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This woman’s viral Twitter thread about men NOT assaulting her is a must read

For anyone who thinks stories of sexual harassment and assault are complicated, writer Maura Quint has a story for you. Actually, she has quite a few.

Quint posted a thread on her Twitter account that quickly went viral in which she talked about a number of real-life encounters with men that started out sexual, involved her expressing disinterest, and the men responding appropriately.


It wasn’t an unrealistic hero’s tale of men handing over the keys to their autonomy. Rather, Quint’s incredible thread made it clear that the only variable in cases of assault vs. non-assault are when a man doesn’t respect the autonomy of the woman he’s propositioning.

Her thread opens up in an all-too-familiar tone, where we’re led to believe it will go to an incredibly dark place:

date rape, Maura Quint, respect

Instead, Quint says her indifference to his proposition was met in kind with a guy just acting in a basic, non-rapey way:

honorable, educated, respectful

She goes on to offer several other examples of being in sexual or potentially sexual situations with men who also managed to not sexually assault her:

women, real men, character

responsibility, honorable, equality

And here’s the real kicker, Quint says she has been assaulted. To her, the difference isn’t hard to pinpoint:

role models, parenting, raising good people

Her thread has been re-tweeted nearly 50,000 times and “liked” more than 100,000 times. Other women and some men jumped in with their own tales of drinking, partying and still, somehow, managing to not assault or even harass the women they encountered.

honesty, fairness, behavior

social norms, civic duty, public responsibility

love, kindness, consciousness, respectful

It’s a stark contrast to the half-baked defenses of Brett Kavanaugh and other men like him. There are incredibly rare exceptions where a man is accused of assault or harassment and he is entirely free of guilt. But for women, or anyone for that matter, who has survived sexual assault or experienced sexual harassment, there is no “gray area.”

There’s being OK with assault and then there’s everything else. Whether or not we’re consciously aware of this, we’ve all chosen a side. But if you’re on the wrong side, it doesn’t have to be that way forever.

This article originally appeared on 10.02.18

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Like Most Viewers, Kelly Clarkson Had A Deeply Emotional Response To Celine Dion’s 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony Performance

Celine Dion Paris 2024 (1024x437)
Getty Image

The Olympics is a time for each nation to firmly stand in their patriotism. However, there’s one musician that transcends boarders—Celine Dion.

Yesterday (July 26), the “My Heart Will Go On” singer made her joyous return to the stage since her Stiff-Person Syndrome diagnosis during the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony.

As emotional as the moment was for Celine, it was equally moving for viewers, including Kelly Clarkson. As a special commentator of the broadcast, Clarkson held back tears watching Celine sing given her documented condition.

Alongside fellow guest anchors, Mike Tirico and Peyton Manning, Clarkson expressed her admiration for the singer. But she needed to pause in order to do so.

“I’m so sorry, I’m trying to hold it together,” she said.

Clarkson even went on to crown Celine the evening’s biggest winner: “[Celine Dion is a] gold winner for vocal athletes.”

User online agreed with the trios remarks about the moving performance.

“So perfectly said, Kelly Clarkson and I felt the same way while weeping but joyful tears What a triumphant comeback,” wrote one user.

“I’m so happy that Celine was able to belt out her signature vocals here today,” penned another.

“I cried too. It was very touching,” added another.

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Here Are The Broccoli City Festival Set Times For 2024

Megan Thee Stallion Hot Girl Summer Tour Houston 2024 (1024x437)
Getty Image

Washington, DC’s premier music event, Broccoli City Festival is back. Today (July 27) and tomorrow (July 28) festival goers will gather at Audi Field to witness headliners Megan Thee Stallion, Gunna, and PartyNextDoor perform their latest projects among other acts and activities.

With a such a jam-packed lineup, you’ll need to plan according. Continue below for the 2024 Broccoli City Festival set times.

Broccoli City Festival Set Times For Saturday, July 27, 2024

According to the festival’s official Instagram page, here are the official set times for July 27 (all times p.m. and local). Over on the Converse Stage, Skilla Baby will open the festival at 2:10. Amaarae will follow at 3 pm. Then Hoe Down with Tanner Adell is scheduled to hold the crowd over beginning at 3:55 pm. At 4:45 Fridayy will take to the stage. By 5:40, Trapsoul Karaoke hosted by Bryson Tiller will go down. Lil Yachty & The Concrete Family will go on at 6:35. PartyNextDoor should be on stage by 7:45. Then at 9:10, Megan Thee Stallion will start her headlining set to close out the festival.

Simultaneously, the City Stage has several notable acts of its own. OCTFME will kick things off at 3. At 3:45 Crank Caviar will join them. ChloTheGod will take to the stage at 4:30. Then Ryan Trey is set for 5:05. Coco Butter with Uncle Waffles is scheduled for 6. At 7:25 Teezo Touchdown should be on stage. If you are unable to make your way over to the Converse Stage, at 8 pm a live feed will broadcast from City Stage.

Broccoli City Festival Set Times For Sunday, July 28, 2024

At this time, set times for Sunday, July 28 haven’t been shared.

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41 seconds is all you need to learn how to keep a choking baby from dying

Have you listened to the miscellaneous voices of your miscellaneous items on the floor lately?

Oh yours don’t speak? Well these do.


And they have something to admit.

THEY ARE MURDERERS!

Conveniently enough, they offer four easy steps to make them not murderers.

ONE:

TWO:

THREE:

FOUR:

*phew*

And now for some follow-ups…

YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO…

Less murderous miscellaneous items, safer babies, better world.


This article originally appeared on 1.14.15

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9 things to know about kids in foster care. Plus an unforgettable view into their lives.


Zoe’s story, “Removed,” has been seen by millions of people.

It was previously shared by my amazing Upworthy colleague Laura Willard. We got just a tiny taste of what it was like for kids in foster care, right after being removed. Specifically, a little girl named Zoe and her little brother Benaiah.

My wife and I, foster parents for the past year, even shared the original with our adoption worker, who passed it along to the entire agency and, then, it took off like wildfire among those people as well.

This is part 2 of that story, and it hits hard.

(Yes, the video’s on the long side at about 20 minutes. But it’s worth the watch to the end.)

She describes her life as a cycle, interrupted by a tornado. She’s a foster child. I don’t think I need to say any more.


So … let’s accompany that with 9 uncomfortable — but enlightening — facts below. There are only nine bolded, but within those headers, there are several more facts.

1. There are an estimated 400,000 kids in foster care right now.

Some are awaiting adoption. Some will go back to their parents. Others will age out or, sometimes, run away.

2. Foster kids can suffer from PTSD at almost two times the rate of returning veterans.

And PTSD can mimic a lot of other mental illnesses, and it can manifest as nightmares, flashbacks, fight-or-flee responses, anger outbursts, and hyper-vigilance (being on “red alert” at all times), among other symptoms.

3. The average age of a foster child is 9 years old.

They’re just on that edge of childhood, and chances are, it’s been a pretty messed up childhood at that. Trauma does that.

4. About half of all foster kids are in non-relative foster homes.

8% are in institutions, 6% are in group homes, and only 4% are in pre-adoptive homes. Read that again — only 4% are in pre-adoptive homes.

5. Some of foster children experience multiple placements. In some cases, eight or more.

That’s eight homes that they move into — and out of. And just consider … that means they lose not just adults and other kids with whom they are establishing a bond, but friends, schoolmates, pets.

6. The average foster child remains in the system for almost two years before being reunited with their biological parents, adopted, aging out, or other outcomes.

8% of them remain in foster care for over five years. Of the 238,000 foster kids who left the system in 2013, about half were reunited with parents or primary caregivers, 21% were adopted, 15% went to live with a relative or other guardian, and 10% were emancipated (aged out).

7. In 2013, more than 23,000 young people aged out of foster care with no permanent family to end up with.

And if you add that up, year after year, hundreds of thousands of foster youth will have aged out of the system. What does that look like? “You’re 18. You’ve got no place to live and no family. Good luck — buh-bye now!” One-quarter of former foster kids experience homelessness within four years of exiting the system.

8. Foster “alumni” (those who have been in foster homes and either adopted, returned to parents, or aged out) are likely to suffer serious mental health consequences.

They are four-five times more likely to be hospitalized for attempting suicide and five-eight times more likely to be hospitalized for serious psychiatric disorders in their teens.

Based on that set of statistics alone, it’s in the public’s interest (ignoring, for a second, the interests of those kids) to help them through their lot in life and spend resources making it all work much better for everybody before it gets to that point. Right?

So there’s a lot to be angry about in this whole messed up situation. But this next thing? My blood boils.

What’s one of the biggest risk factors in families whose children are placed in foster care?

Your guess?

Cruelty?

Drugs?

Sexual abuse?

Neglect?

The answer is …

9. Poverty

Together with homelessness and unemployment, it’s a main contributing factor. It happens all the time. The fact that it’s far easier for a parent to be accused and investigated for neglect or abuse because of simple things like lack of access to a vehicle, or a working refrigerator, or the ability to get a kid to a doctor’s appointment — that has a lot to do with this. Tie that to the link between drug abuse and poverty and between poverty and child abuse … well, you can see where this is going.

And in a country where one-third of children are living in poverty (hint: the good ol’ U.S. of A.), imagine how that affects the number of kids being removed and placed into foster care.

I’ll end this with a bit of hope through my story.

My kids went through something a lot like the kids in the clip above before they came to live with us. We’ve been through the ringer in ways that we’re going to have to talk about one day because it’s not just that the kids have been challenging — they have — it’s that the system itself has been more challenging.

The entire system — from agencies to government entities to social workers to even the schools — seems like it’s designed to fail these kids and the families who are attempting to help. It’s almost designed not to work. There, I said it.

But that doesn’t mean we won’t fight to make it better for everybody. We most definitely will.

As for us, we’re just a few weeks away from becoming the legal parents to these kids, and we’re extremely happy to be right here, making it happen. And they seem quite happy to be our kids. Along the way, we fell in love with them, and we can’t imagine life without them.

But to be totally honest … if we’d have known how hard it was going to be when we started this journey, and if we could somehow turn back the clock and NOT do it … well, would we have actually gone forward with the process?

I take that back. I won’t be totally honest here. I will simply let you decide.

Here are some places to help, if you’re so inclined.

        • AdoptUsKids.org is a place to start if you’re considering fostering or adopting.
        • My Stuff Bags is a really cool and inexpensive way to help foster kids by gifting them actual luggage, duffel bags, and more, so that they don’t travel from home to home with garbage bags for their belongings — or nothing at all.
        • CASA for Children offers legal help and advocates for foster kids through a network of volunteers.

        This story was written by Brandon Weber and originally appeared on 07.17.15
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        The ‘Cowboy Carter’ Herself, Beyoncé, Introduces Team USA In The 2024 Paris Olympics Commercial

        The 2024 Paris Olympics games have begun. From Snoop Dogg’s carrying of the torch to Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, and Gojira’s trending performances, cameos featuring musicians are in abundance.

        But in typical fashion, Beyoncé surprised the world with a patriotic promotional video that nearly crashed the internet. Yesterday (July 26), while after everyone processed the dazzling opening ceremony, NBC Olympics & Paralympics dropped their Team USA introduction video lead by none other than the Cowboy Carter herself, Bey.

        In the visual, Beyoncé dressed in fully customized Americana regalia fit for the now reigning rodeo queen as a reimagined version of her song “Ya Ya” soundtracked the moment.

        Beyoncé’s entry into country music, often viewed as the most red-blooded American genre, wasn’t exactly appreciated at the time. Despite the tension from naysayers, the Houston native preserved and make musical history along the way. The true American way.

        This complex dynamic of who is considered to be a proper representation of America made its way into the promotional clip as Beyoncé said: “These hopes and dreams. These superstars that represent us. The people of this big, bold, beautiful, complicated nation.”

        Call it what you want, but this type of alignment couldn’t have been more divine.

        Watch Beyoncé’s introduction video for Team USA above.

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        The Internet Kept Comparing LeBron James To George Washington During The Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony

        lebron james team usa
        NBC

        The United States were led into the Opening Ceremony at the Paris Olympics by a pair of flag-bearers: LeBron James and Coco Gauff. The future Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and the 20-year-old superstar in the world of tennis are at the opposite ends of their careers, but their fellow Olympians chose them to represent the Stars and Stripes.

        This Opening Ceremony was a little different, because instead of all the athletes walking into a stadium, everyone was put on a boat that went through the River Seine, which cuts right through the city. It led to some absolutely breathtaking moments, which remained the case when Team USA showed up late in the evening in the driving rain.

        James held the flag up during this in what was both a really cool moment and something that the internet latched onto. While James is no stranger to getting meme’d, folks on Twitter ran with this one and kept making jokes comparing him to the famous painting of George Washington leading American troops to cross the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War.

        The patriotism on display was off the charts.

        As for when we’ll see James turn in his Opening Ceremony outfit for his USA Basketball uniform, the men’s team will take the floor for the first time against Nikola Jokic and Serbia on Sunday.

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        Joao Cardoso Threw Down A Crazy Alley-Oop On Rudy Gobert To Start The Olympics

        vlcsnap-2024-07-27-10h25m57s874~3
        CNBC

        The 2024 Olympics men’s basketball tournament got underway on Saturday, and the headliner of the first day of action was the host nation France playing their first game against Brazil.

        The French side has medal expectations and figure to be one of the biggest threats to the USA for the gold, as their roster is headlined by Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert, who create a terrifying defensive tandem in the paint. The two top vote getters in last year’s NBA Defensive Player of the Year award race figure to make it tough to get to the rim in the half court, but transition is a whole different ball game as we learned early in France’s opener.

        The Brazilian squad got out on the break and Joao Cardoso authored the early frontrunner for highlight of the Olympics with a crazy alley-oop finish over Gobert, sending the 4-time DPOY crashing to the floor.

        Part of being a great rim protector is going after blocks that you may not have a chance to get, and that means getting dunked on. Gobert is no stranger to that, but this is one of the most vicious finishes we’ve seen over him and the Brazil team was rightfully hyped after Cardoso put the Stifle Tower on a poster.

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        Mom rips into husbands who expect their wives to do housework in crazy viral Facebook post

        It’s the 21st century, and as a civilization, we’ve come a long way. No, there are no flying cars (yet), but we all carry tiny supercomputers in our pockets, can own drones, and can argue with strangers from all around the world as long as they have internet access.

        And yet women are still having to ask their partners to help out around the house. What gives?


        Recently, Blogger Constance Hall went on a highly-relatable rant about spouses assuming responsibility for housework, and women everywhere are all, “🙌 🙌 🙌 .”

        Recently while bitching about the fact that I do absolutely everything around my house with a bunch of friends all singing “preach Queen”, someone said to me “if you want help you need to be specific… ask for it. People need lists, they aren’t mind readers.”

        So I tried that, asking.. specifics..

        “Can you take the bin out?”

        “Can you get up with the kids? I’m just a little tired after doing it on my own for 329 years”

        “Can you go to woolies? I’ve done 3 loads of washing and made breaky, lunch, picked up all the kids school books, dealt with the floating shit in the pond.”

        And yeah, she was right… shit got done.But I was exhausted, just keeping the balls in the air.. remembering what needs to be asked to be done, constant nagging..And do you know what happened the minute I stopped asking…?

        NOTHING.Again.

        And so I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not your job to ask for help, it’s not my job to write fucking lists.

        We have enough god dam jobs and teaching someone how to consider me and my ridiculous work load is not one of them.Just do it.Just think about each other, what it takes to run the god dam house.

        Is one of you working while the other puts up their feet? Is one of you hanging out with mates while the other peels the thirtieth piece of fruit for the day? Is one of you carrying the weight?

        Because when the nagging stops, when the asking dies down, when there are no more lists….All your left with is silent resentment. And that my friends is relationship cancer..It’s not up to anyone else to teach you consideration.

        That’s your job.Just do the fucking dishes without being asked once in a while mother fuckers.

        Hall’s post touches on the concept of emotional labor, which can be defined as “the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job.”

        In other words, although Hall’s partner may be the one carrying out the tasks she assigns him, it is still Hall’s job to be the “manager” of the household, and keep track of what things need to get done. And anyone who runs a household knows that juggling and keeping track of chores is just as exhausting as executing them.

        At time of publication, Hall’s post was shared nearly 100,000 times. That’s a lot of frustrated ladies!

        When your girl Far Kew sends you the perfect present. You will find this and more cunty cups on her facebook page 👌🏽
        Posted by Constance Hall on Thursday, November 30, 2017

        Women in the comments section seemed to overwhelmingly agree with Hall’s post.

        Let’s all learn to share the load…laundry and otherwise.

        This article originally appeared on 08.27.18

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        Jimmy Fallon asked people to share ‘funny, weird, or embarrassing’ stories about their dads

        There are many traditional staples of fatherhood—love, support, protection, security, providing an example—but there is, of course, that other not-so-warm-and-fuzzy feeling that dads can provoke in their kids at any given moment … sheer, utter embarrassment.

        Usually in a father’s humiliation tool belt is the infamous dad joke. These corny puns have been around since 2003, and let’s face it, they’ll never leave. Of course, no dad needs one to make your eyes roll. They can do that most of the time simply by being themselves.

        For his well-known #Hashtags segment, Jimmy Fallon asked his “Tonight Show” audience to share “funny, weird, or embarrassing” stories about their dads. Fallon, a father himself, is no stranger to the cringeworthy power of a dad joke. In a 2020 interview with TODAY, Fallon admitted, “I’m starting to get the eye rolls now where Daddy’s not the funniest person in the world.”


        Don’t worry Fallon! Clearly you’re not alone, because people replied with some truly hilarious comments. Dads might be silly, but we’ll gladly put up with it for the love they give us.

        Enjoy 20 of the very best #DadStories. As usual, Fallon went first:

        1.


        “Instead of buying a smoker my dad just grills in the garage with the door closed.” – @jimmyfallon

        2.

        “At my aunt’s wedding reception, my dad ran out from the bathroom when he heard You Should Be Dancing by the Bee Gees play, and proceeded to do John Travolta’s routine from Saturday Night Fever.” – @MJ_Rose88

        tonight show hashtags

        3.

        “My Dad will call me sometimes when he wants me to bring him food. He refers to me as ‘GrubDash.'” – @FalPalAMF828

        4.

        “My dad likes to play a very morbid game called ‘guess who died’, which consists of him gossiping about someone I probably haven’t seen in 20+ years and can’t remember at all, who died recently. Bonus points for guessing the cause of death.” – @jon_jonz

        5.

        “My dad used to drink his morning coffee with his dentures in his hand while reading the newspaper. When we asked him why, he said his teeth also wanted to read the newspaper.” – @FallonHolic_

        6.

        “When my dad took my sister to her first Jr. HS dance, she asked to be dropped off a block before the school. My dad proceeded to take her all the way up to the main entrance, got out of the car and loudly announced her arrival!” – @77BroncosFan

        7.

        “Asked my dad if he knew who Taylor Swift was…he said, I don’t care who he is!” – @JessyKrupa

        jimmy fallon dad stories

        8.

        “My dad whistles really loud. He sticks his head out the window and whistles back to birds. But when the lady next door heard him, she called 911. The cops told her, ‘Lady, he didn’t whistle at you. He only flirts with birds.'” – @tostianascripts

        9.

        “When my dad would leave a message on my answering machine, he would end the message saying, ‘This is dad signing off.'” – @RealRobFindor

        10.

        “We were on vacation and the gift shops selling fudge called plain fudge ‘chocolate no nuts.’ A guy walked up to my dad with some samples and offered him some saying ‘chocolate no nuts?’ And my dad said ‘what did you just call me?'” – @lauraceciliaOT

        11.

        “My Dad laid a new floor in my brother’s house. It was all finished so we couldn’t understand why he was taking up the boards again. Turns out he had seen a spider run underneath and was worried it would be trapped.” – @Sohnzie

        12.

        “Whenever my dad would try to talk us into trying something new to eat he’d state, ‘It’s so good it’ll put hair on your chest.’ He had 3 daughters.” – @Bookelew

        jimmy fallon twitter

        13.

        “My mom once bought a 6 ft Santa statue at a yard sale without telling dad. When he got home and parked, we heard banging, crashing and swearing. We went to look and the Santa was laying face down on the curb. Dad thought someone was trying to jump him.” – @dknessfalls

        14.

        “My dad couldn’t decide if he wanted to be called ‘grandpa’ or ‘papa’ so he just told all of us to call him ‘Coach.’ He’s not a coach.” – @iPopEditor

        15.

        “My father went to the McDonalds drive thru and asked for a whopper. When they said ‘they didn’t have whoppers’, He just drove off without placing an order.” – @Marisa_Rosie22

        16.

        “One day we went out to eat at Pizza Hut and sat in front of an empty table with some pizza left on it. My dad, being the penny pincher he is, grabbed some and started eating it. A few minutes later the couple comes back from the bathroom asking ‘where’s our pizza?'” – @Alex_Erickson3

        17.

        “My dad let a bee land on his hand and watched it closely as it stung him because he ‘wanted to see the process up close.'” – @TrippyPsycholo1

        dad jokes

        18.

        “My dad once tried to tell a lady she had a Big Bug on her, but accidentally told her she had a Really Big Butt. She was not amused.” – @Sallyjo25

        19.

        “My dad thinks it’s funny to introduce my mom as his ‘first wife’….my parents have been married for 58 years and are in their late 80’s.” – @annMcD87

        20.

        My dad entered Canada by swimming across the Niagara from the US under the cover of night.” – @albertduic

        jimmy fallon hashtags, fallon hashtags dad stories


        This story originally appeared on 06.17.22