Sara Sampaio Talks Her Nipple Showdown With Lui & Why Victoria's Secret Is A Feminist Brand

Sara Sampaio Talks Her Nipple Showdown With Lui & Why Victoria's Secret Is A Feminist Brand

Top model and Victoria's Secret Angel Sara Sampaio is fired up and ready to roll, interviewed for the March 23, 2018 issue of Porter Edit. Sampaio is well on the way to establishing herself as an activist voice for a new generation of models. 

“Models are expected to show up on set, just be pretty, do our job and not say a word,” the Portugese beauty explains. “When we do open our mouths, we’re branded as difficult, opinionated, troublemakers; we are told that we don’t know what we are talking about.” Pointing out that women out earn men in modeling, Sara insists that "we are still not respected. We are still exploited. And it’s such a disposable industry that girls feel like they can’t say anything, because there will be some other girl out there who will just do it.”

Sampaio regularly leverages her more than 10 million followers on social media to use her voice and “hold people accountable”. In 2017, the firebrand used Instagram to call out French magazine Lui after it published revealing pictures of her. AOC wrote about this situation, and we were honestly confused. Sampaio uses her Porter Edit interview to clarify her view of what happened.

US Supreme Court: Does Regulating 'Fake' Women's Health Centers Confine Religious Freedom?

US Supreme Court: Does Regulating 'Fake' Women's Health Centers Confine Religious Freedom?

Given all the regulations that Republican state governments have put on Planned Parenthood -- including the width of their hallways and the size of closets (restrictions that render existing facilities not qualifying to operate) -- it's mind-boggling to see them go before the Supreme Court and argue that fake pregnancy counseling centers are legit and cannot be subject to state laws because they are run by Christians. Any attempt to govern them by laws is an illegal attack on their religious freedoms. 

The test of these perceived freedoms is now before the US Supreme Court, in the first abortion-related case of the Trump administration. 

Any Woman Can is part of a nationwide network of over 3,000 “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) established by evangelical Christians to dissuade women from having abortions.  Presenting themselves as women's health centers that support women when Planned Parenthood closes down, unable to meet state laws, these so-called clients typically have no licensed medical professionals on staff. 

The Any Woman Can website says it offers a comprehensive overview of health care options open to women. This is a blatant lie. Other members of this network are Pregnancy Care Clinics and Informed Choices, also arguing before the Supreme Court On Tuesday.

Is BBC's Massive Pay Gap Between Wimbledon Pundits Martina Navratilova & John McEnroe Justified

Is BBC's Massive Pay Gap Between Wimbledon Pundits Martina Navratilova & John McEnroe Justified

Tennis champion Martina Navratilova, winner of nine Wimbledon Ladies' championship trophies shares her furor over discovering the full extent of BBC pay discrimination in an interview airing Monday night, writes The Guardian.  In an interview for Panorama: Britain's Equal Pay Scandal, Navratilova reveals her shock when she discovered that John McEnroe is paid 10 times as much as she is for covering Wimbledon for the BBC. 

Navratilova tells Panorama that she was paid about £15,000, while McEnroe's published salary revealed last summer is between £150,000 and £199,999. 

Navratilova said she was told she was getting paid a comparable amount to men doing the same job as her, adding: “We were not told the truth, that’s for sure.” “It’s still the good old boys’ network ... The bottom line is that male voices are valued more than women’s voices,” she said, adding that her agent will ask for more money in the future.

BBC Sport defended the discrepancy, saying McEnroe’s role was of “a different scale, scope and time commitment”, to Navratilova, adding: “They are simply not comparable.”

Karlie Kloss' Kode With Klossy Expands To 50 Tech Camps In 25 Cities For 1000 Girls Wanting To Code

Karlie Kloss' Kode With Klossy Expands To 50 Tech Camps In 25 Cities For 1000 Girls Wanting To Code

“Beyond just wanting to hang out with you guys, I want you to be a part of our big announcement,” supermodel Karlie Kloss told the four young alumnae of her Kode With Klossy coding camp. “You’re the reason we want to keep growing this.”

Karlie was referring to the coding camp she launched in a simple way in 2015 to inspire girls to learn to code and consider careers in tech. Before shooting a 45-second video, Kloss went around the room asking what her four young protégées had been up to since last summer. The New York Times was on hand to record the answers. 

Valeria Torres-Olivares, 18, from Princeton, N.J., was first to speak. She was accepted to Princeton University, where she’ll major in computer science. The room erupted into cheers. She also talked about the coding class she started at the Princeton Public Library with her younger sister Kyara, 14, a fellow camper.

“We made it girls-only so our students would have an environment they feel safe in,” Ms. Torres-Olivares said. “When boys are in the classroom, it’s harder.”

France Reflects On Having No Age Of Sexual Consent, Even For A 10-Year-Old Girl Legally Raped In Many Countries

France Reflects On Having No Age Of Sexual Consent, Even For A 10-Year-Old Girl Legally Raped In Many Countries

Writing for The Atlantic, Marie Doezema zeroes in on a case in France involving an 11-year-old girl. one that 50 years later has sparked a moment of moral and legal reckoning. The event happened in April, 2017, when a 28-year-old-man met an 11-year-old girl in a park in Montmagny, a small town of 14,000 people in northern France. 

After congenial conversation with her that involved no coercion, the man said he would be happy to show the young girl how to kiss. She did go home with the man, and it's not clear from reading the reports when the girl showed the man her schoolbooks to establish her age. The victim says she did; the accused insists that she did not. 

“She thought … that she didn’t have the right to protest, that it wouldn’t make any difference,” the mother told Mediapart, a French investigative site which first reported on the allegations of the case. The accusations were of an adult raping a child—a crime that, in France, can lead to a 20-year prison sentence for the perpetrator when the victim is 15 or younger.

Facts are that the case was not proceeding towards a rape charge.  Initially, the man was charged with “sexual infraction,” a crime punishable with a maximum of five years in jail and a €75,000 fine. Under French law, a charge of rape requires “violence, coercion, threat, or surprise,” even if the victims are age 11 or 12, as the girl in the Montmagny case.

“She was 11 years and 10 months old, so nearly 12 years old,” defense lawyer Marc Goudarzian said. Sandrine Parise-Heideiger, his fellow defense lawyer, added: “We are not dealing with a sexual predator on a poor little faultless goose.”

Bill and Melinda Gates Make A Big Move For Women's Global Economic Empowerment

Bill and Melinda Gates Make A Big Move For Women's Global Economic Empowerment

For over a decade, researchers have known that everything changes in almost every community and country worldwide when women have money. 

On Monday Melinda Gates published an op-ed in Quartz in which she and husband Bill Gates announced a four-year pledge of $170 million to help empower women economically worldwide.

The decision comes at a time when 1) the Gates Foundation has tried to block the damage levied at poor women worldwide by cuts In the US budget that funds global women's health initiatives -- not abortions, but 'yes' to birth control being available at women's health clinics. Generally-speaking, the Trump administration stands opposed to taxpayer-funded birth control, arguing that it diminishes religious freedoms for those Americans opposed to contraception; and 2) in response to #MeToo stories and the prevalence of sexual harassment and violence against women worldwide.

The money, from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will be spent over four years “to help women exercise their economic power,” Melinda Gates wrote. She noted that research shows economic power is the “most promising entry points for gender equality.” 

“Simply put when money flows into the hands of women who have the authority to use it, everything changes,” Melinda Gates wrote.

Oscar Winner Frances McDormand Gives Rousing Pro-Woman Speech, Calls For Inclusion Riders In Hollywood Contracts

Oscar Winner Frances McDormand Gives Rousing Pro-Woman Speech, Calls For Inclusion Riders In Hollywood Contracts

Frances McDormand was the big favorite to win the Oscar for Best Actress at Sunday's Academy Awards. As expected, McDormand won her trophy for her almighty performance in 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'.  The actress had already won a SAG, BAFTA and Golden Globe for her role as a mother who rents three billboards to call attention to her daughter's unsolved murder. Previously, McDormand won an Oscar in 1997 for her role as Marge Gunderson in 'Fargo'. 

It was clear the actress had additional prepared comments after thanking Three Billboards director Martin McDonagh, her sister, and then husband Joel Coen and their son Pedro.  "These two stalwart individuals were well raised by their feminist mothers," she said. "They value themselves, each other and those around them. I know you are proud of me and that fills me with everlasting joy."

I'm not sure any Oscar winner ever put her statue down on the floor before speaking further. Oscar got a quick pat on the head, as McDormand said she wanted to get some perspective on the situation. And then Frances went full-throttle into the strongest moment of her speech and of the evening. 

UPDATE Mar 6. DEAL IS DEAD. Maria Contreras-Sweet, Obama SBA Head, Announces Investor Purchase Of The Weinstein Company

Maria Contreras-Sweet, Obama SBA Head, Announces Investor Purchase Of The Weinstein Company

Updated Tues. evening Mar. 6: Never Mind: $500 Million Deal to Save the Weinstein Company Is Kaput Vanity Fair

Maria Contreras-Sweet announced Thursday afternoon that an investor group lead by herself and billionaire Ron Burkle reached a deal to buy The Weinstein Company. The complex and infuriating negotiations to reach a deal that kept TWC from not having to declare bankruptcy even included New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who ended up acting as a necessary mediator, given the complexity of TWC's legal problems. 

In a statement Schneiderman said:  "As part of these negotiations, we are pleased to have received express commitments from the parties that the new company will create a real, well-funded victims' compensation fund, implement HR policies that will protect all employees, and will not unjustly reward bad actors. We will work with the parties in the weeks ahead to ensure that the parties honor and memorialize these commitments prior to closing."

Contreras-Sweet, who served as 24th Administrator of the Small Business Administration in the Obama Administration, and Burkle organized the group of investors who are putting up $500 million to buy the once-powerful indie film and television production company founded by Weinstein and his brother, Bob in 2005. 

Angela Merkel Appears To Tap Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer As Christian Democratic Union Successor

Angela Merkel Appears To Tap Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer As Christian Democratic Union Successor

The woman basking in the limelight, standing before an adoring crowd having won nearly 99% of the vote for a top post in the most powerful political party in Germany was not Angela Merkel. It was Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, writes The New York Times, who was elected secretary general of Germany's Christian Democratic Union. Dubbed “mini-Merkel” by the German news media, Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer assumes a post once held by the Chancellor. " In tapping Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer, she found a candidate widely seen as having the mix of liberalism and conservatism to unite a restive party base," writes The Times.

Severely weakened by a national election held five months ago, Merkel has struggled to cobble together a governing coalition. One of A.K.K.'s first challenges as general secretary will be to restore calm and discipline in a party divided between those who support Merkel's centirst course and those who want to move right.

Kramp-Karrenbauer supported Merkel's decision to open Germany's border in 2015, but took a stronger stance on handling the roughly 7,000 refugees who arrived in her small western state of Saarland, where she has been the governor. The Times writes:

"She had unaccompanied minors arriving without documents undergo medical screenings to help determine their age, and lobbied for Berlin to deport anyone whose application for asylum had been rejected. Male Muslim refugees who refused to accept food from female volunteers should go hungry, she said."

Angelina Jolie & John Kerry Talk Women's Rights & Environmental Action In ELLE US March 2018

Angelina Jolie & John Kerry Talk Women's Rights & Environmental Action In ELLE US March 2018

Superstar Angelina Jolie sits down with former US secretary of state John Kerry to talk March 8, International Women's Day in the March 2018 issue of ELLE US. In truth, they spend as much time talking environmental issues as women's rights, although the two intersect in so many ways. As guest editor of the March 2018 issue of Vogue Australia, Emma Watsonmakes the same point: women suffer more than men as a result of climate change.

At age 42, Angelina Jolie has devoted herself to shedding light on women’s rights and violence against women around the world. Jolie serves as a goodwill ambassador and special envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, where she’s completed nearly 60 field missions, including visits to Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. As cofounder of the British government’s Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, Jolie's met with rape survivors in Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bannon Promises That Feminism, Not Toxic Masculinity, Is Responsible For America's Demise

Bannon Promises That Feminism, Not Toxic Masculinity, Is Responsible For America's Demise

The mere fact that Harper's Bazaar would feature an article on the topic of toxic masculinity tells you the degree to which the female mindset in America is changing. Even the fashion industry is concerned about toxic masculinity. Oh yes. The Trump male posse can descend on us -- throwing stink bombs and calling us libtards -- but the facts are the facts in their non-factual universe. The jigs up, gentlemen.

When Trump was elected, Mr. Brexit Nigel Farage proclaimed: "The alpha males are back." That may be so, but large numbers of alpha males -- are the very definition of toxic masculinity -- and it's a masculinity that kills, no matter how the alt-right dresses it up.

More than other countries in the developed world, the American culture worships men with guns. They are conquerors of 'weaker men' and women are eager to have sex with them. In reality, men who commit mass shootings do not have the respect of the larger culture, but their "catastrophic sense of male entitlement" gives them admiration in their own equally toxic communities. 

Fearless Girl Will Get A Permanent Home In New York, Taking Charging Bull With Her

Fearless Girl Will Get A Permanent Home In New York, Taking Charging Bull With Her

Great News! Fearless Girl is staying in Manhattan permanently, probably inseparable from her nemesis statue, Charging Bull. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, the duo seem even more joined at the hip. Such a decision will surely prompt wine-vinegar words from Charging Bull's, men are the masters of the universe, artist Arturo Di Modica. 

Because Fearless Girl has brought so many tourists and visitors to her small location in Wall Street, officials have traffic and safety concerns around her permanent residence. Negotiations are underway between the Mayor's Office and State Street Global Advisors, who birthed Fearless Girl in time for International Women's Day 2017, regarding her long-term future plans . 

“The message of the Fearless Girl statue has resonated with New Yorkers and visitors alike,” a spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio told Adweek. “Its enthusiastic reception has been heartening, and we are discussing various approaches to ensure this statue continues to be a part of the city’s civic life.”

Millions of tourists and natives have indeed flocked to see the statue since its March 7, 2017, debut, and other cities want to clone her -- sort of pink pussyhat sorority sisters. 

Related: 

Ronan Farrow Details Trump's Affair With Karen McDougal, As Story Daniels Says She Has A Monica Lewinsky Dress

Ronan Farrow Details Trump's Affair With Karen McDougal, As Story Daniels Says She Has A Monica Lewinsky Dress

Melania Trump must be out of her mind. Here is another major expose about her philandering, immoral, Putin-lover husband, a man who is unfortunately our president. The golden showers in Russia are looking more believable every day. Any woman who married Trump with his reputation and marital history deserves what she gets -- which is a whole lotta money in this case. I can't image this marriage will be saved, as Trump has made Melania Trump one of the most publicly humiliated women ever in history.

Ronan Farrow, who also broke The New Yorker story on Harvey Weinstein is the pen behind 'Donald Trump, A Playboy Model and A System For Concealing Infidelity'. The players include Trump loyalist David Pecker, the chairman of American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer; Karen McDougal, a former Playmate of the Year; Donald Trump; and Dylan Howard, A.M.I.’s chief content officer.

Do not confuse Karen McDougal with Stormy Daniels. They are separate women who apparently had affairs with Trump simultaneously -- or close to it. All we know for sure is that Melania had given birth to Trump's son Barron in the recent past.

Trump's Personal Lawyer Confirms $130,000 Payment To Porn Star Stormy Daniels

Trump's Personal Lawyer Confirms $130,000 Payment To Porn Star Stormy Daniels

“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Mr. Cohen said in a statement to The New York Times. “The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”

Cohen's statement about this "private transaction" was the first time Cohen acknowledged his role in the payment, first reported in January 2018 by The Wall Street Journal. It was made shortly after the birth of Trump's son Barron with current wife Melania. 

Note that Cohen's office is right next to Donald Trump's in Trump Tower. I wonder if those die-hard evangelicals who just trashed Bill Clinton -- and Hillary, too -- will ever look in the mirror and seen their own hypocrisy.

No. Because they've convinced themselves that Trump has been sent by God and can do no wrong. Talk about a tight religious knot.

'Seeing Allred' Documentary Shows Feminist Lawyer Gloria Allred Even More Fierce Than You Knew Her

'Seeing Allred' Documentary Shows Feminist Lawyer Gloria Allred Even More Fierce Than You Knew Her

Gloria Allred must be the second most-hated woman in America among right-wingers. No, maybe third. First Hillary Clinton, then Nancy Pelosi, then famed feminist attorney Gloria Allred. Indeed the Netflix documentary that premiered at Sundance was a detailed trip into America's second wave of feminism. But directors Roberta Grossman and Sophie Sartain did a first rate job of bringing Allred to life as a living, breathing woman -- although not one very different from the tough cookie we see in press conferences about an accuser of Donald Trump, Roy Moore, Bill Cosby and more.

The film does an excellent job of telling Allred's story as a young Philadelphia mother and teacher. We think of Allred as a prominent feminist but her activists roots sprouted in Watts, when she moved to LA at age 25 with her 5-year-old daughter Lisa Bloom and took a job teaching here.

Salma Hayek Honors Jill Messick, Dead By Suicide In Rose McGowan-Harvey Weinstein Battle

Salma Hayek Honors Jill Messick, Dead By Suicide In Rose McGowan-Harvey Weinstein Battle

Actor Salma Hayek honored her friend, the late producer and studio executive Jill Messick, who died by suicide on Wednesday at age 50.  Messick's name has been in the news recently, because she represented McGowan in 1997, the time period during which McGowan was allegedly raped by Harvey Weinstein. 

According to her family in a statement published in The Hollywood Reporter, Messick has endured a longtime battle with depression and bipolar disorder and a particularly bad manic episode five years ago. Her personal trauma was recently triggered again by gossip and inferences about her role -- if any -- in McGowan's alleged rape by Harvey Weinstein. Messick was the executive producer of 'Frida', working closely with Hayek, who has written her own story about how an angry Weinstein tried to destroy the movie. 

“I am deeply saddened by the loss of Jill Messick,” Hayek said of Messick, who was an executive producer on Hayek’s 2002 Miramax film, “Frida.” “She always navigated the frustrating and hostile environment of Miramax with grace and elegance. She became my ally and my friend. In the many years we worked together I witnessed her professionalism while being pregnant, a mother and through incredible pressure. She was a girl’s girl and a romantic when it came to fighting for the underdog. I will forever be grateful for her support and kindness.”

Religious Groups Tried To Block Rihanna's Senegal GPE Global Education Conference Visit

Religious Groups Tried To Block Rihanna's Senegal GPE Global Education Conference Visit

When 10 current and three former heads of state and more than 100 ministers gathered at the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Financing Conference in Dakar, Senegal, the conference marked the first time an education financing conference has been hosted by a developing country. 

President Macky Sall of the Republic of Senegal and President Emmanuel Macron of the French Republic welcomed the more than 1200 participants including leaders from UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank, civil society, philanthropic foundations and the private sector. Rihanna, GPE’s Global Ambassador supported by Global Citizen, also participated.

Thankfully, Senegal's President Sall didn't bow to the generally unreported but very real protests in Senegal, demanding that Rihanna be banned from the event because of her involvement with the 'Illuminati'. 

Snopes writes that activist celebrities like Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Madonna and Katy Perry are common targets of Trump's friends -- the conspiracy theorists -- who argue that these pop culture leaders are either Satanists or part of the Illuminati. This top conspiracy theory about the Illuminati posits that ultra-wealthy celebrities, bankers, billionaires and politicians are all globalists who secretly rule the world, putting their party above countries or religion. 

Hillary Clinton is considered to be among the most dangerous of the Illuminati, as Alexandra Petri wrote for The Washington Post in October 2016, three weeks before the election in: "The hideous, diabolical truth about Hillary Clinton".  

The Illuminati is believed to include many Freemasons. Although the two groups are believed to share many members and common values, they are historically separate.

White House Staff Secy Rob Porter Resigns After Explosive Reports On Marital Abuse With Both Ex-Wives

White House Staff Secy Rob Porter Resigns After Explosive Reports On Marital Abuse With Both Ex-Wives

Trump's White House Communications Director Hope Hicks is said to be dating White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter, 40. This snap taken 10 days ago was featured in The Daily Mail's explosive report on Porter's two past marriages and claims by both wives of physical and emotional abuse. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced this afternoon that Porter will be stepping down. 

Porter's first wife, Colbie Holderness, told the DM that Porter punched her in the face during a trip to Florence in the early 2000s, and she provided photos of her black eye. 

Rob Porter, served as the staff secretary and often controlled the paper flow to President Trump’s desk, along with his daily schedule. Porter also oversaw the White House’s policy implementation process and worked closely with Chief of Staff John F. Kelly to try to instill discipline in the chaotic West Wing. He spent hours of the day with Trump and frequently traveled with him on Air Force One.

Porter’s second ex-wife, Jennifer Willoughby, received a temporary emergency protective order in June 2010 after complaining he refused to leave her residence, in violation of their separation agreement.

Goddess Hathor's Fifth Dynasty Priestess Hetpet's Tomb Unveiled A Century After Discovery In Egypt

Goddess Hathor's Fifth Dynasty Priestess Hetpet's Tomb Unveiled A Century After Discovery In Egypt

Archaeologists working in Egypt have discovered a 4,400-year-old tomb close to Cairo, one that contains rare wall paintings and is thought to be the tomb of a priestess named Hetpet. Mostafa Waziri, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, announced the discovery located near the Giza pyramids. 

“The tomb is in very good condition,” Dr. Waziri said. “There are colored depictions of traditional scenes: animals grazing, fishing, bird-catching, offerings, sacrifice, soldiers and fruit-gathering.”

Hetpet is believed to have been close to Egyptian royals of the Fifth Dynasty, part of a prosperous period in Egyptian history known as the Old Kingdom during which the pyramids, temples and palaces were built under the rule of pharaohs. Hetpet served as a priestess for Hathor, a goddess depicted as a cow and associated with fertility, motherhood and love. By this time in women's history, female priests were not that common in ancient Egypt, but Hathor's priesthood was an exception. 

Hetpet's name was first seen on antiquities uncovered at the site in 1909 by a British explorer who sent them to Berlin and Frankfurt.  The tomb itself was not unearthed until more than a century later in 2017

Bella Hadid's Naked Dressing Room Pic Sparks Rumors Of Membership In Goddess Semiramis Cult

Bella Hadid's Naked Dressing Room Pic Sparks Rumors Of Membership In Goddess Semiramis Cult