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Court Rules Beauty Pageant Can to Bar Transgenders

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Court Rules Beauty Pageant Can to Bar Transgenders

A federal appellate court has ruled that a national beauty pageant has a First Amendment right to prohibit a transgender woman from competing because incorporating her would interfere with the message the pageant wants to communicate about “what it means to be a woman.”

The ninth U.S. The verdict came in response to a lawsuit filed by Anita Green, who claimed that the Miss USA pageant violated an Oregon state anti-discrimination legislation by barring her from competing in 2019.

Green has competed in several pageants, including Miss Montana USA, Miss Earth, and Ms. World Universal. She was living in Clackamas, Oregon, and was planning to compete in the Miss United States of America’s Miss Oregon pageant when she claimed the organization turned down her application because she was not a “natural born girl.”

Green filed a lawsuit, claiming that the organization was breaking a state statute that makes it illegal to refuse people public accommodations based on their gender or gender identity.

However, attorneys representing the Miss United States of America Pageants stated that the pageant program was created to commemorate and promote “natural born women” by transmitting a message of “female biological empowerment.”

Court Rules Beauty Pageant Can to Bar TransgendersBeauty Pageant Ruling

The nine-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 in favour of the Beauty Pageant organization, stating that forcing the contest to include a transgender woman would fundamentally alter the message the Beauty Pageant was attempting to communicate.

“Beauty pageants, like theatre, cinema, or the Super Bowl halftime show, mix speech with live performances such as music and dancing to deliver a message,” wrote Judge Lawrence VanDyke for the majority. “And, while the content of that message differs every pageant, it is widely assumed that beauty pageants are generally aimed to convey the ‘ideal picture of American womanhood.'”

The appellate court agreed with a lower court’s conclusion that anyone seeing the contest’s choice to exclude transgender women would most likely conclude that the pageant organizers did not feel transgender individuals qualified as female.

“The Beauty Pageant has the ability to communicate this message and enforce its “natural born female” rule under the First Amendment,” the appeal court concluded.

 

Forcing the pageant to admit transgender contestants would amount to “compelled expression,” a violation of the First Amendment, the panel determined, and the fact that the pageant was a corporation engaged in commerce was insufficient to overcome that free speech privilege.

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In a dissenting opinion, Judge Susan P. Graber stated that the majority omitted critical stages when determining whether the First Amendment applied.

According to Graber, the court should have considered whether Oregon state law applied to the case, which may have settled the claim before the judges even reviewed the First Amendment question.

Tanice Smith, the pageant organization’s owner, and her attorney, John Kaempf, said the 9th Circuit’s dismissal was a matter of “basic justice.”

“The Ninth Circuit’s reasoning says it all: “Green requests that the state utilize its power to compel the Miss United States of America to express a message opposed to what she wishes to express.” “The First Amendment says no,” said Kaempf.

Green’s attorney, Shenoa Payne, did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

Green expressed disappointment after a lower court verdict sided with the pageant last year but said the case raised awareness about transgender discrimination within the pageant circuit.

“I feel the United States of America Miss is on the wrong side of history by deliberately discriminating against transgender people, but the road to significant change has always been long and rocky,” Green said at the time.

“Transgender women are simply women.” My message has always been consistent, and it is this: “Everyone has beauty.”

Source: AP, VOR News

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Beauty

Dior Channels Rebellious Women At Paris Fashion Week 2023

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dior

ARIS, Greece — Following Milan DIOR, the spotlight in global fashion shifted to the final stretch of ready-to-wear shows in Paris on Tuesday, as the industry looks to the future with all of the final fall trends.

This week, however, displays in the French capital will pay tribute to deceased designers Vivienne Westwood and Paco Rabanne.

Here are some highlights from the fall-winter 2023-2024 collections unveiled on Tuesday, including Dior:

dior

DIOR’S QUEENS

Dior’s guests were treated to a surreal world in the Tuileries gardens in Paris.

The round runway was filled with a giant, multicolored octopus installation. Its fabric tentacles were lit up with thousands of tiny lights. A Portuguese artist named Joana Vasconcelos was interested in how organic form interacted with the “feminine realm of artisanal savoir-faire.” It was a beautiful background, especially when paparazzi flashes caught guests like Charlize Theron and Maisie Williams, model Elle Macpherson, and K-pop star Jisoo.

If the decor appeared futuristic, the clothing took inspiration from the past, resulting in less vitality but plenty of flairs.

Three women — the house founder’s sister Catherine Dior, a French resistance hero, and French singers Edith Piaf and Juliette Greco, each described as “rebellious, at once strong and fragile” — were muses in this collection. Christian Dior’s heyday inspired it in the 1950s.

A faded black leather menswear coat, crumpled houndstooth skirt, and wrinkled woolen socks gave off a vintage vibe. Sweaters and skirts featured extra volume in the shoulders or hips, a nod to the thicker fabrics of the post-war era. A black textured skirt hung heavily with thousands of embellished flowers cut a fine androgynous figure beneath a white shirt and tie. While the mottled fabric had a gleaming metallic thread sewn into it, revealing Dior’s atelier’s skills.

dior

PAST AND FUTURE OF MAME KUROGOUCHI

Mame Kurogouchi’s Japanese ready-to-wear label delves edgily between past and present, fusing traditional dressmaking with cutting-edge technology.

At the fall’s minimalist take on the 1980s, this was on full display as minimalist as a decade that exuberant can be.

A grey pantsuit with crisp, clean lines and a diagonal dynamic had a futuristic feel. A black scarf that gripped the neck like a hand tugged down the shoulder was paired with a black space-age fanny pack that resembled a cummerbund.

A sanitized color palette worked well with the 80s references — broad, flat apron silhouettes, hoods, and thickly textured top-heavy ensembles.

dior

VAQUERA GETS IN THE KINK

“Obscene dress,” reads one T-shirt in Vaquera’s rather risque collection, despite being one of the least kinky looks in a show that featured inches of flesh, studded chokers, bare torsos, a shredded take on bondage gear, and multiple takes on 90s grunge and denim jeans.

Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee, who rose to prominence six years ago in New York with their iconic U.S. flag gown, debuted their sophomore collection in Paris. Following a more commercial season last year, the talented duo returned to their daring antics.

The black-heavy 12-look presentation began with a masked headpiece and a patch over one breast on a naked female torso. The model’s gloved hand covered the other breast. It’d be a difficult look to pull off on the street, but it got guests’ cameras clicking. Then, a black cotton top with numerous volume and edge shreds. A skirt with flaps was deconstructed to resemble a bondage outfit, and it was worn with a thermal hat in a woolen take on a bondage mask.

SOURCE – (AP)

 

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Brazilian Supermodel Adriana Lima Named FIFA Global Fan Ambassador

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Adriana Lima

Adriana Lima, a well-known Brazilian supermodel regarded as a global fashion icon and one of the most accomplished models in history, has been named the first-ever FIFA Global Fan Ambassador by the organization that governs football.

Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, announced in a statement. “When you meet Adriana, you immediately feel her warmth, kindness, and how approachable and passionate she is about our game,” he said. She “breathes and lives football,” which is another reason why she can serve as a fantastic conduit between FIFA and soccer fans everywhere.

Adriana expressed her own opinions regarding the appointment to the newly created position.

Adriana Lima, “I am very thankful and honored to have been chosen by FIFA as the first Global Fan Ambassador and given such a platform to help fans get closer to the game”.

Coming from a more than modest background and being a football fan.

Lima’s responsibilities will include “developing, promoting, and participating in several global initiatives involving fans from all over the world.” On Monday night in Paris at The Best FIFA Football Awards, Lima will also present the FIFA Fan Award.

Adriana Lima

About Adriana Lima

Brazilian supermodel, actress, and businesswoman Adriana Lima. Adriana’s portfolio quickly soared after she turned fifteen, making her one of the most successful models ever.

Adriana is a global fashion icon best known for her Victoria’s Secret model work from 1999 to 2018. She was the longest-tenured model and was named “the most valuable Victoria’s Secret Angel” in 2017. 103.7 million people watched Adriana’s Victoria’s Secret Super Bowl commercial in 2009!

Nielsen said it was “The Most Watched Commercial in the History of Television.” After placing second in the “Supermodel of the World” competition and winning Ford’s “Supermodel of Brazil” competition, she began her modeling career. Elite Model Management subsequently signed Adriana Lima as a model. Adriana opened the show five times while working for Victoria’s Secret, in 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2012.

Only two angels, including Adriana, have worn the Fantasy bra three times. Together with 4 other Angels, she participated in the 2004 “Angels Across America” tour, a nationwide Victoria’s Secret advertising campaign.

After participating in 18 Victoria’s Secret catwalks, her last performance was in 2018. She has additionally appeared in runway shows for renowned fashion houses like Versace, Jason Wu, Giorgio Armani, Vera Wang, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Christian Dior, Alexandre Herchcovitch, and Anna Sui.

Her fame allowed her to grace the covers of many prestigious international publications, including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, Grazia, GQ, Numero, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, and Esquire, in the USA, Spain, the UK, France, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Mexico, Korea, Japan, Turkey, Germany, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Sweden, and the Czech Republic. Adriana is an Afro-Brazilian with West Indian, Portuguese, Swiss, Native Brazilian, and Japanese ancestry.

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Former Hollywood Bombshell Raquel Welch Dies at 82

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Raquel Welch

Raquel Welch, whose appearance in the film “One Million Years B.C.” in a skimpy, furry bikini propelled her to international sex symbol status throughout the 1960s and 1970s, has died. She was 82 years old.

According to her agent, Stephen LaManna of the talent agency Innovative Artists, Welch died early Wednesday after a brief illness.

Despite having only three lines, Welch’s breakthrough came in the campy prehistoric film “One Million Years B.C.” in 1966. She avoided pterodactyls but not public attention while dressed in a brown doeskin bikini.

“I just thought it was a silly dinosaur epic that we’d be able to sweep under the rug one day,” she told The Associated Press in 1981. “Wrong. It turned out that I was the season’s Bo Derek, the lady in the loin cloth about whom everyone exclaimed, ‘My God, what a bod,’ and they expected me to vanish overnight.”

She didn’t, instead playing Lust in Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s comedy “Bedazzled” in 1967 and a secret agent in the sexy spy spoof “Fathom” that same year.

Raquel Welch Playboy

Raquel Welch’s curves and beauty drew the attention of pop culture, with Playboy crowning her the “most desired woman” of the 1970s despite never being completely naked in the magazine.

She was ranked No. 2 on Men’s Health’s “Hottest Women of All Time” list in 2013. A poster of Welch covers an escape tunnel in the film “The Shawshank Redemption,” the third of three characters Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) used after Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe.

Raquel Welch

TV host Rosie O’Donnell, actor Chris Meloni, and writer-director Paul Feig, who worked with Welch on “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and called her “Kind, funny, and a true superstar whom I was pretty much in love with for most of my childhood,” all took to Twitter to express their condolences. “A true icon has passed away.”

Welch was a singer and dancer in addition to her acting career. She surprised many critics — and received positive feedback — when she replaced a vacationing Lauren Bacall in the Broadway musical “Woman of the Year” in 1981. In 1997, she returned to Broadway with “Victor/Victoria.”

Raquel Welch knew some people did not take her seriously because of her glamorous appearance. “I’m not Penny Marshall or Barbra Streisand,” she said to the Associated Press in 1993. “‘Raquel Welch wants to direct?'” they’ll say. Please give me a break.”‘

Raquel Welch

The Raquel Welch Total Beauty and Fitness Program

Jo-Raquel Tejada was born in Chicago and raised in La Jolla, California. (The Jo in her name comes from her mother, Josephine). When Welch met ex-actor turned press agent Patrick Curtis, she was a divorced mother.

“The irony is that while people thought of me as a sex symbol, I was a single mother of two small children!” “Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage,” her autobiography, says.

Curtis became her manager and second husband, helping shape her into a glam girl with hundreds of magazine covers, films, exercise videos, and books like “The Raquel Welch Total Beauty and Fitness Program.”

Though she would appear in exploitative films, she also surprised many in the industry with strong performances, such as in Richard Lester’s “The Three Musketeers,” for which she received a Golden Globe, and in “Wild Party,” opposite James Coco. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1988 for the television film “Right to Die.” In an episode of “Seinfeld,” she played herself and mocked divas, famously attacking Elaine and rattling Kramer.

Raquel Welch was married and divorced four times and is survived by two children, Damon Welch and Tahnee Welch, who both became actors, including a role in 1985’s “Cocoon.”

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