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The quote from New York magazine's profile of Kirsten Gillibrand nobody's talking about.

Democrat or Republican, women know how to work together.

At first glance, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) isn't the most likely person to earn praise from her Republican colleagues.

Gillibrand voted against nearly every one of President Donald Trump's cabinet nominees — more "no" votes than any other member of the Senate.

Still, in a recent interview with Rebecca Traister for New York magazine, Gillibrand showed that there's at least one Republican senator with whom she shares a mutual respect: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).


Collins (L) and Gillibrand (R). Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

The interview is getting attention for Gillibrand's use of colorful language in describing what she sees as Congresses's job, but her blunt language is a small detail in a much more revealing interview.

Gillibrand and Collins represent something important in any profession: what it looks like when women have each others' backs.

In the interview, Gillibrand opened up about her bipartisan friendships and working relationships, touching on everything from the legislation she and Collins filed to protect seniors from fraud to the fact that Gillibrand helped plan Collins' wedding shower a few years back. It's a side of politics we don't usually get to see — or at very least, a side that's often overshadowed.

Gillibrand speaks at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images.

Women in the world of politics have found clever ways to work together to make their voices heard and find solutions.

"We're here to help people, and if we're not helping people, we should go the fuck home," might be getting the most attention from the interview, but it leaves off the important first part of Gillibrand's statement.

The full quote is actually this:

"I know Susan's worldview is similar to my worldview. Which is that we're here to help people, and if we're not helping people, we should go the fuck home."

That first sentence matters. It's an example of a technique called "amplification," a strategy used with great success by women in the Obama administration, in which they deliberately repeat each others' points in meetings, giving credit to the woman who originally made it, to ensure they were not ignored or overlooked.

In the New York magazine interview, Gillibrand made sure to give Collins credit by name for sharing the view that the government's purpose is to help people (though we can't be sure whether Collins would have phrased it quite the same way).

Obama campaigns in 2008. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

In 2012, The Daily Beast wrote about how women in the Senate regularly meet for bipartisan dinner parties as a way to build strength in numbers and develop cross-party friendships in the process. In 2013, the group of 20 senators gathered and devised a plan to avert a government shutdown. In 2017, now with 21 senators in their ranks, the women are still getting together, still demonstrating the value of women taking care of women — even when they don't always agree.

"So when it comes to helping one another, we’re just more ready to do it. We want each other to succeed and find a path forward because we really leave the partisan politics at the door," Gillibrand explained in an interview with BuzzFeed.

Senators at the Senate Women Power Workshop in November 2014. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Whether it's female staffers amplifying each other's voices in meetings or hosting dinner parties to keep the government afloat, the truth is that women get things done — especially when they have each others' backs.

The state of politics these days is just a tiny bit polarized, and depending on your own political leanings, the politician you see as a hero may be a villain in the eyes of your next-door neighbor. It's all so very subjective and, honestly, a little exhausting.

Even so, there are occasional moments like these that can give us hope while we wander the political wilderness — moments where politicians from opposing parties can actually agree on something. These women remind us of that.

Joy

Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.

The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.

via Pixabay

A sad-looking Labrador Retriever

The sweet-faced, loveable Labrador Retriever is no longer America’s favorite dog breed. The breed best known for having a heart of gold has been replaced by the smaller, more urban-friendly French Bulldog.

According to the American Kennel Club, for the past 31 years, the Labrador Retriever was America’s favorite dog, but it was eclipsed in 2022 by the Frenchie. The rankings are based on nearly 716,500 dogs newly registered in 2022, of which about 1 in 7 were Frenchies. Around 108,000 French Bulldogs were recorded in the U.S. in 2022, surpassing Labrador Retrievers by over 21,000.

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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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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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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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Pop Culture

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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