Marcia G. Yerman

Everything in the world is made of chemicals. We experience exposure to thousands of them daily, from our clothing to our cosmetics. Now you can add the most intimate of items to that list — personal lubricants.

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.

“We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated,” Angelou pronounced.

A friend of mine, who self-identifies as a life coach, repeatedly tried to push a concept on me termed “self-care.” I always thought it was her version of wrapping selfish behavior in an appealing package, tied up with a bow of convenience. My resolution borrows from that premise, but it is rooted much deeper than just doing what is best for my own physical and mental health.

Activities in the photos can range from women at the start of their day, dealing with their children, or sprawled in a chair exhausted after eight hours at work. They document women in dressing rooms, without makeup, sporting a new hat, or dressed to the nines. In Arreola’s estimation, these are all “photo worthy.”

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.

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.”

I reached out to Kate to discuss her film, her impact on the 2011 Massachusetts anti-trafficking law, and her take on the distinctions between “sex work,” “sexual exploitation,” and “abolition.”

Women's History Month — it should be a celebratory time as women reflect on all they have accomplished.

Prior to his operation, B took photographs of his unmutilated body. It was way before the era of the selfie, but he wanted to document himself while he was still “whole.” Post-surgery, the affected side of his chest would bear a long scar. The nipple was gone. He was not interested in taking steps to reconstruct it.