Met Refuses To Bow To Petition Demanding Removal Of Balthus 'Thérèse Dreaming' (1938), Suggesting Dialogue Instead

Met Refuses To Bow To Petition Demanding Removal Of Balthus 'Thérèse Dreaming' (1938), Suggesting Dialogue Instead

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has no intention of removing a painting of a young girl by Balthus, 'Thérèse Dreaming' (1938), that has been targeted by an online petition. 

The petition, launched by New York City resident Mia Merrill, has garnered more than 8,700 signatures in five days. Headlined “Metropolitan Museum of Art: Remove Balthus’s Suggestive Painting of a Pubescent Girl, Thérèse Dreaming", the petition states that the Met should not “proudly display” an image that “romanticizes the sexualization of a child.”

In response to Merrill's accusation that the Met is, perhaps unintentionally, supporting voyeurism and the objectification of children, a spokesman for the Met called the controversy “an opportunity for a conversation” about the “continuing evolution of existing culture.”

“The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s mission is to ‘…collect, study, conserve, and present significant works of art across all times and cultures in order to connect people to creativity, knowledge, and ideas.’ Moments such as this provide an opportunity for conversation, and visual art is one of the most significant means we have for reflecting on both the past and the present, and encouraging the continuing evolution of existing culture through informed discussion and respect for creative expression.”

Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) Retires Under Sexual Harassment Claims, Endorses Son To Continue Political Dynasty

Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) Retires Under Sexual Harassment Claims, Endorses Son To Continue Political Dynasty

Michigan's John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan, civil rights icon, and longest serving member of the US House of Representatives, announced on Tuesday that he will be retiring “today” amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment and a report that he paid more than $27,000 to keep an accuser quiet. 

The effective date is at once and not at the end of Conyers' term. It comes with yet another charge levied against Conyers today. Elisa Grubbs, who said that she worked for Conyers from 2001-13, claims that in addition to his inappropriate conduct with her, she saw him touching and stroking the legs and buttocks of Marion Brown, Grubbs' cousin, and other female employees working for the congressman on "multiple occasions."

“Rep. Conyers slid his hand up my skirt and rubbed my thighs while I was sitting next to him in the front row of a church,” Grubbs said. "When Rep. Conyers would inappropriately touched me like this, my eyes would pop out and I would be stunned in disbelief,” Grubbs wrote in an affidavit posted on Twitter by Brown’s attorney, Lisa Bloom.

NY Mag Takes Another Look At Matt Laurer's Takedown Of Today Show's Ann Curry

NY Mag shares again its 2013 story about Matt Lauer's takedown of 'Today' show cohost Ann Curry.

In the light of day on Dec. 4, the real problem is probably that she wouldn't . . . well, you know . . . make her body his playground. Who knows? Maybe she spoke up to 'papa'. Or maybe women liked Ann Curry more than Lauer. I sure did.

This article, read again against the backdrop of Lauer's outrageous and uneven grillings of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the 2016 election cycle, send the message that strong, competent women go nowhere in Matt Laurer's world. If you didn't kiss Lauer's butt -- LITERALLY -- you're not going anywhere.

How many other Matt Lauers are out there? As painful as these last months have been for women, let's take them the hell down if they fit the Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose, misogynist models. ~ Anne

Related: Revisiting the Bitter Matt Lauer -- Ann Cutty 'Today Show' Drama New York Magazine

Lauer's 'Double Life': Inside NBC, The Network Is Trying To Expunge The Lauer Era Vanity Fair

Uma Thurman Puts Women Photographers Front & Center At 'The Parisian Woman' Premiere

Uma Thurman Puts Women Photographers Front & Center At 'The Parisian Woman' Premiere

Badass goddess Uma Thurman did a first, telling the male photographers at her Broadway premiere of Beau Willimon's 'The Parisian Woman'  to make way for the female photographers, so they could get a good shot. Uma says it's time to break up the Boys Club and she took action Thursday night, putting the women photographers front and center so they could get a good shot, writes W Magazine.

As she was posing alongside her cast members Josh Lucas, Blair Brown and Phillipa Soo, Thurman paused the moment to request that the male photographers capturing them clear a path for their female colleagues. “That’s the way things are going these days,” she said, according to The Daily News.

Thurman fans remain on alert for her promised weigh-in on her own Harvey Weinsteinexperiences. Initially when Thurman was asked about the mounting sexual allegations within Hollywood, she told Access Hollywood, "I don't have a tidy sound bite for you because I'm not a child and I have learned that when I've spoken in anger I usually regret the way I express myself. So I've been waiting to feel less angry and when I'm ready I'll say what I have to say."

Afghan Girls' Robotics Team Wins Entrepreneurial Challenge At Europe's Biggest Robotics Festival

Afghan Girls' Robotics Team Wins Entrepreneurial Challenge At Europe's Biggest Robotics Festival

We are SO PROUD of the girls' robotics team from Afghanistan, the group of young women who were front and center on AOC when they were denied visas to the US to participate in an international robotics competition. 

Honored in Washington DC for their determination and moxie, the Afghan girls have now won an international robotics prize on merit. The Afghan teens who live in the western city of Herat applied to and won the Entrepreneurial Challenge at the Robotex festival, the largest robotics festival in Europe, held in Tallin, Estonia, on Nov. 24-26. The proud announcement was made through the Afghan embassies in London and Washington, and reported in the New York Times.  

“We are extremely proud of the wonderful accomplishments of the Afghan All-Girl Robotics Team,” Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Said T. Jawad, said in a statement on Wednesday. “They are an excellent example for people around the world of what can be accomplished by young Afghans if given the right support and the opportunity to excel in their education.”

NBC Fires 'Today' Show Co-Host Matt Lauer Over Sexual Harassment Allegations

NBC Fires 'Today' Show Co-Host Matt Lauer Over Sexual Harassment Allegations

NBC has fired its leading morning news anchor Matt Lauer over sexual harassment allegations, the network’s president for news said in a memo to staff on Wednesday. 

NBC News chairman Andrew Lack said the accusation against Laurer by a colleague was a "clear violation of our company's standards."

Lack said it was the first complaint lodged against Lauer, 59, since he took over as anchor of the show in 1997, but there was "reason to believe" it wasn't an isolated incident.

Mid-afternoon on Wednesday, Variety dropped a story on its own two-month-long investigation. A key finding of the piece is that Lauer's sexually-predatory behavior was no secret at NBC News. Surely, one concludes, not all the women at NBC could possibly be so shocked over Matt Lauer's alleged behavior. 

It began with the button under his desk that allowed him to lock his door from inside without getting up, two accusers told Variety. Gone was the fear of someone walking in on Lauer while he was doing his business. What happened next is every bit as gross as the Charlie Rose allegations. 

According to Variety, Lauer allegedly sexually harassed several female colleagues, including an instance in which he “summoned a . . . female employee to his office, and then dropped his pants, showing her his penis,” then  reprimanding the “visibly shaken” employee for “not engaging in a sexual act.” Three women who identified themselves to Variety as victims of Lauer’s sexual harassment, coupled with dozens of NBC staffers past and present told other stories about NBC's big star, including gifting a female colleague with a sex toy (complete with an “explicit note about how he wanted to use it on her”), inviting young female employees to his hotel room while on assignment covering the Olympics, asking female producers about their sex partners and "offering to trade names" and playing "fuck, marry or kill" with staffers. Lauer was often open about which of his co-stars he'd prefer to sleep with.

And it seems that the married Lauer -- who maintains a distant relationship with his wife -- had an insatiable sexual appetite. 

Boys Club Member Susan Sarandon Tells Women Fighting For Equal Rights To 'Calm Down'

I haven't even commented on Susan Sarandon's Guardian interview choice words on Hillary Clinton. Every day cannot be a day of rage. But none other than W Magazine does a short, brilliant summary of the SS/Guardian interview and reminds us why so many of us loathe this woman. If a guy was making these statements, he would be out of business.

Susan Sarandon, infamously, wasn't with her. She's also not joining the #MeToo movement, and she doesn't like to call herself a feminist (she's more of a humanist, thank you very much). Indeed, the ever outspoken Sarandon has a lot of contrarian opinions, as evidenced by her latest interview with The Guardian. She claims that things "wouldn’t be much smoother" if Hillary Clinton would have won the election, and that there were still a lot of women out there who must've been flattered to be sleeping with Harvey Weinstein and James Toback. Yet, oddly, she also admits to telling women fighting for the Equal Rights Movements to "calm down," and isn't afraid to tell her gay friends about which politicians really are pro-gay.

French President Macron Promises Gender Equality Reforms As France Reexamines Its Own Treatment Of Women

French President Macron Promises Gender Equality Reforms As France Reexamines Its Own Treatment Of Women

French president Emmanuel Macron observed the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women with a minute of silence for the 123 French women killed by their partner or ex-partner in 2016.

The #MeToo movement and the Harvey Weinstein scandal in America have provoked a rethinking of attitudes about sexual harassment in France, known worldwide as the "land of seduction and romance",writes Reuters. 

Unlike Donald Trump, who is trying to roll back women's rights advancements in America with increased legislation around women's reproductive health and a deep plunge in the appointments of women in his cabinet and inner circle and the federal judiciary, Macron campaigned on a platform of rethinking sexual politics and gender equality in France as part of his five-year-mandate.

Proposals that could be included in a 2018 draft law include criminalizing street harassment and extending the statute of limitation for the rape of minors to 30 years from 20 years. France has no minimum age of sexual consent and Macron is personally in favor of setting the age of sexual consent at 15. 

Squirming Over His Support For Roy Moore, Trump Now Suggests That His 'Access Hollywood' Tape Is A Fake

Squirming Over His Support For Roy Moore, Trump Now Suggests That His 'Access Hollywood' Tape Is A Fake

The Times reports: "He sees the calls for Mr. Moore to step aside as a version of the response to the now-famous Access Hollywood tape, in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitalia, and the flood of groping accusations against him that followed soon after. He suggested to a senator earlier this year that it was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently. "(Note that in the hours after the tape was released in October 2016, Trump acknowledged that the voice was his, and he apologized.)

Republican candidate Moore is accused by eight women of pursuing romantic relationships with them when they were teenagers. At the time he was an assistant district attorney in his 30s. Two of the women have accused Moore of assault or molestation, which he vehemently denies. 

Besides Trump's endorsement of Roy Moore for the Senate, Trump feels the need to back the popular argument among Alabama men, asking why the women didn't come forward sooner. Numerous stories confirm that Trump doesn't believe the women accusing Moore, just as he accuses all the women alleging sexual misconduct by him as being liars. 

In Private Trump Doubts Roy Moore's Accusers, Backs Alabama's Candidate

In Private Trump Doubts Roy Moore's Accusers, Backs Alabama's Candidate

Politico reports that President Donald Trump's near-endorsement of the sexually-accused Alabama Republican senate candidate Roy Moore came after intense conversations with senior Republicans and White House aides. 

The White House advisers told Politico that the president "drew parallels between Moore’s predicament and the one he faced just over a year ago when, during the final weeks of the 2016 campaign, Trump confronted a long line of women who accused him of harassment. He adamantly denied the claims."

Speaking with reporters as he departed for Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, Trump couldn't have come closer to saying that he believed Roy Moore's declaration that all nine of his accusers are lying. In Trump's typically incoherent, repetitive way of speaking, he said: “Let me just tell you, Roy Moore denies it. That's all I can say. He denies it. And, by the way, he totally denies it,” 

“I mean, if you look at what is really going on, and you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours, he totally denies it,” Trump said. “He says it didn’t happen. And, you know, you have to listen to him also. You're talking about, he said 40 years ago this did not happen.”

Laura McGann Details Glenn Thrush's Sexual Harassment, With Five Victims & 40 Sources

Laura McGann Details Glenn Thrush's Sexual Harassment, With Five Victims & 40 Sources

In October, New York Times White House correspondent Glenn Thrush made an impassioned Facebook post, in the throes of accusations against ace political journalist Glenn Thrush. The post was written in response to political journalist Mark Halperin's admission of significant sexual transgressions. Thrush wrote: “Young people who come into a newsroom deserve to be taught our trade, given our support and enlisted in our calling — not betrayed by little men who believe they are bigger than the mission.”

Vox writer Laura McGann reports that journalist insiders found Thrush's comments ironic, given his own reputation with young women, including her. 

Recounting an encounter with a young Politico reporter and Thrush, 50, her friend Bianca Padro Ocasio, also 23 and a journalist launched a text conversation the next day with Thrush. 

“I want to make sure you don’t lure young women aspiring journalists into those situations ever again,” she texted. “So help me out here. How can I do that?”

“I don’t lure anybody ever,” Thrush wrote back, according to screenshots provided by Padró Ocasio. “I got drunk because I got some shitty health news. And I am acutely aware of the hurdles that young women face in this business and have spent the better part of 20 years advocating for women journalists.”

Now Laura McGrann lowers the boom, citing her own experience with Glenn Thrush:

Sen. Al Franken (D-Mn.) Accused of Groping & Forcible Kissing By Broadcaster Leeann Tweeden

Sen. Al Franken (D-Mn.) Accused of Groping & Forcible Kissing By Broadcaster Leeann Tweeden

Broadcaster and model Leeann Tweeden said on Thursday that Minnesota Democratic Senator Al Franken "forcibly kissed" and groped her during a 2006 USO tour. Franken has apologized and called for a Senate investigation into his own actions. 

“You knew exactly what you were doing,” Tweeden wrote in a blog post. “You forcibly kissed me without my consent, grabbed my breasts while I was sleeping and had someone take a photo of you doing it, knowing I would see it later and be ashamed.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on the Senate Ethics Committee to review the 11-year-old allegations against Franken, who first issued a brief statement of apology, then later a longer one in which he called for an investigation, saying, “I will gladly cooperate.”

Tweeden's 2006 USO tour was the ninth for the Fox Sports Network correspondent and fitness model,writes The Washington Post. Franken was an Air America radio host just months away from announcing his Senate candidacy.

Angelina Jolie Criticizes UN Peacekeepers For Not Tackling Global Violence Against Women

Angelina Jolie Criticizes UN Peacekeepers For Not Tackling Global Violence Against Women Art of Living

Angelina Jolie remains one of the strongest voices for women worldwide, and she did not hold back in addressing the UN Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial Conference in Vancouver on Tuesday with her keynote speech.

“Sexual violence is everywhere – in the industry where I work, in business, in universities, in politics, in the military, and across the world,” she said during her keynote address on Wednesday. “All too often, these kinds of crimes against women are laughed off, depicted as a minor offense by someone who cannot control themselves, as an illness, or as some kind of exaggerated sexual need,” she continued. “But a man who mistreats women is not oversexed. He is abusive.”

Two New Accusers Come Out Against Republican Senate Candidate Roy Moore

Two New Accusers Come Out Against Republican Senate Candidate Roy Moore

Tina Johnson

Two more accusers of sexual misconduct came forward tonight against Alabama Republican Senate race candidate Roy Moore. Al.com reports late Wednesday that Tina Johnson alleged that in the fall of 1999 (when Moore was married) she sat in Moore's law office with her mother Mary Katherine Cofield. 

Moore began flirting with her from the moment she walked into Moore's office, alleged Johnson.

"He kept commenting on my looks, telling me how pretty I was, how nice I looked," recalled Johnson. "He was saying that my eyes were beautiful."

It made her uncomfortable. "I was thinking, can we hurry up and get out of here?"

Johnson was in a difficult period of her life, and in the process of signing over custody of her son to her mother. As she left the office, Johnson recalled that Moore grabbed her buttocks.

"He didn't pinch it; he grabbed it," said Johnson. She was so surprised she didn't say anything. She didn't tell her mother.

Gal Gadot Confirms That Brett Ratner Is No Longer Involved In 'Wonder Woman' Sequel

Gal Gadot Confirms That Brett Ratner Is No Longer Involved In 'Wonder Woman' Sequel

Hollywood producer Brett Ratner has met his match in Gal Gadot. The 'Wonder Woman' actor said that she would not make a sequel to the blockbuster movie, if he remained involved in the project. Warner Bros must have taken her seriously, knowing also that women worldwide would boycott the film with any new 'Wonder Woman' in place. That will not be necessary. 

Vanity Fair reports that Gadot is on the record revealing that before the Wonder Woman star even appeared on 'Today' Wednesday morning, interviewed by Savannah Guthrie, the matter had been resolved. In fact, says Gadot, it was resolved before the Page Six article.

Eye: The Wing's New Women's Club In Soho Opens Its Pop-Up Doors To Chanel's CoCo Club

Eye: The Wing's New Women's Club In Soho Opens Its Pop-Up Doors To Chanel's CoCo Club

Women's clubs are on the move, and the timing may be perfect. I'm reluctant to write that American women are at some kind of watershed moment in our understanding of just how difficult it is to succeed in the boys club world. Watching our fundamental, hard-fought rights being rolled back in Trumplandia while Margaret Atwood's dystopian 'The Handmaid's Tale' won eight Emmys, American women are primed for some serious female business bonding. This sister act was in play well before the Harvey Weinstein scandal dropped, launching the massive #MeToo campaign spilling out of our misogyny-overloaded brains. 

If The Wing is a home base for women on their way, the space's first pop-up CoCo Club is perhaps better for women who have arrived. How clever of The Wing to plan for pop-up spaces and other events on the premises. It seems that Chanel took over the entire Soho location as a money-generating, member-acquiring drive for the permanent landlord of this women's club -- The Wing. In not so subtle fashion, Chanel celebrated the launch of the brand's new BOY∙FRIEND watch. 

From a branding and messaging to women perspective, the permanent decor at The Wing evokes a dramatically different vibe than the temporary tenant CoCo Club. 

Founders Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan anticipated a huge win for women with a Hillary Clinton presidency.

"This was going to be the golden age of women in power, so women could have rooms like this. It was sort of a triumphant concept." No more running around Manhattan changing outfits for events and meetings in "random bathrooms around the city."

"Obviously that's not what happened," Kassan said.

Beverly Young Nelson Details Roy Moore Assault On Her As 16-Year-Old Waitress

Beverly Young Nelson Details Roy Moore Assault On Her As 16-Year-Old Waitress

In one of the most compelling moments I've ever witnessed on television, Beverly Young Nelson voiced in vivid, graphic detail her 1977 attack by Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. Nelson becomes the fifth woman -- and probably the most serious accuser -- along with Leigh Corfman. Nelson was quick to say that both she and her husband voted for Donald Trump and her claims have nothing to do with politics. It was reading the stories of the other women that prompted Beverly Young Nelson to come forward.

Represented by Gloria Allard, who specializes in sexual harassment and sexual assault cases, Nelson recounted Mr. Moore's attack on her when she was 16 and a waitress in a Gadsden, Alabama and he was a prosecutor in Etowah County, Ala. The Daily Beast details her testimony about that night.

Earlier in the evening, Moore had signed Nelson's yearbook -- which Nelson produced at the news conference -- and later offered her a ride home. Instead of getting on the highway, she alleges, Moore parked in the back of the Olde Hickory House restaurant. Nelson said she asked Moore what he was doing.

“Instead of answering my question, Mr. Moore reached over and began groping me, putting his hands on my breasts,” Nelson said weeping. “I tried to open my car door to leave, but he reached over and locked it so I could not get out. I tried fighting him off, while yelling at him to stop, but instead of stopping he began squeezing my neck attempting to force my head onto his crotch. I continued to struggle. I was determined that I was not going to allow him to force me to have sex with him. I was terrified. He was also trying to pull my shirt off. I thought that he was going to rape me. I was twisting and struggling and begging him to stop. I had tears running down my face.

Gloria Allred Will Present A New Accuser Of Alabama Senate Candidate Roy Moore Monday At 2:30 PM

Gloria Allred Will Present A New Accuser Of Alabama Senate Candidate Roy Moore Monday At 2:30 PM

The New York Post reports that at 2:30 pm Monday, Gloria Allred has scheduled a news conference at the New York Palace Hotel, where another woman will accuse Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexually assaulting her when she was a minor. 

"The New accuser wishes to state what she alleges Roy Moore did to her without her consent," Allred said in a statement.

The Washington Post broke the heavily detailed story late last week, in which now grown women alleged that Moore pursued them as teenagers when he was in his 30s. The most explosive accusation came from Leigh Corfman, who was 14 years old when she alleges Roy Moore took her to his house in the woods and molested her. 

On a second visit, she says, he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes. He touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear. 

Wonder Woman Gal Gadot Issues Ultimatum To Warner Bros: It's Ratner Or Me

Wonder Woman Gal Gadot Issues Ultimatum To Warner Bros: It's Ratner Or Me

In recent days, multiple women in Hollywood -- six at latest count including actors Olivia Munn and Ellen Page --  are coming forward to accuse director and producer Brett Ratner of sexual harassment. Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot is not one of them, but Gadot has flexed her muscle in negotiations for phase two in the new franchise, giving an ultimatum to Warner Bros: it's either me or Ratner. 

Page Six reports that Gadot is threatening to walk away from her role in 'Wonder Woman' in the midst of negotiations for a sequel to the $821 million worldwide blockbuster movie unless Ratner's relationship with the DC Comics universe is completely severed. “Gadot is saying she won’t sign for the sequel unless Warner Bros. buys Brett out [of his financing deal] and gets rid of him.

Related 11/12/2017: Model Accuses Brett Ratner of Masturbating in Front of Her in a Chaffeured Car The Cut

Eye: Edie Campbell Is Fashion Industry Oracle, Joining Cameron Russell In Fight Against Model Exploitation

Eye: Edie Campbell Is Fashion Industry Oracle, Joining Cameron Russell In Fight Against Model Exploitation

Top model Edie Campbell graces the December 2017 issue of Vogue China, lensed by Patrick Demarchelier with styling by Daniela Paudice./ Makeup by Romy Soleimani; hair by Ward

Ironically, Campbell is styled as a possible muse from an ancient Greek temple like the famous one at Delphi. Occupation of the site at Delphi can be traced to the Neolithic period with extensive use beginning in the Mycenaean period (1600-1100 BC), a time we associate with the fall of the goddesses in cultural worship and the rise of patriarchy, which established deep roots in ancient Greece. The name 'Delphoi' comes from the same root as δελφύς delphys, "womb" and may indicate archaic veneration of Gaia at the site, writes Wiki. An oracle was a priest or priestess -- originally we believe it was primarily women as priestesses -- acting as a medium through whom advice or prophecy was sought from the gods in classical antiquity.

Enough with ancient history of the goddesses. Edie Campbell became a fashion industry muse and oracle this week, writing an open letter published by Women's Wear Daily, in which she highlights the abuse of all models, including men.  In a maverick twist, Campbell suggests that in the fashion industry, the abuse of male models is every bit as serious as among the women. 

“We have a problem: we operate within a culture that is too accepting of abuse, in all of its manifestations. This can be the ritual humiliation of models, belittling of assistants, power plays and screaming fits. We have come to see this as simply a part of the job.”

Campbell’s letter is in response to the Instagram campaign to raise awareness of sexual exploitation of models started in October by the US model Cameron Russell.

Here is Edie Campbell's letter in full: