Feminism used to get a lot of bad rep. People used to associate it with man hating and bra-burning, and hairy armpits. There’s still a lot of people who are confused about what feminism is. The main problem, in my opinion, in that feminism needed a modern day hero, a role-model we could look up to, or relate to. Someone who would be popular and famous, someone people would look up to, who could proudly say they’re a feminist. Finally the time has come and a lot of people like that are emerging. There are writers, actors and celebrities that identify as feminists but it seemed like even though they’re very popular, they still are limited to their following and that’s not enough to get the world out for the whole world to hear.

That’s where Beyonce comes in and saves the day. The brilliant thing about Beyonce is that she’s mega-famous. You would really have to struggle to find a person who hasn’t at least heard of Beyonce. Her music is popular, it’s catchy and it’s there to stay. So she did a brilliant thing and released a self-titled album “Beyonce” that pretty much made her the world renowned feminist icon.

Beyonce always seemed like a bit of a feminist and the views and opinions she expressed sounded like she was all about equality, but the words “feminist” and “feminism” were rarely mentioned. There’s nothing wrong with that, she was just quietly (well, as quietly as you can when you’re mega-famous) doing the right thing. With the release of her latest album she took that extra step and proclaimed to the world that she’s a feminist and it’s a great. She made feminism her main message and all the feminists in the world are very grateful to her for doing that. She now proudly performs on stage in front of a huge sign that says “FEMINIST” and it’s glorious. But it’s not just an empty word. Her songs, pretty much every single song on her self-titled album “Beyonce” has a feminism theme running through it.

All of the songs on the album are brilliant and you should definitely listen to the whole album if you haven’t already (it’s been out for ages, do you live under a rock?).

The song “Flawless” is particularly amazing in that respect. Let’s quote some of it, shall we?
“I know when you were little girls
You dreamt of being in my world
Don’t forget it, don’t forget it
Respect that, bow down bitches (Crown!)
I took some time to live my life
But don’t think I’m just his little wife
Don’t get it twisted, get it twisted
This my shit, bow down bitches”

Not only is this song incredibly catchy, but it also explores the theme of fame and marriage and career. In just a few lines Beyonce managed to express that just because she’s famous, it doesn’t mean she’s not allowed to take some personal time off. And just cause she got married and had a baby doesn’t mean she’s just a wife and mother, she’s still a badass woman who has an incredible career and you should respect that. Hopefully, the fact that she’s married will also make people reconsider their false accusations of feminist hating men. Cause clearly, we don’t. She’s really a wonderful example of how you CAN have it all. You don’t have to choose between having a family or a career, you can do both and more. Beyonce managed to get married, have a baby, get back into amazing shape, write a new album and shoot a video for each song, then release it without any PR and still sell a million copies in a week (all that under the scrutiny of media). So, ladies, we all should take a leaf out of her book and remember that if you really want something, you can do it all, no excuses.

Another wonderful thing Beyonce did in this song is include the extract of a TEDx talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie where she talks about feminism. That was a brilliant idea, because TEDx talks don’t get nearly enough publicity, and including this extract in Beyonce’s song really shared the message with an enormous audience. There is really no way to make the message more clear than that, so let’s just quote it:

“We teach girls to shrink themselves
To make themselves smaller
We say to girls,
“You can have ambition
But not too much
You should aim to be successful
But not too successful
Otherwise you will threaten the man.”
Because I am female
I am expected to aspire to marriage
I am expected to make my life choices
Always keeping in mind that
Marriage is the most important
Now marriage can be a source of
Joy and love and mutual support
But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage
And we don’t teach boys the same?
We raise girls to see each other as competitors
Not for jobs or for accomplishments
Which I think can be a good thing
But for the attention of men
We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings
In the way that boys are
Feminist: the person who believes in the social
Political, and economic equality of the sexes”

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Angelina Jolie

In one of her earliest film roles she played the famously self-destructive model Gia Carangi—a glimpse of what might have been? If only the powers that be had spotted her modeling prom-dress chic in this JC Penney advertisement. Consolation career as Oscar-winning actress ensued.

Anjelica Huston

Daughter of legendary Hollywood director John Huston, Anjelica had a unique look that made her one of the iconic models of the ’70s. She was a particular muse of one of the decade’s biggest designers, Halston. At 61 years old, the Oscar winner has had an impressively stacked filmography under her belt, becoming a frequent collaborator with director Wes Anderson and starring in NBC’s musical drama Smash.

Ashton Kutcher

Kutcher was obviously very pretty when he hit the small screen in That 70s Show —kudos to ultra-cougar Demi Moore for getting a piece of that—but he wasn’t exactly Laurence Olivier. He’s worked on his game since then, and his performance in the Steve Jobs biopic jOBS might just make people take him seriously.

Brad Pitt

What can you say about Brad Pitt? Generally considered one of the most handsome men in the world, he couldn’t help but do a little modeling in the early days. Once he made his mark as a hayseed boy toy in Thelma and Louise, there was no looking back.

Cameron Diaz

We’re sure Diaz could have had a prosperous career as a model, but acting beckoned. As demonstrated in There’s Something About Mary, she was too comically gifted to remain a mute mannequin. And by “comically gifted” we mean goofy.

Channing Tatum

When you look like this, your career options range from international fashion icon to male stripper. Tatum did a little bit of this and a little bit of that before the acting took off, and he brought it all back together with 2012’s Magic Mike.

Charlize Theron

Modeling was Theron’s point of entry into the entertainment world, although she figured on being a ballerina until she busted her knees. The acting thing proved to be a good fit, and after notable appearances in The Devil’s Advocate and Mighty Joe Young, Charlize-mania kicked into gear with The Cider House Rules in 1999. It didn’t hurt that she was on the cover of Vanity Fair touted as the “White Hot Venus.” She was anything but a love goddess in 2003, when she played the downright ugly Aileen Wuornos in Monster, for which she won an Oscar.

Matthew Gray Gubler

Starting as a model for Tommy Hilfiger and Marc Jacobs, Matthew Gray Gubler is solid proof that ridiculously good-looking people can have brains. Not only does he play a genius in Criminal Minds on CBS, he’s directed four episodes, putting his NYU film degree to good use.

Djimon Hounsou

Once upon a time, men’s underwear advertisements were poopulated by Ward Cleaver types who looked supremely comfortable in their BVDs. Calvin Klein gave us passion, drama, and rock-hard abs, washerboard-style, glistening in the sun. You have to wonder whether Hounsou would have become an on-screen symbol of the unbreakable human spirit in films like Amistad and Blood Diamond if he had not looked so damn good in his tighty-whities.

Eddie Redmayne

Possibly the latest unconventional British heartthrob thanks to his performance in Les Miserables, the multi-talented Redmayne has been an acclaimed stage actor in the UK for over a decade. As he was making inroads in film—notably in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)—he modeled for Burberry.

Halle Berry

Berry was always a model-actress double threat, and did fashion gigs while transitioning from pageant ace (Miss USA runner-up, 1986) to A-list actress. As her fame has skyrocketed, she has become a prominent celebrity model, notably as one of the faces of Revlon. When she won her Oscar for Monster’s Ball (2001), she made a stir by publicly commenting to Revlon honcho Ron Perelman that he’d have to pay her more because of it. Twelve years later, she’s still a global ambassador for the brand.

Jaime King

King hit the ground running in her mid-teens. Her modeling name, James King, was an intriguing gender fakeout, and a New York Times Magazine cover story “James is a Girl” seemed to confirm her next-big-thing status. It was 1996; she was 16. Two years later, she was on House of Style with Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, and before she was 20, she was looking for a new challenge. She paid some dues in a crappy blockbuster (Pearl Harbor, 2001) and a Wayans comedy (White Chicks, 2004) before getting a shot at something suitably cool, Sin City (2005). She currently plays Rachel Bilson’s southern-belle nemesis on Hart of Dixie.

James Marsden

Before portraying a mutant who shoots frickin’ laserbeams out of his eyeholes as Cyclops in the X-Men movies and playing Liz Lemon’s one true love, Christopher Cross, on 30 Rock, the loveable funnyman gave sexyface for Versace.

Josh Holloway

Holloway has a whole long list of acting credits from the early 2000s, but it’s probably nothing you’ve ever seen. The cataclysmic event in Holloway’s career was getting cast on Lost, which started in 2004; it wasn’t long before he was being acclaimed as “TV’s Hottest Hunk” and suchlike.Prior to his acting career, Holloway—who is 43, you know—quit college to be a model. Clever googling will turn up pictures of him in horrendous ’90s fashion and hairdos, as well as a Details cover from 1991 that defies explanation.

Mark Wahlberg

“Marky Mark” Wahlberg didn’t start out as a model, but he didn’t start out as a rapper either. He started out, more or less, as a thug, and served 45 days on an assault conviction that had resulted from a charge of attempted murder. Running around in his skivvies in the “Good Vibrations” video was not really anything to be proud of, but it kept him off the streets. His freakish physique landed him in Calvin Klein advertisements with Kate Moss, which is a step up from the company he kept at the Deer Island House of Correction. Sanity set in during the late ’90s, and he became a major film star thanks to Boogie Nights (1997), Three Kings (1999), and The Perfect Storm (2000).

Milla Jovovich

Jovovich may be the perfect example of a successful model-turned-successful actress. As a model in the late ’80s, she had photographers Herb Ritts and Richard Avedon under her spell, and made bank repping L’Oréal, Banana Republic, Christian Dior, Donna Karan, and Versace. She was still in her teens, by the way.Although it wasn’t her first film, The Fifth Element (1997) seemed like a debut, establishing her as an exotic, probably dangerous heroine. In 2002, she starred as Alice in Resident Evil, the first flick in a frighteningly lucrative film franchise that has spawned five sequels all starring Jovovich, and all highly successful at the box office (though not with critics).

Monica Bellucci

Bellucci’s legacy is basically that of a super-hot Italian fashion model—her heyday being the ’80s and ’90s—who has transitioned into acting very nicely. As an actress, her best years were (arguably) 2003-04, when at the age of 39-ish she played Mary Magdalyne in The Passion of the Christ and Persephone in two Matrix sequels.

Rachel Weisz

 Weisz, despite her non-British last name and parentage (Hungarian dad and Austrian mom fled the mainland before the outbreak of World War II), the British-born actress gained a reputation as an “English rose,” an archetypal English beauty. This is good for getting modeling gigs in the UK. Although her acting career has been a roaring success since The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001), she still has her modeling chops, and remains a muse to designer Narciso Rodriguez.

Sharon Stone

Stone was clearly meant for the big time, and in 1977, just days after fleeing her hometown of Meadville, Pennsylvania, for New York City she was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency. The acting career took a bit longer to heat up, and she spent the 1980s in minor roles in real movies or major roles in B-movies. In 1990, her appearance in Total Recall set her up for stardom, and when the moment came to show the world her stuff in Basic Instinct (1992) she didn’t flinch.

Sofia Vergara

It’s kind of ridiculous to consider now, but Colombian cutie Sofia was reluctant to show off her God-given gifts at first. Brought up conservative and Catholic, she only took the plunge into sex-symbol-dom after the nuns told her it was OK. She was a catalog, runway, and bikini model throughout her glory years (which, mind you, have yet to end) while making headway in the fields of TV hosting and acting. Now 40, she is arguably the sexiest woman in prime time, and has been nominated for an Emmy for her work on Modern Family for three years running.

Tom Welling

Before his career-making TV role as Clark Kent on Smallville, Welling modeled for Hilfiger, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Calvin Klein. Smallville lasted, believe it or not, ten seasons, and since its 2011 conclusion Welling has been MIA. But this year he’ll return to the screen in a big way with Parkland, and we shall see whether this extremely handsome fellow is as “super” as he once was.

Tricia Helfer

Helfer had a successful modeling career after winning the Ford Agency’s “Supermodel of the World” competition in 1992. A decade later, after having posed for Ralph Lauren, Versace, Chanel, and Giorgio Armani, she retired from modeling, and went on to host Canada’s Next Top Model. From 2004 to 2009, she payed TV’s sexiest cybernetic being as Number Six, a Cylon on the new Battlestar Galactica. She’s also had significant recurring roles on Burn Notice, Dark Blue, The Firm, and TRON: Uprising.

Vanessa L. Williams

It was a specific kind of modeling—nude and published in Penthouse—that rocked Vanessa Williams’ world and brought her reign as Miss America to a premature end. But that’s not the only posing she’s done in her life. After picking herself up and dusting herself off, she made a career out of singing, acting, and yes, modeling for the likes of L’Oreal. As an actress, she’s done a number of movies (Soul Food, Shaft) but has found the most success on TV, playing memorable characters on Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty.

Olga Kurylenko

Discovered when she was 13 during a vacation in Moscow, Olga Kurylenko went on to model for Bebe, Roberto Cavalli and Victoria’s Secret. After transitioning into Hollywood, she’s become the go-to actress for femme fatale roles. She doesn’t just embody Bond girl Camille alongside Daniel Craig in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008); she can also be seen in the upcoming Oblivion with Tom Cruise.

Ian Somerhalder

Despite his pretty face, the former teen model, who worked with Guess, Nautica and Versace, to name a few, has convinced audiences that he too experiences forbidden love sometimes—first as a bisexual who falls in love with a straight guy in The Rules of Attraction (2002), and today as vampire Damon who pursues a human (Nina Dobrev) on The Vampire Diaries.

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Beyoncé

Kelly Rowland

Katy Perry

Rihanna

Mariah Carey

Miley Cyrus

Britney Spears

Christina Aguilera

Selena Gomez

Toni Braxton

Elizabeth Berkley

Adrienne Bailon

Mya

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American Idol star and well-known Weight Watchers spokesperson, Jennifer Hudson, has lost more than 80 lbs. in the last few years. Her new slender figure is a vast change from the one we knew back in her Idoldays.

Having lost nearly 70 lbs., Raven-Symone, the little girl who came into the spotlight as Olivia on The Cosby Show, is now slimmer than ever and looks amazing! She’s opened up to various magazines about weight struggles in the past, but nowadays she’s looking fly.

After losing 50 lbs., Kelly Osbourne has regained her confidence and now makes red carpet appearances that are nothing short of beautiful. Kelly and her brother Jack have both lost weight in recent years, and their shared weight loss goals may have made the journey a bit easier.

Star Jones

Star Jones determined that the best method for her to lose weight was to undergo gastric bypass surgery. She admitted the truth about her weight loss, but  got a lot of heat for originally lying about her choice.

Seth Rogen

Comedian and writer Seth Rogen has always been a bit chunky. In 2009 he lost 30 lbs. for his role in The Green Hornet, and immediately got rid of his fat clothes. Semi-regretting his actions, Seth says that he’s having a hard time keeping the pounds off.

Throughout an abuse-ridden childhood, a failed marriage, pregnancies, and unhealthy relationships, weight has always been an issue for Ricki Lake. However, after her appearance on Dancing with the Stars, she made weight loss a very serious goal, having lost 8.5 inches on the first night of the show.

Standing as the ultimate rags to riches story, Oprah has experienced a lot of loss in her life, including weight loss! Though her weight is a number that seems to fluctuate, she has admitted throughout the years to dropping pounds through diet and exercise.

Snooki was always one of the thicker girls on the cast of Jersey Shoreand even though she’s pregnant with her first son. Before her pregnancy, Snooki slimmed down to a tiny 98 lbs., which seemed perfect on her 4’9″ frame. So much for being a meatball!

Kelly Clarkson

Despite critics, Kelly Clarkson isn’t a celebrity that we’d call fat. Thick is more so the word. In any case, since her debut on American Idoland releasing numerous albums, Kelly has lost 30 lbs., due to lots of cardio.

Best known for his role on The Drew Carey Show, as well as the new host of The Price Is Right, Drew Carey is another celebrity who has been a heavier since coming into the public eye. However, in 2010, Drew announced that he had lost 80 lbs., and said, “It sucks being fat.”

Even though Jordin Sparks came onto the scene as a heavier girl during her debut on American Idol, she claims she lost weight only to live a healthier and more active life. After losing 50 lbs., Sparks truly sparkles.

Kirstie Alley claims to have lost over 100 lbs. through her program Organic Liason, which has become the first USDA-certified weight loss product.

Best known for her ability to reach those high-pitched notes that few singers can hit, Mariah Carey has been up and down the scales. After her recently pregnancy with twins, she has slimmed down, losing baby weight and some.

Producer Randy Jackson has always been on the heavier side, especially during the early years of American Idol. However, after several health scares, Randy underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2003 and has since lost 114 lbs.

Possibly best known for her role as Carmen Ferrara on Popular, Sara Rue, in her younger days, was a heavier girl. Turn on the TV nowadays and you’ll see a new skinnier Sara who currently stars on Rules of Engagement. She has become a spokesperson for Jenny Craig, a program that she claims helped her lose more than 40 lbs.

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Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband was NJ Nets Power Forward Kris Humphries.

Divorcing Humphries after 72 days of marriage, Kim K. rebounded with rap mega-star Kanye West.

Jennifer Aniston was married to Brad Pitt since 2000 until 2005.

Divorcing after Brad’s indiscretion with now-wife Angelina, Jennifer Aniston rebounded with several Hollywood men.  But new beau is Justin Theroux is our fave

Natalie Portman was dating singer Devendra Banhart back in 2008.

Natalie Portman Rebound: Benjamin Millepied

She is now married to the more polished Black Swanchoreographer Benjamin Millepied.

Anne Vyalitsyna, a Victoria’s Secret model, was dating Adam Levine, a member of Maroon 5.

Adam Levin has proven to be quite the playboy, and Anne is now dating “True Blood” star Alexander Skarsgard.

Eva Longoria Ex: Eduardo Cruz

Eva Longoria recently split from singer Eduardo Cruz for the second time.

She is now dating Mark Sanchez, who plays for the New York Jets.

Kristen Bell Ex: Kevin Mann

Kristen Bell was engaged to producer Kevin Mann.

Kristen Bell Rebound: Dax Shepard

She is now engaged to fellow romantic comedy actor and comedian Dax Shepard.

Lady Gaga Ex: Luc Carl

Though the two got back together briefly in 2012, Lady Gaga left failed metal musician Luc Carl in 2008 on account of his boozing and bad behavior.

Now Lady Gaga is dating actor Vampire Diaries actor Taylor Kinney, who only plays a bad boy on TV.  Good move Gaga!

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Animals: They don’t stress out about stuff unnecessarily. Plus other things; but that seems to be one of the major takeaways here

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Today’s riddle of the day is easy. Three of these girls are real adult stars and another three are RealDolls. Can you find the real girs?

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1. Porn Star: Alexis Ford

2. RealDoll

3. Porn Star: Jesse Jane

4. RealDoll

5. RealDoll

6. Porn Star: Jade Vixen

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