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Gillian Anderson's tweet to 'Ghostbuster' Kate McKinnon shows the power of nerd girls.

Kate McKinnon proves the future is female.

Gillian Anderson has been kicking ass and taking names for women in the entertainment industry since "The X-Files" premiered over 20 years ago.

Photo by Araya Diaz/Getty Images.


Ever since "The X-Files" first premiered in 1993, Anderson has been fighting to be treated as an equal to her male co-star on the series, David Duchovny.

As the Daily Beast reported:

"While Scully asserted her authority at every turn, Anderson found herself fighting just to stand on (literal) equal ground with her male co-star. The studio initially required Anderson to stand a few feet behind her male partner on camera, careful never to step side-by-side with him. And it took three years before Anderson finally closed the wage gap between her pay and Duchovny’s, having become fed up with accepting less than 'equal pay for equal work.'"

Anderson's portrayal of Scully over 20 years ago was an inspiration for a generation of women who grew up seeing themselves represented in a science-fiction show.

Kate McKinnon, star of "Saturday Night Live" and the recent "Ghostbusters" reboot, is one of those women — and even once dressed up as Scully for Halloween.

While that's amazing all on its own, it's not the most exciting news here.

Gillian Anderson just tweeted a photo of a young McKinnon dressed in full Scully regalia:

She captioned the photo:

"Kate McKinnon, we have something in common & it's not slimy green things. #Ghostbusters #thefutureisfemale"

This tweet is so many awesome things at once. Not only did Anderson honor McKinnon, the incredibly talented and deserving breakout star of "Ghostbusters," but she added the hashtag #thefutureisfemale, a slogan that originated back in 1972 to commemorate the first women's bookstore in New York City. Over the years, it's become a phrase for women's empowerment in the face of oppression.

Anderson's tweet makes an important statement about "Ghostbusters," a movie that's taken a lot of flack for putting hilarious women in the foreground. And fans have echoed her sentiment across Twitter.

Writer Jill Pantozzi shared a photo of herself also dressed as Scully:


In an article about why prominent female characters are important in movies like "Ghostbusters" and TV shows like "The X-Files," Pantozzi explained, "No matter how you feel about Ghostbusters, you can't deny these women and their characters will make a lasting and powerful impact to so many people."

Thanks to Anderson, McKinnon, and all women battling the still frightfully misogynistic world that is the entertainment business, things are slowly but surely changing for the better.

Hopefully, as a result, there will be a lot more girls dressed up like Scully and the Ghostbusters gang this Halloween.

A Korean mother and her son

A recently posted story on Reddit shows a mother confidently standing up for her family after being bullied by a teacher for her culture. Reddit user Flowergardens0 posted the story to the AITA forum, where people ask whether they are wrong in a specific situation.

Over 5,600 people commented on the story, and an overwhelming majority thought the mother was right. Here’s what went down:

“I (34F) have a (5M) son who attends preschool. A few hours after I picked him up from school today, I got a phone call from his teacher,” Flowergardens0 wrote. “She made absolutely no effort to sound kind when she, in an extremely rude and annoyed tone, told me to stop packing my son such ‘disgusting and inappropriate’ lunches."

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Photo by Egor Vikhrev on Unsplash

Let's talk about what makes people read articles.

The adage, "If it bleeds, it leads," refers to the media's tendency to headline stories involving death or violence, but it can also be used to point to people's negativity bias. Simply put, people tend to pay more attention to negative news stories than positive ones.

A new study seems to reinforce this idea. And much to our surprise, it's centered on headlines used in Upworthy stories.

Using a public archive of Upworthy headlines and traffic data from 2012 to 2015, two separate teams of researchers analyzed whether people's click tendencies changed with negative or positive words in headlines. In those olden days of Upworthy, a handful of headlines for a single story were tested on the website to see which one would receive the most clicks. The research teams analyzed those results and found that negative words in headlines led to more people clicking on a story (2.3% more), and positive words in headlines led to fewer clicks (1.0% fewer). They also found a preference for headlines that express sadness over those that express joy, fear or anger.

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Woman was mocked online for calling an $80 purse a 'luxury item.' Her response went viral.

"I'm so grateful that my dad was able to get me one. He worked so hard for that money.”

@zohtaco/TikTok

Zoe Gabriel, showing off her new purse from Charles & Keith

Insults of any kind are painful, but jabs towards someone’s financial status are their own breed.

In January 2023, Singapore-based Zoe Gabriel was on the receiving end of this particular flavor of mockery when she posted a TikTok about a purse from local retail brand Charles & Keith—a gift bought for her by her father.

In her excitement, the 17-year-old called the bag, which costs around $80, a “luxury” item as she unwrapped it. Her excitement was sadly cut short by some of the negative comments she received.

One comment seemed to stand out above the rest and prompted Gabriel to post an emotional response video.

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Samantha Moriá Reynolds's advice on sick children.

It's cold and flu seasons, folks. During this time of year, we're all on a mission to avoid the demon viruses that threaten to invade our bodies and wage Armageddon on our immune systems.

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A doctor specializing in child development shares 5 of her most surprising parenting tips

"How To Discipline Your Child So They Actually Learn" is one of her more popular videos.

via drkristynsommer / TikTok

Parenting is the most important job that most people will ever have in life. Your decisions as a parent will be some of the most important determining factors in whether your child becomes a happy and productive adult or not. It's a huge responsibility.

Parenting is a difficult and important undertaking, but many parents simply repeat the same strategies used by their parents. How often do we hear people rationalize their decisions by saying, "That's what my parents did and I came out ok."

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RuPaul's Drag Race 'Footloose' parody gets high praise from Kevin Bacon himself

When the OG Ren McCormack approves, you know you're in for something good.

RuPaul's Drag Race/Youtube, Wikipedia

Loosey LaDuca performing as Heaven Bacon for "Wigloose: A Rusical"

Fans of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” are well acquainted with the “Rusical” segment, but in case this word seems like something out of Dr. Seuss, here’s a brief explainer: A Rusical is a challenge on the show where contestants put on a live parody drag musical. Since debuting in Season 6, the Rusical has become a beloved staple of the series, with some of the most popular titles being “Madonna: The Unauthorized Rusical,” “HERstory of the World” and “Moulin Ru: The Rusical.”

For Episode 12, the queens drew inspiration from the 1984 movie “Footloose” to tell a story about a small town that prohibits drag rather than dancing. The performance got a sweet seal of approval from the OG Ren McCormack himself.
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