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Jennifer Lawrence's spot-on, blunt take on Hollywood's gender pay gap.

When it comes to Hollywood's sexist pay gap, Jennifer Lawrence is done playing nice for the sake of being liked.

In a new essay published on Oct. 13, 2015, Lawrence — in the most "JLaw" way possible — used one-liners and self-deprecation to make her point loud and clear: It's ridiculous her male co-stars make more money than she does.


Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

In the essay "Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co-Stars?" published in a newsletter by Lenny — a new project by Lena Dunham and HBO "Girls" producer Jenni Konner — Lawrence got blunt on the subject, using personal experience as proof society needs to change.

Lawrence admitted she's cared more about what people thought about her than being treated fairly.

Lawrence first acknowledged that her income inequality problems may not seem that relatable to most working women (what with her being a movie-making multimillionaire and all). But inequality is inequality no matter where it happens, and her voice on this issue is an important one.

Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images.

Her whole essay is thoughtful and hilarious (I recommend subscribing to Lenny to read it in its entirety). But Lawrence truly hit the nail on the head when she brought up the fact that her male co-stars made more money than she did in "American Hustle" — a story that surfaced last year in the wake of the Sony email hack and proceeded to make headlines everywhere:

When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with dicks, I didn't get mad at Sony. I got mad at myself. I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early. I didn't want to keep fighting over millions of dollars that, frankly, due to two franchises, I don't need. (I told you it wasn't relatable, don't hate me).

But if I'm honest with myself, I would be lying if I didn't say there was an element of wanting to be liked that influenced my decision to close the deal without a real fight. I didn't want to seem “difficult" or “spoiled."

Many women, like Lawrence, face that same tricky predicament of being both assertive and well-liked.

Our world tends to like women when they're smiling, friendly, and not the least bit controversial. Women who speak their mind? Go against the grain? They're viewed and treated differently than men who do the same.

Don't take my word for it, though — take Marianne Cooper's. She was the lead researcher for Sheryl Sandberg's best-selling book, "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead," and is a sociologist at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University.

"What the data clearly shows is that success and likability do not go together for women," Cooper wrote in the Harvard Business Review in 2013, pointing to several studies on the subject. "This conclusion is all too familiar to the many women on the receiving end of these penalties. The ones who are applauded for delivering results at work, but then reprimanded for being 'too aggressive,' 'out for herself,' 'difficult,' and 'abrasive.'"

Jill Abramson speaks at a conference in 2014. Photo by Lisa Lake/Getty Images for Pennsylvania Conference for Women.

Cooper pointed to Jill Abramson — who was fired as The New York Times' executive editor last year after achieving success in the role — as a prime example of how the double standard can be harmful to women in powerful positions.

Considering the status quo, it's no wonder successful women like Lawrence may be hesitant to speak up.

But Lawrence has had enough. So don't be surprised if she starts ruffling more feathers soon. (I mean, hey — she's already making more money than Chris Pratt in their new movie together, so maybe Lawrence's newfound confidence already kicked in a few months ago?)

PREACH, JLaw. We got your back.

The gaze of the approving Boomer.

Over the past few years, Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964) have been getting a lot of grief from the generations that came after them, Gen X (1965 to 1980), Millenials (1981 to 1996), and now, Gen Z (1997 to 2012). Their grievances include environmental destruction, wealth hoarding, political polarization, and being judgemental when they don’t understand how hard it is for younger people to make it in America these days.

Every Baby Boomer is different, so it's wrong to paint them all with a broad brush. But it’s undeniable that each generation shares common values, and some are bound to come into conflict.

However, life in 2023 isn’t without its annoyances. Many that came about after the technological revolution put a phone in everyone’s hands and brought a whole new host of problems. Add the younger generations' hands-on approach to child rearing and penchant for outrage, and a lot of moden life has become insufferanble.

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Klein Kwagga understood the assignment at his sister's concert.

Some kids are too shy to ever want to get on a stage, some will spend most of a performance staring awkwardly at their shoes, and some kids love the opportunity to show off what they've practiced in front of an audience.

And then there are the kids were simply born for the spotlight. You know them when you see them.

When Dirkco Jansen van Nieuwenhuizen hopped on stage with all of the other brothers and sisters of the dance students at René’s Art of Dance in South Africa, no one expected a viral sensation. According to Capetown Etc, it was the school's year-end concert, and siblings were invited to come up and dance to Bernice West’s Lyfie—a popular song in Afrikaans. And Dirkco, who goes by Klein Kwagga, took the assignment and ran with it.

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True

After over a thousand years of peaceful relations, European semi-superpowers Sweden and Switzerland may finally address a lingering issue between the two nations. But the problem isn’t either country’s fault. The point is that the rest of the world can’t tell them apart. They simply don’t know their kroppkakor (Swedish potato dumpling) from their birchermüesli (a Swiss breakfast dish).

This confusion on the European continent has played out in countless ways.

Swedish people who move to the United States often complain of being introduced as Swiss. The New York Stock Exchange has fallen victim to the confusion, and a French hockey team once greeted their Swiss opponents, SC Bern, by playing the Swedish National Anthem and raising the Swedish flag.

Skämtar du med mig? (“Are you kidding me?” in Swedish)

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Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

People share the most practical ways to support new parents

There's a lot of preparation that goes into having a child well before they're even born. First there are the physical changes your body makes to clear up some space for a tiny human roughly the size of a watermelon. Then there's preparing the nursery, buying lots of extremely small clothes, diapers and an expected understanding that while sleep may be your friend, you won't be getting any of it for about a year.

Lots of people give plenty of advice to help you cope in the early days but after the baby arrives, the focus shifts to solely the baby. It's obviously not a deliberate shift. Babies are just more shiny and new that the parents. But not everyone forgets about the parents once baby makes their grand entrance–some go out of their way to make sure the parents feel supported.

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A mom seeks doctor's help for postpartum depression and instead gets a visit from the cops

Too many women lose out on much needed support because of unwarranted stigma.

Canva

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Jessica Porten recently visited her doctor four months after giving birth to her daughter, Kira. She wasn't feeling quite like herself.

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In a Facebook post, Porten recounts the story of that appointment.

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Identity

Formerly enslaved man's response to his 'master' wanting him back is a literary masterpiece

"I would rather stay here and starve — and die, if it come to that — than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters."

A photo of Jordan Anderson.

In 1825, at the approximate age of 8, Jordan Anderson (sometimes spelled "Jordon") was sold into slavery and would live as a servant of the Anderson family for 39 years. In 1864, the Union Army camped out on the Anderson plantation and he and his wife, Amanda, were liberated. The couple eventually made it safely to Dayton, Ohio, where, in July 1865, Jordan received a letter from his former owner, Colonel P.H. Anderson. The letter kindly asked Jordan to return to work on the plantation because it had fallen into disarray during the war.

On Aug. 7, 1865, Jordan dictated his response through his new boss, Valentine Winters, and it was published in the Cincinnati Commercial. The letter, entitled "Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master," was not only hilarious, but it showed compassion, defiance, and dignity. That year, the letter would be republished in theNew York Daily Tribune and Lydia Marie Child's "The Freedman's Book."

The letter mentions a "Miss Mary" (Col. Anderson's Wife), "Martha" (Col. Anderson's daughter), Henry (most likely Col. Anderson's son), and George Carter (a local carpenter).

Dayton, Ohio,
August 7, 1865
To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

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