Free Republic

The government has said the term “pregnant woman” should not be used in a UN treaty because it “excludes” transgender people. Feminists reacted with outrage to what they said was the latest example of “making women unmentionable” in the name of transgender equality. The statement comes in Britain’s official submission on proposed amendments to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the UK has been a signatory since 1976. The UN treaty says a “pregnant woman” must be protected, including not being subject to the death penalty. Yet in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office submission, Britain opposes...

In a 1,500-word article about the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, The Washington Post waited until the 25th paragraph to note that the self-declared socialist faces an “obstacle” to winning the presidency. The paper said that “…Sanders has not faced the kind of media scrutiny, let alone attacks from opponents, that leading candidates eventually experience.” The authors, Philip Rucker and James Wagner, added, “Sure to follow his summer surge is an autumn of investigations that could reveal new details about his personal background and record.” One of the more interesting members of the DSA is Kurt Stand, a communist spy for...

NEW YORK (AP) — Sexual harassment and mistreatment of models have always been widely known and tolerated in the fashion industry, Christy Turlington Burns said. “The industry is surrounded by predators who thrive on the constant rejection and loneliness so many of us have experienced at some point in our careers. I feel fortunate that I did not personally experience anything traumatic, but also know that is not the norm,” she told Women’s Wear Daily in an interview published Wednesday.

Veteran actress Laura Dern revealed Wednesday that she was sexually assaulted when she was 14-years-old. Dern, now 50, appeared on The Ellen Show and explained that hearing other actresses at the Elle Women in Hollywood event speak out about abuse they’ve experienced helped her come to grips with a past she said she had “justified.” “I woke up and I realized that in that space I talked about how I was one of the lucky ones because I was raised by actors who told me their stories and told me what to look out for, and I realized that I...

Actress Mayim Bialik has responded to criticism after she wrote a New York Times essay over the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Bialik wrote of the pressure to appear attractive that she felt as a teen actress, affecting her self-esteem to this day. She added that when she returned to acting after earning a doctorate in neuroscience, she “experienced the upside of not being a ‘perfect 10.’… Those of us in Hollywood who don’t represent an impossible standard of beauty have the ‘luxury’ of being overlooked and, in many cases, ignored by men in power unless we can make them money.” Bialik,...

Watch How Harvey Weinstein Was the Most Thanked Man In Hollywood

There is a Big Story in Monday’s New York Times: “Harvey Weinstein’s Fall Opens Floodgates In Hollywood.” Except for the fact that not a single floodgate is open, that headline is deadly accurate. There is a Big Story in Monday’s Hollywood Reporter: “‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Showrunner on Harassment in Hollywood: ‘It’s Not Just Harvey.’” Except for the fact that it is “just Harvey,” that headline is deadly accurate. There is a Big Story in Monday’s Daily Mail: “Oscar-Winning Actor Accused of Assaulting a Broadcaster’s Loved One.” Except for the fact that not a single Oscar-winning actor is accused, that headline is...

America Ferrera claims in an Instagram post that a grown man sexually assaulted her at the age of nine. “First time I can remember being sexually assaulted I was 9-years-old,” the actress, who is best known for her role in Ugly Betty, wrote on Instagram. “I told no one and lived with the shame and guilt thinking all along that I, a 9-year-old child, was somehow responsible for the actions of a grown man.” “I had to see this man on a daily basis for years to come,” she continued. “He would smile at me and wave, and I would...

Scott Rosenberg, a friend from Miramax’s glory days, says he’s “sorry and ashamed” Scott Rosenberg, a screenwriter who has worked on Miramax films such as “Beautiful Girls” and “Things to do in Denver When You’re Dead,” has taken to Facebook to voice his opinions on the Harvey Weinstein scandal that has been rocking Hollywood for the past few weeks. Rosenberg says that he was at Miramax for what he calls the “golden age,” when films like “Pulp Fiction,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “Good Will Hunting” were made and released. He also said that he was young and “sure he had...

Jennifer Lawrence revealed in a speech on Monday night that she was forced to participate in a “degrading and humiliating” lineup while naked and was told to lose weight when she was starting off her acting career. Lawrence, who was being honored at Elle’s Women in Hollywood event in Los Angeles, stood at the lectern and detailed her experience of being mistreated in the entertainment industry. “When I was much younger and starting out, I was told by producers of a film to lose 15 pounds in two weeks,” the 27-year-old actress said to a crowd that included Kristen Stewart,...

Woody Allen has said he is "sad" for Harvey Weinstein as the producer faces numerous allegations of sexual assault. The filmmaker said he had heard rumours but not "these horror stories" after a number of women came forward to accuse Weinstein of assault. Weinstein has been credited with reviving Allen's career after Allen was accused of abusing Dylan Farrow, his daughter with actress Mia Farrow. The allegation emerged in the early 1990s following Allen's separation from Farrow. The actress left Allen after discovering he was having an affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. "No one ever came to me...

Earlier tonight, Oliver Stone—who’s currently in South Korea for the Busan International Film Festival—decided to weigh in on the numerous allegations currently circling ousted Weinstein Co. mogul Harvey Weinstein, putting forward an attitude that could be safely described as “Hey, let’s cut the guy a break.” “It’s not easy what he’s going through, either,” Stone told reporters, adding that he intended to “wait for the trial,” and dismissed the words of the dozens of women who’ve talked about their negative interactions with Weinstein as “gossip.”

It only took the media about 13 years to bust Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein for his sexual depredations once reporters had the story in hand. But that story will prove to be relatively easy on the media. There is another, trickier Hollywood story the nation’s newsrooms have been sitting on longer than Weinstein was stalking young women. For years, powerful men in Hollywood have been preying on young boys, and the media have remained mute largely for fear of offending the LGBT lobby. In its article on Weinstein’s demise, the Washington Post’s Stephanie Merry alludes to the problem. “Corey Feldman,”...

A whole lot of fur has been flying since last Thursday, when The New York Times published a game-changing investigative story about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct that in lightning speed brought the mogul to his knees. He apologized and took an immediate leave of absence from the company he co-founded, but that wasn’t enough. His board members and legal advisers have been resigning en masse. And as new, ugly details emerge of three decades of settlements for sex-related offenses, he’s quickly becoming a national pariah. I applaud The New York Times and writers Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey for getting...

Now that The New York Times has put together a stomach-turning chronicle of alleged sexual harassment by the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein — complete with brave, on-the-record statements from, among others, the actress Ashley Judd — we’re hearing a lot about how the story of his misconduct was “the worst-kept secret” in Hollywood and New York... But until now, no journalistic outfit had been able, or perhaps willing, to nail the details and hit publish... Somehow the whispers concerning his alleged hotel-room and workplace abuses never threatened his next big deal, industry award or accolades, which included an honorary Commander...

The new revelation, which allegedly took place a decade ago, comes after an explosive New York Times report said Weinstein had previously settled eight sexual harassment claims. Harvey Weinstein once trapped a woman in the hallway of a restaurant that was closed to the public and masturbated in front of her until he ejaculated, she says. The accusation comes a day after Weinstein was the subject of a bombshell New York Times report that revealed that he has settled at least eight sexual harassment claims. The incident took place a decade ago, according to Lauren Sivan, who at the time...

Federal officials are investigating flutes, possibly contaminated by bodily fluids, that were given to students from school districts all across Southern California as part of an investigation of an individual accused of inappropriate sexual conduct. Several school districts alerted parents on Friday the California Department of Justice and the U.S. Postal Service launched an investigation and to turn in the flutes to authorities. The flutes are colorfully decorated and painted by students all over Southern California through a program called "Flutes Across the World."

A university is refusing to allow a counselor who specializes in transgender mental health to study transgender people who regret having a sex change because the school says the study isn’t politically correct. James Caspian, a U.K. psychotherapist seeking to write a master thesis on transgenders who transition back to their birth gender at the U.K.’s Bath Spa University, explained that he thought it was important to study people who had transitioned and then changed their minds after receiving sex-reassignment surgery because no research has been conducted on this group of people. “I was astonished at that decision,” Caspian told...

The disgraced ex-congressman broke down crying as he was sentenced to 21 months in prison Monday for convincing a high school student to undress and touch herself via Skype in 2016. “This was a serious crime. It’s a serious crime that deserves serious punishment,” Manhattan federal judge Denise Cote said as the convicted sext fiend dropped his head into his hand and wept. After the courtroom cleared, the one-time mayoral hopeful sat crying silently in his chair alongside his tearful mother

Netflix pulled an episode of “Maya the Bee,” an animated children’s cartoon, after viewers noticed a penis drawing in the background. . . . Netflix has since pulled the episode (season 1, episode 35) from its streaming service. Maya the Bee is animated by French company Studio 100, which called the phallic flap “a very bad joke.”