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Lily Lines: A roundup of our latest coronavirus coverage

Plus, the significance of Harvey Weinstein’s sentence

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March 16, 2020 at 12:11 a.m. EDT

This article is part of the Lily Lines newsletter. You can sign up here to get it delivered twice a week to your inbox.

This week:

The significance of Harvey Weinstein’s sentence, the biggest moment from last night’s debate, and a subscription service perfect for millennials.

Quick hits

Today’s featured news

How to talk to your friends about social distancing

After President Trump declared the coronavirus outbreak a national emergency, schools, public events and businesses shut down across the United States as thousands of new cases were reported. Experts say now is the time to social distance to “flatten the curve” and slow the spread of the virus. Lily staff writer Caroline Kitchener spoke with experts about how to talk to friends about social distancing — from what to say if you find out a friend was out at a bar last night to what to respond when a friend says you’re overreacting.

Read our other content related to the coronavirus, including how to prevent feeling totally isolated in the time of social distancing; 31 women-led TV shows and movies to watch while you’re quarantined; how a daughter is caring for her terminally ill father during the outbreak; and the plight of one woman who couldn’t get a covid-19 test after getting sick after a cruise.

You can follow The Washington Post’s live updates here. To see how outbreaks like the coronavirus spread exponentially, head to The Post’s simulator here.

Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 23 years in prison

In a victory for the #MeToo movement, disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for sexually assaulting two women. Weinstein could have gotten a minimum of five and a maximum of 29 years in prison for forcing oral sex on production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping onetime aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013. Reading an impact statement before Judge James Burke announced the statement, Haleyi said, “I’m relieved that there are women out there who are safer because he’s not out there.” Weinstein still faces charges in Los Angeles for alleged assaults, and the district attorneys there announced that the extradition process has begun.

Writing in The Lily, Amanda Nguyen, the chair executive and founder of Rise, a nonprofit that helped get the Sexual Assault Survivors Bill of Rights signed into law, said the sentencing “sends a message that it is possible for people in positions of power to be held accountable.” However, she writes, there is still much work to be done — the criminal justice system is still “broken” for many victims, particularly women of color and domestic workers.

Women who were tall and lean in childhood likelier to get endometriosis

New research found that girls’ body size may be an indicator of later risk of endometriosis, a painful condition affecting 1 in 10 women in which uterine tissue grows outside the uterus. As the Guardian reports, researchers, analyzing data from more than 170,000 women born in Denmark, found that condition is more common among women who were tall and lean when they were young. This may be due to oestrogen levels, which are associated with both endometriosis and height. The study, published in the Annals of Human Biology, did have limitations, including that most participants were white.

First woman becomes president of U.S. Soccer after week of controversy

Carlos Cordeiro, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, resigned last week after legal filings showed the organization argued that the women players possessed less “skill” and “responsibility” than their male counterparts. Vice President Cindy Parlow Cone will step into the role, becoming the organization’s first female president.

The controversy started earlier in the week, when the legal filings — part of the gender discrimination lawsuit brought by members of the 2019 women’s World Cup team — were released. Responding to those filings, U.S. women’s national team co-captain Megan Rapinoe criticized what she called the “blatant misogyny” of U.S. Soccer.

Stat check

News by the numbers

According to a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, only 14 percent of black Americans approve of Trump. But when broken down by gender, the divide becomes stark. Experts have various ideas as to why this “black gender gap” exists, according to an analysis by Vox, including that black men may find Trump to be an “aspirational” figure and that a gender gap in approval exists across racial categories.

ICYMI

Five need-to-know stories in 100 words or less

1. On Sunday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former vice president Joe Biden faced off in a Democratic debate. Although the coronavirus was a big point of discussion, the two candidates also discussed women’s representation. Biden said that he would definitely choose a woman for his running mate; Sanders, meanwhile, said “in all likelihood” he would choose a woman.

2. Tyler Haney, chief executive of Outdoor Voices, stepped down from her post at the women’s activewear brand last week. That came as nearly 20 current and former employees described the culture at the company as “toxic, destructive, and, at times, abusive,” according to an article from BuzzFeed News.

3. A 22-year-old woman in New York has filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming she was shackled to a hospital bed for hours during labor. She had been arrested on a minor assault charge that was later dismissed, according to the lawsuit.

4. Chelsea Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst who leaked classified documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, was released from jail following an attempted suicide inside jail Wednesday. On Thursday, a judge deemed that her appearance before the grand jury investigating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was unnecessary.

5. Converse announced a new line of genderless clothing called Converse Shapes, which focuses on body type instead of gender. The line features five pieces, including a T-shirt and a sweatshirt, in four sizes.

Comic

A single panel from Pepita Sandwich

Bella and Donna, two fictional characters created by comic artist Pepita Sandwich, are best friends trying to navigate adulthood. This week, they battle their anxiety related to the coronavirus.

A quick Q&A

This week, we hear from actress Diona Reasonover

You may recognize Diona Reasonover from her role as Kasie Hines on CBS’s crime drama “NCIS,” or you can catch her on the big screen in the forthcoming comedy “Film Fest.” Reasonover has also written for various TV shows and is a strong advocate for the LGBTQ community in Hollywood.

On how “NCIS” has helped her confidence in dramatic roles: “I went to school to study drama, basically, and then I was like, ‘I think I want to try this comedy thing out for a little bit.’ And then I did, and I got nervous and was like, ‘What if I’m only good at comedy?’ And now I’m on ‘NCIS.’ So I know I can do both.”

On being a fan of crime shows: “This is bad to say, but ‘Law and Order’ — I don’t know what it is about lesbians, but we just love Detective Benson. I used to binge it for a while. And now I love ‘NCIS,’ and my wife, who started watching it to support me, now considers it ‘her show.’”

How her writing and acting complement each other: “On the writing side, I do try to make sure there’s a readability and a talkability — I guess that’s what I mean. Sometimes things look really good on the page, but when you try to say it, it’s a mess. I can get verbose, so I try to use my acting side to tamp that down a little bit.”

Lily Likes

Things we love but weren’t paid to promote

Billie razor subscription

A couple of weeks ago, my friend told me about something that had been bringing her joy in the past few months: her Billie razor subscription. The way it works, she explained, is that you choose your razor handle, and the company sends replacement razor heads every month — the number of heads corresponds to how often you shave. The packaging is millennial; the concept is cool. I decided to sign up. And now, as we’re all hunkering down in these trying times, it helps to cut out that trip to the drugstore. My neon razor and its first blade came in the mail this week, and it was the little spark of self-care that I needed.

Lena Felton, Lily multiplatform editor

Baiku

[bye-koo] Saying goodbye with a haiku

This newsletter was made while listening to:

“Superpower (feat. Frank Ocean)” by Beyoncé and “Don’t Know How to Keep Loving You” by Julia Jacklin

Listen to everything we’ve recommended here.

P.S. …

A quick, curated list of Team Lily’s go-to content this week

My parents and I both live in coronavirus epicenters — but we’re separated by thousands of miles

Stop believing these myths about women’s brain health

How can I stop stalking people online?