WOMEN

OneStopPlus.com’s® New Survey Reveals that Women Think Curvier Celebrities are Sexiest

Plus-Size Brand Receives Insight From Over 10,000 Women Regarding Celebrities and Fashion

New York, NY (November 7, 2011) – OneStopPlus.com®, a division of Redcats USA and the world’s first and only web-mall for plus-size women and big & tall men, reveals that women think curvier celebrities are sexiest and have the best fashion sense. The site polled over 10,000 women via an interactive survey which asked fashion and body image questions about celebrities of all shapes and sizes including: Katie Holmes, Kim Kardashian, Blake Lively, Christina Hendricks, Beyonce Knowles, Marilyn Monroe, Sofia Vergara and Gwyneth Paltrow.

The majority of women polled indicated their belief that Marilyn Monroe was the sexiest celebrity and wished that they had her body.  In these two categories, she was followed closely by curvier counterparts, Beyonce Knowles, Sofia Vergara and Kim Kardashian.

Stephanie Sobel, President of OneStopPlus.com Group, says, “We are excited about this survey as it endorses the beauty of all women and confirms that beautiful and fashionable women come in all sizes.”

Launched in 2007, OneStopPlus.com® has created a thriving marketplace business model that features well-known proprietary brands, as well as external brands. So far in 2011, OneStopPlus.com® has amassed many external partners to its website, sending a powerful message about its ability to provide its customer with an escalating variety of styles and fashions at a great value. As a major-player at the forefront of plus-size fashion and innovation, the site demonstrates that it is a pioneer in the ever-changing fashion industry, proving that women who are plus-size can also experience the most advanced, high-fashion lifestyle.

With access to today’s leading plus-size brands including: Woman Within, Roaman’s, Jessica London, Avenue and European brands like Ellos and Taillissime, OneStopPlus.com offers its customers the same fashionable styles as their size 2 counterparts.

For more information, please visit: http://www.onestopplus.com/, our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter @onestopplus.  For media inquiries, please contact: 5W Public Relations.

About Redcats USA

Redcats USA is a dynamic, multi-channel, web-driven home-shopping leader, with numerous successful brands in its portfolio: AVENUE^®, Woman Within^®, Jessica London^®, Roaman’s^®, KingSize^®, and BrylaneHome^® sold on OneStopPlus.com^®, The Sportsman’s Guide^® and TGW.com – The Golf Warehouse^®. Redcats USA offers a wide range of value and quality driven merchandise categories, including men’s and women’s plus-size apparel, home and lifestyle products, and sporting goods/outdoor gear.  Redcats USA is a Redcats company.

About Redcats

Redcats is a leading worldwide online retailer for fashion and home furnishings. The group gathers 17 European and US based brands in 31 countries: Avenue®, Woman Within®, Jessica London®, Roaman’s®, KingSize®, BrylaneHome®, OneStopPlus.com®, The Sportsman’s Guide®, TGW.com – The Golf Warehouse®, Ellos, La Redoute, Vertbaudet, Cyrillus, Somewhere, Daxon, Stella McCartney Kids and Castaluna. In 2010, Redcats generated 3.436 billion euros of sales including 54% on Internet and employs over 14,000 associates. Redcats distribution network combines more than 70 e-commerce sites, nearly 600 stores and around 30 catalogues for 26 million active customers. Redcats is a PPR Company. For any further information: www.redcats.com

Media Contacts:

5W Public Relations

Chloe Gallo / Jocelyn Kahn

cgallo@5wpr.com / jkahn@5wpr.com

212-999-5585

Hands on the Freedom Plow:  Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC

An unprecedented women’s history of the Civil Rights Movement, from sit-ins to Black Power

In Hands on the Freedom Plow, fifty-two women–northern and southern, young and old, urban and rural, black, white, and Latina–share their courageous personal stories of working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement.

The testimonies gathered here present a sweeping personal history of SNCC: early sit-ins, voter registration campaigns, and Freedom Rides; the 1963 March on Washington, the Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the movements in Alabama and Maryland; and Black Power and antiwar activism. Since the women spent time in the Deep South, many also describe risking their lives through beatings and arrests and witnessing unspeakable violence. These intense stories depict women, many very young, dealing with extreme fear and finding the remarkablestrength to survive.

The women in SNCC acquired new skills, experienced personal growth, sustained one another, and even had fun in the midst of serious struggle. Readers are privy to their analyses of the Movement, its tactics, strategies, and underlying philosophies. The contributors revisit central debates of the struggle including the role of nonviolence and self-defense, the role of white people in a black-led movement, and the role of women within the Movement and the society at large.

Each story reveals how the struggle for social change was formed, supported, and maintained by the women who kept their “hands on the freedom plow.” As the editors write in the introduction, “Though the voices are different, they all tell the same story–of women bursting out of constraints, leaving school, leaving their hometowns, meeting new people, talking into the night, laughing, going to jail, being afraid, teaching in Freedom Schools, working in the field, dancing at the Elks Hall, working the WATS line to relay horror story after horror story, telling the press, telling the story, telling the word. And making a difference in this world.”

“This amazing book rethreads the needle of memory with a stronger cord woven of the testimonies of sisters who never gave up or in. Its gifts are immeasurable as a historical document and a blueprint for ongoing national and international struggles for human rights. We must take our cue from the lessons they teach and tighten our grip on freedom’s plow, pushing on, regardless.”–Darlene Clark Hine, coauthor of The African American Odyssey

“The testimonies of these remarkable women are an indispensable part of the history of the southern movement against racial segregation. They enable us to see the Movement up close through essays that are intensely personal, and at the same time they thoughtfully illuminate the larger struggle for justice.”–Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present

“Hats off to the Hands On sisters! Each story is a treasure, each woman a measure of the Civil Rights Movement’s strength. An overdue and indispensable contribution to the Movement’s historiography.”–Julian Bond, Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP Board of Directors

“This is a splendid, spectacular, stirring book. At last the long-marginalized women of SNCC tell their galvanizing, enspiriting stories in their own words. Everyone concerned about women’s rights, human rights, and the future will want to get, give, or assign this fabulous collection.”–Blanche Wiesen Cook, University Distinguished Professor, John Jay College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, and author of Eleanor Roosevelt, Volumes 1-3

“An extraordinary contribution to historical understanding of the Civil Rights Movement, this work illuminates the ground swell that was SNCC. It’s a complex story, well told by the participants, whose real voices bestow this collection with remarkable authority. These gripping narratives by tough, resilient women, these tales of courage, perseverance, hope, and dedication to a cause, portray an amazing time in America.”–Orville Vernon Burton, author of The Age of Lincoln

“This marvelously broad and deep collection of SNCC women’s voices gives the reader a rare insight into the trials and triumphs of the black freedom struggle of the 1960s. These stories related by women at the center of the struggle are simultaneously simple and complex, diverse and united. At the same time, as they relate their own personal struggles for freedom, their voices are punctuated by passion and pain, and frustration and determination.”–Cynthia Griggs Fleming, author of Yes We Did? From King’s Dream to Obama’s Promise

“Hands on the Freedom Plow is, quite simply, a stunning collection. These stories of courage, hope, and, yes, conflict, will inspire all Americans who believe in the possibilities of democracy. This volume belongs on that short shelf of books on the Movement that must be read.”–John Dittmer, author of Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi

“This collection provides the texture and tone of that eclectic group of women who joined together in common cause, still debating and disagreeing along the way, but united by overlapping values, newfound courage, and the ambitious dream of changing the political face of the nation, which, in large part, they did. A treasure trove of stories and reflections by an amazing group of women activists.”–Barbara Ransby, author of Ella Baker and the Black Radical Tradition: A Radical Democratic Vision

“These women’s lives, spent in the freedom struggle, call to us. Their political insight and creativity make them American heroines; their strategic vision allows them to point a better way forward for all, worldwide, who aspire to equality and democracy.”–Wesley C. Hogan, author of Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC’s Dream for a New America

“A remarkable achievement, sweeping in scope, rich with detail, and infinitely readable. Without question, this is the new starting point for learning about the central role that SNCC, and women, played in the African American freedom struggle.”–Hasan Kwame Jeffries, author of Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt

Faith S. Holsaert, Durham, North Carolina, teacher and fiction writer, has remained active in lesbian and women’s, antiwar, and justice struggles. Martha Prescod Norman Noonan, community organizer, activist, homemaker, and teacher of history including the Civil Rights Movement, lives near Baltimore. Filmmaker and Movement lecturer Judy Richardson’s projects include the PBS documentary series Eyes on the Prize and other historical documentaries. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Betty Garman Robinson, a community organizer, lives in Baltimore and is active in the reemerging grassroots social justice movement. Jean Smith Young is a child psychiatrist who works with community mental health programs in the Washington, D.C., area. New York City consultant Dorothy M. Zellner wrote and edited for the Center for Constitutional Rights and CUNY Law School. All of the editors worked for SNCC.

The Little Black Book Of Success:  Laws Of Leadership For Black Women

Nearly 40 percent of black women report that they don’t have other black women who can serve as role models, and there have been no books that specifically focus on black women and leadership—until now.  Black women in today’s workforce face unique challenges as they seek to advance their careers.  Performing as well as their colleagues is not enough to win leadership positions; they also need a special brand of strength and confidence to rise above the double burden of racism and sexism and tap into their true leadership potential.  But where can they turn for advice? 

With THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF SUCCESS: Laws of Leadership for Black Women (A One World Hardcover; March 2, 2010)—an engaging and invaluable resource guide for black women at any stage of their professional lives—Elaine Meryl Brown, Marsha Haygood, and Rhonda Joy McLean have pooled almost 100 years of collective wisdom and leadership experience to create the guide they wished they had along their own remarkable career paths.

What these dynamic, successful black female executives show is that the building blocks for success are often right below the surface.  As they point out, “although they’re able to get jobs, many of today’s young black women don’t realize they have the potential to move themselves forward.  Many black women hold leadership roles in their communities, schools, and churches, but aren’t aware that they can transfer skills from those leadership positions to the workplace.  Research indicates that their talents often remain invisible both to the women who possess them and their business managers.  But leadership can be taught.”

With THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF SUCCESS, you will learn how to:

• Use your duality to build strength—turn the lessons learned from the double burden of racism and sexism to your advantage

• Distinguish between “church values” and “business values”—adapt your spiritual values to business ethics without selling your soul

• Consider yourself a VIP—cultivate high self-esteem and self-leadership to maximize your potential

• Stay Positive—use your well-honed tools of affirmation to change the way you think and to develop a leader’s mental attitude

• Control and learn from your emotions—don’t let others get in the way of what you want

• Communicate like a leader—develop critical superb verbal and written communication skills

• Use the “N” word: Networking—and be sure to network outside your comfort zone

• Reach back and bring others along—when given the chance, offer a helping hand

Some leaders are born, but most leaders are made—and THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF SUCCESS will help black women at all professional levels realize their leadership potential, whether their goal is a promotion or a seat at the table in the C-suite.  Let’s talk soon about THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK.

Elaine Meryl Brown, former VP, Special Markets and Cinemax Group at HBO, is an Emmy® Award-winning writer and producer who has won numerous awards in the broadcast industry.  In 2007, Brown was chosen as one of The Network Journal’s “25 Influential Black Women in Business.” A favorite of Black Enterprise, she was featured in the magazine and at their Women of Power Summit. A Wheaton College Alumni Trustee and member of the Coalition of 100 Black Women (Bergen/Passaic Chapter), Brown is also the author of two novels published by One World.  She lives in New Jersey.

Marsha Haygood is a powerful motivational speaker and a dynamic career and personal coach.  She is the founder of StepWise Associates, LLC, a career and personal development consultancy that represents the culmination of her 25+ years experience in human resources.  She was the EVP of Human Resources and Administration at New Line Cinema and at Orion Pictures, among other companies.  Haygood has won numerous awards including the YMCA Black Achievement Award and the National Association of African Americans in Human Resources Trailblazer Award. In 2005, Haygood was chosen as one of The Network Journal’s “25 Influential Black Women in Business.” She and her husband live in New York and Florida.

Rhonda Joy McLean is Deputy General Counsel of Time Inc. and former Assistant Regional Director of the Northeast Region of the Federal Trade Commission. A graduate of Yale Law School, she served as chair of its alumni association, which has more than 10,000 members, and was recently elected to its fund board of directors.  In 2007, McLean was chosen as one of The Network Journal’s “25 Influential Black Women in Business.” Born in Chicago, IL and reared in Smithfield, NC, McLean is a classically trained pianist and mezzo-soprano.  She performs sacred music with chorales throughout the New York metropolitan area, where she resides.

Visit the book’s official web site at and social networking sites below:

• Web:  www.littleblackbookofsuccess.com
• Facebook: thelittleblackbookofsuccess.com
• Twitter: @blkbooksuccess

 

 

Cover Girls

By Terrance Dean Author, Hiding In Hip Hop – On The Down Low in the Entertainment Industry from Music to Hollywood (Atria/Simon & Schuster)

In my book, Hiding In Hip Hop, I talk about something that has been well-known in the industry, COVER GIRLS! You may refer to them as ‘beards,’ but I like to call them COVER GIRLS. Why? Because these women know the role they have to play in being with a down low celebrity in the entertainment business.

You’ve seen or heard of them. They are beautiful, curvaceous, and drop-dead gorgeous. They tend to be former models – print, runway, and lingerie. They can put any woman to shame. And they serve as the perfect cover for a man who is living a double life.

I know because when I worked at MTV in Production Events I often got e-mails and calls from publicists looking to set-up their female clients as dates and arm candy for a male celebrity attending many of our red carpet events. Or, I would get the lists and read the names of the women who were serving as dates for a male celebrity. When I saw the men they were to sashay down the red carpet with, I knew they were COVER GIRLS.

These women know their role. They are to be flirtatious, attentive, and caring to the man they are with. They are to pose seductively next to their down low man. All to give the illusion that the man is somehow a player, a ladies man. It’s to help dispel any rumors about his sexuality, or prevent any from starting.

When I used to live in LA I met many COVER GIRLS. Then I was introduced to many of them who served as girlfriends to rap’s elite. Some COVER GIRLS have been able to parlay their relationships with high profile celebrities into marriages.

I mention COVER GIRLS and the entertainment industry because so many women today are COVER GIRLS and do not even know it. They are in relationships with men who they think are committed to them. These men are deceivers and liars and many women fall for it. They are victims of men who will do anything to keep their cover.

As you are reading your favorite magazine, watching your favorite entertainment news program, or visiting blogs, keep in mind that ninety percent of what you read and see is false. Only ten percent has some truth. The entertainment machine is big, vast, and all about illusions. It’s all about making people believe something that isn’t true. That’s why in my book, Hiding In Hip Hop, I mention Hollywood is all about illusions. You can be anything or anybody you want. And it’s the job of the people who work in this business to make sure you believe that.

In the words of Public Enemy, Don’t Believe The Hype.

www.terrancedean.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/hidinginhiphop

Sexual Identifiers: Down Low Behaviors

By Terrance Dean

Hiding In Hip Hop – On The Down Low in the Entertainment Industry from Music to Hollywood (Atria/Simon & Schuster) May 2008 – $23.00

Man, I swear that nearly every woman has lost her mind after J.L. King’s book, On The Down Low, dropped a few years ago. It sparked a controversy within the black community, and scared the hell out of black women. And for good reason.

But, down low behavior, is nothing new to the gay community. It was and is something we have always been familiar with – men who sleep with men but have wives and girlfriends.

In actuality I have always slept with other men who had wives or girlfriends. Even when I had girlfriends I had sex with men on the side. Yup, I was confused about my sexuality. Yup, it was wrong to be in relationships with women and not tell them about my sexuality. I struggled to be in a monogamous relationship with a woman. I did have a few serious one-on-one relationships with women hoping that it was my cure, my way of leaving the down low life. I actually write about it in my book, Hiding In Hip Hop (Atria/Simon & Schuster), May 2008.

However, I grew up in the black church and I was forced into learning that homosexuality is a sin. I tried to repress my sexual urges for men, but the more I prayed and denied myself, the more I yearned for the touch and feel of a man. And while the minister yelled and screamed from the pulpit about the sins of man, somehow the act of homosexuality was far much worse than any other sin. I would find out years later, as an adult, that no one sin is greater than the other.

I’ve also learned that there are many more down low men than I knew. I thought I was in a bubble, along with the men I was sleeping with. It was just us, no other men like us, but then an explosion happened and the cover was blown. Down low men were everywhere.

Women often ask me if there is some look, sign, or dress that down low men share to identify one another. Unfortunately, there is not. There is no secret code or word. There is nothing that I can pinpoint as a significant indicator of how down low men identify one another.

However, I can share that there are some things women can do to be aware and conscious of a man they feel is sleeping with another man.

First, down low men are very good deceivers. Better yet, they are exceptional liars. Down low men know what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. They can string a woman along and make her feel like she is a queen. But, if you are smart and savvy, you can spot and see through the lies and deception. For example, if your man begins to introduce you to a slew of men, none of whom you never met before, and these new “buddies” never seem to be around after two or three months, then you should start to question these relationships. Ask your man what happened to your man’s new friends and why they never come around. You have a right to raise questions.

Second, a down low man has multiple e-mail accounts, possibly a secondary cell phone, and knows your schedule like clockwork. I’ve been with men who tell me, “My girl is going to be at work this weekend. Let’s hook-up then.” I’ve also been with these men when their woman has called. “Hey baby,” he says. “Yeah, I’m just chilling right now.” I am sitting right next to him while she thinks her man is at home alone.

Ladies, I am not a fan of snooping around, but you have a right to investigate if you suspect him of dipping out on you. When you log onto the computer and you see several different screen names, he’s hiding something from you. If you notice a second cell phone and you don’t have the number for it, he is definitely hiding something from you. But, most importantly, if your gut instincts tell you something is not right, then it probably isn’t. If you accuse him of cheating and sleeping with another man, he will deny it. Trust me, a down low man will never admit to sleeping with another man, especially to his woman. You will have to catch him in the act, and it won’t be easy.

Third, when your man introduces new sexual positions, especially anal sex, and him wanting to have fingers or a dildo inserted inside him, don’t be afraid to ask where he learned or saw this. I am sure he did not wake up one day and decide he wanted to try this. He has been doing this before and, sure, he may be a freak, and into all sorts of kinky things, but you should question these behaviors. Again, this is something I wrote about in my book, Hiding In Hip Hop. Don’t do something you are uncomfortable doing, especially if you have concerns about his sexuality. Your love for him is not based on the type of sex you are willing or not willing to engage in. Love and protect yourself. It’s your body, and your life.

Last, don’t be afraid to speak up and say something. You are more important than you care to think. Having a man in your life is great, but if you have questions, and speculations about his sexuality, new friends, and suspicious lifestyle, then you deserve it to yourself to be careful. Love life and, more importantly, love yourself.

This has been a Terrance Dean advisory for the love and safety of women.

Terrance Dean is the author of Hiding In Hip Hop – On The Down Low in the Entertainment Industry from Music to Hollywood – Atria/Simon & Schuster – May 2008 – $23.00