Faux feminism has left the planet

On Monday, April 14, six elite American women blasted off into space from west Texas on a self-piloting rocket ship developed by the space technology company Blue Origin, owned by bazillionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The “crew” of the much-ballyhooed all-female flight – marketed by Blue Origin as a giant leap not only for womankind but for the entire world – included pop star Katy Perry, television personality Gayle King, and Bezos’s fiancee Lauren Sanchez, author of the children’s book The Fly Who Flew to Space and the organiser of the wannabe feminist space excursion.

In preparation for the star-studded spectacle, Elle magazine ran a fawning cover story on the “historic mission”, which the magazine described as “the first time anybody went to space with their hair and makeup done”. By the end of the article, which is basically a continuous succession of aneurysm-inducing lines, one finds oneself with little hope for the world aside from that an asteroid would strike and just put an end to it all.

Perry, for example, is quoted as declaring that “we are going to put the ‘ass’ in astronaut”, while also sharing the scintillating logistics of celebrity space travel: “I was like, What am I going to wear?” Then there’s an exchange between Sanchez, who predicts that “we’re going to have [eye]lash extensions flying in the capsule!”, and King, who wonders if the lashes will “stay on”, prompting the response from Sanchez: “Mine are glued on. They’re good.”

Fellow “crew” member Aisha Bowe, an aerospace engineer and entrepreneur, explains that she “wanted to test out” her hair to make sure it was rocket-ready: “So I skydived in Dubai with similar hair to make sure I would be good.”

None of this is to say, of course, that women can’t care about their eyelashes and hair. But in a world in which a whole lot of women don’t have money to eat – much less skydive in one of the planet’s most expensive places to see how their hair might fare during an 11-minute, multimillion-dollar jaunt in outer space – such chatter does nothing to further female empowerment.

It does everything, however, to reinforce inequality – and makes a mockery of Sanchez’s pre-flight claim that “we’re going to be able to come back and inspire people and bring people together.” Following the completion of Monday’s flight, she was quoted as reflecting on her quick inspection of the Earth from above: “You look at this, and you’re like, ‘We’re all in this together.’”

To be sure, it requires an astronomical hypocrisy to invoke a collective “we” when not all of “us” are engaged to the world’s second-richest human, who as of March had a net worth of $231.2bn. We’re also not really “in this together” when Bezos himself is actively abetting the obliteration of solidarity in the United States, cosying up to President Donald Trump – whose anti-feminist agenda is, mind you, clear as day – as he goes about happily dismantling whatever semblance of rights remain in the country.

The Blue Origin website assures visitors that the company “exists for the benefit of Earth” and boasts a “passion for preserving Earth”, which is “humanity’s forever home”. To that end, Blue Origin allegedly strives “to minimize our carbon footprint and promote sustainable practices in all aspects of our operations” – reusable rockets, reusable engines, and so on – which ultimately amounts to nothing but your typical corporate claptrap that allows the super-rich to keep annihilating the earth and its atmosphere while claiming not to.

And it’s not just Blue Origin that has enabled Bezos’s own carbon footprint to asphyxiate “humanity’s forever home”. He remains the executive chairman and largest shareholder at Amazon, which, as the Washington, DC-based group Food & Water Watch noted last year, has generated hundreds of millions of pounds of plastic packaging – “part of a larger crisis clogging our planet with plastic pollution and setting our climate ablaze”.

The report explains that as plastic breaks down, “it gets into the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe, harming humans and ecosystems around the globe.”

No wonder the rich are looking to escape.

Obviously, Bezos is not singlehandedly responsible for the Earth’s demise. There are plenty of other plutocrats who have done their fair share while preaching sustainability, including Elon Musk – the world’s richest person, founder of the space technology company SpaceX, and aspiring coloniser of Mars.

But Blue Origin’s “historic” publicity stunt has put a faux feminist face on a system predicated on destruction and inequality – one in which Americans must continue to die of poverty on a huge scale so that the elite minority can ride around in self-piloting rockets. Why spend billions of dollars to alleviate terrestrial suffering when you can shoot for the stars instead?

In the end, the stunt did not receive quite the rave reviews that were expected from the press and social media commentariat. It was so bad, in fact, that even The New York Times felt compelled to use the word “capitalism” in its assessment that “Blue Origin’s all-female flight proves that women are now free to enjoy capitalism’s most extravagant spoils alongside rich men.”

Indeed, this is capitalism on rocket fuel – taking acute socioeconomic injustice and blasting it into outer space.

Perry, who dramatically kissed the ground after descending from the rocket ship, professed to now “feel super connected to love” and pronounced the trip “all for the benefit of Earth”.

The vast majority of the earth’s inhabitants would no doubt be forgiven for failing to detect any sort of “benefit” – like, say, the Palestinian women and children currently being bombed to smithereens in the US-backed genocide in the Gaza Strip.

In the meantime, we can only hope everyone’s eyelash extensions stayed on.

‘A Proud Feeling,’ Van Dijk Signs New Liverpool Contract

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk on Thursday signed a new two-year contract with the club, ending months of fevered speculation over his future just a week after Mohamed Salah extended his stay.

The announcement comes with Liverpool potentially just days away from winning the Premier League title in Arne Slot’s first season in charge.

“I’m very happy, very proud,” said Van Dijk, whose existing deal, like Salah’s, had been set to expire at the end of the season.

“There are so many emotions obviously that go through my head right now speaking about it.

“It’s a proud feeling, it’s a feeling of joy. It’s just incredible. The journey I’ve had so far in my career, to be able to extend it with another two years at this club is amazing and I’m so happy.”

With new deals confirmed for Salah and Van Dijk, the future of defender Trent Alexander-Arnold remains unresolved.

The England international, who returned to training on Wednesday after a month out because of injury, is out of contract at the end of the season and has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.

Van Dijk, 33, has made 314 appearances for Liverpool, scoring 27 goals.

He has won the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, two League Cups, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup, all under former manager Jurgen Klopp.

Last month Van Dijk said he had “no idea” if he would remain at Anfield but on Sunday hinted that he was set to extend his stay.

READ ALSO: Salah Signs New Two-Year Deal With Liverpool

The imposing centre-back had been linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain but said his heart was set on Liverpool.

“It was always Liverpool,” he said. “That was the case. It was always in my head, it was always the plan and it was always Liverpool.

“There wasn’t any doubt in my head that this is the place to be for me and my family. I’m one of Liverpool. Someone called me the other day an adopted Scouser -– I’m really proud to hear these things, it gives me a great feeling.”

Van Dijk arrived from Southampton in January 2018 for £75 million ($99 million), then a world record fee for a defender, and has been instrumental in Liverpool’s rise back to the top of the English and European game.

He won the Champions League in 2019 and a year later helped deliver the club’s first league title for 30 years.

He also came second in the 2019 Ballon d’Or vote, losing out to Argentina star Lionel Messi, who has won the award eight times.

Van Dijk, who played for Celtic before joining Southampton, took over the club captaincy in 2023 following the departure of Jordan Henderson.

Now he is on the brink of adding to his collection of silverware with Liverpool, who are set to equal Manchester United’s record of 20 English titles.

The Reds are 13 points clear of Arsenal with just six games remaining and could wrap up the title this weekend if the Gunners lose.

‘A Proud Feeling,’ Van Dijk Signs New Liverpool Contract

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk on Thursday signed a new two-year contract with the club, ending months of fevered speculation over his future just a week after Mohamed Salah extended his stay.

The announcement comes with Liverpool potentially just days away from winning the Premier League title in Arne Slot’s first season in charge.

“I’m very happy, very proud,” said Van Dijk, whose existing deal, like Salah’s, had been set to expire at the end of the season.

“There are so many emotions obviously that go through my head right now speaking about it.

“It’s a proud feeling, it’s a feeling of joy. It’s just incredible. The journey I’ve had so far in my career, to be able to extend it with another two years at this club is amazing and I’m so happy.”

With new deals confirmed for Salah and Van Dijk, the future of defender Trent Alexander-Arnold remains unresolved.

The England international, who returned to training on Wednesday after a month out because of injury, is out of contract at the end of the season and has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.

Van Dijk, 33, has made 314 appearances for Liverpool, scoring 27 goals.

He has won the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, two League Cups, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup, all under former manager Jurgen Klopp.

Last month Van Dijk said he had “no idea” if he would remain at Anfield but on Sunday hinted that he was set to extend his stay.

READ ALSO: Salah Signs New Two-Year Deal With Liverpool

The imposing centre-back had been linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain but said his heart was set on Liverpool.

“It was always Liverpool,” he said. “That was the case. It was always in my head, it was always the plan and it was always Liverpool.

“There wasn’t any doubt in my head that this is the place to be for me and my family. I’m one of Liverpool. Someone called me the other day an adopted Scouser -– I’m really proud to hear these things, it gives me a great feeling.”

Van Dijk arrived from Southampton in January 2018 for £75 million ($99 million), then a world record fee for a defender, and has been instrumental in Liverpool’s rise back to the top of the English and European game.

He won the Champions League in 2019 and a year later helped deliver the club’s first league title for 30 years.

He also came second in the 2019 Ballon d’Or vote, losing out to Argentina star Lionel Messi, who has won the award eight times.

Van Dijk, who played for Celtic before joining Southampton, took over the club captaincy in 2023 following the departure of Jordan Henderson.

Now he is on the brink of adding to his collection of silverware with Liverpool, who are set to equal Manchester United’s record of 20 English titles.

The Reds are 13 points clear of Arsenal with just six games remaining and could wrap up the title this weekend if the Gunners lose.

[VIDEO] Plateau Killings Genocidal, Security Agencies Aware Of Attackers’ Routes– Lawmaker

A lawmaker, Daniel Asama, says security agencies are aware of the whereabouts of the masterminds of the recent killings in Plateau, describing the attacks as genocidal.

Over 100 people have been killed in the last two weeks in Plateau, a situation, Asama said, is devastating.

“The security agencies know where these attacks have been coming from. They know the direction from which these attacks have been coming. The people in the community can show them the routes,” the lawmaker representing Bassa/Jos North Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives said on Thursday’s edition of Channels Television’s The Morning Brief. 

“I am saying that the security operatives, if they talk to the people, will know where the attackers are coming from. I don’t believe exactly that they do not know where these people are coming from,” he said.

READ ALSO: Obi Asks Tinubu To End France Trip, Address Insecurity

The Labour Party (LP) chieftain said the killings have led to the displacement of communities and likened it to land grabbing. 

Watch him speak on the issue below: 

Getting the meals right – Green on kidney condition & Ashes hopes

Getty Images

Speak to an injured sportsperson and they will often tell you there are positives to their enforced absence – a chance to reset, to get in the gym and spend time with family.

For some, the benefits are more significant than others.

“Spending time at home, you can get into really good routines in the way you eat,” Australia all-rounder Cameron Green tells BBC Sport.

“When you are on the road, it can be really hard to get kidney-friendly meals.”

Towering above you at 6ft 6in with the broadest of broad frames, Green looks every inch a cricketer. Failing that, an Olympic champion from the coxless four.

Such kidneys do not get better. There is no cure.

“A lot of people have a lot of different problems you don’t know about,” Green says.

“I find it really doesn’t impact my life that much. I just make good decisions, basically.

“The kidneys don’t heal themselves but there are certain ways to reduce how they do go. As long as I stay on top of it, I should be fine.”

Keeping on top of such issues is not easy when cricket’s calendar has you on the road for 10 months of the year, switching between hotel rooms in Melbourne, Manchester, Brisbane and Bangalore.

“I actually got helped out beautifully when I was in Bangalore [at the Indian Premier League], especially,” said Green.

“I had a better idea about how I wanted to go about it and I got in contact with the head chef there and had a direct line.

“I basically called him up and had a spreadsheet of four meals. I think it was a spaghetti bolognese, regular chicken and rice, a poke bowl and maybe one more.”

Green has not had such issues for the past seven months.

A back injury in September led to surgery in October and an Australian summer at home in Perth.

He was able to return to the gym in November, began running again in January and was in the nets in February, albeit having been told not to play certain shots because of the strain it would put on his back.

Green is now ready for his return and he will do so across five matches for Gloucestershire in the County Championship, starting on Friday against Kent.

When his signing was announced last month, it was revealed a mystery benefactor among the club’s membership had helped fund the move.

“I found out when it was in the paper,” says Green, who helpfully has an apartment in Bristol with a kitchen for the next six weeks.

“George Bailey [Australia’s chief selector and former batter] sent me a text joking about how much they must be paying me if they needed a mystery person.

Whoever stumped up the cash, Green’s arrival is mutually beneficial.

Gloucestershire get a player Australia hope will be a fixture in their XI for a generation.

Green gets competitive cricket in England and a chance to prove his form and fitness before the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in June.

He will not bowl during his county stint, instead playing solely as a batter as Australia carefully manage his return given the year to come.

“It is probably working backwards from the Ashes,” he says.

“That is the plan. There is not a whole lot of cricket between July and the Ashes so they just thought ‘give you an extra couple of months rest’.

“There is no real rush to get back.”

Green admits his first taste of playing in England was a “learning experience”. He scored 103 runs and took five wickets in the drawn 2023 Ashes and by the end of the series had lost his place to Mitchell Marsh.

There is a reason Green excites the Australian hierarchy in a way few others ever have, however.

At his best he is a genuine fast-bowling all-rounder, something Australia has long craved.

You have to go back to Keith Miller or Richie Benaud, whose careers followed World War Two, for the last truly great Aussie all-rounder.

In that time, England have produced three icons in Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff and Ben Stokes.

“The Australian public have a really high expectation on their cricketers and see their all-rounders as having to perform in both,” Green says.

“You look at someone like Shane Watson. He had an incredible career but is not put in the same category as others.

“The public expects you to average 40 with the bat and 30 with the ball to be considered elite, even though that is elite and almost unattainable.”

At present, Green’s statistics stand outside of that – an average of 36.23 with the bat and 35.31 as a bowler – although they are not dissimilar to Stokes’.

In his last Test series before the injury he scored 174 not out against New Zealand, batting at number four with Steve Smith pushed up to open to accommodate him.

The Smith-opener experiment has since been shelved and a log-jam created in the middle order after impressive debuts by Josh Inglis and Beau Webster, who will fight for spots alongside Smith, Travis Head and Marsh.

It leaves Green with work to do to get back into the XI for the Test final and then the Ashes, which begins in his home city on 21 November.

“I am just here trying to perform as well as I can every game,” Green says. “I am grateful for every chance I get at an Ashes or any Test, to be honest.

“Maybe that is a difference between Australia and here.

“Two years before they were going to play in Australia, they were already talking about it.

“I feel like that is a little bit draining. You have got to stay pretty present.”

Related topics

  • Gloucestershire
  • Australia
  • Cricket

Getting the meals right – Green on kidney condition & Ashes hopes

Getty Images

Speak to an injured sportsperson and they will often tell you there are positives to their enforced absence – a chance to reset, to get in the gym and spend time with family.

For some, the benefits are more significant than others.

“Spending time at home, you can get into really good routines in the way you eat,” Australia all-rounder Cameron Green tells BBC Sport.

“When you are on the road, it can be really hard to get kidney-friendly meals.”

Towering above you at 6ft 6in with the broadest of broad frames, Green looks every inch a cricketer. Failing that, an Olympic champion from the coxless four.

Such kidneys do not get better. There is no cure.

“A lot of people have a lot of different problems you don’t know about,” Green says.

“I find it really doesn’t impact my life that much. I just make good decisions, basically.

“The kidneys don’t heal themselves but there are certain ways to reduce how they do go. As long as I stay on top of it, I should be fine.”

Keeping on top of such issues is not easy when cricket’s calendar has you on the road for 10 months of the year, switching between hotel rooms in Melbourne, Manchester, Brisbane and Bangalore.

“I actually got helped out beautifully when I was in Bangalore [at the Indian Premier League], especially,” said Green.

“I had a better idea about how I wanted to go about it and I got in contact with the head chef there and had a direct line.

“I basically called him up and had a spreadsheet of four meals. I think it was a spaghetti bolognese, regular chicken and rice, a poke bowl and maybe one more.”

Green has not had such issues for the past seven months.

A back injury in September led to surgery in October and an Australian summer at home in Perth.

He was able to return to the gym in November, began running again in January and was in the nets in February, albeit having been told not to play certain shots because of the strain it would put on his back.

Green is now ready for his return and he will do so across five matches for Gloucestershire in the County Championship, starting on Friday against Kent.

When his signing was announced last month, it was revealed a mystery benefactor among the club’s membership had helped fund the move.

“I found out when it was in the paper,” says Green, who helpfully has an apartment in Bristol with a kitchen for the next six weeks.

“George Bailey [Australia’s chief selector and former batter] sent me a text joking about how much they must be paying me if they needed a mystery person.

Whoever stumped up the cash, Green’s arrival is mutually beneficial.

Gloucestershire get a player Australia hope will be a fixture in their XI for a generation.

Green gets competitive cricket in England and a chance to prove his form and fitness before the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in June.

He will not bowl during his county stint, instead playing solely as a batter as Australia carefully manage his return given the year to come.

“It is probably working backwards from the Ashes,” he says.

“That is the plan. There is not a whole lot of cricket between July and the Ashes so they just thought ‘give you an extra couple of months rest’.

“There is no real rush to get back.”

Green admits his first taste of playing in England was a “learning experience”. He scored 103 runs and took five wickets in the drawn 2023 Ashes and by the end of the series had lost his place to Mitchell Marsh.

There is a reason Green excites the Australian hierarchy in a way few others ever have, however.

At his best he is a genuine fast-bowling all-rounder, something Australia has long craved.

You have to go back to Keith Miller or Richie Benaud, whose careers followed World War Two, for the last truly great Aussie all-rounder.

In that time, England have produced three icons in Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff and Ben Stokes.

“The Australian public have a really high expectation on their cricketers and see their all-rounders as having to perform in both,” Green says.

“You look at someone like Shane Watson. He had an incredible career but is not put in the same category as others.

“The public expects you to average 40 with the bat and 30 with the ball to be considered elite, even though that is elite and almost unattainable.”

At present, Green’s statistics stand outside of that – an average of 36.23 with the bat and 35.31 as a bowler – although they are not dissimilar to Stokes’.

In his last Test series before the injury he scored 174 not out against New Zealand, batting at number four with Steve Smith pushed up to open to accommodate him.

The Smith-opener experiment has since been shelved and a log-jam created in the middle order after impressive debuts by Josh Inglis and Beau Webster, who will fight for spots alongside Smith, Travis Head and Marsh.

It leaves Green with work to do to get back into the XI for the Test final and then the Ashes, which begins in his home city on 21 November.

“I am just here trying to perform as well as I can every game,” Green says. “I am grateful for every chance I get at an Ashes or any Test, to be honest.

“Maybe that is a difference between Australia and here.

“Two years before they were going to play in Australia, they were already talking about it.

“I feel like that is a little bit draining. You have got to stay pretty present.”

Related topics

  • Gloucestershire
  • Australia
  • Cricket