"You Don't Own Me" PSA - Upworthy from The Department of Peace on Vimeo.

Lesley Gore, who taught us all that we could cry as long as it was our party, died of lung cancer today at the age of 68. The video above is from an Upwrothy page, encouraging women to vote in November of 2014.

From that project, which Gore endorsed:

In 2013, there were more laws passed to limit women’s reproductive rights than in the entire previous DECADE.
Ten million more women than men voted in the last election. In fact 53% of voters were women. That is not a voting block it's a majority. Women have decided literally every election in our lifetimes, yet, midterm turnout is historically low. LET'S CHANGE THAT!

Beyond women's rights, Gore was a hugely impactful advocate of gay and lesbian rights. She came out* in 2005 while hosting a PBS show called In The Life, which focused on LGBTQ issues. At that time, she had already been with her partner, Lois Sasson, for more than 23 years.

Gore is widely quoted saying:

I think it’s important, not so much to be married to your partner as to be given the civil rights that married couples get, so I’m on that bandwagon...and that may take awhile, but it’s happening, for sure. By the time I shut my eyes for good, I’ll have seen a real difference, I think, and I’m happy about that.

I like to think that came true for her. We'll miss you and your feminist ways, Lesley.


*Which maybe shouldn't have been surprising. I mean, have you heard the song? I know she said she was crying, but Lesley just didn't seem too broken up about Judy wearing Johnny's ring. 

Good news for everyone interested in the Amazon original series 'Transparent,' but not interested in shelling out $99 a year for Amazon Prime: The series will be free to view on Saturday—just Saturday.

The first (and so far only) season of series consists of 10 half an hour episodes, so it's more than possible to binge watch the whole thing for free. However, if you don't finish in the allotted 24 hours, or if you're just too excited for season 2 (which won't start filming until May), there's more good news. The price of a Prime membership will also be discounted on Saturday to $72, as nod to the 72nd annual Golden Globes, where the series won Best TV series and star Jeffery Tambor won Best Actor in a TV series.

So, this is a Swedish kids' song set up to teach the kiddos the basics of genitalia. And I love it.

"Here comes the penis at full pace," and "the vagina is cool, you better believe it, even on an old lady. It just sits there so elegantly" are the only verified translated lines I've been able to find thus far.

The video has been viewed 1.5 million times and it's garnered some mixed reactions, from "I don't want to live on this planet anymore" to "what a great song about the most natural thing there is."
 
My love for this song is about 30 percent the intense joy I get from singing "snippity, snippity, snippity snop," 20 percent how adorable that grandma vagina* is and 50 percent the cool factor of sex positive parenting. It's really great that Swedish kids are being given this sweet introduction to a part of their bodies that is so often stigmatized.  


♬ Snippity doooooo ♪


*"Adorable grandma vagina" is a thought I was not expecting to have today.

There's a lot of new that I'm excited about in 2015. There's the Breaking Bad spin off (please be good) and that Hawaiian brunch place opening downtown sometime next month... and now there's CURVES by Victoria Janashvili. 

Here at the Weekly, we're all about body love. We love it when people feel good about who they are, and we love it when people can present themselves without panicking about not living up to expectations.

To quote the Kickstarter page, "An art photography book about beauty of women of all shapes and sizes. This is a book about confidence."

Speaking of that Kickstarter, you have until 1 p.m. today to throw some money at the project, which has already been fully funded.

"We like booty. We like your booty. We like curves and boobs and hips and bodies. We love bodies. We love women’s bodies, whether they are skinny, full, flat, athletic, old, young, black, brown, white….but not everybody does... Because not everybody knows how beautiful bodies truly are!"

Women's bodies are beautiful, but we don't always see a lot of photographic support for that. We need more projects like this. We need more pictures of beautiful, plump, naked women covered in white paint.

In the last year, there's been a lot of news about campus rape. Colleges generally didn't know what to do with themselves as students protested leniency with attackers and accused rapists defended their honor. This week, the  U.S. Department of Education is saying they had better figure it out.

Because of increased attention and organizations like Know Your IX—a very cool organization that helps students deal with sexual assault at their colleges—there's been a lot of pressure to get things right.

Yesterday was a big day in the direction of progress. The U.S. Department of Education announced it had found Harvard University and its Law School had fallen short in its campus sexual assault responsibilities. The ruling means that Harvard will have to redo it's sexual harassment policies. 

From yesterday's U.S. Department of Education press release: 

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced today that it has entered into a resolution agreement with Harvard University and its Law School after finding the Law School in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 for its response to sexual harassment, including sexual assault.

"I am very pleased to bring to close one of our longest-running sexual violence investigations, and I congratulate Harvard Law School for now committing to comply with Title IX and immediately implement steps to provide a safe learning environment for its students," said Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights. "This agreement is a credit to the strong leadership of Harvard President Drew Faust and Law School Dean Martha Minow, for which I am deeply grateful and from which I know their students will benefit significantly."

Following its investigation, OCR determined that the Law School's current and prior sexual harassment policies and procedures failed to comply with Title IX's requirements for prompt and equitable response to complaints of sexual harassment and sexual assault. The Law School also did not appropriately respond to two student complaints of sexual assault. In one instance, the Law School took over a year to make its final determination and the complainant was not allowed to participate in this extended appeal process, which ultimately resulted in the reversal of the initial decision to dismiss the accused student and dismissal of the complainant's complaint.

During the course of OCR's investigation, the Law School adopted revised procedures that use the "preponderance of the evidence" standard for its sexual harassment investigations and afford appeal rights to both parties, in compliance with Title IX. The Law School also complied with the Title IX requirements relating to the designation of a Title IX Coordinator and publication of its non-discrimination notice.

The Law School has committed to take further specific steps to ensure that it responds to student complaints of sexual harassment and sexual violence promptly and equitably. As part of its monitoring of the agreement, OCR will review and approve all of the policies and procedures to be used by the Law School, including the Law School's use of the new University-wide sexual harassment policies and procedures adopted for this academic year. The changes relating to the University-wide policies and procedures will be published in supplemental guidance and will affect all of the University's schools as they, like the Law School, decide how to implement the new University-wide policies and procedures.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Law School must:

• Revise all applicable sexual harassment policies and procedures to comply with Title IX and provide clear notice of which policy and procedure applies to Law School complaints;
  
• Through its Title IX Coordinator, coordinate provision of appropriate interim steps to provide for the safety of the complainant and campus community during an investigation;
  
• Share information between the Harvard University Police Department and the University and notify complainants of their right to file a Title IX complaint with the Law School as well as to pursue the criminal process in cases of sexual assault or other sexual violence;
  
• Notify students and employees about the Law School's Title IX coordinators and their contact information;
  
• Train staff and provide information sessions for students on the policies and procedures applicable to Law School complaints;
  
• Conduct annual climate assessments to assess whether the steps and measures being taken by the Law School are effective and to inform future proactive steps to be taken by Law School;
  
• Review any complaints of sexual harassment filed during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years to carefully scrutinize whether the Law School investigated the complaints consistent with Title IX and provide any additional remedies necessary for the complainants; and
  
• Track and submit for OCR's review information on all sexual harassment/violence complaints and reports of sexual harassment/violence filed during the course of the monitoring and responsive action taken by the Law School.
  

The agreement announced today relating to the Law School does not resolve a still-pending Title IX investigation of Harvard College and its response to sexual harassment, including sexual assault, of undergraduate students.

When January rolls around, the people behind the Body Love Conference are hoping you'll do things a little differently this year. No pledging to conform to magazine cover beauty standards, no blowing money on uncomfortable shapewear. Meet up with the team, take some pictures. Look at yourself and love it.

Take a step toward self love this new year with the Body Love Conference team at their #lovethemirror photo set launch party. Prepare to throw out all of those old and tired new year's resolutions and kick off 2015 with a promise to start to love who you see in the mirror. There will be mirrors inviting you to check yourself out. Take a selfie and commit yourself to a year of positivity and loving the mirror. It's all happening on January 4th at Fluxx Studios from 4-8pm. No cover, suggested donation: $5. 

Robin Thicke's controversial and catchy single "Blurred Lines" has been attracting a lot of attention this summer for being antifeminist. Seattle-based boylesque troupe Mod Carousel decided to respond with their own, gender-swapped version of the video. They reworked the lyrics, staged the set of video, and put some guys in thongs and heels

From the YouTube description:

It's our opinion that most attempts to show female objectification in the media by swapping the genders serve more to ridicule the male body than to highlight the extent to which women get objectified and does everyone a disservice. We made this video specifically to show a spectrum of sexuality as well as present both women and men in a positive light, one where objectifying men is more than alright and where women can be strong and sexy without negative repercussions.

Amazing. The only difference? ALL of the people in this version actually look like they're having fun during the shoot.