Stumped as to what to get the special woman in your life this weekend? I'm referring to your mother, of course. Instead of the usual commercial frenzy, why not consider giving her a gift like no other? A site named Kangua has taken the crowdfunding phenomenon to new social good heights.
This Mother's Day you can chip in to donate as a collective to a mom in a developing country who likely lacks access to healthcare services needed for a safe birth. According to the press release, 800 women in developing countries die every day from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications. Tragic figure, considering 90 per cent of these deaths are avoidable given proper health care. A mom shouldn't have to give up her life in order to give life.
What better way to connect than to learn about what life is like for mothers in other countries. (Not least of which because you'll learn just how good you've got it at home.)
In the interview below, Kangu's CEO Casey Santiago discusses maternal mortality and the latest crowdfunding effort, which "deploys donations to vetted local hospital partners who offer life-saving care."
Listen to the interview (MP3)
So start dropping hints to your loved ones now, and you might get the best gift of all—receiving updates on the mom you've helped and possibly even saved.
In a sad sad case of mommy trying to improve her goods after having babies, 39-year-old mom of two Adriana DeSilva from Westchester, New York, died shortly after going under the knife for breast augmentation, liposuction and tummy tuck.
DeSilva was treating herself to the procedures at Boca Raton Surgery Center in Florida for Mother's Day and her birthday.
But things took a decidedly wrong turn. She suffered a stroke just two days after the ops, fell into a coma and died shortly thereafter.
Why did no one in the clinic advise her that having three procedures at once was three too many—not least of which that the promise of a tighter body is never a good reason to risk life and limb?
As the article in Mommyish claims, the “mommy makeover rhetoric to it just adds to the dialogue that moms and their bodies are inherently flawed after childbirth, that they need surgery to fix tummies that housed babies and surgery to fix breasts that fed babies and that if this woman never had children, she may not have needed this type of 'makeover' to begin with."
While some brands are finally starting to celebrate the fact that women come in all different shapes and sizes (I’m looking at you, Dove, you too, H&M!), Abercrombie & Fitch isn’t one of them. In fact, the teen retailer goes one further by refusing to stock women’s XL or XXL sizes because it clearly doesn’t want plus-sized people wearing its glad rags. The largest pant size they offer for women is 10.
So much for cool. According to an article in Business Insider, Abercrombie’s exclusive attitude comes straight from the top.
"[CEO Mike Jeffries] doesn't want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people," said Robin Lewis, co-author of The New Rules of Retail. "He doesn't want his core customers to see people who aren't as hot as them wearing his clothing. People who wear his clothing should feel like they're one of the 'cool kids.'"
So why the double standard for men’s sizes, then? Presumably to appeal to the buff football players and jocks, maintains Lewis. When asked to comment on the sizing issue, the (presumably skinny) Abercrombie spokesperson failed to comment.
In Jeffries’ world retail is all about sex appeal—which in his limited vision only belongs to a set shape and look. Clearly he has never heard the name Marilyn Monroe…
“That’s why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people,” Jeffries said in a Salon interview. “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids … A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."
What a narrow-minded, not to mention unrealistic, business model. So-called ‘plus-size’ would be more aptly dubbed ‘real-sized,’ with 67 percent of the population fitting that label. If you’re a clothing retailer, you have to dress people as they are, not some warped ideal of what they should be.
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