# data[].attributes.body
The hyper-sexualization of women superheroes/villains/characters. An example would be Zoe Kravitz in the 2022 Batman film.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hypersexualizing women in superhero films devalues their roles

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Throughout the years, female superheroes have started to gain greater representation on the big screen. While this step took off in the right direction, it has been halted due to the constant hypersexualization of characters such as DC's Harley Quinn and Mera.

# data[].attributes.body
The trend of men starting to paint their nails more – breaking the stereotype of painted nails being considered a “feminine” thing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Story at a glance

The recent rise in popularity of "male polish" isn't anything the world hasn't seen before, and men have been coloring their nails for thousands of years.

Nail polish in ancient Babylon is thought to have represented different classes, and warriors painted their nails to "intimidate their enemies."

"MANicures" now are often celebrated for their association with gender fluidity and male self-care and grooming.

After Brad Pitt arrived at the Palm Springs Film Festival in 2015 flashing a rainbow manicure, lifestyle magazine Elle lobbed a question at its readers: " are 'MAN'icures becoming a thing? "

The answer: It's complicated. Yes, an increasing number of highly visible men are now sporting what some refer to as "male polish," but men coloring their nails really isn't anything new. In fact, if you think "MANicures" are something entirely novel, you're about 5,500 years too late.

According to a 2018 paper from the University of Rochester Medical Center, men have been coloring their nails since at least 3500 B.C., in ancient Babylon.

"Babylonian male warriors adorned their nails with ground minerals as part of a pre-battle ritual designed to intimidate their enemies," researcher Jeanette Zambito wrote.

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

Nail polish is thought to have represented different classes at that time - the darker the color, the higher the class. There's evidence that primitive forms of polish, made from materials like henna, flower petals and beeswax, were also worn by ancient Egyptians and Chinese, regardless of gender.

It is not exactly known when nail polish became associated strictly with femininity, but by the 1800s, Victorian era women were painting their nails to signify purity and cleanliness .

"Male polish" returned with a vengeance in the 1960s with the rise of counterculture, popularized by artists like Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and David Bowie (the latter of whom was revered for his "androgynous" alter ego, Ziggy Stardust).

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was also seen sporting painted nails through the early 1990s, though an Esquire writer once commented that his red nail varnish was " badly chipped ."

Now, at a time when gender fluidity is often celebrated and more men are encouraged to engage in self care, male stars like Harry Styles, A$AP Rocky, Machine Gun Kelly, Tyler the Creator, and Lil Yachty not only color their own nails, but have also launched their own successful nail polish lines , bringing "male polish" back into the mainstream.

Styles in November launched his gender-neutral beauty brand, Pleasing, which includes a number of plant-based nail polish shades inspired by pearls, which the singer frequently wears.

"It's starting with nail polish, because that was kind of the birth of what it was for," Styles said in an interview with the British magazine Dazed . "Me seeing a color on a flower or a wallpaper or something and thinking, 'Oh, I wanna put that on my nails.'"
READ MORE STORIES FROM CHANGING AMERICA NEW STUDY SAYS AIR KNOCKS DOWN COVID-19 INFECTION RATE BY 90 PERCENT ROBIN WILLIAMS' DAUGHTER HAS WARNING FOR FANS MOURNING BOB SAGET YALE, GEORGETOWN, 14 OTHER TOP COLLEGES SUED FOR ALLEGED COLLUSION 34 RESCUED FROM FLOATING CHUNK OF ICE OFF GREEN BAY SHORE SOUTH AFRICAN SCIENTIST THINKS SHE MAY HAVE SOLVED THE MYSTERY OF LONG COVID-19

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Story at a glance The recent rise in popularity of "male polish" isn't anything the world hasn't seen before, and men have been coloring their nails for thousands of years. Nail polish in ancient Babylon is thought to have represented different classes, and warriors painted their nails to "intimidate their enemies."

# data[].attributes.body
“Clean girl aesthetic” fashion and beauty trend

# data[].attributes.body
Transwoman Lia Thomas is facing controversy for competing in women’s swimming events. This caused an uproar towards the NCAA to “stop letting biological men compete in women’s college sports”.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
With her victory in Atlanta, Thomas, who competes for the University of Pennsylvania, became the first openly transgender woman to win an N.C.A.A. swimming championship.

Lia Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania after winning the 500-yard freestyle final at the N.C.A.A. swimming championships. Credit... John Bazemore/Associated Press

ATLANTA - Lia Thomas, the transgender woman whose record-threatening times on the University of Pennsylvania's swim team made her a star of college athletics and a symbol of the debate over sports and gender identity, won an N.C.A.A. championship in the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday.

Thomas, a fifth-year senior who arrived for the swimming championships in Atlanta as the top seed in the 500 and 200 freestyle races, completed Thursday's final heat in 4 minutes, 33.24 seconds, close to two seconds ahead of the runner-up.

Thomas's victory made her the first openly transgender woman to win an N.C.A.A. swimming title, a feat that came nearly three years after the hurdler CeCe Telfer became the first openly transgender person to capture an N.C.A.A. championship.

But Thomas's triumph in Atlanta - indeed, her very presence at the swimming championships as a contender - came amid a far larger storm, particularly in statehouses and right-wing media, about sports participation by transgender girls and women. The issue, which on Thursday drew a handful of demonstrators to the Georgia Tech complex that hosted the championships, had long buffeted the college sports industry. But it intensified as Thomas posted times that left opponents far behind and put some collegiate records under new pressure.

Thomas has said little in public this season, her final collegiate campaign to cap a distinguished career that included runner-up finishes in several men's freestyle races at the Ivy League championships in 2019, even as her story rocketed from the insular swimming community onto talk shows and social media.

On Thursday evening in Atlanta, she refused to participate in the news conference that the N.C.A.A. requires of its champions. The association said its swimming and diving committee would review the episode in the weeks ahead.

The committee's leader declined to speak to reporters on Thursday evening, but Thomas was still expected to compete in other races on Friday and Saturday.

In an interview that Sports Illustrated published this month, not long after Thomas won this year's Ivy League women's championships in the 100-, 200- and 500-yard freestyle events, she said: "I don't look into the negativity and the hate. I am here to swim."

Her critics argued that was precisely the problem.

Through Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a lawyer who won three Olympic gold medals in swimming in the 1980s, more than a dozen members of Penn's team sent an anonymous letter to the university and the Ivy League last month to complain that Thomas had "an unfair advantage over competition in the women's category." They cited her rapid ascension in the rankings, from high-quality conference swimmer to national title contender, and asserted that her victories and potential to break women's records were "feats she could never have done as a male athlete."

By then, though, the Ivy League had said it welcomed Thomas, who in 2019 came out to her team and began hormone replacement therapy, as a competitor in women's swimming. (The Ivy League did not hold a 2020-21 season because of the coronavirus pandemic.)

The N.C.A.A., which five years ago played a role in nudging North Carolina away from a law that limited public restroom access for transgender people, saw its longstanding deliberations on transgender participation take on new urgency and intensity as Thomas competed for Penn's women's team.

But for all of the association's efforts to depict a united front on the subject - John J. DeGioia, Georgetown University's president and the chairman of the N.C.A.A.'s Board of Governors, said in January that officials were "steadfast in our support of transgender student-athletes and the fostering of fairness across college sports" - college sports leaders have been privately fractured over how, exactly, to proceed.

During a January meeting, the board divided over the timeline for the association's updated policy on transgender participation, which it had unanimously approved and which called for the N.C.A.A. to follow "the policies of the sport's national governing body." Although the board normally works in lock step and rarely sees even one dissenting vote, the tally that afternoon was 12 to 7.

U.S.A. Swimming, the sport's national governing body, soon tightened its rules in ways that Thomas' supporters believed amounted to a poorly disguised effort to exclude her from the national championships. The N.C.A.A., though, ultimately decided not to let those more stringent protocols take effect this season, reasoning that "implementing additional changes at this time could have unfair and potentially detrimental impacts" on championship participants.

The N.C.A.A. would not make President Mark Emmert available for an interview. Many board members declined to be interviewed, referred inquiries to the N.C.A.A. or did not respond to requests for comment.

The association drew attention last year, when gay and transgender rights advocacy groups complained that a draft for a rewritten N.C.A.A. constitution did not include adequate protections against discrimination. And the association has waffled over its approach to holding major events, which can drive millions of dollars in spending, in states with laws seen as targeting transgender people.

Thomas and her rise, though, forced the typically plodding N.C.A.A. to grapple more quickly with a subject that scientists are still examining and its consequences for sports competitions. Comprehensive research in athletes is still lacking, but early studies suggest that suppressing testosterone in transgender women decreases muscle mass and hemoglobin levels, reducing how much oxygen can be carried through the bloodstream.

Most of the changes occur within the first year of hormone suppression, but transgender women may still have more muscle mass than their cisgender peers even after three years. As some insist that no amount of testosterone suppression can undo the physiological changes linked to male puberty, like taller height and larger hands and feet, others dispute that transgender women have a built-in advantage and have argued that inclusion should outweigh competition.

The scientific and political debates, though, mattered only so much once Thomas plunged into the water at the McAuley Aquatic Center, just a few miles from the gold-topped State Capitol where Georgia lawmakers have spent part of the year clashing over a pending proposal to ban transgender students from interscholastic sports.

She seized an early lead in Lane No. 4. But Erica Sullivan, a freshman from the University of Texas, gained power and overtook Thomas. She led for length after length, earning just enough of an edge to make people wonder whether Thomas would falter, until Thomas regained control of the race. Emma Weyant, a freshman at the University of Virginia, soon emerged as the closest challenger.

Thomas, though, arrived at the end of the pool first and peered around to survey the scene. Weyant, who earned a silver medal at the Tokyo Games in the 400-meter individual medley, finished 1.75 seconds after Thomas.

Speaking to ESPN next to the pool, Thomas said she had tried to focus on swimming and doing what she needed to do to prepare for the championships.

"It means the world to be here," she said, "to be with two of my best friends and teammates and be able to compete."

The crowd offered a raucous reception for Weyant at the awards ceremony that followed. Thomas, a new champion, received only polite applause.

Azeen Ghorayshi contributed reporting.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lia Thomas Wins an N.C.A.A. Swimming Title

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With her victory in Atlanta, Thomas, who competes for the University of Pennsylvania, became the first openly transgender woman to win an N.C.A.A. swimming championship. ATLANTA - Lia Thomas, the transgender woman whose record-threatening times on the University of Pennsylvania's swim team made her a star of college athletics and a symbol of the debate over sports and gender identity, won an N.C.A.A.

# data[].attributes.body
Burger King UK tweeted “women belong in the kitchen” in 2021