The fashion designer Norma Kamali, 72, has experienced the ebb and flow of the feminist movement for decades.
“We scream a lot and then we hit a wall and we scream a lot and we hit a wall,” said Kamali in an interview Monday with Cheddar. The only way to avoid repeating that loop: “We have to speak to men.”
Only through dialogue will feminists be able to be turn their activism into real change, she said, adding, “we have to say ‘what are your fears? We don’t want to take your power, we want to share the power with you.'"
Kamali launched the [“Stop Objectification”](http://www.stopobjectification.com/) campaign in 2012 to spur change in the fashion industry, which she said has historically thrived on objectifying women.
In an interview with [Teen Vogue](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/norma-kamali-female-objectification), Kamali said the campaign was in part inspired by her own experience being objectified. During her first job interview, she told the magazine, “the man interviewing me asked me to put my portfolio down and turn around for him."
Last year, news media investigations exposed the inappropriate ー and possibly illegal ー behavior a number of powerful men, including the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. The exposure of such predatory behavior gave rise to the widespread #MeToo movement, in which women shared their stories of harassment as a form of empowerment.
Kamali said that women's stories are helping men and women discuss the issues of gender equality and workplace conduct with a more open mind, doing away with preconceived notions of what a man or a woman should do based on traditional gender roles.
“There isn’t a handbook,” she said. “You don’t have to open a door for women, we’re totally OK with opening the doors ourselves. We want respect and we want to share that respect with men.”
The designer who invented the sleeping bag coat celebrated 50 years in the fashion industry earlier this year. She says [designers of the future](https://cheddar.com/videos/norma-kamali-on-the-future-of-fashion) will stay relevant by adapting to more automated supply chains and finding creative ways to engage with customers.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/norma-kamali-celebrates-50-years-of-fashion-innovation).
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
It’s an annual tradition: the Fed’s banking ‘stress test.’ A year after the regional banking crisis, there are good reasons to make sure they’re prepped.
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While Nvidia's meteoric rise led it to briefly dethrone Microsoft as the world's biggest public company, there's a lot more going on in this market than A.I.
