Facebook Weekly Roundup: December 26 – January 4th

Check out some of our Facebook coverage highlights from the holidays and the beginning of 2013:-The 113th Congress, officially sworn in January 3rd, is the most diverse in American history – including a record-breaking number of women. (The Daily Beast)

-For the first time since 1994, the Violence Against Women Act was not renewed. House Republicans blocked the renewal in opposition to extending coverage to 30 million more women, largely immigrants, LGBT women, and Native Americans. (The Maddow Blog)

-Zooey Deschanel proudly flaunts her feminism in Glamour Magazine, responding to a question about kids by stating, “That is so personal, and it’s my pet peeve when people press you on it. And it’s always women who get asked! Is anybody saying that to George Clooney?” (NYmag)

-The New York Times comments on the prevalence of gender-based toy marketing, arguing that “If toys were marketed solely according to racial and ethnic stereotypes, customers would be outraged. Yet every day, people encounter toy departments that are rigidly segregated — not by race, but by gender.”

Time ponders about the lack of women in Tolkien’s world or the film adaptation of The Hobbit, which spent three weeks as No. 1 in the box office.