In The Buzz Cut, we bring you a round-up of all the weird, controversial, and wonderful stories we’ve been reading all week.
Avengers: Endgame has been celebrated as a female-centric superhero movie, replete with a feminist, pose-heavy final scene. Here’s why some women (not just us) are far from satisfied.
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Following numerous privacy scandals, Facebook revealed a redesign of its mobile and desktop sites that emphasize group communication. The News Feed is out, replaced by private messaging, groups, and stories.
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Unidentified flying objects shouldn’t be dismissed as some absurd, science fiction occurrence, says the U.S. Navy. The military institution drafted new guidelines to report what they call “unidentified aircrafts,” that have been interrupting their aerial formations and possibly freaking out some military officers.
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Genetic quirks in white male athletes — for example Michael Phelps’ vast wingspan or double-jointed ankles — are lauded as medical marvels responsible for a stellar athletic career. But when a black woman happens to have natural, genetically determined hormone levels that help her to become a double Olympic champion? Not so much. The double standard is disgusting.
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The Indian Army thinks its mountaineering expedition team found the footprints of a yeti, a folkloric mythical creature believed to be inhabiting the Himalayas. There was also a serious discussion about the politically correct term to refer to the yeti — beast, or snowman?
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Under JRD Tata, Air India embarked on an artistic journey to set itself apart from other airlines, and brand itself as an inherently Indian business. What ensued was decades of curating a store of sculptures, paintings, and even Salvador Dali ashtrays. In the midst of a fraught privatization process now, the fate of the art remains uncertain.
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As a society, we are pretty much agreed on the fact that female genital mutilation is abuse, and have several laws in place condemning the practice. Why then, do we refer to sex reassignment surgeries on intersex babies as “corrective,” even though the medical processes are similar to FGM?
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When you hear fonts, in what language do you start visualizing them? For the past decade, several collectives have been trying to develop fonts for Indic languages, to reflect the diversity of the Indian subcontinent. The Indian Type Foundry, for example, has come up with a special Devanagri font called Fedra Hindi, and a sans serif-esque one for 12 Indian languages.
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What happens when two equally educated partners move on to high-paying jobs with intense demands, and start raising a family? With careers that require availability 24/7, only one of the partners can aspire to professional growth, as long as the other takes care of things at home. More often than not, the female partner makes the sacrifice.
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An all-female yacht crew won the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989-90. From being called “a tinful of tarts” by a reporter, to struggling to raise money for the race, a feature documentary titled Maiden, aims to uncover the behind-the-scenes story of the historic win.
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When Rachel Lears first started following around four progressive women running for a Congressional primary in the United States, she had no idea the absolutely blockbuster footage she was sitting on — the journey of superstar politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Now streaming on Netflix, Knock Down The House gives us an intimate look into AOC’s campaign, but also represents the anti-establishment rhetoric that set the mood in U.S. politics in 2018.
