Women in Turkey are taking and sharing photos of themselves—get this—smiling on social media. Shocking, isn't it? The backlash, if you can call it that, comes after the country's Deputy Prime Minister, Bulent Arinc, recently stated that women should not smile or laugh in public in the interest of maintaining their chastity.
According to an article in the BBC, following Arinc's comments, some 300,000 tweets with "kahkaha" (Turkish for "laughter"), as well as those with the hashtags #direnkahkaha ("Resist Laughter") and #direnkadin ("Resist Woman"), were shared on Twitter and Instagram.
One of the first to post a smiling photo of herself was writer and political commentator Ece Temelkuran, who decried Arinc's statement as "extremely outrageous and conservative."
"My whole timeline was full of women laughing—which was extraordinary, and kind of beautiful," she told the BBC.
Of course, as with the #Yesallwomen campaign, many Turkish men also spoke up against the absurdity of the Deputy Prime Minister's remarks.
"Oh God, let this be just a joke," tweeted a Turkish TV presenter, Fatih Portakal. "If women can't laugh in public, then men should not cry in public."
Then again, in the same speech, Arinc also blamed television for turning teens into "sex addicts," so perhaps the baby should be thrown out with the bathwater in this case.
Preposterous statement, or is Arinc simply trying to uphold Turkey's moral fibre?
This Canadian politician clearly doesn't have a clue when it comes to the realities of modern parenthood.
Muffin, anyone? A billboard advertising a plastic surgeon in Michigan got a surprising face lift of its own.
According to an article in Today, Ann Arbor Plastic Surgery used the slogan “Friends don’t let friends muffin top” to promote its fat-slashing service. In an attempt at cute, the billboard also pictured a couple of muffins.
But someone—I like to think a mischievous mom—took it upon themselves to tinker with the ad. "You’re beautiful!” was spray painted over the original, X-ed out message. And those muffins, they were left smiling at the end result.
“Some people felt that it was an attack on people who are overweight, and that certainly wasn’t the intention,” said Ann Arbor director, Dr. Pramit Malhotra. “It was meant to be light-hearted and (directed at) people who are looking to make positive self-image changes.”
Positive? As in sending the message that unless it's perfectly svelte, your body is unacceptable to your friends, nor should it be acceptable to you.
Mercifully, a new affirming message has been sent to the surgery company, which is now "rethinking its advertising strategy in the area to better suit the tastes of the community."
This is the second strike for the surgeon who found himself apologizing for its "Size Matters" ad, which depicted coffee cups of varying sizes marked with the letter 'B' and the letter 'D.'
Fat-shaming or playful advertising?
Sad but true: too many of us love our kids but hate on our bodies.
Jenny McCarthy doesn't do herself any favours, does she? When she isn't talking junk about vaccines, The View co-host is talking trash on her Sirius radio show, 'Dirty Sexy Funny.' But I fail to find anything sexy or remotely funny about having your 12-year-old call the cops on you.
According to an article in Jezebel, McCarthy poked fun of her “rule follower” son Evan for ratting her out to police.
“We're driving in the car and of course I text and drive," she reportedly told listeners on Sirius. "He called the police on me and said, 'My mom is texting and driving right now.' True story."
She should be thanking her son for potentially saving both their lives; instead, she apparently threw his phone out the window.
There goes McCarthy, lowering the mom bar yet again. So cool.
I wonder if Jenny McCarthy has seen this video...
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