Marcia G. Yerman

“When I left the Navy,” said Zapf, “people had negative ideas of women in the military.” In steps to re-calibrate those perceptions, Zapf has been speaking around the country at conferences. “I want to make sure that the American public gets a comprehensive view of what women experience.”

November 25 is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls. Using the color orange to symbolize “a brighter future without violence,” 16 days of activism has been planned to bring recognition to the continued dangers facing women and girls around the world.

OK. Full disclosure. I don’t watch Fox News. I’m an MSNBC kind of girl. Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Melissa Harris-Perry are my peeps. But I do know who Megyn Kelly is, albeit from clips of Jon Stewart (what are we going to do without him?) where he highlighted some of her more puzzling statements like “Jesus was white.”

When recounting that Mildred didn’t like that Gayle was flat-chested at 15, we learn how Mom stuffed her daughter’s bathing suit top with foam. It escaped and floated away during a swim lesson. Rather than express regret at the incident, Mildred offers the response, “Your boobs grew, and your nose grew.”

“The online community has been one of my most valuable resources,” Quinones-Fontanez emphasized. “It's made our journey a little less lonely, knowing that I have people in my life who understand. I have built a community that can provide me with advice and hope.”

In a poll just released by Pew, only “23 percent of women are satisfied with the way things are going in the country today.” So make a point to call your elected representatives.
Tell them you want affordable and comprehensive healthcare.

Thanks to social media, consumers are able to reach out to brands and directly express their pleasure — or displeasure — with a company’s product. I frequently react to advertisements that annoy my sensibilities via Twitter (I give shout outs, too!), using the hashtag #fem2. This summer’s Schick ad, with three bikini-clad young women standing behind bush-type trees in front of their pubic area, irritated me to no end.

So what does it all mean for women candidates past and future? (I won’t even include Sarah Palin in this discourse because she has become more of a performance artist, as evidenced in her slam poetry endorsement of Trump). I do wonder why Fiorina was able to get away with delivering her points of view in ways that often struck me as spiteful, condescending, or harsh to the ears. I didn’t attribute it to her gender. Rather, I don’t find her terribly sympathetic.

Cannabis is gaining traction as a potential solution to numerous

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but for those whose lives dramatically changed when they entered the realm of rape survivor, there is no 30-day expiration date.
This is made abundantly clear by Annie E. Clark and Andrea Pino, the co-founders of End Rape on Campus (EROC). They also have edited the book, “We Believe You: Survivors of Campus Sexual Assault Speak Out.”