#_author:Beth Greenfield

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Why this Instagram influencer calls fat a feminist issue

Virgie Tovar. (Photo: Courtesy Virgie Tovar/Quinn Lemmers for Yahoo Lifestyle)

To mark the International Day of the Woman on March 8 and Women’s History Month, Yahoo Lifestyle is exploring notions of feminism and the women’s movement through a diverse series of profiles — from transgender activist Ashlee Marie Preston to conservative campus leader Karin Agness Lips — that aim to reach across many aisles. 

Virgie Tovar is sitting by the pool of her Tucson, Arizona hotel. She’s wearing a one-piece covered in a print of $100 bills, though she often opts for a “fatkini,” which, she says, “makes me feel sexy, and like I’m disrupting the narrative of what respectably educated women can wear.”

Tovar is speaking to Yahoo Lifestyle by phone as she lounges, in the midst of a road trip through California, Arizona, and New Mexico with the fellow writers and influencers of Sister Spit: QTPOC (Queer and Trans People of Color), a revolutionary traveling open mic now in its 21st year.

The writer and body-pride activist, known by legions of faithful readers for her impassioned essays, has become a champion of fat pride. Her Instagram feed — followed by 33.8K fans and counting — is full of kitschy, celebratory pics of herself posing cheekily in brightly-colored swimsuits and crop tops, as well as eating — donuts, ice cream, pomegranates, BBQ, you name it — and just straight-up living, with gusto and pride. That the approach is both revolutionary and feminist is an idea the 34-year-old Mexicana explores a bit in a recent Ravishly essay, and more deeply in her forthcoming book, You Have the Right to Remain Fat (Aug., Feminist Press), and about which she chats easily as she’s sitting by the desert pool.

“One of the reasons for me that fat is a feminist issue is because women getting to choose what their body looks like, and not spending their life becoming the cultured expectation of themselves, is a feminist act,” Tovar says. “Any act of women expressing autonomy is, in my opinion, a feminist act. Women expressing desire is a feminist act, particularly around food.”

It may at first seem like a reach. But, Tovar explains, “Why does culture love little girls and hate women so much? It’s because when she expresses sexual desire, she becomes a woman, and she is no longer under the protective wing of the culture.” She sees evidence of the shift over and over again — particularly in sexual assault cases, when, if there was any possibility that the girl expressed any desire, she’s no longer protected by the police. “They’re like, ‘girls need to take care of themselves.’”

And the connection, as she sees it, is that “sexual desire is obviously connected to hunger [in that] women are being asked to exercise self-control and discipline around all these different kinds of desires in order to be considered good, worthy people.”

It’s a pressure that women feel even — if not especially — from other women, Tovar notes, adding that it’s something she’s learned a lot about from the participants in her annual empowering Babecamp, which aims to help women “break up with diet culture.”

desert selfie a must

A post shared by Virgie Tovar (@virgietovar) on Mar 5, 2018 at 6:29pm PST

  When she started asking women where they were experiencing the most fatphobia, Tovar says she was “absolutely certain” they would say from men, specifically from their relationships. “But it’s the workplace,” she found says she was told. “And they weren’t experiencing it as someone calling them a name or something really aggressive… rather, it was the constant, never-ending diet chatter, and what they experienced as ‘food surveying,’ where everyone notices every time you’re eating, and tells you you’re being ‘good’ if you’re eating a salad. Which is super patronizing and very invasive.”

So the office, Tovar explains, “has become this venue of fatphobia, but it’s this softer fatphobia — not this aggressive, epithet-hurling experience.”

Much of it isn’t even meant to be hurtful, but because “women use diet talk as a way to create intimacy… They’ve been taught this is a safe discussion topic they can share in order to create friendship.”

But it’s not a new phenomenon, Tovar says. “It’s a way in which women can communicate that they are non-threatening with one another. It’s a subtle way of saying, ‘I’m playing the game, too. I’m not a threat. I’m not interested in destabilizing the culture.’ That’s, like, super insidious and weird and creepy,” she says. “But if you kind of accept that dieting is symbolic behavior, which I do, then it’s obvious that linguistics would play a role in maintaining that submissive position.”

“I actually feel like, when we’re talking about fatness and men, we’re still talking about feminism. Because fundamentally, when women are fat, they’re violating the cultural rule around what is expected of women, which is that we are small, and that we don’t take up a lot of space, both metaphorically and physically,” she explains. “When men are experience fatphobia, they’re being punished for having a feminized body. In the book, I say the most common anxiety for fat men is about feminization — there’s anxiety about growing breasts, about higher estrogen levels.”

And then there’s the mess of issues that comes up around fatness in regards to men and women together, and sex and romance.

“These [Babecamp] women — and this is a hetero scenario — understand that a man who expects them to be thin by any means necessary is probably an asshole. They intellectually know this. But inside, in their bodies, they’ve been taught all they have to do is be thin and they can have love,” she says. So unpacking and dismantling that lifelong belief can be tricky.

“Diet culture is really good at positioning dieting as something as simple as learning how to brush your teeth: All you have to do is learn how to control a fundamental human instinct for the rest of your life,” Tovar notes wryly. “Who can’t do that?”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Why ‘Museum Mammy’ believes the feminist movement ‘will never be perfect’

The most pressing question of Women’s History Month: What is feminism in 2018?

Conservative millennial Kassy Dillon: ‘I don’t like the term ‘feminist’”

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.

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Transgender women of color are pioneers of the LGBTQ-rights movement. Why are they still fighting for their lives?

Transgender rights activists protest the recent killings of three transgender women, Muhlaysia Booker, Claire Legato, and Michelle Washington, during a rally at Washington Square Park in New York, U.S., May 24, 2019. (Photo: Reuters/Yahoo Lifestyle)

The start of LGBTQ Pride Month came with an exciting announcement in New York City: Two pioneering transgender activists, vanguards of the gay-liberation movement, would be getting statues in Greenwich Village, immortalizing their vital roles in the 1969 Stonewall rebellion — which has its 50th anniversary this year and is widely considered to be the official start of the movement.

“The LGBTQ movement was portrayed very much as a white, gay male movement,” Chirlane McCray, first lady of New York City, said at the official announcement. “This monument counters that trend of whitewashing the history.”

News of the statues, the first in the U.S. to commemorate transgender individuals, was celebrated on social media, where Raquel Willis tweeted, “Monuments don’t make up for the mayhem, but this is beautiful.” Many others, including Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and Queer Eye costar Karamo Brown, weighed in with praise and shout-outs to the activists.

#HeyFriends... here’s some education on #Pride! Because I’m tired of this month passing year after year without acknowledging #MarshaPJohnson & the reason “Pride” began. pic.twitter.com/pFHWAmr1Ik

— Karamo Brown (@Karamo) June 3, 2019

Thanks to leaders like Marsha P. Johnson and Harvey Milk, I have faith in the possibility of change and growth in this country. There is still more work to do, but let us take a moment and celebrate the gains we've made this #PrideMonth.

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) June 2, 2019

There would be no Pride Month without sharing our deep gratitude and respect for the transgender women of color who started it all, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Happy Pride Month! #StoneWall50 #PrideWasARiot pic.twitter.com/6SkdUgn3Ln

— سارة جهاد (@spoiledsoymilk_) June 1, 2019

We stand on the shoulders of giants. I am so happy to see New York City immortalizing Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. They gave so much to this world and community, we should all continue the work that would make them proud. https://t.co/DHo15fdrim

— Chasten Buttigieg (@Chas10Buttigieg) May 30, 2019

Still, there was a lot that the valiant effort could not make up for, and many wounds it doesn’t seem likely to heal — especially for people like Sharron Cooks, a transgender activist in Philadelphia.

Cooks spent June 1 eulogizing and then burying her dear friend, Michelle “Tameka” Washington, who was one of four black transgender women murdered, in cities across the country, within just 12 days of each other.

“On the first day of Pride Month, we laid our sister to rest,” Cooks posted on Facebook. “Pride Month will never be the same for me.”

Along with Washington, who was remembered by loved ones that day as “beautiful,” “outspoken” and “a mother figure,” the recent spate of murders has claimed the lives of Muhlaysia Booker in Dallas, Claire Legato in Cleveland and an as-of-yet unidentified trans woman in Detroit, all of whom were gunned down. A fifth transgender woman, Amber Nicole of Denver, was brutally beaten by two men outside a nightclub, leaving her with facial nerve damage and a broken jaw. And most recently, on June 3, the body of Chynal Lindsey, 26, was pulled out of a Dallas lake by police, showing “obvious signs of homicidal violence.”

The anti-trans violence has sparked a flurry of national media coverage, plus vigils and rallies across the country.

“We will not be erased!” yelled a fired-up speaker into a megaphone at one such demo — Keep Your Hands Off Trans Bodies in New York City, held on the Friday before Memorial Day. A crowd of nearly 300 had gathered beneath the stately arch of Washington Square Park, forming a thick ring around each speaker who spoke or screamed from the heart — “Stigma is weaponizing murderers!” and “Black trans lives matter!”

Some, like Olympia Perez of Black Trans Media, could not contain their fury. “Black trans people have been here forever — and on their backs, you guys stand!” She directed her rage at the many white and non-trans people who took up space at the front of the crowd, referencing the legacies of activists such as Johnson, who worked tirelessly for LGBTQ rights only to be found dead in the Hudson River, after a suspected but never-solved homicide, in 1992.

“Marsha!” Perez screamed in anguish, smacking the ground with an open palm, “Stand the f*ck up and show them!”

Four days later, hundreds of mourners filed into the Cathedral of Hope church in Dallas, where the funeral of 23-year-old Muhlaysia Booker received a crush of media attention (and even a subsequent social media post by none other than Prince Harry and Meghan Markle).

People protest the killings of transgender women this year during a rally at Washington Square Park in New York, U.S., May 24, 2019. (Photo: Reuters)

“She would always say, ‘Mama, I’m willing to die for my transition, my respect and what I believe in,” Booker’s mother, Stephanie Houston, told the crowd, which included lots of local and national press — interest likely piqued by the fact that Booker had been viciously attacked in a parking lot in broad daylight, in a video snippet that had gone viral just a month before she was killed.

Those recent scenes — of funerals and rageful rallies — have stood in stark contrast to the excitement oozing through many queer-activist circles, where preparations have been underway for a particularly auspicious Gay Pride Month: This year marks not only the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, which started when patrons of the Stonewall Inn bar pushed back against an anti-gay police raid, but of the arrival in NYC of the annual international WorldPride festival, from InterPride, after past stops in Rome, London, Tel Aviv and Madrid.

The entire month, and especially the last weekend in June, when the annual NYC Pride March takes place, will be a lavish display of dance parties, celebrity appearances, parades, film screenings, concerts, drag performances, rallies and, of course, marketing opportunities.

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A post shared by She/Folk (@she_f_o_l_k) on May 21, 2019 at 7:35am PDT

It’s pretty safe to say, then, that the commemoration of those so-called “riots” of 1969 is now more a riot of rainbows and glitter. And many transgender people, believing they’ve been left behind by the larger LGBT movement, are not feeling it.

“World Pride should be about re-shifting resources to those who need it the most,” New York Transgender Advocacy Group executive director Kiara St. James, organizer of Keep Your Hands Off Trans Bodies, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “While cis[gender] queers will converge on NYC to celebrate Pride, the reason for having it was Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, two transwomen of color. Their ‘children’ are still dealing with lack of housing and healthcare and employment opportunities. So, celebrate Pride. But know that the community does not have equity.”

Elle Hearns, a social-justice organizer and founding director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, launching June 21, adds: “We all want to celebrate. I would love to get on a float and just really be happy going to Pride. But I also understand who's not there.”

TOO MANY MISSING

Media interest in anti-trans violence may be at an all-time high. But, says Hearns, “One of the biggest points is that this is actually been happening for decades.”

It’s only recently that statistics on transgender killings, believed to be widely underreported, have been more reflective of the reality. Since 2015, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an average of 24 transgender individuals have been murdered each year, and disproportionate numbers of the victims have been trans women of color. The deadliest year on record since then was 2017, during which activists tracked at least 29 such deaths, with killings by acquaintances, partners and strangers, some never identified. In 2018, there were 26 such recorded murders, and in 2019, so far, there have been seven.

From left, Michelle "Tameka" Washington, Claire Legato and Muhlaysia Booker, all murdered within days of each other. (Photo: Facebook)

(And anti-transgender violence is, of course, not limited to the United States. A 2016 Transgender Europe report found that over 2,000 trans people had been killed since 2008, with Central and South America accounting for nearly 75 percent of those total trans killings; just last month, the body of a trans woman from Veracruz, Mexico, was reportedly discovered by police, beheaded.)

Further, the results of a 2015 survey (the most recent available) by the National Center for Transgender Equality found the following: that 20 percent of black transgender individuals were unemployed (twice that of the cisgender black population); 38 percent were living in poverty (compared to 24 percent of non-trans people of color); 42 percent had experienced homelessness; 53 percent had been sexually assaulted; and 6.7 percent were living with HIV — more than 20 times the rate of .3 percent in the general U.S. population.

There is also this shocking statistic, cited often by the country’s largest LGBTQ non-profits (though the exact source is not apparent): that the average life expectancy of transgender women of color is just 35 years old.

“One of the biggest problems that trans people face — more specifically, black trans women — is the lack of access to healthcare, employment, housing, social support and everything that can help an individual thrive,” transgender-rights activist and media personality Ashlee Marie Preston, who marked her 34th birthday last year by launching the hashtag “Thrive Over 35” to raise awareness of the short life expectancy, tells Yahoo Lifestyle.

Marsha P. Johnson. (Photo: Netflix)

“And what happens is, when you don't have access to housing, healthcare and employment or social support,” she continues, “you get caught up in the growth of the prison industrial complex. You have to engage in street economy, which adds an additional layer of risk to your life. And that cuts into your life expectancy.” Plus, Preston explains, “the fact that some people say ‘I experienced racism’ or ‘I experienced sexism’ or ‘I experienced a transphobia,’ many people aren't able to imagine experiencing all of those simultaneously.”

Sometimes, in fact, even with all that’s been gained since Stonewall — marriage equality, parenting rights, and various protections in employment, housing and healthcare — it can feel to some, especially transgender women of color, like not much has changed at all, particularly when one looks at the current administration’s anti-trans policies, which take away rights in areas of military service, healthcare and housing.

“For what good it did my trans girls, it might as well have not happened,” Miss Major, a longtime transgender activist and veteran of the Stonewall rebellion, told HuffPost in 2018 of the legendary uprising.

HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF

That feeling — that the “T” of LGBT is oft forgotten by the larger movement, and even more so for trans individuals who are not white — hits home especially hard if you watch the iconic, heartbreaking clip of Sylvia Rivera getting booed as she addressed the largely white, cisgender crowd at the 1973 Gay Pride rally in New York City.

“Y’all better quiet down!” Rivera screamed from the stage, accusing those rallying of belonging “to a white, middle-class white club.” She had joined forces with Marsha P. Johnson to form STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), a queer-youth advocacy group, but had to struggle with Pride organizers to get any time to speak at all. “I have been to jail! I have been raped!” she finally yelled into the mic, her voice raw with emotion. “I have been beaten! I have had my nose broken! I have been thrown in jail! I have lost my job I have lost my apartment for gay liberation — and you treat me this way? What the f*ck’s wrong with you all? I believe in gay power! Revolution now! Gay power!”

Sylvia Rivera onstage at NYC Pride in 1973. (GIF: Netflix)

In a later interview about that moment — footage that’s included in the 2017 David France documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson — Rivera says that she went home from that rally and attempted suicide, and survived only because Johnson found her in time. “I was hurt, and I felt that the movement had completely betrayed the drag queens and the street people,” she says. “And I felt that the years I had already given them had been a waste.”

Decades later, many trans activists feel similarly frustrated and forgotten.

“It's very disrespectful to the legacy of the queer liberation movement when the LGBTQ community at large refuses to prioritize the wellbeing and survival of trans women of color — given that Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera quite literally built the movement on their backs,” Preston says. “They started a nonprofit where they were just renting hotel rooms and apartments from the money they were making from sex work, so that they could take young LGBT kids off the streets who were kicked out by their families for being who they are.”

Sylvia Rivera in 1994. (Photo: AP Images)

Although Johnson and Rivera (who died of liver cancer in 2002) are often credited with actually sparking the Stonewall uprising — or throwing the first brick or Molotov cocktail, as the legends go — both denied having done so. They were certainly key players on the scene, though, and their years of advocacy both before and after are undeniable, hence the plans for NYC monuments.

But whether or not that sort of public acknowledgment or visibility translates into actual change is yet to be seen.

Some give big props to the strides made regarding transgender visibility in pop culture, most recently with the FX series Pose, kicking off its second season on June 11. The show, produced by Ryan Murphy and Steven Canals and written and directed by transgender pioneer Janet Mock, broke ground by casting actual transgender actors to play transgender characters, and tells the story of New York City’s 1980s drag ball culture — first told to a larger audience through Jennie Livington’s 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning, and thrust into the mainstream spotlight with Madonna’s “Vogue” that same year.

Mock spoke about the potential power of such representation on Pose on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah in 2018. “We have five women with different dreams, who have love, desire, who want to be desired, who are funny, who are villains,” she said, which educates viewers in many ways. “You show people that, number one, it’s not scary, that they’re not horrible people, that they’re not freak shows — that instead they’re humans that you care about… They’re invested, and I hope that it doesn’t just entertain and inspire, but that it also moves people to care and hopefully do something.”

Preston also sees Pose’s potential to change hearts and minds. “I think it underscores the level of humanity that is universal that anybody can connect to,” she says. “We all know what it feels like to be thrown away. We all know what it feels like to be discarded. We all know what it feels like to not know if you're going to survive or not. We all know what it feels like to want to be held and like want to have purpose and want to be seen.”

Still others are skeptical, including transgender artist and activist Reina Gosset, aka Tourmaline, who was speaking in general about visibility when she told Teen Vogue in 2017, “While trans visibility is at an all-time high, with trans people increasingly represented in popular culture, violence against us has also never been higher. The push for visibility, without it being tied to a demand for our basic needs being met, often leaves us without material resources or tangible support, and exposed to more violence and isolation.”

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A post shared by J A N E T M O C K (@janetmock) on Mar 31, 2019 at 9:27am PDT

And Hearns believes that the power of Pose may be overstated.“I think Pose is necessary, but I also see that organizing is necessary and [that it] doesn't change the conditions for everybody because there are five trans women who are stars on a show,” she says. “What's happening in the White House, Pose is not shifting.”

WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE

Preston — who first gained wide recognition when she called out Caitlyn Jenner for being a “fraud” for her support of Trump in a 2017 video that went viral — does not mince words about who she believes is to blame for trans women of color being left behind by the LGBT movement.

“Every time that I hear another black trans woman was murdered, there’s this flame of rage that ignites in the pit of my belly, because I want to hold the other communities accountable for not showing up for us the way that we show up for every other community at the intersections of our identity,” Preston says. “I want to ask the LGBTQ community why they aren't prioritizing black trans lives. I want to ask the black community why we aren’t prioritizing black trans women. I want to ask women why we're still not considering trans women as women and as part of the larger national conversation around intimate partner violence, which is an extension of some of these deaths.”

“The truth,” she continues, “is that many gay white men use their sexuality as a shield to absolve them of the responsibility of dismantling sexist, racist and transphobic mechanisms within our community systems of oppression.” Instead, Preston says, some of these men believe “‘if I lean into my own oppression, then I don't have to do the work to liberate other people’… I'm not saying that [no] gay white man knows struggle. What I'm saying is that your race and your gender aren’t contributing factors to your struggle.”

Activists Ashlee Marie Preston, left, and Elle Hearns. (Photo: Getty Images; Elle Hearns/Instagram)

Cooks, in the wake of her friend Tameka’s murder, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that she believes the answer is complex and nuanced, and that it partly lies within the trans community itself. “I think, ultimately, there is a lot of internal work that the trans community needs to do and that needs to be addressed,” she says, noting that, too often, trans women are killed by people they know. “Trans women have to do a better job at building our self-esteem and our self-worth, and not settling for less than we deserve.”

She also points a finger at various LGBTQ nonprofits, however, for not putting trans women of color into positions of power. “How many trans women do we have in the nonprofit world? How many are sitting on boards? A lot of the gay and lesbian and bisexual orgs aren’t really offering the economic opportunities.” (At the Human Rights Campaign, the “largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer civil rights organization,” the executive staff and other higher-ups is largely white and cisgender, similar to the makeup at other national organizations, including the Family Equality Council, Lambda Legal and GLAAD.)

“A lot of these nonprofit organizations claim they are about the advancement of all LGBTQ people,” Preston also notes. “The reality is, they have a propensity to screen ‘black trans trauma porn’ to rake in donor dollars. But when it's actually time to benefit from those dollars, trans women of color are always at the back of the line.”

The scope of the problem is huge, Hearns, notes, because the LGBTQ movement, as she sees it, is not reflective of the communities it purports to represent. “My hope that the Marsha P. Johnson Institute will restore our belief that all of our people are worthy of everything — and in order to believe that, you really have to start with the people who have nothing. That is my take on Pride.”

That’s why Hearns is launching the Institute in the middle of June, she explains, “because we recognize how quickly the celebration will overtake what we understand about the history. Stonewall was a radical protest. It was a radical demonstration. It was a radical movement. And so, over the last 50 years, that movement has become not only sanitized, but it has stopped making radical demands, because of the desire to be seen as ‘normal.’”

It's why Pride, for Hearns and many other activists, such as the organizers of the Reclaim Pride Coalition in NYC and similar efforts across the country, are pushing back against mainstream festivities this year. “We are celebrating from very ahistorical perspective, and it's painful to just see the celebration and the corporations who have really embraced Pride — without actually embracing what they need to do to alleviate the reasons why Pride exists in the first place,” she says. “You cannot shake hands with the police and then use trans people in a campaign with rainbows on. That’s just not what this is about.”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Photo of Sikh man’s ‘fantastic’ rainbow turban for gay pride goes viral: ‘Awesome message’

Man’s plan to hold Straight Pride Parade in Boston faces backlash, mockery: ‘This is tragically sad’

Trans teen Jazz Jennings makes inspiring valedictorian speech: ‘Follow your dreams’

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[omsashko]

March, 2016. South Israel,Sde Zvi.

Beautiful weekend with my best girls. Love my friends! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-X_s4Gx6b0

[bethevenyc]

Olivia Wilde reveals the brave lives of ISIS-fighting women in new doc

Olivia Wilde is no stranger to making big statements. In just the past few years, the Vinyl and House actress has waded into absurdist parenting controversies over breastfeeding and lip kissing, spoken out against the Trump administration and sexism in Hollywood, and starred in 1984, a Broadway play so disturbing it reportedly made Jennifer Lawrence puke.

And then there are the documentaries she’s executive produced, on heavy topics from the Ebola crisis in Liberia to post-earthquake Haiti.

Now Wilde adds this stunner to that list: “Fear Us Women,” a documentary short that explores the woman-led ISIS military resistance in Syria through the eyes of one volunteer soldier, Canadian citizen Hanna Bohman.

The film, directed by David Darg and produced by Ryot (part of the Oath brands, as is Yahoo), packs a hard punch in just 27 minutes, as a mind-bogglingly brave Bohman takes viewers into the violent, traumatizing world of an all-female Kurdish army, YPJ (which stands for, in translation, Women’s Protection Unit), on the front lines of terrorism.

“Hanna is such an incredible protagonist,” Wilde tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “I can do my own part as an activist, but I’m not doing anything nearly as dangerous as these women in putting their actual lives on the line. I was really moved by that.”

Bohman, 48, explains in the film that she was inspired to leave her comfortable life — as a model-turned-sales worker in Vancouver — to go into battle, in 2014, for the rights of women and children who are frequently kidnapped, raped, enslaved, and killed by ISIS. “I’ve been called crazy by a lot of people,” she says in the film, made of woven-together footage documented by both herself and Darg over the course of a year. “For me to go back and do nothing, and pretend that there isn’t a war here and people aren’t being murdered? To me, that’s crazy.”

She speaks to the camera with an astonishing calm, her AK slung over her shoulder, about how her marksmanship quickly made her a sniper, and about how she basically lives with the other soldiers in the dirt, shooting, and that it’s no big deal. “It’s just camping with guns,” she says at one point, “and hunting people instead of deer.” She later adds, “We all die one way or another.”

  Bohman tells Yahoo Lifestyle she came to that acceptance after a series of health scares in Canada — a head injury, a motorcycle accident, and a heart issue. “It just kind of made me rethink living and dying. We spend our life thinking of death as some faraway, intangible thing when really it could happen at any time.”

In her life, precipitating her going to Syria, she says she felt “lost.” Her job was boring, her accident shook her, and she’d been dating a man who went on a trip to his native Lebanon and “came back with a bride” (though the breakup was a “very small part of the picture,” she emphasizes).

Regarding her lack of fear about going into battle, Bohman insists that “it’s not bravery, it’s just commitment,” and notes that perhaps her relative comfort with such violent situations is a product of her difficult upbringing.

“I grew up with violence. Every male role model in my life up until the age of 18 was an abuser. So that’s probably why it’s not scary so much,” she says. “We also lived on a horse ranch and had guns to chase off animals. But I’m not a fan of guns. I bought my first one when I was in Iraq [her first stop being smuggled into Syria], and then I left it there.”

She’s currently back in Vancouver, trying to help get a former comrade safely to Canada. Memories still haunt her, but she says it gets easier with the passage of time.

When Darg learned about YPJ, he was intrigued, and was soon led to Bohman, who was “perfect” as a subject, he tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “Not only because of her insights from front-line experience, but also because she’d been documenting a lot of it with her own camera.”

Darg had merged his past as a humanitarian aid worker with his love of storytelling by cofounding Ryot with Bryn Mooser; this is the third film they’ve worked on with Wilde. Regarding this one, he says, “My big takeaway was a positive note, because I’d seen so much misery over there… but here you have young people willing to stand up and fight. So I’m very encouraged to know there are people like Hanna and like the locals, who are willing to put themselves in harm’s way.”

Wilde says she sees Bohman’s story as a crystallization of the many acts of political resistance on the part of women, from the Women’s March to the more recent #MeToo movement in response to sexual abuse in Hollywood.

“It’s like we’ve hit a breaking point, and what I find so fascinating is that Hanna now seems like the perfect… illustration of that,” Wilde says. “She’s a woman who decided she could no longer stand to sit at home in Canada and read about these stories in the news, and that she had to go put her body in danger in order to stand up for what’s right. In a certain sense, that seems to be what’s happening to a lot of women — to step out into dangerous situations, whether it’s ‘I’m going to come forward with my story of being raped,’ or ‘I’m going to come forward and run for office even though I’m terrified,’ or ‘I’m going to come forward and step into roles that are traditionally held for men.’ So I feel like there’s a groundswell.

“Even though the story is specific to a very intense, high-stakes, and unusual situation,” she adds, “as a kind of metaphor of what’s happening to women around the world, it feels really appropriate.”

Watch the full 27-minute film, “Fear Us Women,” above. 

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

The American woman inking ‘forbidden’ tattoos in Northern Iraq

Teenage boy wrote essay on feminism — and nailed it

Only 1 in 3 women identify as feminists — despite ‘feminist’ beliefs

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Body language expert compares Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle's first mom moments

New parents Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on Wednesday, left, and Kate Middleton and Prince William in 2013. (Photo: Getty Images)

Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor is here!

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle proudly debuted their infant to the world on Wednesday, making their first appearance as a family — two days post-partum rather than on the traditional day-of birth — at Windsor Castle. Rain kept the trio inside St. George’s Hall, the site of their 2018 wedding.

A glowing Meghan, wearing a white sleeveless Givenchy trench dress that was cinched just above her post-partum belly and paired with nude Manolo Blahnik heels, said that being a new mom was “magic.” Harry, in a pale gray suit, held the swaddled infant, while Meghan alternately gazed at her son and adjusted her hair during their public photo op.

So what did all her fussing and shifting mean?

“She was doing a lot of comfort cues with her hair — which is part of her natural baseline, but she was doing it quite a lot,” Patti Wood, body language expert and author of Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma, tells Yahoo Lifestyle, after studying the video of the royal family’s debut.

A comfort cue, she explains, “is a soft touch that sends a message to the nervous system to send out calming chemicals. It’s her comfort cue, and in a category for self-grooming, so it’s a comfort cue about appearance, which makes perfect sense. I think it indicates anxiety as she’s exposing her baby to the clicking cameras of the media, and also exposing herself to possible criticism and ridicule.”

In general, though, what Wood noticed most was that “Meghan seemed to be running it, in terms of who was initiating and more forceful in conversation,” she says. “Beginnings and endings are usually most telling, and she rushed the close. There was an urgency and rushing — great happiness — but that was enough. Which was interesting, considering the power structure. Harry could’ve been out there a while.”

Harry was calm, “to a certain degree,” Wood adds. “His hold [on the baby] was nice and natural and secure, and it was obvious he had held a lot of babies and was comfortable. A lot of times I see him as impish and playful, but here there was something secure underneath.”

Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, during a photocall with their newborn son, in St George's Hall at Windsor Castle, Windsor, on Wednesday May 8, 2019. (Photo: Dominic Lipinski/Pool via AP)

As for Megan, though, “she kept reaching out. You could tell she wanted to be holding the baby.”

When Kate Middleton and Prince William first posed on the steps of the Lido Wing in 2013, debuting their firstborn, George, they each got a change to hold the baby. “They trade off, which was obviously very choreographed and stylized,” Wood notes, and, going back even further, recalls when Charles and Diana stood for their first family photo, and Charles held William “very awkwardly.”

More studying of Kate in 2013 indicated to Wood a high level of comfort. “Physically, I didn’t see any pain. She had a serenity that sort of grounded her and she was really comfortable with the back and forth,” Wood points out. “They weren’t standing as close together or touching each other as much. But they were also in a much more exposed venue, which made them very vulnerable, though they didn’t show that.”

Meghan, meanwhile, “was physically uncomfortable, which was clear through the strain on her face, and her steps, which were very small. There was tension around her ankles and feet,” Wood notes. “I give grace for that, because she’s always so beautifully groomed and wondrous, so I want us to have some empathy.”

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Royal baby watch: Did Meghan Markle have a doula or a midwife? Experts explain the difference

Meghan Markle gave birth to a royal baby boy on Monday. While the public has still not learned the details around the newborn’s much-anticipated arrival, some frenzied rumors include that the duchess might have had her baby at home at Frogmore Cottage rather than a hospital, and that she’d hired a doula to help her through labor.

So, what the heck is a doula, anyway? And how is it different from a midwife, which was also among the rumors of possible royal-birth hires?

In simplest terms, a doula is “a trained professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to a mother before, during and shortly after childbirth to help her achieve the healthiest, most satisfying experience possible,” according to DONA International, the world’s largest doula-certification agency, founded in 1992.

A midwife, on the other hand, is a highly trained health professional who assists women throughout the birth process, either in hospitals or at home, and who also provides pre- and post-natal care. Midwives are employed by women who have medically uncomplicated pregnancies and, typically, who want a more natural-birth experience, as they approach birth not from a medical perspective, like that of physicians, but as a normal physiologic event, sticking to the woman-led Midwifery Model of Care, transferring high-risk pregnancies to obstetricians.

While midwives are at births to ensure healthy outcomes for both mom and baby, a doula’s primary concern is the laboring mother. “It doesn’t mean you’ll have the perfect birth, but it does mean that someone will be there as your guide, 100 percent, and is not there for anybody else,” Ann Grauer, a DONA-certified doula who has attended births and led trainings for 30 years, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “And to have someone completely on your side, I think, fills a spot in your DNA.”

Doulas can be effective allies at births no matter where they take place. “Hospitals can be a good place to birth, but a challenging place to birth,” Grauer says, referring to strict protocols and pressure about medical interventions that could sometimes make it difficult to stick to desired birth plans. “Doulas are there making sure you’re feeling good about things,” she says. “It’s hard to be cognizant of what’s going on around you, and that’s where we come in.” Doulas can serve as knowledgeable advocates, she adds, and “rather than us being your voice… we help you find your own voice.”

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on March 11, 2019 in London, England. (Photo: Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage)

At home births, meanwhile, “Doulas and midwives are like the perfect team,” Grauer says, adding that it’s never excessive, in her opinion, to have both present. “I’ve never heard a woman say to me, ‘Wow, I had too much support.’”

When deciding whether or not to hire a doula, the expecting mom or couple will want to take a few things into consideration, says Debra Flashenberg, a DONA-certified doula and owner of the Prenatal Yoga Center in New York City.

“If they are looking for someone to add an extra layer of continuous, unbiased support from someone not intimately involved in the birth, like a partner or relative, they should consider hiring a doula,” she says. “Adding a doula to the birth posse or birth team doesn’t have to mean you want an unmedicated birth — I had a ton of clients who intended on taking pain medication at some point. They wanted someone who could offer physical, emotional and informational support and was independent of the hospital.”

Further, Flashenberg adds, “Some people also have a lot of fear around birth, or carry past trauma. Having a doula could provide assurance, or another layer of comfort.”

Even with an incredibly supportive partner, she explains, “there can be limits,” especially if it’s the first birth experience. “They will be watching someone they deeply love go through a very intense experience, which may not allow them to step away see what is normal in labor,” Flashenberg says. “Many times, I would get a call from the partner after the first big contraction that they are ready to rush off to the hospital, when in fact, they are just turning the corner into active labor.”

She adds, “A truly respectful doula should enhance the experience for both the partner and the laboring person, and not necessarily take the place of a partner.”

Then, following the birth of the baby, there’s another type of support that can be hugely beneficial — that of a post-partum doula, whose focus is still 100 percent on the new mom.

“For my first birth, I would have been a hot mess without my postpartum doula,” Flashenberg, a mom of two, says. “They are, again, not emotionally involved, and come fresh and awake to support the new family. They have skills that even second-time parents may be a bit rusty on, and can offer support for those who decide to breastfeed.”

Notes Grauer, “A post-partum doula is the missing link. This is the place in America where we’ve dropped the ball horribly… We don’t tend too well to your psyche and heart while giving birth, and then, unless you’ve had a home birth, we just send you home all alone. It’s one of the most destructive ways to start parenthood.”

Post-partum doulas help new moms adjust to practicalities like their new bodies, breastfeeding, newborn care, and even “field trips,” like accompanying mother and baby on their first outings together. “It’s like mothering the mother,” she says. “You wind up feeling stronger and more in charge of your life even sooner.”

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Kombucha health benefits: Here's what science says

Kombucha, an ancient fizzy drink with origins in East Asia, has been shown to possess many health benefits, including increasing good bacteria in the gut. (Photo: Getty Images)

Coconut oil, acaí berries, kimchi, matcha, spelt: All are trendy health foods that are actually not new at all — just like kombucha, the hotter-than-ever fermented-tea beverage with a truly ancient history.

“It’s a tradition that dates back more than 2000 years,” Dr. William Li, author of Eat to Beat Disease, tells Yahoo Lifestyle.

Kombucha, a fizzy drink created by fermenting tea (most commonly black or green) and sugar with a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast known as SCOBY, was first used for its healing properties in East Asia — initially in China, where it was beloved for its “energizing effects,” according to a comprehensive new study coauthored by epidemiologist Julie Kapp, Kombucha: a systematic review of the empirical evidence of human health benefit, published in the Annals of Epidemiology in February.

The elixir then made its way to Japan, before catching on in Russia, Germany, France, North Africa, Italy and, finally, Switzerland, when 1960s researchers noted it had health benefits similar to those of yogurt because it contains probiotics, which introduce new bacteria into the gut microbiome.

“This helps to increase the diversity and enrich healthy bacteria populations in your gut, which can have many beneficial effects ranging from improved immunity and lowered inflammation,” Li explains.

Today, in the U.S., you’ll not only find kombucha at any health-food store, but sharing shelf space with juices and sodas in an increasing number of regular delis and mini-marts. In fact, a recent MarketsandMarkets report showed sales of kombucha are expected to grow by 25 percent every year through 2020 to a value of $1.8 billion.

But what scientific evidence do we actually have about the purported health benefits of drinking the bubbly, vinegar-like brew? Some. But less than you might believe, based on the hype surrounding kombucha.

“The health benefits have been touted, but not studied in a well-controlled environment,” Jo Ann Hattner, a San Francisco-based registered dietician and nutritionist and co-author of Gut Insight: Probiotics and Prebiotics for Digestive Health and Wellbeing, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. We do know that the drink contains probiotics, Hattner says, noting, “I have clients who drink kombucha because they want to enjoy a fermented drink and they want the live fungi and bacteria for their gut health. These clients are often looking for a fermented, dairy-free drink.”

But beyond the knowledge about probiotics — confirmed in lab tests of kombucha’s properties — we don’t have many studies to go on. That’s because the body of scientific evidence we do have is based on largely on animal testing, which leaves some experts skeptical.

“Besides having different biology, humans have a lot of distinct environmental and behavioral factors, so it’s important to conduct the human studies,” Kapp tells Yahoo Lifestyle, adding that we should give such animal-based studies “not too much” weight in assessing kombucha’s benefits. “We need to be cautious about expecting animal study results to predict humans’ real-world results.”

Trendy kombucha can increasingly be found served on tap, such as at this health food store in Huntington Beach, Calif. (Photo: Kevin Sullivan/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

There has been one human-based kombucha study, however, albeit small (and with no control group), which Kapp finds compelling. It has to do with blood-sugar levels, which is why some believe it could be an important tool in managing Type-2 Diabetes.

The study, from 2002, looked at 24 individuals with non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, and found that, after 90 days of consuming just two liters of kombucha daily, subjects had a “significant reduction” of blood sugar levels, which remained stable for at least a month afterward. “The lead author's dissertation also describes improvements associated with the same intervention in individuals with mild hypertension or diverse medical problems,” noted Kapp in her scientific review. And while she tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the study “does not provide enough evidence to endorse kombucha,” it does “offer some leads for further research.”

Here’s a look at what else we know — and don’t exactly know — about the purported health benefits of kombucha:

GUT HEALTH

Because the fermentation process makes a drink that’s rich in probiotics, many believe that drinking kombucha is good for your gut health, providing a healthy blend of bacteria to absorb nutrition and fight off infection in a way that’s similar to that of fermented kimchi, sauerkraut or yogurt.

There was, in fact, one scientific analysis, in 2014, that identified the specific strains of kombucha’s bacteria. It found significant amounts of Gluconacetobacter (which merely creates cellulose) and Zygosaccharomyces, which merely create cellulose (a complex carbohydrate) and offer flavor, respectively. But it also found Lactobacillus, which is found in yogurt, and believed to possibly reduce cholesterol, help with Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms, and prevent vaginal infections.

Li — who is the medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation, dedicated to “disrupting disease through angiogenesis,” the body’s process of growing blood vessels, touts fermentation and probiotics as good ways to fend off disease.

“Fermented foods and probiotics both add healthy bacteria to enhance your microbiome health defense system in the gut,” Li explains. “Many serious health conditions now are tied to abnormalities of the microbiome, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and systemic inflammation. When beneficial bacteria are absent, the immune system’s ability to detect and fight cancer cells is lessened. Overgrowth of unhealthy bacteria, on the other hand, can result in the release of harmful metabolites that can cause inflammation, which can fuel the growth of cancer cells.”

ANTIOXODANT POWERS

Li, a big proponent of green tea, notes that kombucha may share some of its beneficiary properties.

“The prebiotic action of green tea increases our gut’s population of healthy bacteria that produce short chain fatty acids. These fragments are produced as metabolites of gut bacteria and they have anti-inflammatory effects in the intestine,” he says.

Further, Li notes, green tea activates the body’s regenerative capabilities. “A study from Korea showed that consuming four cups green tea daily increased circulating stem cells by 43 percent over two weeks, and this was accompanied by improved blood vessel dilation by 29 percent.” Green tea also can calm the immune system, he says, noting there’s been evidence showing that drinking it can decrease symptoms in women with the autoimmune disease lupus.

CANCER PREVENTION

The anti-cancer potential for kombucha most likely come from the anti-angiogenic (cancer starving) properties of tea, Li explains. “Green tea contains a polyphenol called EGCG, which can starve cancers by cutting off their blood supply (anti-angiogenesis). Studies out of Vanderbilt University involving 69,700 people that shown that drinking two to three cups of green tea a day is associated with a 44 percent reduced risk of developing colon cancer.” Those are great reasons to opt for kombucha that’s been brewed from green tea, rather than black or red.

Further, he posits that an enriched microbiome may also better protect the body against cancer by boosting the immune system. But, he notes, “More research is needed, however, before kombucha can be regarded as having anti-cancer properties.”

Adds Karr, “There have not been human clinical trials yet testing whether kombucha can prevent cancer. At this point, kombucha health claims for humans and cancer are speculative or anecdotal. Nevertheless, there is a lot of science currently focused on probiotics and the microbiome, so it is an exciting time to study this area.”

Bottom line: Kombucha, although lacking a big body of scientific evidence in its favor, is refreshing, backed by centuries of use, and good for your gut.

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The Amazing Underwire-Free Bra That Bra-Haters Swear By

The Vibrant Body Company bra is transforming. (Photo: Vibrant Body Company)

Raise your hand if you hate wearing a bra!

You’re not alone. And while the reasons for that are numerous, a likely top problem is this: You’re wearing the wrong size, and it’s damn uncomfortable.

It’s why a few of us at Yahoo Style couldn’t resist when Heidi Lehmann, Vibrant Body Company technical designer, offered us fittings as part of a recent tour to promote Vibrant bras — which come with a seductive promise: “never wires, never toxins.”

Why wireless? Because while there is no conclusive scientific evidence that wearing underwire bras is harmful to your health, experience shows that they’re uncomfortable. And, as Vibrant literature explains, “What we do know is that a wired bra is often restrictive. It restricts breast tissue as well as lymph nodes. We believe that restricting your body, any part of your body, for a prolonged or consistent period, is not healthy. We believe that freedom of movement and the flow of internal systems is important and the healthier, more comfortable option.”

And regarding toxins, “Many of the most recognized intimates brands use nasty chemicals in their fabrics,” Vibrant notes, “including phthalates and carcinogenic amines. Irritants that your body can easily absorb.”

So after seven years, 132 designs, and 211 prototypes, Vibrant Body Company — developed by media entrepreneur Michael Drescher and designer Roslyn Harte — came up with a new kind of bra. The result is a breathable, nontoxic, OEKO-TEX certified, wireless creation that the company claims is “comfortable” and “naturally sexy,” with wide straps that don’t dig in or fall down, and sideways cup support that “creates natural curves.”

The bras come in two styles — full coverage and semi-demi ($89 each); three colors — pearl, caramel, and black; and sizes ranging from 34B to 42D. After receiving our personalized fittings from Lehmann and our accurately-sized full coverage bras, we test drove them for a week. Below are our reviews (but suffice it to say that some of us have not taken them off yet).

I’ve got an internal debate simmering over the hunt for a perfect bra vs. the desire to shed mine altogether (which I do daily and immediately as soon as I get home from work). Still, the last bra I got truly excited about remains the first one I ever wore — two flimsy peach triangles purchased reluctantly by my mom when I was about 10 years old, and worn by me faithfully even though I was nowhere near needing it, just because I thought it made me seem grown-up. But now I’m excited all over again. For starters, the Vibrant feels great to the touch — it’s silky smooth — and almost as good while I’m wearing it, thanks to the absence of underwires and the soft, wider-than-usual straps that honestly don’t dig in or fall down. I still rip it off as soon as I walk through the door at the end of the day, but with none of the usual disdain. —B.G.

The Vibrant bra is honestly the best I have ever had the pleasure of wearing. Through the years, I have had a hard time picking out just the right size. After being fitted, I learned that I was wearing the wrong size, and I hadn’t been adjusting my straps properly. The Vibrant bra wasn’t too tight and didn’t have any hard underwires harshly leaning up against my underboob. I wear it at least a few times a week now, and even work out in it because it’s so darn comfy that I sometimes forget I have it on. Plus, while my breasts naturally have an interesting cone shape, this bra creates a rounder look, which I love, and it looks great under most of my blouses. I’m obsessed with this bra and barely want to wear anything else now. —J.Y.

Historically, I tend to avoid bras as much as possible. I rarely buy tops that require them, and dread wearing them to work. Usually, I stick with bralettes or my go-to unlined underwire bra, especially because my size fluctuates. But despite choosing what I thought were the comfiest bras in the past, they always wound up being the first thing to come off when I got home, even before my shoes. The Vibrant bra has certainly changed my outlook. Its extended cup fits snugly without digging in, and its lack of underwire is right up my alley. It is much less visible under my clothes than any of my other bras, and it’s actually comfortable. I’m still not completely converted and continue to avoid wearing bras, but having one that doesn’t dig in throughout the day to remind me that I’m wearing it reopens a section of my wardrobe that I’ve been avoiding. —D.K.

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