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For speaking out against domestic violence in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“There isn’t a woman in the world that doesn’t have a friend or a partner who’s actually experiencing some sort of violence against them, so I think although domestic violence hasn’t happened to me personally, I certainly know women who are dealing with this struggle every day.”

Reese Witherspoon celebrated Women's Month at the UN yesterday and helped launch an international campaign to end violence against women. She teamed up with Avon (she's their global ambassador) and UNIFEM and showed off the new "women's empowerment bracelet." (Will it have the same powers as Wonder Woman's bracelets?) 100% of the profits will go towards ending violence against women. Why can't we just give our money, why do we need jewelry to make us feel good about giving to such an important cause?

Full story: Witherspoon pitches fund to combat violence against women (AFP)

On vacation I read that Reese Witherspoon will be speaking at UNIFEM's Global Summit for a Better Tomorrow next month to coincide with International Women's Month. She is also acting as Avon's Global Ambassador and will be talking about many issues affecting women including domestic violence in this role.

Penelope, the film she produced through her Type A Films company finally opens opens on February 29th. (I will see it next week). If I was more conspiratorially minded I would think that the folks in Hollywood really want women's films not to succeed because for some bizarre reason Penelope is opening on the same day as The Other Boleyn Girl. (This also happened last month with Mad Money and 27 Dresses.) So there has basically been no movies targeted at women all month and now at the end of the month there are two. What's up with that?

Here is a great exchange from Reese about Penelope from the February issue of Marie Claire:

MC: What drew you most to the zany story of Penelope?

Reese Witherspoon: The ability of this young woman to supersede social expectations of what she should look like and learn to love herself for who she is- including her pig nose. This is a film that lets people know it's ok to be unique. It's ok to be different- it's actually better! I felt I could really speak to people, particularly young women, about self-acceptance.