Isabel Sanford (right, with Roxie Roker) as Louise Jefferson on “The Jeffersons,” Norman Lear’s long-running spinoff of “All in the Family.”Credit…CBS, via Associated Press

Amid the 1970s television landscape selling obvious sex and youth, Norman Lear understood the magnetism of older everyday women.

Mr. Lear, who died on Tuesday at 101, has long gotten credit for being the first to train the television spotlight on issues of racism and class, war and poverty, to create plots centered on hot-button feminist issues such as equal pay or abortion. He deserves all of those accolades. But little has been said about the much quieter feminism expressed simply through his choice of leading ladies and the characters they limned.

Mr. Lear made stars out of gifted midlife actresses, without requiring them to look 20 years younger than they were. Instead, he made these women the focal points of important conversations, granting them dignity and gravitas and humor that was never cruel or at their expense.

Amid the 1970s television landscape of sexy pinups (Farrah Fawcett, Suzanne Somers), beautiful superheroes (Lynda Carter in “Wonder Woman,” Lindsay Wagner in “The Bionic Woman”), and relatable-but-thin-and-gorgeous heroines like Mary Tyler Moore, Mr. Lear’s leading ladies stood out for their sheer everyday-ness.

Bea Arthur as Maude Findlay, the outspoken main character in Mr. Lear’s show “Maude,” with Bill Macy, who played her husband, Walter Findlay.Credit…CBS, via Getty

Esther Rolle, far right, played Florida Evans on “Good Times,” seen here with, from left, BernNadette Stanis (as Thelma), Jimmie Walker (as J.J.) and John Amos (as James Evans Sr.).Credit…CBS, via Getty

Cast members from “All in the Family.” From the top: Sally Struthers as Gloria, Rob Reiner as Michael, Jean Stapleton as Edith and Carroll O’Connor as Archie.Credit…CBS

Edith Bunker, Maude Findlay, Louise Jefferson and Florida Evans were all middle- or working-class middle-aged women — attractive, but hardly supermodels. Over the years of their series, the actresses who played these roles ranged in age from their 40s to late sixties. They wore regular clothes on their regular bodies, simple dresses with tie belts, housecoats or tunic pantsuits (varied slightly to reflect their characters’ social status) — outfits any audience member might find in a department store. Their hair and makeup were unobtrusive.

Yet within these parameters lay real power. In their unflashy outfits, they had a commanding appeal different from and more enduring than that of all the bikini- and evening-gown-clad glamour girls of the era. (In her floor-length vests, Bea Arthur as the feminist suburbanite Maude could at times resemble a Roman senator.)

Mr. Lear’s characters held our attention, making us care about their struggles and joys, marriages and children, their money or work woes. They made us laugh. What’s more, these women had romantic lives. Sometimes, they would hint at having actual sex, despite the serious handicap of being over 40.

Esther Rolle was 53 when she began playing Florida Evans on “Good Times” (spinning off from her role in “Maude”) — 19 years older than John Amos, the handsome actor who played her husband, James. Yet they were depicted as having a vital, erotic relationship. In one episode, James whisks Florida off to a snowbound cabin for a second honeymoon, carries her across the threshold and murmurs that he wants to “get it on.”

Even the demure and innocent Edith Bunker — played by Jean Stapleton from age 47 to 56 — referred on occasion to her still-active bedroom activities. In an episode titled “The Joys of Sex,” Edith consults a sex manual to spice up her marriage. “Ain’t I always there when you’re in the mood?” asks a wounded Archie. “Yeah, Archie, and even when I ain’t,” Edith replies.

Mr. Lear’s heroines also confronted feminine reproductive issues: Edith endured a rocky menopause — replete with crying, rage and mood swings. On “The Jeffersons,” Louise Jefferson (played by Isabel Sanford from age 57 to 67) tries some marriage therapy techniques on her recalcitrant husband, George (Sherman Hemsley), trying gamely to get him to talk about sex. Most dramatically, Maude had a late-life abortion (when the character was 47 and Arthur was 50). In other words, these female characters had female bodies, and those bodies got to be part of the story: not as jiggling eye candy, objects of leering jokes or fashion plates, but as the flesh-and-blood, complex, flawed and sexual entities that bodies actually are — and that all women have, whether they’re 25 or 60, supermodels or not.

Norman Lear (1922-2023)

Norman Lear, Whose Comedies Changed the Face of TV, Is Dead at 101

Dec. 6, 2023

The post The Quiet Feminism of Norman Lear’s Middle-Aged Women appeared first on Good News!.

Host – Tamsen Fadal, 11-time Emmy winning PIX 11 News Anchor, author and producer
Executive Director of Women’s eNews – Lori Sokol
Honorary Gala Chair – Loreen Arbus, president of The Loreen Arbus Foundation, The Goldenson-Arbus Foundation, and Loreen Arbus Productions, Inc.
Honorary Gala Co-Chairs –
Abigail Disney, documentary filmmaker and co-founder, Level Forward
Lauren Embrey, president, Embrey Family Foundation
Suzanne Lerner, co-founder and president, Michael Stars.
Gala Keynote Speaker – Wendy Davis, former Texas State Senator, 2014 Texas Democratic Gubernatorial nominee, and Founding Director of Deeds not Words.
Check out this year’s 2019 Women’s eNews ‘21 Leaders for the 21st Century’ – who will be celebrated at this year’s gala:
https://womensenews.org/events-at-womens-enews/
About Women’s eNews:
Its Mission: Women’s eNews reports the stories of women and girls to create a more equitable world.
Its Vision: A world that honors, respects, and supports the lives of women and girls.
Its Values: To uphold the values of journalism by seeking the truth and reporting it, acting independently, and minimizing harm with accountability and transparency.
What It Does: Women’s eNews is an award-winning nonprofit news service covering issues of particular concern to women and providing women’s perspectives on public policy. With writers and readers around the globe, Women’s eNews’ audience stretches from New York City to New Delhi and all points between, reaching an estimated 2.5 million readers each year.

The post The 19th Annual Women’s eNews ‘21 Leaders for the 21st Century’ Awards Gala appeared first on Good News!.

Panelists:

Speakers –
Amaechi Uzoigwe

KEYNOTE:

Amaechi Uzoigwe is an NYC-based entertainment & digital media executive,
with expertise in music, artist representation, business affairs, visual
content, creative marketing & technology. As an artist manager, Amaechi
represents Grammy-nominated hip hop phenoms, Run the Jewels, who have become
one of the industry’s most celebrated and critically-acclaimed acts of
recent years, and the young West African guitar band, Songhoy Blues.

Amaechi overseas all aspects of the group’s career, including business
affairs, business development, creating & operating their record label,
producing visual content, leading award-winning creative marketing
campaigns, brand relationships & more. He has built groundbreaking
partnerships with Pulse Films, Adult Swim, Volcom, Beats 1, Marvel Comics &
Sonos, plus led the group’s charitable causes & efforts. Amaechi is also
principally responsible for pioneering the group’s successful craft beer
enterprise, and will be launching the RTJ cannabis business this summer.

Additionally, Amaechi part of the management team at Monotone Inc, home to
Jack White, LCD Soundsystem, Vampire Weekend, Danger Mouse & more, and a
partner in award-winning LA-based film production company, GRAiNEY Pictures,
where he has led the branded content division to accolades including
nominations for Cannes Lions and Webby Awards.

In 2006, Amaechi was voted founding Chairman of the American Association of
Independent Music (A2IM), the trade organization representing independent
record label’s share of the multi-billion dollar music market. He has spoken
at numerous conferences, festivals & universities (incl SXSW, Cannes,
MIDEM, Billboard, SF Music Tech, NYU, Cardozo Law School), and is an
outspoken advocate for artist rights, independence & empowerment.

Speakers –
Elliot A. Resnik, Esq.

Mr. Resnik practices entertainment law at the esteemed firm Shukat Arrow
Hafer Weber & Herbsman LLP, and focuses on transactions including but not
limited to artist, writer and producer representation for recording and
publishing agreements, licensing, joint ventures, intellectual property
asset sales, live entertainment and venue representation, digital
distribution and content, record label and publishing business affairs. Mr.
Resnik’s clients include Grammy winning and platinum selling artists,
producers, record labels and publishers in a diversity of musical genres,
festival and concert promoters as well as representation for agencies,
international brands and other entertainment related companies. He
graduated from McGill University in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in
Philosophy and obtained his Juris Doctorate from The New York Law School in
2000.

Lou Plaia-ReverbNation – Founder / EVP Industry Relations (North America)

Hot Rats Entertainment – Founder / Manager

Music industry veteran Lou Plaia co-founded ReverbNation in 2006. Since that
time, ReverbNation has helped millions of emerging artists build their
careers with its powerful career management and online marketing tools.
These tools, combined with its A&R and Artist Development capabilities and
broad industry relationships offer emerging Artists from around the world
access to the global music industry. The company operates worldwide with
customers on every continent and more than 10 million unique visitors come
to ReverbNation.com every month.

Plaia dedicates most of his time brokering valuable opportunities for the
4.5 million artists on ReverbNation by connecting them to record labels,
talent buyers, promoters, agents, managers, music supervisors, publications,
radio stations, brands, recording studios, and other music industry
professionals. Plaia recently created alliances with more than a dozen major
and independent record labels whereby ReverbNation has become an A&R source
for the labels. Plaia has also created partnerships in the live music space
with Summerfest, Warped Tour, The Sturgis Buffalo Chip Festival, Rocklahoma,
Sunset Music Festival, Pepsi Southern Gulf Coast Jam and many other high
profile events.

In addition to his role at ReverbNation, Plaia launched Hot Rats
Entertainment in January 2016. At Hot Rats, Plaia manages New York based
rock band, Midnight Mob.

Prior to ReverbNation, Plaia worked twelve years at Atlantic Records where
he was VP of Strategic Marketing and worked with Jewel, Hootie & the
Blowfish, Collective Soul, George Carlin, Mike Stern and hundreds of other
artists and bands. Plaia then became the Head of Marketing and Artist
Development for Atlantic imprint, Lava Records, where he worked for four
years with artists such as Kid Rock, O.A.R., Simple Plan, Trans-Siberian
Orchestra, Matchbox 20 and many others. He was also responsible for
negotiating strategic partnerships such as Nascar’s Chevy Rock n Roll 400,
Schick’s Intuition Tour, Disney’s Grad Night and many other sponsorship
deals.

Plaia has been a guest speaker at SXSW, CMJ, Canadian Music Week, Music Biz
(f/k/a NARM), Americana Music Conference, Launch Music Conference, The
Future of Music Summit, New Music Seminar, Dubai Sound City, and dozens of
other music conferences throughout the world.

Ian LaPlace –

Ian is EVP and Senior Talent Buyer at Communion Presents, an international
artist development company and concert promoter. Communion has been
instrumental in the building the careers arists including Ben Howard,
Catfish and the Bottlemen, Highly Suspect, Marian Hill and many more. Ian
books and runs one of the longest running new music showcases in the US and
has built music programs for brands such as Skullcandy, British Airways,
Bose and Google Play. At Present Communion actively booking shows and in 14
different markets across the US.

Suzanne Paulinski
After graduating with a B.S. in Music Industry from Drexel University, and
helping found MADDragon Records, Suzanne was the Midwest Sales Coordinator
for Astralwerks (EMI), before completing her Masters in Psychology at Queens
College (CUNY). She is now a mindset coach for music-preneurs, helping them
reach their goals with custom time management solutions that enable them to
gain clarity on their next steps while maintaining a healthy work/life
balance. Suzanne published The Rock/Star Life Planner as a tool for
creatives to find focus in their daily lives, and her teachings can be found
in her guest posts for Sonicbids, ReverbNation, CD Baby, Tunecore, and
Soundfly. For further information on Suzanne and her company, please visit
therockstaradvocate.com

Corina:

Vocalist Corina Corina was born in Oakland, CA, & has made her career in
NYC. This gifted songwriter brings a fresh vocal hybrid to modern R&B with
strong blues & hip hop influences. Her lyrically-driven content touches on
everything from gender inequality to self-love & resisting social norms.
Aside from music, she has made a name for herself as a blog writer and
activist for eating disorder recovery, feminism and mental health and
wellness. She has independently released two full-length albums and two EPs
and is gearing up to release her third LP, “Hangover Music” in summer 2018.

Timothy Pattison

DIRECTOR, CREATIVE – NEW YORK

Timothy Pattison is Director of Creative at Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). In
this role, he is responsible for scouting and signing new songwriters and
publishers, maintaining relationships with existing BMI affiliates
worldwide, as well as coordinating various songwriter-focused showcases,
seminars and festivals.

Prior to BMI, Pattison worked at Fat Possum Records, where he focused on
sync licensing. His previous post was at Spirit Music Group, where he spent
eight years, holding several positions including creative director. While at
Spirit, Pattison helped develop the company’s roster of songwriters,
expanded its network within the entertainment industry, spearheaded
co-writing opportunities and developed licensing strategies.

Pattison holds a Bachelor of Science in Communication from Ohio University
and a Master for Music from New York University.

Danielle Middleton –

A&R Senior Coordinator, Sony ATV Publishing

Danielle Middleton got her start in music at an early age singing in the
children’s choir at the Metropolitan Opera. When she was nine, she was
invited to sing “You Are Not Alone” on stage at at the VMAs with Michael
Jackson, igniting her life long obsession with pop music. Danielle dove into
the music industry straight out of college working for companies like BMI
and Redlight Management and booking live shows around Brooklyn. She
eventually landed at Sony ATV, where she started as a receptionist and went
on to spearheaded the social media initiatives for the entire company. She
currently works as an A&R Senior Coordinator, building her own roster of
songwriters and producers. Sony ATV is the number one publishing company
globally and recently won “Publisher of the Year” at the BMI Pop awards. The
company is known for representing massive artists such as Taylor Swift, Lady
Gaga, Ed Sheeran, Arcade Fire, Cardi B, etc, as well as administering the
catalogues of heritage artists such as Bob Dylan, Amy Winehouse, The
Beatles, Elvis Presley, James Taylor, Hank Williams and so on.

Festival Producer

The post Presented by the Montauk Music Festival & Sponsored By The Montauk Sun appeared first on Good News!.

********************************************************************************
Amanda Suzanne Brownell

April 29, 1992 – April 16, 2013

View video of Celebration of Life at: http://youtu.be/2DoxoFEfz2I

At only 16 years old, a junior, in high school, it was on December 11, 2008 when Amanda Suzanne Brownell tried to take her life in a bathroom at Del Mar High School in San Jose, California. This was a result of the bullying, sexual bullying, and cyber bullying she endured through MySpace, Facebook, AIM, and the 3500 text messages she received the month before her suicide attempt. Amanda, suffered severe brain damage, unable to speak or care for herself. Good News will be part of the event on September 19th in San Jose.

After almost 4 and 1/2 years Amanda decided that her job here was done. She was hospitalized with pneumonia and seizures on March 13, 2013, while her parents were in Hawaii on vacation. On March 23, Amanda did not want to be poked and squeezed anymore. She was done and did not want any type of medicine or food. There was a family meeting on March 24 and Amanda’s dad Jim Brownell signed the POST form to not recessitate or intibate. She returned to her LSA – Baywood home (since June 2010) on 3/27/13. Then on April 1, 2013 Amanda spent her last 16 days of life at home with her parents, family, friends and dogs (Jack Skellington Sparrow and Spencer Spot Brownell) .

Amanda’s Mother, Ann Solorio Brownell has shared the pain of Amanda’s story, more than 1,000 times in front of more than 50,000 people, to educate everyone about these serious issues of suicide, bullying, and self-harm while spreading the message of LOVE for all people and all living things.

We are parents, grandparents, caregivers, siblings, friends, teachers, neighbors, social workers, school administrators, and students.

You are invited to stand against all forms of bullying by taking this simple pledge, to join as an Amanda Network Member:

“I pledge to not allow bullying in my presence.
If I don’t report it, I am just as guilty.”
If you say this simple pledge, You are now members of The Amanda Network, Anti-Bullying Campaign!

The post Amanda Network, San Jose, Peace and Awareness, our Peace Day Party joins in September 19,2015. Here is last years important show! appeared first on Good News!.

After almost 4 and 1/2 years Amanda decided that her job here was done. She was hospitalized with pneumonia and seizures on March 13, 2013, while her parents were in Hawaii on vacation. On March 23, Amanda did not want to be poked and squeezed anymore. She was done and did not want any type of medicine or food. There was a family meeting on March 24 and Amanda’s dad Jim Brownell SIGNED the POST form to not recessitate or intibate. She returned to her LSA – Baywood HOME (since June 2010) on 3/27/13. Then on April 1, 2013 Amanda spent her last 16 days of life at home with her parents, family, friends and dogs (Jack Skellington Sparrow and Spencer Spot Brownell) .

Amanda’s Mother, Ann Solorio Brownell has shared the PAIN of Amanda’s story, more than 1,000 times in front of more than 50,000 people, to educate everyone about these serious issues of suicide, bullying, and self-harm while spreading the message of LOVE for all people and all living things.

We are parents, grandparents, caregivers, siblings, friends, teachers, neighbors, social workers, school administrators, and students.

You are invited to stand against ALL forms of bullying by taking this simple pledge, to join as an Amanda Network Member:

“I pledge to not allow bullying in my presence.
If I don’t report it, I am just as guilty.”

The post Amanda Network appeared first on Good News!.

The YAY Team is a new radio program co-hosted by Gary M. Spolansky, MBA and Suzanne Mazzarella. The YAY Team will be discussing many topics of interest to you, the listener, on such subjects as Spirituality, Personal Growth, Metaphysics, The Changing Times, and most importantly, FUN!

Both Gary and Suzanne feel that it’s necessary to have some fun mixed in with discussions that promote change, primarily because Spirituality and Personal Growth don’t need to always be serious. Sometimes it’s easier to learn from laughter and the uniqueness of a thought, rather than a strictly serious approach.

We are very excited about our show and really hope you will join us. Whether you listen live or through the archives, we’re thrilled to have you as a part of our radio family!

We wish you Peace, Happiness, Joy and Prosperity, Now and Always.

Biographies of
Suzanne Mazzarella and Gary M. Spolansky, MBA

Suzanne Mazzarella received a B.A. in Communications and TV/Radio Production with a Minor in Theatre. She also has 13 years of Corporate Experience in the areas of Finance and Legal Compliance.

In addition to her Corporate and Academic accomplishments, Suzanne has immersed herself in Personal Growth and Spirituality through her own unique journey.This journey includes a Personal Near-Death Experience and Significant Insights as a result of her practice of Meditation and Natural Ability to Lucid Dream. Suzanne also has an extensive knowledge and love for Numerology and its applications in everyday life.

Her greatest desire is to share the truths she has learned and continues to learn, in a positive and uplifting manor, while walking her own path of self discovery.

Gary is a Shamanic/Empathic Healer and Reiki Master who has been in practice for the past 17 years. He received an MBA from Adelphi University in Accounting and prior to becoming a healer, spent more than 20 years in the corporate world as an Accountant. His transition to healing was a true calling of Spirit.

Gary has been the host of the Cable TV Show “Spirituality and You” and has also recorded several Guided Imagery Meditation Cd’s, as well as a series focusing on the effective use of Affirmations. Additionally, Gary is the author of several books, with his latest book, “Surgeon of the Soul – Stories of Hope and Healing” was published in January 2012 and is available through www.TheYayTeam.Org

The post The Yay Team appeared first on Good News!.