The tense political standoff over the burkini in France continues.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls has come under fire for implying that naked breasts are more French than a headscarf.

In a speech on Monday night, Valls praised the bare breasts of Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic and an allegory of liberty and reason. Statues of it are found in town halls and courts across France.

Valls said: “Marianne has a naked breast because she is feeding the people! She is not veiled, because she is free! That is the republic!,” The Guardian reported.

The implication being that Muslim women who wear the veil are not free and that the veil is anti-French, while bare breasts are emblematic of France.

However, his remark has attracted criticism from politicians, feminists, and historians.

Historian Mathilde Larrere said in a tweet that Valls' use of Marianne to represent feminism and femininity was "moronic", adding that her bare breasts were "just an artistic code", the BBC reported.

Others questioned Valls' understanding of French republican history and pointed out that Marianne often appears with her head covered in a Phrygian cap, and that she is not always portrayed with her breasts on show.

Cécile Duflot, a former Green party minister, said Valls's comment highlighted the regrettable way in which some male French politicians perceive women.

Valls has strongly defended the right of local mayors to ban women from wearing the burkini, although France's top administrative court decided last week to suspend one of the burkini bans.

The UN also urged French towns to repeal the burkini bans, calling them a "stupid reaction" that only fanned the flamed of religious intolerance and did not improve security.

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They come from across the globe to seek a spiritual connection with the world beyond this one. Each year, people from all walks of life who are devoted to the goddess María Lionza travel to the remote Venezuelan mountain they believe her spirit inhabits.

They are known as Marialionceros, and their beliefs blend indigenous Venezuelan, African, and Catholic traditions. Legends around her vary, but many of the goddess' followers believe that María Lionza was the beautiful daughter of an indigenous leader who survived being sacrificed and became one with Sorte Mountain in the 16th century. She is believed to be the goddess of nature, love and harmony, as well as a miracle worker.

People arrive in caravans and section off areas of the jungle to perform elaborate rituals in her honour, entering into trances and communicating with spirits. Although followers make their pilgrimages year round, October 12, also known as Indigenous Resistance Day, is considered to be a special time to visit, according to the Venezuelan Ministry of Culture.

It was by connecting with these caravans of pilgrims that North American photographer Troi Anderson was able to observe these intimate ceremonies.

"They are people pursuing some notion of the sacred," Anderson told Refinery29 via email. "Their thoughts and their hearts must be made vulnerable. This is necessary so they can be open to the spirits that reside here. So, as an outsider, you will often be welcomed; in their minds, there is nothing that is not connected to the spirits."

Preserving their traditions in the face of changing times and political uncertainty is part of the practitioners' struggle, Anderson said.

"I think today, the loss of faith is universal. These ceremonies allow for something vital, a language that can be spoken without intermediation. The appeals and prayers they make for healing, wealth, knowledge are made directly as they must be. María Lionza is a poetry that can be made by all," he added.

Ahead, stunning photographs of the ceremonies surrounding María Lionza.

Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Captions were provided by Troi Anderson.

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Admittedly, festival style has become a bit bland. In a sea of chokers, fringe, and jean cutoffs, we often find ourselves wondering where real personal style went. But at Afropunk, one of summer 16's final music events, the crowd's looks of choice were anything but dull; they served as a reminder that blending in is so 2015.

Sure, the women ahead may be wearing some of this season's most popular trends — crop tops, bra tops, and off-the-shoulder tops — but they played them up with killer accessories, statement outerwear, and other eclectic add-ons, creating a medley of outfits that deserve a double (or triple) take. Click through to see all the next-level looks that took Afropunk by storm.

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At times, Facebook is surprisingly good at figuring out who you "should" be friends with on the social network. People whom you have a lot of mutual friends in common with; people you've recently been tagged in photos with. While not 100% accurate, these factors certainly make sense in helping you find pals you haven't yet friended.

But apparently Facebook takes other factors into account, as well — and that can lead to some intensely creepy (if not downright unsafe) situations.

Fusion uncovered the latest example of this. A psychiatrist noticed that Facebook had started recommending her own, mostly elderly, patients as friends, though she hadn't granted the app access to her contacts. Another one of her patients experienced a similar issue: A thirtysomething snowboarder oddly found himself getting friend suggestions for 70-year-old men with walkers — people he'd certainly never met before. He showed the friend suggestions to the psychiatrist, and both deduced the only tie was that they all visited her office on a regular basis. The psychiatrist now recommends her clients don't log into Facebook at her office, or that they don't even bring their phones into the office at all.

Apparently, this location-based theory is not how Facebook's friend-finding works, though. What could be happening, however, is that all of these people began seeing one another on Facebook because they had this psychiatrist's phone number in their phones — a mutual contact. Facebook told Fusion in a statement that it couldn't confirm this was the reason, but explained that "People You May Know" uses a variety of data to source its suggestions, including mutual friends, your phone contacts, your school and work information, and networks you’re part of.

This certainly isn't the first time Facebook has come under fire for "creepy" friend suggestions — or for the possibility that it is in fact using location to help determine whom it suggests. And right now, it seems there's little we can do to prevent this issue from arising. If you're seeing strange "People You May Know" cropping up, you may want to consider removing some private information (such as your phone number or workplace) from Facebook, being more mindful of where you log into the app, and even clearing out your phone of unwanted contacts. You can also teach the social network which "friends" you don't want to see suggested anymore by tapping the X next to their names.

While artificial intelligence algorithms are making many of our apps smarter and more useful, sometimes, as in this case, they can also be downright wrong.

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If your partner were to "emotionally" cheat on you — that is, have feelings for someone else, but not necessarily do anything physical — how would you react? A study suggests that your gender could play a role in how you respond.

The study, published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behaviour, looked at why people of different genders and sexual orientations became jealous in their relationships. To do so, the researchers surveyed nearly 64,000 people through (what used to be) msnbc.com about their past and present relationships. Participants were also asked whether it would be more distressing to have a partner cheat on them physically (having sex with someone else without falling in love) or emotionally (falling in love with someone else without having sex).

The results turned up a few interesting patterns: First, for heterosexuals, women were more likely to be upset by emotional infidelity than physical infidelity. Heterosexual men were more than twice as likely to be upset by physical infidelity than women were. That pattern, however, disappeared for non-heterosexual participants — people who identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual appeared to be equally as upset by sexual and emotional cheating.

The researchers suggest that the gender difference in heterosexual couples could be influenced by evolutionary factors. Historically, the study authors posit, men may have avoided investing in offspring that wasn't biologically related to them. However, there are plenty of cultural influences at work here (for example, men and women alike are socialised to believe that men care about sex a whole lot) and these assumptions play right into our gendered stereotypes.

Although previous studies have revealed that cheaters may have many reasons for doing what they do, they are also pretty likely to cheat again. While there are certainly ways to keep a relationship together after infidelity (emotional or physical), this new research suggests it's pretty deeply ingrained in us to be upset about it, too.

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While the fashion world has been preoccupied for the past few years with numerous stalls and shifts pertaining to designer leadership (let’s skip listing them all, shall we?), the rest of the world and, yeah, the fashion industry, too, have been taken by one designer and brand in particular: Demna Gvasalia of Vetements. Never heard of Vetements? That’s okay. A few years ago, neither had we. That’s because it didn’t exist. But if you thought Kanye’s takeover of Madison Square Garden was enough to turn this fairly placid industry on its head, that’s nothing compared to the waves Gvasalia and his largely anonymous design collective have been making in recent seasons. The designer and brand are polarising, and many critics within the industry harbour opposing opinions of the Vetements vision or its viability as a brand. One critical camp believes that a hoodie — the Vetements signature — is just a hoodie, and that charging £600 or more for it is an atrocity. The other camp begs to differ; they see that hoodie, as well as Gvasalia himself, as nothing short of visionary.

John Galliano and Alexander McQueen appeared during a time when the fashion industry was snoozing amid widespread, seismic changes to youth culture (with the anti-establishment, overmedicated, and underwhelmed generation of grunge Gen-Xers). For similar reasons, Gvasalia is important today because what he has to say about who we are as people is different from other designers. Those who buy Vetements are the gender-fluid urban youth who don’t differentiate between “men’s” fashion and “women’s” fashion, much less highbrow and lowbrow. It’s a movement that assumes that the established rules are for the past generations, and Gvasalia has made it clear that he doesn’t intend to follow them.

But Gvasalia is as important for what his intentions aren’t as much as for what they are. Amid the praise for his first three collections, there were many people (including us) who criticised his all-white runway casting, pointing to the hypocrisy that the collection was inspired by the poor, urban youth of colour he saw frequenting a thrift chain in Paris. His last collection was presented during a winter stained with race-related violence and religion-affiliated acts of terror around the world, and police shootings that highlighted the structural and unconscious racism in America. It had become clearer than ever that “colourblindness” was a false bandage to pretend generations of racial inequality didn’t have lasting impact, and that politics, commerce, and art — when they are good — are one and the same. And it seems that after the think pieces and hot takes, Gvasalia has himself adapted; he retooled his casting strategy during his SS17 collection in July and featured a much more diverse lineup. As a contrast, it’s hard to imagine a member of the old guard, like Rei Kawakubo or Ann Demeulemeester, who’s been similarly criticised about white-washing respond in the same way, and that’s evidence that Gvasalia is something we haven’t seen before.

But no matter what you think, Vetements is the most talked-about brand among a fanbase consisting of communities as diverse as Snapchat-wielding Generation Z teens, nostalgia-obsessed millennials, and cash-rich blue bloods around the world. It’s a brand worn by celebrities as diverse as Kanye West and Celine Dion. It’s hard to put a finger on the reason for its mass appeal, especially considering that the hallmarks of the brand so far — the DHL logo, a Titanic hoodie, deconstructed jeans — seem as high-fashion as a strip mall. But as Gvasalia told us, it might have something to do with the market gap the brand has filled.

I met up with the Georgian-born designer to discuss his new industry-breaking collection, what tickles his creatives senses on a daily basis, what exactly he’s selling, and perhaps most importantly, why people are so hungry to buy it.

Why do you feel that Vetements has become so popular so quickly?

"Well, first of all, the internet, because everything is so fast in our digital age. I am always on my iPhone just browsing, or being on Instagram, or Facebook — or on the internet in general. It’s a huge source of information, and I absorb that, and then it's transmitted into the product — whether we want it or not, it is there. If I keep walking the streets in Paris for three days, I would not get as much information as I can get online.

"But I also think it’s the product itself, because a lot of people can relate to it in their own way. The product is relatable, and is shot so much. Everything is so easily exposed today, so it just spreads all over. But I guess I don't really know the reason of this kind of recognition. We didn't count on it, but the fact that it’s happening is amazing for us."

Vetements is one of those brands that’s appealing for people both in the fashion industry and people outside of it. Why do you think that is?

"Sometimes it just seems like, 'Ooh, this is what young people wear!' You know, T-shirts, easy garments that teenagers wear... And once there is a logo or print or something recognisable, people want to have it because [it makes them] part of a group of people. It’s kind of a social message for them. It’s communication: You wear that, and it means you follow certain things, you understood certain things that others don’t. That’s how it works with younger generations."

Do you think it's a special group of people that buys your clothes?

"I feel like they’re all cool and very informed...especially the younger they are! I heard about this group of teenagers in Brooklyn that apparently know everything about Vetements. They know every product, they know which season it’s from, they save up money to buy it… But they do it with other brands, too. They know Helmut Lang, and a lot of things people today are not aware of anymore. I think that they are kind of the über-generation because of all the information that’s available to them.

"It is quite a challenge for them, too. I’ve heard about young guys and girls who really save up money to buy our stuff. They go and look for it on the internet to see if they can find it cheaper, or already worn... I [also] hunt old, vintage Gap on eBay sometimes. But all these ‘90s mainstream brands… Well, I have this big mess [of clothes], which is supposed to be an archive. I’m always buying all this stuff. One day it needs to be all together... It’s a lot of American brands from the ‘90s."

I grew up in the '90s...the West was the United States.

American brands are a big thing for you?

"I mean, I grew up in the ‘90s. And especially for us Soviets, we were so deprived of information. The U.S. was so far away, and for me, the West was the United States. It was so unapproachable. And then once it opened up, and we could get some pieces of clothing, it was brands like Champion and Gap. These brands really influenced my way of seeing clothes, and, aesthetically it’s what I like.

"Until I moved to Europe, I was very limited in terms of what I knew about art, and culturally, about what was going on. When I was in Belgium at The Academy, I didn’t even know who Antwerp Six was."

One of the Six was your teacher.

"Walter [van Beirendonck] was my teacher and my first employer, actually. I worked with him right after I graduated."

You have a group of people around you who work with you at both Vetements and Balenciaga. Do those people share something in common with you that makes you attracted to them, or what is it?

"We understand each other easily. We talk about what’s good, what’s not good, what’s cool, what’s fresh... This group of people are friends, as well. We don't necessarily only work together. We party together, we go on vacation together, we do things together, and that’s why we have this common language. We understand each other telepathically almost. It’s not the criteria when I choose people for my team or who I work with. It just happens."

There’s no doubt Vetements is hyped right now. Are you sometimes nervous that that momentum is going to die out?

"We never looked for hype; hype came to us and hype is probably going to leave. It’s normal in fashion and everything in life. For me, what is important is that Vetements grows as a company and that it evolves. I think this season, for us, was really kind of the end of the first chapter and the beginning of a new one where we have some strategic plans on how to evolve the company. We’re going to start creating lines with different product categories and creating a separate line, which is going to be more radical: It's not going to be all about hoodies and flower dresses, but another level of what Vetements can be aesthetically. Doing this collaboration with all of the different brands, doing the couture calendar and not in the main season, switching the production cycle, and all that — this season gives us the tools we want to use in order to start the next chapter."

I hope it’s affecting [the industry] and not infecting it.

"I hope it’s affecting [the industry] and not infecting it. We wanted to do it for ourselves — there was no ambition of challenging the system or anything like that. For many brands, there’s a necessity of changing the production cycle, because things don't make sense anymore between the fabric delivery, and the fashion shows, and the sales campaigns... We buy summer collections in November and winter in July...that makes no sense to me, so that’s why we personally thought that we need to shift in order to grow properly. It also makes sense in terms of budgets. We are an independent brand. We don’t want to go into financial partnership, so for us, it’s essential to [collaborate]. I think it raises questions, but we are quite small and young, so we are more flexible, which is difficult for a big brand."

Did you contact the 17 brands to collaborate, or was that something that just happened naturally?

"We were all in a hunt for getting the right email, the right person, everywhere...but I must say it was quite an easy process to getting those collaborations to happen, whatever brand it was.

"Well, a lot of brands do a lot of collaborations, but I think it’s the first time a whole collection is actually a collaboration with so many different brands at the same time. That’s what we tried to show: that collaborations could coexist while still keeping it a Vetements show. There is a certain coherence with the silhouettes, the creative messages...but every product was done by those different 17 brands.

"It was an interesting challenge for both parties. For us, it was really about working with the best manufacturers for specific types of products... If it’s a T-shirt, it's Hanes. If it’s denim, it’s Levi’s. If it's sexy, feminine shoes, it’s Manolo Blahnik. Brioni, it’s the tailoring... For us, it was this idea of using their know-how and their perfection of the products. Because they’ve worked on these products for years and years. We don’t have this know-how at all. For them, the interest was probably to do this kind of challenging project with a young label, so it’s inter-profitable.

"What most of them managed to do with our crazy ideas...sometimes I was like, 'Let’s try it,' and they managed, and that’s quite impressive to me. They’re used to working with a very technical and industrialised process, so you can imagine with Vetements..."

Did you have to send designers to help them?

"Yes. Sometimes we sent designers, or sometimes they came to us. There was a lot of exchange by email or video conferences. It was all the time."

For example, the Reebok track suit — how did you transform those?

"I personally went to see the archives and made the selection of pieces that were interesting for us to work on. But it also happened with every collaborator: We took their existing products, and once the deal was settled and we knew that we were going to do it together, we would start basically destroying things and making them look like Vetements. It was a lot of cutting up, altering, boiling, and burning..."

Do you sketch?

"No. The product comes from a three-dimensional kind of process."

What bores you about the fashion industry?

"All these 'anti-' kind of things, and the idea of 'challenging.' I don’t really care about challenging the industry. I just want to make something that people want to have. That’s all."

That was the concept from the beginning.

"Originally, the concept was not having a concept."

I just want to make something that people want to have. That’s all.

But you just wanted to make clothes that people wanted to wear.

"If people want to wear it, they buy it, which means if you have turnover, your business grows. For me, that’s what fashion should be about.

"I find it quite amusing that the fashion industry raises all these questions in their heads. I never actually thought about it, but I find it quite interesting and positive that a yellow T-shirt with a red print can raise so many questions. But I don't care about answering those questions. We just made a T-shirt for fun, and I think it’s cool. And now every time I see a DHL delivery truck, I think about Vetements, myself!"

What was your reaction to the casting controversy?

"Well…it happened. I understood what it was about. In my mind, I didn't cast by the colour of anybody’s skin or origin. Where I come from, this has never really been an issue or a kind of question that you would ask yourself. Subconsciously, this thought [about diversity] was not present. For me, [the casting] was diverse in terms of characters of people and in terms of sexuality.

"But in a world where Donald Trump might be President of the United States, I realise that it’s important that I have this consideration in my mind. And it’s important for the culture I live in and where I work. So, that's why we did a different type of casting this time. And I’m happy about it. All those girls and guys were selected by their character and by their credibility. The way they talk, the way they move... It’s all these factors that are most important to me. I asked all of them, 'Do you like what you’re wearing? Do you feel like you want to wear this?' For me, that's the most important thing. There are no political statements or any kind of statements behind what we do."

September is typically a time when fashion publications definitively tell you what’s in, and what’s out. Fuck that. We’re dedicating the next couple of weeks to celebrate all the iconoclasts, independent thinkers, and individuals with unique personal styles who’d rather say Fuck The Fashion Rules than follow them.

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Chloe Sevigny made a grand entrance into the public eye in 1994 when a New Yorker writer dubbed her the "It girl" of New York. Now, after more than 20 years of a successful modelling and acting career, she's making a new debut — as a director at Cannes.

Sevigny's short film Kitty — which, in full transparency, Refinery29 will distribute later this year — is based on a 1980 short story by Paul Bowles in which a little girl named Kitty turns into a cat. The actress read the tale in her early 20s and felt connected to the female coming-of-age theme. "I remember being a young girl and discovering looks and having a sense of ego and vanity and all those things kind of creeping in," she tells us, calling from France. Sevigny also loved the magical realism of the story: "I thought it was so visual and cinematic and so delicate I could make a really beautiful whisper of a film."

The idea that no one believes Kitty when she tells them she's turning feline also resonated. “I guess I felt misunderstood in a lot of ways," Sevigny says. "Of course I was always heard, having been in the public eye. People always want you to say more, but it was almost like I wanted to hide more as a result. People wanted me to speak as a voice of a generation, and I had no interest in doing that. I didn’t want that responsibility.”

Sevigny says she wasn't nervous about directing her first film, but acknowledges that she's making her debut amid a larger conversation about the lack of female directors in Hollywood. “I mean it’s just kind of shocking," she says.

And now that she's a filmmaker herself, the issue is perhaps more top of mind. “I feel invested in it in a way of wanting to give advice," she says, citing friends who have developed TV shows and felt belittled by their male producers. "Why don’t you just surround yourself with ladies?" she suggests. "That’s what I did. Because then you don’t have to be afraid of being emotional in front of them and having them judge you for that — not that we're all so emotional." Indeed, for Kitty, Sevigny hired two female producers, all female department heads, and a female first assistant director.

She's been directed by women before — in films that were major milestones in her career, especially B oys Don’t Cry(with Kimberly Peirce) and American Psycho(Mary Harron), but was disappointed that she didn't get to work with more women behind the camera while she worked on TV. "You’d be doing a series of 14 episodes, and there’d be not a single female director," she says. The lack of parity certainly isn't unique to movies and TV. "I went to the Met Ball the other day and I wore Simone Rocha. I’ve been to the Met Ball like 10 times, and this is the first time I wore a female designer," she says. "So many fields are dominated by men, and it’s very frustrating. I think the conversation that’s happening now is great and hopefully we’ll start breaking down those walls.”

#kittythemovie is screening at the #54thnewyorkfilmfestival thank you Film Society of Lincoln Center! We screen October 2nd at 3:30 and October 4th at 6:15! Tickets on sale September 11th!

A video posted by Chloe Sevigny (@chloessevigny) on Aug 29, 2016 at 5:29pm PDT

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Jessi Brattengeier knows East Coast rap. Since she's from Houston, she has a pretty good handle on chopped and screwed, that drowsy, glutinous style of rhyming made famous in her hometown. She's also a huge Future fan, so she knows her share of trap music, too.

Brattengeier — a junior art director at a design and strategy studio called Sub Rosa — mapped out hip-hop's 37-year history. Sub Rosa prints a biannual publication, La Petite Mort, which features Brattengeier's extensive study of how rappers connect with movements and how cities intersect with subgenres.

Brattengeier spoke with Refinery29 about crafting the classifications and why Jay Z isn't as essential to hip-hop history as we might think.

How did you get started on this project?

"There’s a theme for every issue, and 'Metamorphosis' is the current theme. I came up with the idea for the map, because I'm interested in music. 'Interested in' is different than knowing all, of course. Hip-hop is a cultural phenomenon, so this is more of a pop culture history piece than an exhaustive encyclopedia. Once I started doing the research, I was interested in how I could map the history visually."

What was important in mapping all of this out on paper?

"It was based off of my understanding of visual hierarchy, working in branding and design. I wanted a central typeface that’s unique and unified. It was important to keep gradients, keep linear details, etc. I really just played along with what worked and shared it with people to get their feedback."

What is your own taste in hip-hop like? Where are your favourites on the map?

"Unfortunately, I think it’s obvious when you look at the map that I know more about the East Coast. As for my own taste, I’m really into Future. I love Wu-Tang, Cam'ron, a lot of the Yonkers rappers."

Men tend to think they know more about hip-hop and think that, as women, we can't understand it or know more about it, because it’s 'specifically geared' to them.

The map's elements are organised by subgenres — “Backpack Rap,” “Skater Rap,” the “Golden Age,” etc. How did you decide on these classifications?

"It was difficult, because I wanted to give enough of an overview, but the subgenres and subcultural movements are really rich. Initially, I narrowed down the list based on location and the movements created outside of specific areas.

"As I did more research, I realised that the way artists were collaborating with other artists across time made my job more about trying to understand movements, not just individuals and geographic regions. The subgenres, I decided, were really cultural generalisations I'd seen a lot."

How did you research the artists and their influences? When did it begin to take shape?

"I took history music classes in college, so I started with what I knew. I had no idea it would be such a huge project.

"First, I started based on geography. I’m from Houston, which is known for this specific style of chopped and screwed. I went from there, based on what I knew, and got input from friends and professors. Then, I cross-referenced and cross-checked to see how everything connected."

It can be hard as a woman who obviously knows so much about hip-hop. Male rap fans are often quick to mansplain. How do you respond to this?

"Hip-hop is misogynistic industry. Even artists like Lil' Kim — she was incredible and so talented, she rapped alongside Biggie — had to rely on her sexuality to get respect.

"Because it’s so misogynistic, [men] tend to think they know more about it and think that as women we can't understand it or know more about it, because it’s 'specifically geared' to them."

Why did you decide to include a specific pop-out of trap’s history?

"I remember when UGK and Three 6 Mafia first came up. It was such a new thing for hip-hop. Trap is such an obvious reflection of our culture's priorities.

"And, selfishly, Future is just good. I read the Rolling Stone feature on him and he’s a lot more profound and powerful than people think he is."

As a huge Future fan, what do you think of Desiigner?

"Desiigner is a Future rip-off! [Laughs] No, he’s like 19 and super-talented. He’s similar to Joey Badass — hip-hop artists are getting younger and younger, and making incredible work. But 'Panda' is still overplayed. Future is always innovating and DS2 will always be a solid album."

In workshopping the map with your friends and professors, what was their feedback?

"Well, I didn’t want to include Jay Z in a big bubble. I think he’s a kind of filter through which other rappers can connect and kind of prosper."

Were there other tricky choices you had to make visually?

"I really wanted to put everything hardcore in big bubbles: Big L should have been a big bubble, Mobb Deep, Ghostface Killah (even though he was kind of a big bubble with Wu-Tang). But it would have really gotten crowded if I’d included everyone I wanted to so prominently."

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Video games have long been derided for their blatant sexism and objectification of female characters. But a new virtual-reality game from PlayStation VR takes an already horrifying genre in disturbing new directions.

Dead or Alive XTreme 3, which will launch for virtual-reality headsets in Asia this fall, takes viewers to various Paradise modes. One scene from this so-called Paradise was posted to YouTube. In the scene, a player takes a probe-like object and uses it to touch a bikini-clad woman on a beach. The player is controlled by a man wearing a VR headset. When he touches the woman, she protests, but he continues his efforts despite her objections, Engadget reports.

The idea of a male player groping a female in a game is disturbing, but the game's added physics and realism make it even more uncomfortable — it's letting the player commit sexual assault.

For those who say "it's just a game," that is far from the truth. Studies have shown that letting men play violent video games has an effect on how they feel about women in real life. A study published earlier this year in the journal PLOS One found that men playing games where women are treated with violence feel less empathy for female victims of violence in real life — the same was not true of women who played those games. Researchers have also found evidence that playing video games increases aggression. This, combined with a lack of empathy towards women, is scary, to say the least.

These results are from studies where players used handheld controls to play a game. What happens when those players are now in a virtual universe that has been created to feel as real as it possibly can? The results cannot be good or safe for anyone, least of all women.

So no, it is not just a game. It is something that has very real repercussions for how women are viewed and treated worldwide. Putting female characters in these roles perpetuates horrifying stereotypes, portrays women as sexual objects, and makes something that is scarily real — sexual assault — seem like it's just play.

Anyone who plays Dead or Alive XTreme 3 should perhaps try a different VR experience, Perspective; Chapter 1: The Party. The film, shown at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, takes viewers (who watch while wearing virtual-reality headsets) into a frat party. They can choose to see a sexual assault as it occurs from the perspective of the female survivor or the male perpetrator. Maybe viewing from the woman's standpoint would help players — and developers — begin to grasp just dangerous their "game" is.

We've reached out to the creators of Dead or Alive XTreme3 for comment and will update this piece as soon as we hear back.

If you have experienced sexual violence and are in need of crisis support, please call the Rape Crisis national freephone helpline on 0808 802 9999 (12-2.30pm and 7-9.30pm every day of the year)

If you are experiencing domestic violence, please call the free, 24-hour National Domestic Violence Helpline on 0808 2000 247

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In this life, you fall into one of two camps: minimalist or maximalist. Do you find it impossible to leave the house without coming back with at least three completely unnecessary items? Then you, my friend, are a maximalist. You know damn well you really don’t need another salt cellar/ teacup/ pair of earrings/ insert current obsession here, but somehow, they end up in your possession. If, on the other hand, you’re the type who owns one nail polish, hates shopping and doesn’t see the point in cushions then yep, you guessed it, you’re a minimalist.

Sometimes, hoarders (sorry, maximalists) might dabble with the other side, trying their best to edit their wardrobe down to a capsule, chucking out stacks of favourite magazines, or clearing surfaces of beloved collections.

The barometer of fashion is currently favouring minimalism (blame the Scandinavians) and we’re being told that our stuff is now clutter. Stuff = bad. But collectors and lovers of things, do not despair, because the needle is slowing swinging back the other way, so embrace your inner (or outer) hoarder. These eight rooms show why having stuff rocks…

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If you've flicked through any fashion magazines or scrolled down Instagram of late, you've probably noticed the proliferation of pyjamas and nightwear being worn by day. Riri's doing it, Selena's doing it, Alexa's doing it and all the stylish girls we stalk on social media are doing it. It's official – slip dresses, silky twin sets, negligees and pyjamas have been embraced on the catwalks and by all our favourite celebrities.

We understand that it can be daunting stepping out in attire more typically worn in the bedroom so if you're going to commit to this prevalent trend, your pyjama look has to be polished. Wear a satin suit with heels and perfectly coiffed hair to avoid looking like you've just rolled out of bed or don a silk shirt with sleeves rolled up, jeans and sandals for effortless, everyday elegance.

Of course, if our pockets were ocean deep we'd deck ourselves in silk suits, dressing gowns and chemises from Stella McCartney, Céline, Givenchy and Saint Laurent but luckily we've found a much more accessible brand and it's safe to say we're obsessed. Asceno is the luxury lounge and swimwear label conceived by Creative Directors Poppy Sexton-Wainwright and Lauren Skerritt a few years ago, and in that short space of time it's already garnered a celebrity and fashion editor fanbase. We'd bet good money that street style pics from next month's fashion weeks will be heavily peppered with pieces by Asceno.

As summer eases into autumn, now's the time to ditch your summer dresses and denim cut-offs and try transitional dressing in silk sets and Asceno is the perfect place to start. Below we meet Lauren and Poppy, the girls behind the brand.

You began designing together after meeting at university, could you tell us more about the conception of the brand and its development over the years?

The initial idea was developed at Newcastle while we were studying Business. We actually met living in halls at a friend’s drinks – very, very university! We shared a love of print, loungewear and comfort which became the starting point for our designs. As we've grown, so has the brand, and over the past few years Asceno has evolved from a sleepwear company into a contemporary lifestyle and travel brand offering swim, beach, sleep and lounge wear.

Why do you think there has been such a boom in loungewear and pyjamas worn as daywear over the past few years?

People are choosing comfort, and PJs as daywear allow you to be comfortable. As with all things fashion, celebrities have heavily influenced the boundaries of what should be worn and when. Madonna incorporated lingerie into her tour and personal wardrobe in the '90s and icons of the day such as Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell mix what would have traditionally been seen as nightwear into both daywear and eveningwear. It is inevitable that when the likes of Rihanna, Olivia Palermo and Sofia Coppola are spotted out in PJ-inspired silhouettes this will filter through to the general consumer.

What sets Asceno apart and who would you love to see wearing it?

Asceno collections are full of casual, comfortable and functional luxury providing sleep and swimwear for the effortlessly cool consumer. The prints are fresh, dynamic and graphic, the shapes are relaxed, crisp and clean. At the core of Asceno is quality; we have worked really hard to ensure that everything we create is of the finest quality, from the silkiest silks, softest swim fabrics to silk wadded eye masks that could comfort the weariest of eyes.

Asceno has been so well received and we are so happy to include actresses Kate Hudson, Clémence Poésy and Rita Ora as fans of our signature silk pyjamas. We love seeing all kinds of people wearing our designs, the thrill of people enjoying something we have created will unlikely wear off!

What are your favourite pieces each and how do you both like to wear them?

Lauren: I’ll be wearing the Nugget Tile PJs for breakfast and lounging in Santorini next weekend. We are both really excited about the Asceno stripe which launches for SS17, we will be living in them.

Poppy: The Midnight Crescent PJs for statement dressing with trainers or the Orion blue for a more relaxed mood.

What have been the biggest hurdles you've had to overcome setting up your own brand?

There has never been a better time to start a brand – we sell to nearly 100 stores in 20 countries and we could never have got there that quickly 10 years ago. That's the benefit of launching a brand in the internet age. Social media has given us the opportunity to have a global following, however, that being said, the internet age means you can never switch off. It’s really important to have time out and have a healthy balance.

What would be your advice for budding businesswomen and young designers?

It’s super important to be offering something really unique and different as well as something that you love, and get lots of customer feedback as this helps you perfect the product!

What does the future hold for Asceno?

In December we have the launch of SS17, the collection is full of casual luxury, and eccentric splashes of colour. We are taking the brand in an exciting direction. Key prints for SS17 include show-off stripes, bold graphics combined with the brand's contemporary aesthetic. The brand will be launching within some really exciting international retailers including Moda Operandi, Harvey Nichols Riyadh, and Saks Fifth Avenue Mexico amongst others along with international expansion and an Asceno retail store. Lots of exciting things to come!

Follow Asceno on Instagram @ascenolondon

www.asceno.com

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Farah, 31, has an American passport. She was born in Ohio, but her family returned to Saudi Arabia when she was six.

“I have lived the most miserable days of my life here in Saudi Arabia,” she said, telling me that first her father forbade her from becoming a doctor – he didn’t think it was a suitable career for a woman – and then he wouldn’t let her study law because she needed to travel to a school in another city.

In 2006, Farah met a foreign man and fell in love. She wanted to marry him, but her family disapproved. Her parents beat her, snapped her mobile phone in two, and imprisoned her in the house for six months. The Saudi state does not allow women or girls to travel abroad without permission from their male guardian — in this case, Farah’s father.

“I'm tired of my life and I think a lot of suicide,” she said. “I have suffered all kinds of torture from my family.”

Farah is one of hundreds of Saudi women now using Twitter to challenge the misogynistic law that says they must defer to a man in many major life decisions. For nearly fifty days, Saudi women have been using the #StopEnslavingSaudiWomen hashtag in English and in Arabic, to show support for a campaign to abolish male guardianship laws in the Middle Eastern country.

#StopEnslavingSaudiWomen
I can't get that job..
I can't marry you..
I can't travel for treatment..
Cause he said NO pic.twitter.com/2VQjOiy5Ru

— تشيميمندا♍️☘ (@ifiguredit) August 4, 2016

All women in Saudi Arabia — even company directors, councillors, and heart surgeons — are required to have a male guardian (known as a Wali). This is usually a woman’s father or husband, but it can be her brother, her son, her uncle, or even the local mosque cleric if she has no family.

Women need their guardian’s permission to travel, to study, to work, and to seek medical treatment, even in the case of life-saving surgery. The system is built into the bureaucracy of Saudi Arabia's institutions, as well as remaining firmly rooted in the culture.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), who released a report on the subject in July, said male guardianship “is the most significant impediment to realising women’s rights in the country, effectively rendering adult women legal minors who cannot make key decisions for themselves.”

A woman’s life in Saudi “is controlled by a man from birth until death,” the report continued, adding that “the impact these restrictive policies have on a woman’s ability to pursue a career or make life decisions varies, but is largely dependent on the good will of her male guardian.”

We don't want to be a queens .. We just want to be a human ! Stop slaving us #StopEnslavingSaudiWomen #humanrights pic.twitter.com/cmx4E8owdE

— آرتميس (@dreao11) August 20, 2016

Ala, a 26-year-old from Riyadh, the Saudi capital, has been using the hashtag for about a month. “For me, I just hate the humiliation of it all,” she said. “I can be exchanged like a package or a piece of land.”

If anything ever happened to her father, Ala said, her little brother, 24, would become the guardian of his three older sisters and 50-something-year-old mother. “It just doesn't make sense. If I ever wanted to travel or open a bank account for example, I'd have to get his permission.”

Ala considers herself lucky: her situation is better than many Saudi women’s because her father is fairly liberal. “[But] it’s the feeling that you're never enough,” she said. “It significantly affects your state of mind when reminded of it each day. You're a minor. No matter how old you get or how educated.”

Ala is afraid to get married because then her whole life will be dependent on the will of her husband. People consider her a little old to not be married already, she said, but at least while she remains under her father’s guardianship, she knows what to expect.

A high school friend, a doctor, Ala said, married for love, but problems arose immediately on the woman’s honeymoon, when she travelled abroad but her controlling husband still ordered her to wear a hijab.

“Now, she really wants to work,” Ala said, “however he forbids her from working in a hospital because she would have to work closely with men.”

She wrote: "because you stole my dreams I attempted suicide". #StopEnslavingSaudiWomen pic.twitter.com/Aobn6z79F5

— Anon (@dontcarebut) August 4, 2016

The Twitter campaign was inspired by a tag launched to promote the HRW report in July, but Saudi women quickly took over, making new tags and keeping them trending on their own.

Ala saw the hashtag on its fifth or six day, but she was afraid to participate using her personal Twitter account. “You need to be careful discussing these kind of things,” she explained. “It's been one of many taboo subjects all our lives. Not everyone will approve; you'll likely be judged and spoken of.” She made an anonymous account and started participating at the end of the second week.

“The goal is for both the hashtags to trend for the day,” she said, adding that the campaign is happening in English and Arabic. The English tag is #stopenslavingsaudiwomen but the Arabic one changes slightly each day, counting up from what reads in English as "#stopenslavingsaudiwomen1" from day one. There's an account which tells women what number they should be on. "Today we're on 45," says Ala when we speak.

“I believe that everything will change, the next generation are stronger”

Shahad, 17, lives near Mekkah. She wanted to be a television presenter. Her elder sister wanted to be a hostess. But her father refused them both. “It was my dream,” she told me. “And he said no!”

As a young person, Shahad is both indignant about the country she is growing up in, and hopeful for the future. “I believe that everything will change, the next generation are stronger,” she said. “People now know more know about women's rights. Young people agree [with the campaign] more than older people.”

While Ala is very cautious about discussing the campaign with people offline, and has only broached the subject with a few close female family members and friends, Shahad said she discussed it openly with girls at her high school.

Shahad said she would campaign offline too if she could, but she doesn’t know how to because no one is listening in real life. In that sense, Twitter has given Saudi women a unique outlet, and potentially a way to organise.

Ala said the campaign had given her hope, too. “The persistence of the girls has been amazing,” she said. “I think this is the biggest campaign ever run by Saudi women.”

“This tag has increased awareness among both men and women. Many who believed this was a religious law discovered it was anything but. A lot of girls who were against us initially have come back now to say they're with us. Many men are participating as well, especially recently. The story got covered twice on MBC, the most popular channel here."

However, she added, angrily, the campaign has still not been acknowledged by people in power.

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My parents are away on holiday and they have left me to look after the house. The other day, as I left, I checked that the back door was locked ten times. I checked that the front door was locked 14 times. I turned off all switches in the house and I unplugged all the appliances. Sometimes during these moments, when I'm checking, I float outside of myself – I can understand that what I’m doing is absurd, but I carry on anyway – knowing it’s ridiculous just isn’t enough to stop me. This time I check until I feel satisfied that the house is secure enough to leave. I take a video on my phone as I lock the front door – the evidence I’ll need to ensure myself it’s locked when I start worrying about it later. Then I get on with my day, albeit half an hour late.

I was once told that, with obsessive compulsive disorder, you experience doubt, but respond as if it's danger. Checking that the door is locked begins with the obsessive doubt, the intrusive thought that tells me that today is the day that our house will be ransacked. These urges repeatedly appear, consistently bullying their way to the forefront of my mind. The obsession quickly transfers itself into a compulsion. From there, the compulsion quickly morphs into a feeling of imminent, rising danger – it really is the day that my parent’s house will be robbed, my flat will burn down, or I’ll find a violent murderer in the kitchen.

My OCD ducks and dives, rearing its head every couple of years. It's like having a neurotic in-law come to stay, who tells you your house isn't clean enough, or an unwelcome friend who drains all of your energy. I’ve looked for patterns, and I have begun to understand my triggers, the tell-tales signs – like the onset of intrusive thoughts about robberies or the sudden need to clean a floor meticulously – and now I can catch myself in time to manage slow, semi-effective ways of coping. It took me a long time, a lot of Hoover bags and a shed load of therapy to get there. And if my iPhone camera roll is anything to go by, I’ve still got some way to go... where other people have embarrassing bursts of mirror selfies, I have sexy pics of the kitchen hob.

We could do with your Hoover obsession making a return whilst we’re away

Before my parents left for the holiday, my stepdad made a joke: "We could do with your Hoover obsession making a return whilst we’re away," he said. We all laughed, but the joke took me back to the nadir of my anxiety-ridden teenage years; it was a sour reminder of how my OCD first materialised. I was 11 years old. My mum moved us to an old house that probably should have had an "enter at your own risk" sign strapped above the door. It was a damp, stuffy shoebox that she renovated slowly – an outlet for her own post-divorce stress and trauma. Here I used cleaning as a panacea to sooth the rising tumult of starting a new school, my grandfather dying, living in a new place, adjusting to life after my parent’s divorce, and a mum who was a little too preoccupied with finding the right colour of emulsion.

I would vacuum the house up to five or six times a day. My mum didn't know how to stop me and as I unplugged the vacuum after its sixth consecutive ride, I felt automatically calmer, in control of the dust and the chaos taking hold around us. There's a scene in the film Mommie Dearest where Faye Dunaway illustrates to her cleaner how to polish the floor. She informs her that she’s not cross with her but that she is "mad at the dirt". Dunaway plays an unravelling Joan Crawford, who wasn’t "mad" at the cleaner, but was in fact very mad at the intrusion of her adopted children, the reaction to which slowly materialised as an obsession with cleaning. This was me – I was cross with the intrusion, the change and the lack of constancy. I was mad at the dirt.

When all this cleaning first started, the frequency with which I did it increased incrementally. It began with just hoovering in the morning. And then – slowly and over time – I was mentally blocking off periods in which to specifically go home and vacuum. I was never anxious about the increase in frequency – this compulsion stood as a symbol of tranquillity and calm – I began craving this activity, needing it more and more regularly within my day. What I didn’t realise was that as my desire for this time increased, so did my fear of losing control.

It's about being afraid that not doing things a certain way will cause harm

Many people misread or stereotype OCD as a desire for tidiness. In reality, it is "about having no control over your negative thoughts. It's about being afraid that not doing things a certain way will cause harm." Control is like a well-balanced weighing scale and anything unexpected can suddenly tip the balance. My OCD is often exacerbated in periods of stress, change and uncertainty: my GCSEs, moving house, the final year of my undergraduate degree and splitting up with my ex-girlfriend – and it’s a sure fire way to knock you while you’re already down. I have grown used to knowing that these heightened periods tend to pass. But there are times when my OCD creeps up unexpectedly and I feel as if I have been entirely unaware of its presence and completely unaware of its strength, until I am full swing into an episode. Which is why, in the last year, after having found myself in an unsettled home environment, with housemates I didn't trust and who I passively argued with on a regular basis, my OCD came back in a new incarnation: The checking.

Most recently, it got to the point where going to bed was difficult. I had to take sleeping tablets every night because I felt that I might never switch off the repetitive and intrusive thoughts I had swilling around my head. I would have to wait until all my housemates had gone to bed because I would persuade myself that they might have surreptitiously unlocked all the doors and switched on all the plugs that I'd just spent half an hour checking. I would slowly creep out of bed and start my rounds around the house. My growing inability to fall asleep without routinely checking the entire house was incredibly frustrating and it got to the point where I didn’t think I had the tools and methods to get over my current "flare-up". However, knowing that my OCD comes in waves and degrees of intensity is the first step to accepting my own behaviour. I know that seeking professional help and advice is the next most important step, that the illusion of anxiety that OCD fosters is temporary and that – with the right help – I can remember how to manage it.

Effectively managing OCD can be an exhausting and anxiety-inducing task in itself. When I was younger I had Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and since then I have also had therapy provided through my university health care service. There are plenty of useful methods and tips that I have learnt from therapists and counsellors. One of the most useful techniques of these was beginning to monitor my OCD with an ‘Obsessive Fear Monitoring Form’. I found that this was an effective, if not dogmatic way to establish the triggers for your OCD and what compulsions you might try and use to manage your anxiety around any particular situation. This certainly isn’t a fail-safe option, but I also find it constitutive to calculate the probability of the danger of the situations that provide the most anxiety and I sometimes refer back to self-help sheets like these. They're little things, but they help me get to know my OCD better, and break the cycle of worrying.

I figure that, if my OCD is sticking around for now, coming in and out of my life as it pleases, I need to try to make peace with it. And so I try to sum up my OCD in a sentence. Doing this allows me to keep my disorder in a box, or at least give a glaze to something that sends my life into complete disarray. I think of it as the most obvious of metaphors: I feel mentally unsafe and therefore I continually check that I am safe by shaking the door handle and taking pictures of the locked door – there is a lack of security in my mental landscape and therefore I need to know I can trust the physical environment around me. When I put it like that, it seems like a natural way to alleviate the shame and stress, as well as a simple thing to fix. And until I fix it? For now I've learnt to cope.

The mental health charity Mind has an extensive list of different treatments and avenues for those suffer with OCD. Visit their website here.

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How do you create a truly unexpected perfume commercial in 2016? Take an underexposed beauty ( The Leftovers' Margaret Qualley) and set her free to flex Olympic-like muscles, power-kick her way around a gala venue, and shoot bullets from her fingers. Also, it doesn't hurt if she becomes all-out possessed by the beats of a Sam Spiegel and Ape Drums (featuring Assassin) banger — while making ugly faces. Now that is how you do a perfume ad.

In a new spot for Kenzo World Le Nouveau Parfum, Spike Jonze trashes all the typical fragrance-ad tropes (finally, no more sexy voiceover!) for a modern and inspiring take on badass womanhood. Within three minutes' time, Qualley is shown being mischievous, silly, adventurous, strong, and totally bonkers. At no point is this girl seductive in the traditional sense — yet she’s completely magnetic. It’s part Firestarter, part Fatboy Slim's Weapon of Choice video (which was also directed by Jonze), and 100% radical.

We dare you to watch the spot without dancing in your office chair, fantasising about taking a dive through an evil eye made entirely of flowers — or feeling the power of what can happen when you step outside the box.

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Headphones are a barrier between us and the glumness of the outside world. When we wear them, we're listening to music or a podcast and therefore don't want to interact with anyone. We might as well have "leave me alone" taped to our foreheads.

So it's no surprise that a dating blog telling men how to chat up women wearing headphones has drawn scorn from women the world over.

The post, by "dating and relationship expert" Dan Bacon on his website The Modern Man, includes tips for clueless men/wannabe pickup artists to persuade women to take off their headphones and interact with them.

Today I learned Dan Bacon's ignorance/arrogance is both baffling and horrifying.
NEVER DO THIS! pic.twitter.com/EieTzycCzL

— Ian Morley (@techagent) August 30, 2016

It includes such gems as: "Get her attention with a wave of your hand", and "Point to her headphones and confidently ask, 'Can you take off your headphones for a minute?'".

Bacon does admit that, "not all women are open to being approached because not all women are single and looking."

But if a woman is single and looking, he believes she's fair game: "She will almost always be happy to take off her headphones to give you an opportunity to create a spark with her."

However, Bacon's logic has widely missed the mark and women have shared their own advice to men in response: Buzz off.

How to Approach a Girl Wearing Headphones

- Don't
- Leave her alone
- Ur not entitled to her attention no matter how attractive u find her

— Iron Spike (@Iron_Spike) August 30, 2016

How to Approach a Girl Wearing Headphones
step 1: spend years fighting to change the culture to make interaction w/ strangers safe for women

— Juliaplo (@FickleFngrnails) August 30, 2016

I'm just a girl wearing headphones standing in front of a boy asking him to fucking move out of my way because I don't want to talk to him.

— Amy Elizabeth Hill (@amyandelizabeth) August 30, 2016

How To Talk To A Woman Wearing Headphones

1. Create a podcast

— Clare Coffey (@ClareCoffey) August 29, 2016

Any women who's had her personal space invaded by someone unnecessarily seeking her attention will know how frustrating it can be.

Add to that the potential threat posed by strange men, whose unwanted sexual advances we have to bat off on a daily basis, and it can even be scary.

Unfortunately, though, it's a common problem and many men think they're entitled to our time and attention which, when you think about it, is pretty rude.

One 28-year-old woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, says it happens to her regularly on her commute to work. She told Refinery29: "A man will gesture for me to take my headphones off, and I'm usually suspicious of the reason, but I don't want to be cynical or vain, so I presume he needs my help.

"But it's never been because he needs help, and I find it really rude and irritating. It irks me further when they pretend we're just chatting and say things like, 'Excuse me, where are you from?', 'Where are you going?' I don't like being rude to strangers, but I don't know what else to do, so it puts me in a bad mood."

A 25-year-old woman also recalled how a man passed her on the street while she was power walking while wearing headphones. "He then turned around, ran back to me, tapped me on the shoulder and held something out. I assumed I'd dropped something so took my headphones out.

"He then tried to hit on me. I was 24 and he was in his 40s. Grim."

So, men: Don't be that guy. And don't take advice from a website that claims it can teach you how to "make her want to have sex with you ASAP", with a "very easy" technique. Because this man clearly doesn't understand women.

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Ever wondered why you are so interested in those stale doughnuts in the break room, the mystery-meat-on-a-stick samples at the grocery store, or the less-than-appetising leftovers from that catered work lunch? Despite 25 years working in the culinary industry, I’m still curious. And I’ve seen it all: Customers eating bits of bread meant for testing olive oil; legions of farmers’ market patrons attempting to turn tasters of fruit into a full meal; and double-dippers, dribblers, and “don’t like this, think I’ll put it back” types who have contaminated countless jars of sample jams. No doubt about it, Homo sapiens love free food. The question is, why?

So when Zoe Bain, Refinery29’s food editor, asked if I wanted to write a piece about “why we all go totally bonkers over free food,” my response was a resounding yes. One too many catered lunches at the R29 offices had left Bain puzzled.

“When there’s free food around, we suddenly don’t want our nicely packed lunches anymore,” she said. Even worse, she lamented, “After a catered meeting is finished and the leftovers are opened up to the rest of the office, it turns into a competition of who can get their hands on the freebies first. Everyone gets nervous that if they’re not standing right there, nothing will be left.”

One of the things I find curious about freeloading behaviour is our tendency to eat things that we’d never consume if they weren't free. Anyone who’s ever done a few laps around Whole Foods or Costco just for the samples knows what I’m talking about. To get to the bottom of this age-old phenomenon, I reached out to a number of psychologists and anthropologists who specialise in food-related research. My first question: Could there be an evolutionary explanation?

“In general, I’d be very careful about assigning an evolutionary value to something like the desire for free food,” says Dr. Richard Wilk, professor of anthropology and co-director of the Indiana University Food Institute. “Through two or three million years of human evolution, all food was free. The only differences were in how much time, effort, or danger were involved in getting that food. Almost every human culture studied by anthropologists has an elaborate set of rules about how food is divided, which means that people never grab food, but instead set about sharing it.”

While I think the mother of my ex-boyfriend would disagree with Wilk — the youngest of five siblings, she’s fond of saying if you didn’t eat fast in her house, you didn’t eat at all — his sentiments are echoed by Dr. Amy K. McLennan, a research associate at the University of Oxford.

“In some instances — if governments are giving away ‘free’ food, to, say, starving populations, then the food might instead be treated with suspicion or disdain,” she notes. “But in some societies, sharing food forms a bond between giver and receiver. For example, in the Pacific island nation of Nauru, in pre-colonial times, one way to cope with extended food shortage was to keep preserved fruit in the home. The reason people wouldn’t loot it was because of the social norms and customs that governed keeping, sharing, and distributing food over time. In the same society today, with a more dominant food-anytime-and-everywhere culture, people have to work hard to keep their food hidden, so it’s not taken. If we live in a culture that values getting things at no cost, then you can expect people to go for free samples of pretty much anything.”

Economics may also play a role in our metaphorical hunger for free food. Says Dr. Susan D. Blum, professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, “I think it has to do with the way the idea of ‘free’ has been socialised and the notions of capitalism that give value to something that’s otherwise assigned a monetary cost. In the U.S., we’ve divorced hunger from consumption and there are many other factors affecting appetite.” For anyone who’s ever worked in a restaurant, those words ring all too true. It’s hard to pass up what’s right in front of you, especially when it’s food you couldn’t afford on your own dime.

But maybe the simplest explanation is that we all love getting something for nothing, no matter what our socioeconomic class. It’s possible we also like the feeling of getting away with something.

Explains Dr. Merry White, a professor of anthropology at Boston University, “Food came ‘free’ from the mother’s breast and within the family; most middle- and upper-class children aren’t considering much where their food comes from — it’s mostly ‘free.’ So getting ‘food for free’ has a visceral memory. But then there are twisted, sneaky adult feelings that come into play. Food on airplanes? It used to be ‘free’ and now if you get a bag of pretzels. You’re inordinately grateful: free food!”

That gratitude, while not applicable to unmanned samples found at the grocery store, is key when it comes to trying freebies proffered by farmers’ market or other vendors (speaking from years of experience). Selling direct-to-consumer is the ideal for farmers and food artisans. It’s important to meet the people who grow and raise our food as well as the people who consume it.

As Dr. White points out, “As humans, we’re also looking for relationships, connections, and as an anthropologist, I consider sociocultural factors...in Japanese depachika(department store food halls), there are many stalls with samples. But there’s a code: you don’t just graze, you ask questions, get engaged with the maker. Food for free shouldn’t be anonymous.”

So the next time you’re tempted to race your officemates to what’s left of the morning meeting’s breakfast buffet or nab more than your share of potato chips from the sample bowl at the store, don’t feel bad — it’s human nature.

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There are some things that almost every Afghan knows. We all know that car bombs leave behind craters in the ground. Birds nearby die instantly from the shock wave. And human flesh can be found on rooftops and trees for days after. The details are ugly and sad — and they reveal a lot about the life we live.

On August 24, three attackers detonated explosives and shot students at the American University of Afghanistan, in Kabul, killing 16 and wounding 36. Among the dead were eight students and two professors. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the assault, but Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said in a press release that the attack was planned in Pakistan. Roughly 750 students were on campus that day — my brother among them.

The AUAF attack wasn’t the first time my family has been affected by a terrorist incident. In the summer of 2010, I was home from my school, Randolph College. Back in Afghanistan, I didn’t miss much, except some close friends and the sweet professor Goulde, my English professor, friend, mentor, and de facto guardian. Sure, I craved the pies from Rivermont Pizza right across the campus in Lynchburg, VA, as well as my roommate’s steamed rice now and then.

I followed the news until late that night and went to bed afraid that the next day I would be seeing the faces of some of the casualties on Facebook and television.

But I didn’t suffer much — my mother cooked every day and my father was entertainer-in-chief. After I had spent the semester thousands of miles apart from my mom, she went above and beyond. If I wanted steamed dumplings three days in a row, I would get them three days in a row.

The morning of June 2, 2010, I woke up to a horrific blast. President Hamid Karzai’s representatives had arranged a peace jirga. Jirga is a Pashto word for council, and refers to a local method of resolving disputes among tribes and communities. The jirga tent wasn’t very far from where we lived at the time, and the two-day event had come under attack from the very beginning.

After the explosion, police poured into the streets. A young officer knocked on our door and advised us to leave the area as it was in range of enemy fire. We went to our uncle’s house on the other side of Kabul, and after an hour of talking politics and the attack, it turned into just another day at my uncle’s house.

After the explosion, police poured into the streets. A young officer knocked on our door and advised us to leave the area as it was in range of enemy fire.

Even in 2010, we were old hands at this. I had been under lockdown with dozens of my colleagues once, four years earlier, during a violent riot outside of my office. In 2005, I was late for work one day as the road to the office was cordoned off by the police. A teenager had detonated explosives after he had rammed his vehicle into an oncoming convoy of international troops. There have been so many similar encounters, I am not sure I would remember them all. I tend to forget the details of these incidents, perhaps due to some coping mechanism that we develop to adapt and survive.

My family and friends together have experienced so many, I would need to write a book to list them all. This is despite the fact that I consider us to be among the lucky ones; in the past 15 years, more than 31,000 civilians are estimated to have died as a result of the war. Those deaths are in addition to the 870,000 Afghans who died and 3 million who were wounded between 1978 and 1987. All told, almost every Afghan family has lost at least one person to the conflict over the past four decades.

All told, almost every Afghan family has lost at least one person to the conflict over the past four decades.

But last week’s attack hurt me deeply, and not just because my youngest brother, Nawid* is in his final semester there, but because the environment at American University first showed me what my ideal Afghan society could look like. It helped me see how an educated and tolerant group of people could transform their lives for the better.

I’ve always felt that the word oasis captured the essence of AUAF. On the north end of the small campus, when I worked there, there was a large, bustling cafeteria. Men and women dined together, unusual in the gender-segregated society outside the university’s walls. As I would stand in line to get my food, I'd sometimes look around the hall. Some students would be stressing over their reading assignments, others passionately arguing over something, probably politics, and then in one corner, you would often see a student listening obediently to his professor, usually foreign, who had travelled from afar to teach him and others like him.

There is a lush green place out there, and like millions of Afghans before them, my people will risk everything to get to it.

The first time I ever played badminton was at AUAF’s Michelle Bayat Gym, a big indoor sports hall that lies parallel to the main road. In fact, it was probably my first time playing any game, ever. As a woman, social norms dictated that I couldn’t play outside or even walk too fast. But I felt comfortable enough that day, in that environment, to pick up a racket and try this thing called badminton. I was bored just a few minutes into the game, but no one cared that I was playing it, and that was all I wanted.

Friendships, music, love — all the elements of student life existed at that campus. Many of the relationships that students forged at AUAF led to marriages. Meanwhile, there were elections for student president, group prayers, and students jointly breaking their fasts during Ramadan. There was a certain harmony and peace about the place that felt genuine and indigenous. I hoped that this happiness would spill outside the walls into the streets and up to the highways that ran to villages that had forgotten what peace and freedom felt like.

I hoped that this happiness would spill outside the walls into the streets and up to the highways that ran to villages that had forgotten what peace and freedom felt like.

But throughout my time at AUAF, a constant threat lurked. It was common to receive safety alerts from campus security. We never knew when the previous threat subsided, but we would always learn about a new one.

And finally, over five years after I'd left, an attack actually took place. When I heard the news from my desk in New York, where I work now, I panicked and called my brother right away. He didn’t answer his phone, so I called my sister next. I did not dare call my mom; I could not even imagine how horrified she would be. In her usual calm voice, my sister told me that, though he was still trapped inside, Nawid was okay. I didn’t understand how those two things could co-exist, but her composed tones made me trust her. Later that night, my brother called and said he had been able to jump over the wall into the U.N. compound next door. He had escaped unharmed.

Still, I followed the news until late that night and went to bed afraid that the next day I would be seeing the faces of some of the casualties on Facebook and television. I woke up, went for a jog, and didn’t log into Facebook. I got my morning coffee, and then I couldn’t wait anymore.

My country doesn’t have much left, but I am certain it is rich in the bravery of its people.

I logged on, and the faces of those who were lost flooded my Facebook feed. Among them was a bright assistant professor, Naqib Ahmad Khpulwak, who had a double master’s degree and was a PhD candidate. I can only imagine how he achieved all that despite nearly four decades of war, refugee life, and poverty. Sami Sarwari, a musician from a poor family who had received a full scholarship and died that night, had just started the fall semester and spent less than a week at the campus. A classmate shared a screenshot of his Facebook status, which read: "Im in. Looking forward to a beautiful and bright future.”

People from many different backgrounds were killed that night, but one theme that knits them together was bravery. Professor Khpulwak had stayed back to help his students escape through his office window when he was finally found and shot. Several surviving students posted online about a police officer who ran in and out of the buildings, guiding hundreds to safety before he was gunned down; he was later identified as Mohammad Akbar Andarabi, commander of a Crisis Response Unit.

I believe in all these stories. My country doesn’t have much left, but I am certain it is rich in the bravery of its people. The living students, staff, and security forces will persevere. I assure you that on the reopened campus, AUAF’s students and staff will once again be in their classrooms, their pain still raw, but reading Gandhi, Aristotle, and Descartes as they always have.

Whatever armed group thinks they can turn our reality into a mirage is bound to fail. There is a lush green place out there, and like millions of Afghans before them, my people will risk everything to get to it.

Wazhma Furmuli is a board member of the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women and former Afghan refugee who worked at the American University of Afghanistan while she pursued her dream of education. The views expressed here are her own.

*Editor's note: Furmuli's brother's name has been changed to protect his identity.

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As teenagers, the biggest things many of us had to worry about were deciding which home hair dye colour to buy next and which cryptic song lyric to use as our MSN name.

But the world is a different place for teenagers these days and, according to new research, girls in the UK are increasingly unhappy.

A report by the Children's Society says 34% of girls aged 10 to 15 are unhappy with their appearance and 14% are unhappy with their lives as a whole, the BBC reported.

The charity's annual Good Childhood Report for 2016 includes figures for England, Wales and Scotland for 2013-14 and compares how girls' happiness levels have changed since 2009-10.

In 2009-10, around 11% of both boys and girls said they were unhappy. However, a sharp gap has opened up between boys and girls, with the proportion of unhappy girls rising to 14% while the figure for boys remained stable.

Girls are also increasingly preoccupied by their appearance, the research found. The proportion of girls worried about their looks grew from 30% to 34% in 2013-14. By contrast, the proportion of boys who reported the same feeling remained stable at 20%.

The report used data from the Understanding Society Survey, which gathers information from 40,000 UK households. The Children's Society and researchers from the University of York then analysed teenagers' responses.

"This isn't something which can be explained away by hormones or just the natural course of growing up," Lucy Capron from the Children's Society told the BBC, adding that the findings need to be taken seriously and acted upon.

She suggested that social media – and how it is used in relationships – may have contributed to girls' increased unhappiness over time. "Some other research has shown that girls are spending a lot more time on social media - up to three hours a night in some cases - and we need to make sure that's done in a safe way," Capron told the BBC.

One 15-year-old girl, who has recently struggled with an eating disorder and depression, said social media, academic stress, peer pressure and body image ideals all contribute to how she feels about herself and her life as a whole.

"Social media can make me unhappy when something goes wrong because there's really no escape. Even if I turn my phone off the messages will still be there and I can't ignore them," she told Refinery29.

However, she added that it sometimes lifts her mood. "I feel very connected to my friends when I'm using it and so I'm much happier with it. There are times when I'd be very, very lonely without it. I wouldn't want to get rid of it because I think it brings me more happiness than sadness."

She also said there "definitely is pressure to look a certain way," which comes from her peers as well as the mainstream media and visual social media platforms such as Instagram, in particular.

"Stress from work causes a lot of unhappiness," she added. Referring to her single-sex school, she said: "I think girls especially put a lot of pressure on themselves to achieve the top grades and get very disappointed if they don't. I know I'm unhappy when I don't, even if the grades I've got are perfectly acceptable and good."

The stereotypically "moody teenager" may be a cliché and mostly used lightheartedly, but it's clear we need to make the mental health of teenage girls a top priority.

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Get ready to take another trip to the Upside Down. Stranger Things will return for nine episodes in 2017. And yes, that's one more episode than the first season.

Netflix released a short teaser that declares the adventure will continue and will be more '80s than ever. Season 2 of Stranger Things will reportedly pick up in the fall of 1984, a year after Will Byers first disappeared.

The thriller, an homage to your favourite '80s movies, became everyone's favourite show of the summer, charming us with its monsters, waffles, and secret worlds. Not to mention, its adorable cast of newbie stars, who are very excited to return.

Gaten Matarazzo (a.k.a. Dustin) posted a sweet video thanking fans for all their support. Though, we don't know if he's more excited about Stranger Things Season 2 or Starbucks.

Thanks for all the help guys.

A video posted by Gaten Matarazzo (@gatenm123) on Aug 31, 2016 at 5:34am PDT

In an interview with EW, the creators of the show, the Duffer Brothers, promise that your favourite kids from Hawkins, Indiana will be back. And they'll be joined by four new characters who expand the Stranger Things world beyond the small town setting. One caveat, though: Eleven's return "is up in the air," according to the brothers.

The Duffers cited director James Cameron as a big inspiration for this sequel.

“I know movie sequels get a lot of shit, but the ones we look up to aspire to pivot and do something different,” Matt Duffer said, noting Cameron has made a lot of good ones: Aliens, Terminator 2. "I think one of the reasons his sequels are as successful as they are is he makes them feel very different without losing what we loved about the original. So I think we kinda looked to him and what he does and tried to capture a little bit of the magic of his work."

But what about Barb? Well, the Duffer Brothers had nothing to say about her, but did say we will be returning to the Upside Down in season 2, which could be a sign that Barb will get some justice.

Unsurprisingly, news of the show's renewal immediately took Twitter by storm, with many fans tweeting their excitement. So. Many. GIFs.

Others had some suggestions for the creators. "I hope the Duffer Brothers just ignore the internet while planning Stranger Things 2," one fan tweeted. "Because the last thing the show needs is fan service."

Me after knowing that stranger things season 2 has been confirmed for 2017 pic.twitter.com/UACxn0Gq7n

— ☾b (@escapingcalum) August 31, 2016

You know it's going to be a good day when you wake up to the news of #StrangerThings getting renewed! pic.twitter.com/WvoDmo8aHM

— Nick Vargas (@NickHgMn96) August 31, 2016

WHEN U HEAR THERE WILL BE #STRANGERTHINGS SEASON 2 pic.twitter.com/xZHk6Vdftw

— it's pronounced jeff (@thecultureofme) August 31, 2016

I hope the Duffer Brothers just ignore the Internet while planning Stranger Things 2 because the last thing the show needs is fan service.

— Zack Stentz (@MuseZack) August 21, 2016

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Walking into a sun-filled, sparsely decorated West Hollywood hotel room to see Kate Mara so deeply tucked into the corner of a vast sectional that she's practically swallowed by it, it's hard to believe that this is the same woman I watched on the big screen just the night before. I'm talking about the woman who mopped the floor, both verbally and physically, with her co-stars in the sci-fi thriller Morgan. Now, the toughest thing about her seems to be a newly bleached bob and heavy black eyeliner.

“I surprised myself sometimes,” the 33-year-old Emmy nominee admits over the course of her sit-down with Refinery29. “This is the most physically demanding role I’ve ever done. There was lots of training, before and during the shoot, and I did almost every one of my own stunts…in heels.

One pair of which, as it turns out, she unapologetically smuggled from the set to remember all the blood, sweat, and tears she shed to play a cold corporate troubleshooter, sent to a remote research facility to determine the future of an AI project after a violent incident occurs on company time. It is a long overdue leading-lady part for the House of Cards, American Horror Story, and Fantastic Four alum, and she’s hopeful it will be the first of many — and she doesn’t mind saying so. This is, after all, why she skipped college and moved West those many years ago.

You worked with Ridley Scott on The Martian. Is that how you connected with his son, Luke Scott, the director on Morgan?

"I don't know how they thought of me for it. It's quite possible, but I was shooting The Martian when Ridley and his producing partner approached me about the script and said that they thought that I would be great in it and that I would love it. So I read it while we were shooting The Martian, and they were right. Conveniently, Luke was working on the second unit there, and he and I, we had a day of — not even a day, like a scene — to shoot together. So I got a taste."

How would you describe Morgan to people? What’s it about and why should they see it?

"Well, from my character Lee Weathers' point of view, anyway, it's about a risk-management consultant who's hired to assess whether or not this artificial being named Morgan is too dangerous to keep alive, and whether it and the project should be terminated after it attacks one of the researchers. It's science-fiction, and a thriller and an action movie. It addresses the big questions, morally speaking, when it comes to artificial intelligence. It's definitely a cautionary tale, because things don't end well for a lot of people."

When I first read that you were playing a risk-assessor, I thought that sounded like a potential snoozefest. But it most certainly is not. Can you talk about your character and why playing Lee Weathers appealed to you?

"I can see that. Even [the other characters] called her 'the suit,' and the company was always 'corporate.' They definitely don’t want her to be there. And while she certainly wears a suit, she is also a highly trained expert in a lot of different areas, physically and mentally speaking. And she carried a gun. So to me, as an actor, that's fun because you do get to explore those things."

She is such a beast, kicking ass and taking names in heels. There are a lot of brutal fight scenes. How did you train for that? Was it more than you usually do to prepare for a shoot?

"There was a lot of physical training for me and Anya [Taylor-Joy, who plays Morgan] before the shoot. Luke is a boxer, and [it's] sort of his life. I'm pretty sure he considers it a hobby, but he's very passionate about it. He suggested that I take up boxing for this character, to get into that athlete mentality. And then he also wanted me to be able to do ballet and Pilates. It was to balance the sort of feminine and masculine sides of the character. Then, when we went to Ireland, we were trained with weapons. We drag raced at one point, because I have to be able to drive really well for a chase scene. And then there were weeks of stunt training as well. So it was more prep than I've ever had to do for a role."

In the past year, I have worked with two female directors. I've been acting for more than half my life and I've only worked with one other. So two in the past year is a fucking massive deal.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Bumps and bruises? Anything more serious?

"There was nothing serious luckily, but yeah, Anya and I — and our stunt girls — would all get together at the end of every day and compare bruises. But we got lucky we didn't get injured [even though] we did do everything. We did all the stunts, except for flying out of a window from the second floor. It was challenging and so much fun. We were really happy to get the chance to do that."

Have you kept up any of it?

"Yeah, but not drag racing. Drag racing wasn't my favourite thing. I do still box, just for fun. And yeah, the Pilates. I took private classes from a Pilates/ballet instructor who is this amazing ballerina. And it's the hardest workout I've ever done, and I still do it. Any time I'm in L.A., I drag myself to see her, and she makes me cry almost every time."

Morgan shot in Northern Ireland, and the scenery is beautiful. Did you have much of a chance to explore the country? Do you have a favourite part or any recommendations?

"We all stayed in Belfast. We were working six-day weeks most of the time, so we had only one day a week off. Doing that — especially with the physical stuff — I would sleep on my day off. But we did, as a cast, go on this weird ghost tour at night, and it was really fun. We all took it very seriously. It was in the middle of the night, but it really wasn't that creepy. It was just like a weird thing we all did together to bond."

I know you mentioned that you often kept yourself isolated from the group most of the time.

"I chose when those moments [to hang out with the cast] were for me, depending on what I was shooting the next day. I'm not always that crazy [about staying in character], but for this specifically, because she is not supposed to be liked by the researchers, it just kind of helped. It helped become adversaries."

Lee is intense and ambitious. Zoe Barnes, your character on House of Cards, was both as well. Do you see that in yourself?

"I definitely am ambitious, for sure. I guess that I related to that aspect of Zoe when I was in House of Cards. But this character is certainly very different than I am. You don't always connect to every character that you play. Sometimes it's more interesting to me to play somebody that I'm like, 'Oh, I don't get it. I don’t get her.' It's enjoyable for me to play those kinds of characters, because I also just love those kinds of movies. I like high-tension dramas and thrillers."

You have been in the business a long time now, foregoing college and moving from New York to pursue your Hollywood dreams at 19. In the last couple of years, a lot of actresses have spoken out about unequal pay and finding themselves in sexist situations at work. Have you ever had a bad experience over the course of your career?

"Nothing that I can really think of. I don't really have anything necessarily that I could share specific to that, but I feel lucky to be able to say that. I'm aware of all these things that have happened to other actresses, and they are certainly not okay, and the unequal pay thing is wrong. I'm sure little things have happened to me that I just can't think of right now or that I was not made aware of."

There is also the question of ageism. You’re only 33 now and getting a ton of work, but do you worry parts will dry up, or have you seen improvement? Do you feel pressure to stay skinny and young-looking or do you welcome getting older?

"I wasn't brought up to be concerned with that. Like my mom never made a big deal about getting older. She still doesn't, and my grandma never did. I have a huge family, and the women in my family have never put a great deal of energy into that in a negative way. So even though I'm in this industry where that is a huge part of the discussion, and ageing is seen as a negative, ageing, to me, so far, hasn't been a scary thing. I do find it interesting that people never lie about their age in the opposite way. They never say they're older than they are. It's always the opposite.

"I get excited about getting older because the women that I look up to typically are much older than me and doing much more interesting things than I'm doing. And yeah, I know younger women that are amazing as well. To me, it's just something that I look forward to. But I do think a lot of that has to do with my upbringing, so I know I'm lucky in that sense. I also just try not to focus on it, because it's just fear. And I don't know when fear really helps anybody succeed. So I'm trying to keep a check on that because I know that it is a big deal in our industry."

Maybe it helps that women are making some strides in creating the work behind the scenes as well. I know you just announced that you plan to produce your first film — a drama about the death penalty with Ellen Page called Mercy.

"I have to say in the past year, I have worked with two female directors. I've been acting for more than half my life and I've only worked with one other. So two in the past year is a fucking massive deal. So it has to be getting better unless that's just a coincidence, which I just don't think it is. I'm planning on working with another female director in this next year. I think that it's rare, but maybe, hopefully, it's becoming more normal."

This summer, we're celebrating the biggest movie season of the year with a new series called Blockbust-HER . We'll be looking at everything film-related from the female perspective, interviewing major players in the industry and discussing where Hollywood is doing right by women and where (all too often) it is failing them. And now...let's go to the movies!

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