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1. �It can be difficult to be someone so famous�and so famously beautiful�and not feel the pressure of the sediment of time, to not be trapped in the amber of cultural memory,� wrote Carl Swanson in his cover story on the legendary Joni Mitchell (�Joni Mitchell, Unyielding,� February 9�22). Commenters were pleased to see an older woman presented as a fashion icon. �She looks like a puff of smoke pushing a wall to the left,� wrote Gawker’s Dayna Evans. �What is behind the wall that she pushes away? The idea that women of any age should not be considered venerable or powerful just because she has a dip in her chin or a crease in her neck.� �Many could argue that Mitchell has served as an inspiration both musically and sartorially for decades,� wrote Huffington Post’s Jamie Feldman, and yet, �an influx of older women, curvy women, and women who simply aren’t considered �models’ are truly having a moment.� Mitchell stirred some more-negative sentiments for her assertion that she �feels an affinity [with African-Americans] because I have experienced being a black guy on several occasions,� including, she explained, when she dressed in blackface for her 1977 album cover. �So this crazy woman believes she knows what it’s like to be a black man because she wore blackface for an album cover?� wrote Ebony’s Michael Arceneaux. �So does your Aunt Cookie know what it’s like to be a panda bear because she bought a rug on sale at the flea market two decades ago?� �With genius,� tweeted Ashley Clark in response, �comes superbly tone-deaf silliness.� �Incidentally,� wrote Junkee’s Meg Watson, �elsewhere in the interview she makes a point of talking about her sensitivity towards race. Her father’s prejudice against �Indians’ in particular is something she’s actively fought against over the years.� Many commenters, however, felt that there was beauty in Mitchell’s rough edges, both in her interview and in her portrait. �You may not agree with her points of view,� wrote Bustle’s Olivia Muenter, �but something about the �rawness and candidness of the entire �feature is encouraging. Mitchell is the ultimate anti-covergirl, and is a testament to the beauty of being yourself.�
2. One particular aspect of Charly �Wilder’s profile of Odin Biron, who plays an American doctor named Phil Richards on the Russian television drama Interns, stirred the passions of readers and Russian television viewers: that Russia’s favorite American actor came out as gay in our story �(�Russia’s Hottest American,� �February 9�22). Biron’s co-star Ivan Okhlobystin, Bykov on the show, was among those who responded with vitriol: �Bykov will never know that Phil is a pervert,� he wrote, �but Okhlobystin, when he learned that his friend Odin is a sodomite, banged his head against the wall and cursed fate.� Many Russian commenters were supportive and encouraging. �Odin Biron is gay!!!!!,� tweeted Prinz von Denmark. �Yeeesss!!!! I knew it, I knew it!!!!!!!� �I’m proud of him.� tweeted Moringotto. Biron himself spoke out to give thanks to his supporters. �I have always firmly believed that the work of an artist is to remind us of our common humanity,� he said. �Now I appeal to the good conscience of the Russian people, and I can only hope that friendship in Russia is stronger than hate and fear. �
3. �If society expects parents to work,� wrote Jonathan Chait, �it ought to make it possible to do so while raising children� (�The Democrats’ Next Big Thing,� February 9�22). The column sparked an argument on the importance of stay-at-home parenting. �If parenthood is reduced to just spurting out an offspring and then handing it over to the government to be raised, it kills the whole point of it,� wrote commenter matt1605. �Why have a child if you can’t enjoy him or her?� �This is conflating causation with correlation,� responded dsimon. �Isn’t it possible, if not likely, that we live in an age where both parents want and expect to have fulfilling work and careers? If so, then the phenomenon of fewer kids is a product of this expectation, and the provision of early child-care services is helping to �induce more adults to have children than they otherwise would.�