North Carolina Kicks Sex Offenders Out of Libraries, Parks, and Fairs
A new sex offender law took effect in North Carolina on Thursday, restricting offenders’ freedom of movement and association by barring them from libraries, recreational parks, pools, and fairs. The law is designed to replace a previous measure that a federal court ruled unconstitutional in April. It will do nothing to stop sex crimes while continuing to isolate, penalize, and ostracize fully rehabilitated offenders who are attempting to rejoin society.
North Carolina’s previous sex offender law was a constitutional monstrosity that essentially gave prosecutors—as well as law enforcement and probation officers—the power to punish offenders who dared to leave their house. Under the statute, offenders could not be present in any place used by children. Its hazy, sweeping regulations were interpreted to forbid former offenders from attending G-rated movies, eating at fast food restaurants with attached play areas, walking in or near recreational facilities, and going to church. Former offenders were also barred from visiting hospitals, museums, malls, shopping centers, and community colleges, because children might be present. (Bizarrely, the law applied to offenders whose crimes did not involve minors.)
A federal judge struck down most of the previous law, holding that it was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad in violation of the First Amendment. So North Carolina simply re-enacted it with several tweaks. The new version explicitly lists the kind of places where sex offenders may not go and limits its application to offenders whose crimes involved minors. While the old law barred offenders from “any place where minors gather for regularly scheduled educational, recreational or social programs,” the new one bars them from places where minors “frequently congregate”—including libraries, amusements parks, recreational facilities, and swimming pools. Moreover, the new provision applies only to offenders whose crimes involved minors, and only bars offenders from its no-go zones when minors are actually present.
Lena Dunham’s Interview With Amy Schumer Is a Lovefest, But It Produced One Amazing Quote
When one celebrity interviews another celebrity, the result is usually a mutual lovefest. But occasionally, since both parties’ defenses are down, you get a really amazing quote. Such is the case with a conversation between Lena Dunham and Amy Schumer in Lenny, Dunham’s newsletter, this week. After Dunham mentions that she and Schumer sat across from each other at the Met Ball (so relatable!), she describes her interactions with a famous football player in memorable terms. (Dunham wore a tuxedo to the Met Ball.)
College Students Who Were Bullied as Kids Are at Higher Risk for Post-Traumatic Stress
The damaging effects of childhood bullying can persist into young adulthood, causing lasting psychological trauma akin to that of childhood physical and sexual abuse. According to a new study of undergraduate students, those who were bullied as children were significantly more likely to have mental health troubles than their unbullied peers.
The study, published online this month in Social Psychology of Education, asked 482 college students to report their experiences with bullying, community violence, neglect, robbery, sexual assault, and abuse through the age of 17. They also noted their current state of mental health and any symptoms of depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress.
After controlling for other traumatic childhood experiences, researchers found that bullying victimization was a significant predictor of current mental health problems for the young adults. Being bullied was an even stronger predictor of post-traumatic stress symptoms among these students than childhood exposure to community violence or being abused by adults.
“The prevalence of psychological distress in children who have been bullied is well-documented, and this research suggests that college students’ psychological distress may be connected in part to their perceptions of past childhood bullying victimization experiences,” said educational psychologist Dorothy Espelage, who conducted the survey at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Most research on the mental-health effects of bullying has centered on children and high-school students; this new study reveals that the damage done to and by young children doesn’t easily fade with time as so many childhood memories do. Bullying is not a phenomenon confined to the years in the schoolyard: Previous studies have shown that people who are bullied in grade school are more likely to be victimized later in life as adults in the workplace, and people who bully others as children often continue victimizing their peers as adults.
Espelage and the other authors of the University of Illinois study recommend that colleges train on-campus counselors on the persistent effects of childhood bullying and expand programs that currently address sexual assault to include other types of trauma. This could be a particularly important intervention for female students: The young women who reported in the survey that they’d been bullied also reported more severe lingering psychological and emotional consequences than their male counterparts.
Some psychologists have contested the idea that bullying, a non-physical type of sustained personal attack, could cause the same kind of post-traumatic stress disorder experienced by survivors of physical violence or threats. It’s also hard to prove causality around PTSD, since other factors like pre-existing depression or anxiety can make a person more susceptible to developing the disorder. But this study makes a strong argument for an expanded understanding of the mental health struggles of college students and other young adults who may be living with the emotional scars of harm inflicted long ago.
Birth of a Nation’s Gabrielle Union Pens Powerful Op-Ed About Nate Parker’s Alleged Sexual Assault
Nate Parker’s slave rebellion epic Birth of a Nation became engulfed in controversy this summer when Variety reported that Parker had been tried (and acquitted) of sexual assault in college. (His Birth of a Nation co-writer Jean Celestin was convicted but saw his sentence vacated; their alleged victim later died by suicide.) Parker’s initial attempts to defend himself in the court of public opinion were solipsistic and offensive, though he has since shown more remorse. Now his Birth of a Nation co-star Gabrielle Union has penned a powerful op-ed in the Los Angeles Times eloquently capturing her own ambivalence and pain over the Parker revelations.
Union, whose character in the film is raped, begins by stating that 24 years ago she was “raped at gunpoint in the cold, dark backroom of the Payless shoe store” where she was then working. She then recounts Parker’s alleged misdeeds, reflecting:
Different roads circling one brutal, permeating stain on our society. A stain that is finely etched into my own history. Rape is a wound that throbs long after it heals. And for some of us the throbbing gets too loud. Post traumatic stress syndrome is very real and chips away at the soul and sanity of so many of us who have survived sexual violence.
Does Union regret helping Parker create Birth of a Nation? It sounds as though she is unsure:
Since Nate Parker’s story was revealed to me, I have found myself in a state of stomach-churning confusion. I took this role because I related to the experience. I also wanted to give a voice to my character, who remains silent throughout the film. In her silence, she represents countless black women who have been and continue to be violated. Women without a voice, without power. Women in general. But black women in particular. I knew I could walk out of our movie and speak to the audience about what it feels like to be a survivor.
Union notes that Birth of a Nation presents an opportunity to educate audiences about sexual violence and its aftermath. “I took this part in this film to talk about sexual violence,” she writes:
Think of all the victims who, like my character, are silent. The girls sitting in their dorm rooms, scared to speak up. The wife who is abused by her husband. The woman attacked in an alley. The child molested. Countless souls broken from trans-violence attacks. It is for you that I am speaking. This is real. We are real. Sexual violence happens more often than anyone can imagine. And if the stories around this film do not prove and emphasize this, then I don’t know what does.
“It is my hope,” Union concludes, “that we can use this as an opportunity to look within. To open up the conversation. To reach out to organizations which are working hard to prevent these kinds of crimes. And to support its victims. To donate time or money. To play an active role in creating a ripple that will change the ingrained misogyny that permeates our culture. And to eventually wipe the stain clean.”
It is far too late to bring justice to Parker’s alleged victim, who died four years ago. And it is now impossible to separate Birth of a Nation, however great it may be, from the controversy that has engulfed it. But Union’s op-ed brings a glimmer of hope that the film can be used to educate, to enlighten, to represent the pain of sexual assault and prevent potential perpetrators from committing these heinous acts. That Union could salvage such an important message from this distressing mess only further proves her immense talent and compassion.
Elie Tahari’s New Ad Campaign Imagines a Female President Showing Off Her Cleavage
The U.S. has never elected a female president before, so it’s hard to imagine what a woman’s presidency might look like. Will she wear an American flag barrette instead of a pin? Will she wear a pencil skirt and running shoes into the office, then change into a pair of heels she keeps under theResolute desk? Will she enter the Situation Room an enormous purse overflowing with Kleenex packets, stain sticks, and baggies of raisins?
No she will not, fashion designers predict, but she will just barely clear the office’s 35-year age requirement, and she’ll look an awful lot like Melania Trump.
A Lot of Mothers Regret the Names They Gave Their Children, According to a New Survey
When baby names make the news, it’s usually because a celebrity has named their newborn something ursine like Bear Blu or Buddy Bear. But this week’s headline concerns less eccentric yet somehow more regrettable names. A new informal survey conducted by a British parenting website found that 18 percent of mothers suffer from “namer’s remorse”—and not because they chose names that were outlandish. The list of most frequently regretted names is strikingly staid: Charlotte, Amelia, Anne, Daniel, Jacob, James and Thomas.
Of course, any single uncommon name is by definition not going to be commonly regretted. But the survey found that mothers’ top reason for onomastic discontent was that they hadn’t been bold enough; 25 percent said the name they chose was too common, and 11 percent said it was not distinctive enough. It’s hard to imagine “James” being the cause of such angst, but this is an era in which blending in too much is as horrifying as standing out.
The Number of Women Opting Out of the Workforce Hasn’t Changed Over the Past 30 Years
In 2003, the New York Times Magazine published “The Opt-Out Revolution,” Lisa Belkin’s look at ambitious and educated women who leave the workforce after having children. The story launched the ubiquitous and somewhat misleading term “opt out,” often presented as the alternative to another ubiquitous and somewhat misleading term, “lean in.” It also spurred an ongoing debate about whether the women Belkin wrote about represented a tiny but mediagenic trend or a wide scale and documentable shift.
Over the years, evidence has emerged to support both views. In 2009, the Washington Post ran a cover story disputing the revolution, pointing to recent census numbers showing that there was no upward trend of educated women deciding to stay home to look after children. But there’s also been data showing that number of women in the workforce is declining, and that the number of stay-at-home moms is on the rise.
To Narrow Wage Gap, Congress Might Ban Employers From Asking for Salary History
When Congress returns from summer recess, members will consider a new bill that will aim to narrow the wage gap between genders and races. Washington, D.C. congressional delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton will introduce a bill with cosponsors Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) that would ban questions about salary history in job interviews and salary negotiations.
Earlier this summer, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to prohibit employers from asking about an applicant’s previous salary. Lawmakers and advocates have predicted that the rule will help break cycles of wage discrimination that keep women and people of color earning less than their white male peers for their entire careers, just because of one period of wage stagnation, a sexist or racist boss, time out from the work force, or a failure to negotiate a higher salary for their first jobs.
For Some Kids, Body-Image Issues Start as Early as Preschool
A distressing new survey of British childcare professionals indicates that dissatisfaction with one’s appearance and weight can begin as young as 3. The Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years, a charity that supports childcare practitioners, polled hundreds of childcare workers and found that 71 percent of them believe that “children are becoming anxious about their bodies at a younger age.” In a press release, a PACEY advisor said, “By the age of three or four some children have already pretty much begun to make up their minds (and even hold strong views) about how bodies should look.”
The most disturbing result of the survey concerns very young children: Twenty-four percent of the childcare professionals polled have seen signs that 3-to-5-year-old children in their care “are unhappy with their appearance or bodies.” Meanwhile, 47 percent of the survey participants have seen signs that 6-to-10-year-olds in their care are unhappy with their appearance. Thirty-one percent have heard a child call him- or herself fat, and 19 percent have seen children reject food out of fear of gaining weight.
Thin Versions of Cookies Like Chips Ahoy and Oreos Are an Abomination
I’m all for cookie innovation. When people started adding salt to chocolate chip cookies a few years ago, I happily partook. When I see recipes online for cookies stuffed with caramel or cake batter or some other unnecessary-but-awesome-looking filling, which seems to be the current gonzo cookie trend, I transform, werewolf-like, into an emoji with cookies for eyes. Same for Nutella and red velvet cookies, confectionary advances of the past decade or so that I firmly believe have benefited society as whole. Believe me when I say my party affiliation is Cookie Monster, straight down the ballot.
That’s why it troubles me so greatly to have to call out a nefarious development in the cookieverse. This abomination of a tweet showed up in my feed recently, unbidden: