGeorgia OKeeffe biography is a sensitive and enthralling investigation into the life and work of the so-called mother of American Modernism. It takes an in-depth look at OKeeffes influences, from abstraction and photography to Asian art, and how she assimilated these into her singular painting practice the red hills, the magnified flowers, the great crosses and white bones. It also shines a light on the many intense relationships the artist forged throughout her life, from her marriage to the revered photographer Alfred Stieglitz to her scandalous relationship with Juan Hamilton, a man six decades her junior. Best of all, it includes plenty of OKeeffes own words in the form of her letters and writings allowing the artist herself to play a key role in the telling of her own multifaceted, infinitely inspiring story.

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15 Engrossing Artist Biographies and Memoirs to Read Now - AnOther Magazine

Kay Salerno and Shila Morris Published 8:52 a.m. PT Aug. 10, 2020

NCET helps you explores business and technology.

Kay Salerno and Shila Morris(Photo: Provided by NCET)

When we think about workplace culture we often picture the motivational poster on the wall or the annual holiday party, but culture that actually motivates employees to stay longer goes far beyond these things, and isnt as "fluffy"as you may imagine.

Being restaurant owners in these times has put us on the small business frontlinesof the pandemic, and what we know is this: Businesses are navigating brand-new waters in a brand new social landscape, and key team members who have the energy and stamina to keep up and stay positive are essential to keep business running.

The challenge then becomes:How do we keep those people, without begging, bribing or bullying them, and how do we find more of them?

What weve found, and what research shows, is that company culture is the way.

Culture, as defined by Merriam-Webster is "the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization."

The key word that we as leaders often miss is "shared."

Our personal attitude, values, goals and practices make up our own character, but designing a company character, aka company culture, means that these things are shared by the individuals within the organization.

So how do we do that especially with a younger workforce that cares less about bottom line results and more about social impact?

With systems of culture that promote: empowerment, character development, communication, safety and trust.

In other words, we create an environment that tells them, "We want more for you than fromyou."

We can do this in a variety of ways, from personal and professional growth investments to recognizing significant personal milestones. But if youre on a tight budget and want to start steering your culture in a new direction, consider shifting something that doesnt cost any money, wont require any additional time, and will help you achieve your desired results without a motivational poster: intentional language shifts.

Its so simple it doesnt seem like it would have that much impact, but small language shifts are the little hinges that swing open the big doors of employee engagement and retention.

Here areour top threelanguage shifts you can start using right away:

1. "But: vs. "and":Consider the following two sentences: I like that idea, but I dont think it will work. I like that idea, and I think its worth considering.

2. Problem vs. opportunity. Do you have a problem with a young employees email etiquette, or an opportunity to grow professionally?

3. Help me understand. One of the best phrases you can use when you need to give reprimands or feedback. Help me understand why you responded the way you did. Help me understand why this continues to be an issue for you.

These language shifts indicate to an employee that youre on their side, that you are assuming they have good intent, and that you want to help them succeed.

As you begin to communicate like this, youll see employees start to be more engaged and empowered. Theyll feel more emotionally safe and better understood, and with that comes more trust, and with trust comes loyalty.

Intentional communication is the first step in building the company culture that goes beyond parties and perks and creates that loyalty and engagement that will help us not only keep our employees but keep them happy.

Learn about Cracking the Culture Code at NCETs Biz Cafe Online on Aug.19. NCET is a member-supported nonprofit organization that produces educational and networking events to help people explore business and technology. More info at http://www.NCETcafe.org.

Kay Salerno and Shila Morris are the sister co-owners of the Squeeze In restaurants (squeezein.com) and are Northern Nevada natives who are energized by adding value to other entrepreneurs and family businesses.

Read or Share this story: https://www.rgj.com/story/news/money/business/2020/08/10/culture-beyond-parties-and-perks-ncet-biz-tips/3335051001/

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Culture: beyond parties and perks | NCET Biz Tips - Reno Gazette Journal

Later this month, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education is scheduled to decide the future of Denvers school quality measurement tool. The School Performance Framework was launched in 2008 using a color-coded system that rates schools from distinguished or blue, to accredited on probation or red. Critics, myself included, argue that this framework is not reflective of what is really happening in schools and has become weaponized. It became the currency by which DPS determined which schools would be shuttered, and the framework dis-incentivized collaboration and sharing of resources.

A committee met this past year to reimagine the framework for measuring school quality. I served on the committee and we came to an agreement on three recommendations.

First, replace the existing School Performance Framework (SPF) and cede to an already existing school rating framework run by the state to fulfill the state and federal requirements regarding school accountability.

Second, create an online dashboard to inform the public about whole child measures, including school climate, culture and additional academic measures not captured in the states framework.

And third, launch a continuous improvement cycle to support schools.

In May I was alarmed to see a small but vocal faction urge the board to vote against recommendations two and three.

While I understand that there is a lack of trust with DPS, I felt this group grossly misrepresented this truly community-led, district supported effort. Those same voices have perhaps not yet comprehended that passing only the first recommendation would tragically put the district back where it started: having a color-coded system of rankings based on test scores. Beyond that, it would derail the communitys call for equity by depriving Denver families of the types of information and empowerment they have demanded for years.

A recent study led by University of Colorado professor and researchers Antwan Jefferson and Plashan McCune found that Denver families of color rely upon a range of sources when seeking the best educational fit for their children, including information from the district and schools, but also from personal experience and their community. The research concluded families of color find the information DPS provides is insufficient they want to know more. What is the school like? And how does it reflect our community context?

Over the course of the next school year, the Denver community will be invited to engage in designing the dashboard and the improvement process for schools, an endeavor that will naturally be informed by the work done on the next Denver Plan. Examples of measures the committee suggested for the dashboard include: the amount of teacher and parent voice in school-based decision making, district support regarding mental health staffing, ICAP completion rates, and staff diversity and experience.

The dashboard will shed light on institutionalized racism by providing the community access to data showing the rate of suspensions for Black and Latinx students, schools successes and failures at supporting teachers of color, and data from students of color on how safe and supported they feel in their school environment.

The recommendations for a dashboard and improvement cycle are intended to paint a more robust picture of each school. These are not intended to be punitive or add parameters for triggering state and local accountability requirements. Rather than fuel competition, our hope is that it will promote collaboration and mutual responsibility between schools, the district, the superintendent and board. The dashboard will repudiate the rankings of schools that fed the mindset that we are better and they are less.

To ensure this, the Board of Education can put guardrails into their board resolution by creating stipulations that this new information shall not be weaponized. One of the most powerful pieces of the new dashboard would be the school narrative which would provide schools the unprecedented opportunity to provide context for their data.

Its clear that Denver doesnt want its school quality measures to be mechanisms of shame. Its also clear Denver parents dont want to return to an era where it was impossible to know how well schools were serving all kids. We can create something all of Denver can endorse. Lets get to work.

Karen Mortimer is a Denver Public School parent who served on the Reimagine the SPF committee. She is also a parent leader with Together Colorado.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

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Guest Commentary: Denver schools shouldnt be pitted against each other, but parents still need school performance information - The Denver Post

An Australian personal trainer has shunned the use of transformation pictures to show bodily changes because they can be taken seconds apart, as evidenced by her latest upload to Instagram.

Madalin Giorgetta, who lives in PerthinWestern Australia, gained 865,000 Instagram followers by posting her own transformation images to social media, but now recognises this is not a show of empowerment.

She has also noticed thinner people trying normalise body rolls and cellulite in their photos, saying that its not fair on those who carry more weight and cant just pose away their stomach.

Plenty of influencers use these images to relate to their audience by insisting they have normal flaws like everyone else.

Ive been seeing these types of photos everywhere recently and I always engage with them. Its addictive to see what most people try to hide, the 31-year-old captioned her photo.

What effect does this have on our body image? Am I learning to accept my body through these images or am I merely being entertained? I dont feel worse or better about my body after viewing this type of content.

After spending four years taking mirror selfies to flaunt her famous curves Madalin is keenly aware of how easy it is to distort an image with angles, clothing placement and body organisation.

In the left image she showcased, the owner of Work It with MG has placed her underwear on her hips, showing how the folds of her skin spill over the top.

The second picture has her underwear up much higher to thin out her waist, her legs placed in a more elongated position, and in the final shot she has pushed her thighs forward so they appear larger than they actually are.

Im wondering how other people feel when they see these images, do you feel empowered or frustrated? Empowered because you can accept your slim but flawed body or frustrated because you cant love your larger body out of oppression? Madalin wrote.

Do transformation photos motivate you or frustrate you?

Do transformation photos motivate you or frustrate you?

Now share your opinion

Those in marginalised bodies cant pose and change how their body is perceived but do we disregard the experience and feelings of slim but normalised and accepted bodies? Are they not important too?

Madalin acknowledged there was more acceptance of slim bodies that fit the typical standards of beauty and health, like her own.

I always eye roll when its an extremely thin or fit woman doing this because for larger people, even when posing the correct way, their bodies will still not look that way, one of her followers remarked.

The thin woman is basically saying see, were all the same! When in reality she benefits from thin privilege and wont experience body image the same way larger people do.

Actual fat women will always have rolls and cellulite and love handles, and sometimes these posed versus unposed photos drive a deeper wedge between us, said another.

A third added: The instagram vs reality have always been frustrating to me because almost always its from thin cis women.

Madalin lost 130,000 social media followers after she stopped posting fat burning workouts and weight loss tips, and instead focused on moderation.

Its possible to be part of the fitness industry and not do that, though it will be tougher to build your following and grow your business, I wont lie, she said in April.

But Im doing it while being true to myself and that means the world to me.

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Personal trainer shares images of her body to show why 'transformation' pictures AREN'T real - Brinkwire

Managing your money without a bank account is doable. But it can pose challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic has only added more.

Your economic impact payment mightve arrived weeks or months after others did, in the form of a check or prepaid debit card, because you couldnt choose the faster delivery option of direct deposit into a bank account. And if youve gone to the store lately, you may have been asked to pay with a debit or credit card or in exact change due to a nationwide shortage of coins and concerns over germ transmission.

A bank account can make life easier in these situations, among others. To avoid future issues, consider opening one or try again if youve been rejected in the past. Heres a guide to getting started.

ASSESS YOUR MONEY NEEDS

If youre one of the 14 million adults without a bank account in the U.S., you might have a system that works for you. Maybe that includes using alternative products such as prepaid debit cards and check cashing services. Financial counselor Brandy Baxter has worked with clients who used check cashing services for practical reasons.

They preferred to walk in, walk out with cash in hand, says Baxter, an accredited financial counselor and financial coach who runs the firm Living Abundantly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Check cashing stores like Check n Go and ACE Cash Express may operate for longer hours than banks and have easy approval processes to get cash quickly. But this comes with a steep fee, which can range from 1% to 6%, or more, of the check amount.

Bank accounts can fulfill money needs beyond what prepaid cards and check cashing services can. For example, their fraud protections can limit what you pay if youre victimized, and many accounts let you lock debit cards remotely when stolen.

And once youve begun a relationship with a bank, other doors open: Credit cards, auto or small business loans and cheaper alternatives to payday loans may eventually be within reach.

Checking accounts dont just help you save costs; theyre the stepping stones to use other financial products, says David Rothstein, principal at Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, who manages BankOn, a national platform that promotes financial inclusion.

FIND A BANK THAT FITS YOU

If you find banks intimidating or have had issues getting an account before, community banks and credit unions tend to be more accommodating than national banks and are often mission-driven for example, focusing on the financial health of their surrounding communities.

Were very lenient at giving someone a second chance, says Pedro Murillo, area branch manager in the San Francisco Bay Area for Self-Help Federal Credit Union. If an employee comes in to apply for a loan and doesnt have pay stubs, what else (can they) show us? A letter from (their) employer? We dont want to give up.

Like other credit unions, Self-Help requires a person to open a savings account to become a member; the minimum to open an account is typically a few bucks. Then members can apply for other products, like a credit builder loan.

You can search online for the term CDFI which stands for community development financial institution to find credit unions like Self-Help near you. Many require those who join to be in the same area or state where the credit union or bank has branches.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT APPLYING

To open an account, youll generally need your Social Security number, one or two forms of identification and money for the first deposit.

Its common to apply for two bank accounts at the same time: a checking and a savings account. The checking account grants access to a debit card, bill payment system and other services, while the savings account lets you set money aside and, ideally, grow by earning interest.

Banks usually screen applicants on ChexSystems, a national reporting agency that keeps records of accounts closed against a persons will. If you have lost access to a bank account in the past, you might be rejected by other banks until you settle your ChexSystems record. This can mean paying off debt to a bank or disputing errors on the record.

Once youre cleared, consider what banks often call a second chance checking account or a BankOn-approved checking account. Many of these dont charge overdraft fees, which kick in if you try paying for something that would put your balance in the negative.

Finding and opening the right bank account involves some effort. But once youre approved, having a safe place for your money and a better chance to get affordable loans can make it worthwhile.

To have a checking account is the cornerstone of any financial empowerment effort, Rothstein says.

This article originally appeared on the personal finance website NerdWallet. Spencer Tierney is a writer atNerdWallet.

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How to get started if you've never had a bank account - Las Vegas Sun

FEATURES Soul Love Now And the Legacy of Black Fire Records Jazz By Daniel White August 10, 2020

On the night of October 28th, 1975, Howard Universitys Cramton Auditorium was packed. Oneness of Juju had made the drive from Richmond to play this show, which was no ordinary gig: this was Howard University in the 70s, the Mecca of Black culture and thought. Oneness of Jujus bandleader, James Plunky Branch, was going to give the crowd a show to remember.

The most spiritual music in the ancient African days was the music that made you move. Plunky tells the audience before the band launches into African Rhythms, the lead track from their newest album of the same name. We created this piece so we would have a piece of music that was spiritual, informative, and at the same time, something you could get off to.

A recording of that concert, released for the first time, is included on Soul Love Now: The Black Fire Records Story 1975-1993, a 10-song compilation out this September via Strut Records that celebrates the foundational black-owned record label founded by Plunky and local DJ and record promoter Jimmy Gray. Much of the Black Fire catalogue was birthed during the mid 70s, when Black America was living with the results of the Civil Rights movement. This makes Soul Love Now all the more poignant in the presentthe compilation is an unearthed gem of long-forgotten affirmations of Blackness.

Its one thing to practice four hours a day and do it at home; its another thing when you have the tribe, that audience, Plunky says, calling from his home in Richmond. As he tells the story, he first met Jimmy in late 1974, after discovering a copy of Black Fire, a magazine that featured a Juju album on its cover. Plunky called his record label at the time, New York Citys Strata-East, to inquire about Black Fire. It turned out Jimmy was Strata-Easts third-party promotions person for much of the Mid-Atlantic and Black Fire, the magazine, was his project. After assisting Strata-East with distribution for Gil Scott-Herons Winter In America, along with its hit single The Bottle, Jimmy got the idea to start a label of his own, using the Black Fire moniker hed employed on other projects.

The two became fast friends and, eventually, business partners, as Jimmys knack for distribution and personal philosophy meshed well with Plunkys musical inclination towards Black empowerment, and his desire to learn more about the record business. Black Fire adopted the Strata-East cooperative model; the artist would press the first 1000 copies of the album, and the label assumed distribution costsprovided the record performed well. Artists on Black Fire also enjoyed an extremely favorable royalty rate.

The whole idea was to empower [the artists on the label] to do their own thing, says Strut Records founder Quinton Scott. Its an amazing thing they did with those labels back then because, you know, you forget thatback in the 70s, it was very very hard to get that music on the radio. So it was always a fight economicallyit was very hard to run these things.

By the late 70s, like some of their Black-owned independent Jazz contemporaries, Black Fire wasnt doing well financially. Jimmy and Plunky were pooling together as much money as possible to fund the recordings, but after releasing just five full-lengths and a few singles, the label went dormant for 13 years beginning in 1980. The reality was that, apart from Plunky, most of the roster never made enough noise to fund their first 1000 albums.

I think the shame about Black Fire is that it only ran really for sort-of two or three years before it became a financially difficult thing to run, says Scott. Given that, I think the quality of the music and the bands they had there were phenomenal. Its just a small catalogue, but its dynamite, its brilliant.

For Scott, Black Fire represents an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle in decoding Black indie-labels history. While Strata-East and Tribe were more about serious jazz, Black Firein part thanks to Plunkys inputreleased more R&B-oriented jazz and soul, often the kind of music you could get off to.

One standout from the catalog is the first release from Experience Unlimited, 1977s Free Yourself. The band would eventually develop into a more funk-oriented group, later introducing the world to the Washington D.C. funk offshoot Go-Go with their song Da Butt, which appeared in Spike Lees 1988 film School Daze. You can hear by the way they play it, that its the blueprint for whats coming, says Scott. I love that. Literally, a few years later, everyone is on that same rhythm, and go-go has cemented itself as a sound.

That willingness to cross genres is present all over Soul Love Now, from upbeat songs like Wayne Davis Look At The People! to more Afrocentric numbers like Nia by Juju and Byard Lancasters Drummers From Ibadan. Inspired by his time spent in San Francisco in the late 1960s playing with a South African ex-pat, Plunky instilled a fluidity to the label that prioritized a performances energy and the beauty of the artists intention over more strict genre restrictions. I love dancing in that nuance, where [the genre] is not definitive. And in that place, as a musician and as an audience, we revel in thatthats freedom. That we can float, we can feel this together, without the rigidity of rules, concludes Plunky.

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Soul Love Now And the Legacy of Black Fire Records' Jazz - bandcamp.com

Self-help is a maligned genre. And, for a long time, I was one of its detractors.

I convinced myself that self-help was a guilty pleasure: such books deserved to be buried deep inside my bedside drawers, rather than proudly displayed on my shelves. Whenever I picked up a self-help book Id find myself thinking, Pull yourself together and read somereal literature! If you need insight into the human conditionthatbadly then for the love of God woman, just read Dostoevsky!

Training myself out of the shame associated with self-help is an ongoing process. Im not exaggerating when I say that Id sooner be caught on the bus readingFifty Shades of Greythan a volume entitled,Get your Shit together and Stop Being Insecure(FYI this is not a real book, but if you fancy writing it, then Ill be the first to buy a copy). Both genres erotica and self-help feel uncomfortably personal, as well as inextricably linked to self-gratification. God forbid that some rampant narcissist might combine the two and read a self-help bookaboutsex! (of which there are, incidentally, many good ones).

In my mind, self-help had become synonymous with self-indulgence, and this belief was making it harder for me to benefit from the help these books had to offer. I decided that it was time to unpack my relationship with the genre.

Beyond the fact that reading them involves confronting personal problems, Ive worked out that my discomfort with self-help books boils down to two things: the elitist assumption that they are lowbrow and the sexist idea that self-help which focuses on any subject beyond material success is for women.

First, elitism. To understand the snobbery directed at self-help, its worth considering where the modern self-help movement originated. Forms of self-help literature have been around for millennia, from ancient Greece to Tang Dynasty China. However, it was in 1859 that Scotsman Samuel Smiles publishedSelf-Help: the book to which the commercial genre of today owes its title.

Comprised of lectures that Smiles had delivered to working men in Leeds,Self-Helpwas a primer for the poor in self-education and upward mobility. Smiles certainly believed that he was empowering the working classes; but the book spun a pernicious narrative. Its emphasis on the individual responsibility of the poor to transcend their circumstances, minimised the duty of the state and fuelled a harmful distinction between the deserving versus undeserving poor. No wonder that, over a century later, Margaret Thatcher wanted to give a copy ofSelf-Helpto every schoolchild in the country

It makes sense that self-help is deemed lowbrow. The genres very name comes from a manual for the lower classes: literature designed for theaspirers rather than for theaspired towards. It was inevitable that those who could afford to lounge around reading Ovid in their private libraries would look down upon self-help. The genre was notfor them, and I think that this downward-looking perception of self-help has been absorbed into our cultural milieu, which has always been defined by the tastes of the elite.

In an ideal world, self-help would not be necessary. Some even argue that its existence perpetuates a system whereby the government offloads its welfare responsibilities onto individual citizens a phenomenon that has become more apparent than ever in the time of Covid-19. But we should not ridicule something that has served not only as a means of therapy, but of survival for people when the state fails to uphold their interests for them.

This is what the self-care movement of the late 20thcentury was all about: survival. In her 1988 essay,A Burst of Life, Audre Lorde penned the now famous phrase: Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare. As a self-described black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet, Lorde recognised that she could not rely on a white patriarchal society to promote her basic health and wellbeing, let alone her prosperity. Self-care was adopted by various black civil rights, queer and feminist groups who made the same realisation and sought to rally against their systematic disempowerment.

Given the influence of feminist activists like Lorde on the self-help and self-care literature of today, it is all the more disconcerting that the genre is often mocked and belittled as a womens thing. Though, of course, its not for all women: only thedesperate women, thesadwomen, and worst of all, theunstablewomen the ones who are somehow failing to thrive in todays society.

Was I just imagining the pitying expression of the bookseller when I picked up a copy of Chidera EggeruesWhat a Time to be Alonethe other week? Its for a friend, I wanted to lie. Bad breakup. Shes feeling very *whispers*unstable. Ah yes, the bookseller would grimace back at me, we get a lot of those inthissection.

Something that occurred to me while reading another self-help book (Florence GivensWomen Dont Owe You Pretty) is that people often attack self-help because its something that others use to empower themselves, to proactively tackle the challenges that they face. The best way to stop this process of empowerment in its tracks and preserve the status quo is to ridicule and invalidate the tools that people use to care for and better themselves.

As long as self-help is portrayed as an inherently feminine and superfluous genre, there will be no winners not even men! Laughing at guys who use self-help as a means of exploring their emotions, dismissing their attempts as girly, simply fuels the stigma surrounding mens mental health. Men are likely to restrict themselves to the self-help stereotype that isThe 7 Habits of Highly Efficient People rather than considering self-help books that could help them to look inwards. Meanwhile, women who read self-help books about material success are at worst, shamed, and, at best, shoehorned into the one-dimensional trope of the strong, independent woman.

I should have prefaced this article by pointing out that there is a lot of self-help out there that is complete and utter bullshit, and that there are certainly exploitative patterns within what has become a huge money-making industry. Self-help is not a replacement for therapy or for the care owed to us by the state, and we should be wary of anyone who tries to tell us otherwise. The purpose of this article has been, quite simply, to decode the mockery of self-help books, to considerwhywe are laughing andwhowe are laughing at.

It took my own experience of trauma to recognise that maligning self-help can contribute to disempowerment, and to think non-judgmentally about the traumas which might have led other people to seek self-help and self-care. For now, my self-help books are still stowaways in the bedside drawer and you certainly wont find me reading them brazenly on the bus. However, I can say that Ive learnt to admire individuals who, for whatever reason, choose to take their wellbeing into their own hands. So, think twice before judging someone who uses self-help, because there may come a time when you, too, could benefit from it.

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In defence of self-help - Cherwell Online