It's all too easy to deride celebrities as just being a bunch of spoilt, overgrown children. I mean, look at them with their fancy dresses, infeasibly good looking partners and their desire to change the world via so-called "philanthropy" work. And then, one of them comes along and does something so mindbogglingly amazing, that you're forced to sit back and concede that maybe they can save the world after all.
A video has been released on Youtube showing her breastfeeding a hungry African child whose mother had stopped producing milk. Hayek was in Sierra Leone as part of a project helping to fight the spread of Tetanus. The country has the highest infant mortality rate in the world, in part fuelled by malnutrition, but also because of social stigma. Many Sierra Leone women stop breastfeeding their infants within the first few months after birth because of pressure from their husbands. Tradition has it, in some areas, that it is not acceptable to have sexual relations with breast feeding women.
According to ABC.com; "Hayek said her decision to breastfeed another woman's child was an attempt to diminish the stigma placed on women for breast feeding. At the time she was still breastfeeding her 1-year-old daughter...am I being disloyal to my child by giving her milk away?" Hayek said. "I actually think my baby would be very proud to share her milk. And when she grows up I'm going to make sure she continues to be a generous, caring person."
Naturally, Hayek's actions have raised eyebrows across the world. But, it is fantastic to see a woman not being ashamed to breastfeed not just her own child, but a child she saw who was seriously in need. With women across the world increasingly being stigmatised for choosing to breastfeed in public, there's something both refreshing and deeply empowering about seeing a woman choosing to use her body in a powerful and positive way.
More News after the jump...
In other news, it appears that the people behind Jerry Springer, the Opera will be turning another bastion of high culture into a piece of thought provoking lyric theatre. According to today's Guardian, one of the most celebrated names of British contemporary music, Mark-Anthony Turnage, is writing the story of Anna Nicole Smith as an opera, to be staged at Covent Garden in 2011.
"It is not going to be a horrible, sleazy evening," Elaine Padmore, Covent Garden's director of opera said. "It is not going to be tawdry; it is going to be witty, clever, thoughtful and sad."
The life of Anna Nicole Smith did always appear to be teetering on the verge of being some kind of Greek tragedy, so lets hope that that this opera does her justice, instead of just comprising of a screaming woman with false tits, and a chorus made up of old men in wheelchairs.
From tragic heroine to comic book heroine, DC Comics have announced that they will be launching a comic this year detailing the adventures of lesbian superhero Batwoman. Described by DC as being "the kind of sexy that makes you think of a succubus with a very bad attitude," the news represents a cultural landmark for the Gay and Lesbian community who have welcomed the heir to the recently deceased Batman's crown with open arms.
And finally-have you embraced the world of Spotify yet Dollymixers? For those of you who have absolutely no idea what I'm quacking on about, Spotify is an online jukebox which allows you to choose tracks to form your own radio station. You can fill playlists with songs of your choosing or create "collaborative" playlists which have their own web address so you can be pass it around and let your friends add their own musical choices.
After being invite only for a few months, the service has now thrown its doors open and is now fully available to UK users. Spotify isn't perfect. It has fallen foul on online music licensing laws meaning that it has shrunk by a few thousand songs over the past few weeks. However, it is still pretty amazing, and anything has to be better than paying over the odds for DRM encoded songs from itunes.
Seeing as tomorrow will be my last day at Dollymix *sniff! sob!* I'll be uploading a link to my own collaborative playlist in tomorrow's news. Therefore, if you haven't already, get Spotify downloaded so we can all join in the fun!