Demi Lovato has been slowly making her way back onto social media as she continues her recovery from an overdose back in July. But like the Lovato we’ve always known and loved, she’s not afraid to use her voice and platform to call out things she takes issue with—especially when it comes to body issues.
Today (January 4), she’s taking Instagram and the makers of a game called Game of Sultans to task for a rather horrifying ad that popped up in her feed. In the ad for the video, women are categorized as either “pretty” or “obese” with users apparently choosing what the women can eat—including a “controlled” diet of broccoli. “Why is this fat shaming bullsh*t on my feed?” Lovato asked in an Instagram Story. “So many things wrong with this ad.”
She goes on to correctly point out that “you can be ‘pretty’ at any weight.”
PHOTO: Instagram/@ddlovato
“This is absolutely harmful to anyone who is easily influenced by societal pressures put on us by diet culture to constantly be losing weight in a world that teaches us to equate our value and worth with the way we look and especially anyone in recovery from an eating disorder,” she continued. “Especially when eating disorders are all about control.”
PHOTO: Instagram/@ddlovato
“So please Instagram, keep this bullsh*t off mine and others’ feeds who could easily be affected by this disgusting advertisement,” she wrote. “With how aware people are becoming of mental health and mental illnesses, I expect you guys to know better by allowing this advertisement to be allowed on your app. And shame on the game.”
PHOTO: Instagram/@ddlovato
It’s insane to me that this sort of game even exists, let alone that its distributor is allowed to advertise it on one of the largest social platforms in the world. The overt fat shaming is indeed incredibly harmful, as Lovato points out, and the categorization of women in this way is deeply reductive.
Many thanks to Demi for calling them out. Let’s hope this keeps other young women from being subjected to such a hurtful piece of media.
North Dakota Democrat Heidi Heitkamp was already in a tough battle to retain her senate seat in a state that President Donald Trump won by 36 points. And now a mistake by her campaign could be costing her more votes.
Earlier this week, Heitkamp’s campaign published a newspaper ad that was meant to serve as a rebuttal to her Republican opponent Kevin Cramer, but ended up naming sexual assault survivors without their permission or misidentifying them altogether. Cramer has come under fire for his comments about the #MeToo movement in the New York Times. He questioned whether “you’re just supposed to believe somebody because they said it happened.”
“They cannot understand this movement toward victimization,” Cramer said, referencing the women in his life, including his mom, wife and daughters. “They are pioneers of the prairie. These are tough people whose grandparents were tough and great-grandparents were tough.”
The letter was supposed to show Cramer “what prairie tough looks like.” It included signatures from more than 120 women who were supposed to be survivors of “domestic violence, sexual assault, or rape.” But once it went public, some women came forward saying they either weren’t survivors or had never given permission for their information to be used.
The campaign quickly apologized. “We recently discovered that several of the women’s names who were provided to us did not authorize their names to be shared or were not survivors of abuse,” Heitkamp said in a statement. “I deeply regret this mistake and we are in the process of issuing a retraction, personally apologizing to each of the people impacted by this and taking the necessary steps to ensure this never happens again.”
But, that may not be enough. “I don’t know what she [Heitkamp] could do that would make it better,” Lexi Zhorela, a self-identified liberal and one of the women named in the ad, told CNN. “I know that’s why a lot of the people in this situation are reaching out to seek legal counsel because of, you know, what she did is wrong.” She went on to call the mistake “reckless” and said, “You know, the names that didn’t want to be out there are already out there for the world to see. You can’t really retract that, the damage is done.”
And, as of now, Heitkamp has lost her vote, according to CNN.
Heitkamp has been vocal in her support of survivors, including voting “no” on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. She has also spoken out about her own mother’s experience. “I think it’s wonderful that his [Cramer’s] wife has never had an experience, and good for her, and it’s wonderful his mom hasn’t,” she said previously to the Times. “My mom did. And I think it affected my mom her whole life. And it didn’t make her less strong.”
It remains to be seen how this misstep will ultimately affect Heitkamp’s poll numbers, but the issue is almost certain to come up in her first debate with Cramer Thursday night.
A new T.V. spot in one of the country’s hottest Senate races aims to show voters that the guy tough enough to do the job is…the woman already doing it.
In her latest ad, North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp—who’s in a serious fight to hang on to her job in November’s election—makes her pitch while casually arm-wrestling a mountain of a man in a muscle shirt.
“Maybe this is how we should decide elections, because it couldn’t get much more ridiculous,” says the Democratic incumbent in the spot, which her campaign shared with Glamour ahead of its official launch.
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Heidi Heitkamp for Senate ad
Heitkamp puts the verbal smackdown on her real-life opponent during the phony arm-wrestling match, telling viewers Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer wants them “to believe that I’m anti-veteran, pro-taxes, and against prosecuting illegal immigrants who commit crimes. Are you kidding me? That’s about as silly and fake as this T.V. ad,” she says.
“I approve this message because I’ve fought every day for North Dakota—and Kevin, I’m just getting warmed up,” Heitkamp closes before slamming the big guy’s arm down on the table.
“Here in North Dakota, we look each other in the eyes and tell the truth—that’s what I learned growing up in Mantador and that’s what I’ve always done as North Dakota’s senator,” Heitkamp told Glamour in an email via her campaign. “But Congressman Cramer apparently doesn’t share those values. I didn’t think it’d come to arm wrestling, but I’ll always fight tooth and nail for North Dakota.”
Republicans would love to replace Heitkamp with one of their own, giving them a stronger hold on the Senate. But recent polls show Heitkamp losing ground to Cramer in North Dakota, a state where Republican President Donald Trump got a whopping 63 percent of the vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 27 percent in 2016.
The latest Cook Political Report analysis calls the race a toss-up in an election that’s seen as a referendum on not just the GOP, but the president himself. Trump endorsed Cramer—whose campaign includes promises to keep cutting taxes and regulations—months ago.
Just Thursday, Heitkamp, North Dakota’s former attorney general, came out against confirming Trump’s controversial Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, potentially riling voters a month out from the November 6 midterms.
“If this were a political decision for me I certainly would be deciding the other way,” Heitkamp told local T.V. station WDAY of her choice to oppose Kavanaugh in a Senate vote that could come in just days.
“History will judge you, but most importantly you will judge yourself, and that is what I am saying: I can’t get up in the morning and look at the life experience I have had and say ‘yes’ to Judge Kavanaugh,” said Heitkamp, who did vote in favor of confirming Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch.
Cramer, by contrast, has called college professor Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the 1980’s “even more absurd” than the harassment charges Anita Hill made against then-SCOTUS nominee Clarence Thomas.
“These are teenagers who evidently were drunk, according to her own statement,” Cramer was quoted as saying in a radio interview regarding Ford’s claim that Kavanaugh attacked her at a party when they were in high school. “They were drunk. Nothing evidently happened in it all, even by her own accusation. Again, it was supposedly an attempt or something that never went anywhere.”
In a separate T.V. appearance, Cramer also reportedly said even if Ford’s claim’s were true, the judge shouldn’t be out of consideration for a Supreme Court seat just because “he did something really bad 36 years ago.” The congressman did say, however, that he felt Kavanaugh should be disqualified if he lied about the incident under oath, “because that’s what he’s doing today, not 36 years ago.”
Team Heitkamp tells Glamour it’s spending six figures to put the deliberately campy arm-wrestling ad on statewide television and on the web. According to NBC News, the senator is also going to air with another spot that plays up her political independence in the wake of her announcement about opposing Kavanaugh.
Heitkamp’s latest spots joins the reel of ads and viral videos, some light-hearted, some personal and serious, put out by female candidates on both sides of the aisle in a cycle that’s seen a historic number of women nominated for Senate, the House, and governor.
However, she’s not the first woman contender to do battle on air with a male adversary: Sharice Davids, a Democratic lawyer running for Congress in Kansas, put out a clip this spring that showed her in the ring in a nod to her time as a pro MMA fighter.
Celeste Katz is senior political reporter for Glamour. Send news tips, questions, and comments to celeste_katz@condenast.com.
In a pivotal election year, Glamour is keeping track of the historic number of women running (and voting) in the midterm elections. For more on our latest midterm coverage, visit www.glamour.com/midterms.
Cara Delevingne is officially a triple threat. She continues to kill it on every runway imaginable (see: Paris this season, where Ashley Benson was in the front row to watch). She’s set to star in the upcoming Amazon Prime video series Carnival Row, opposite Orlando Bloom next year. And as the face of Burberry’s new fragrance, Her, which drops today, Delevingne also proves to have a decent set of pipes. She sings a little ditty for the scent’s TV campaign (listen for yourself down below). Talk about talent.
We caught up with the 26-year-old stunner in her hometown of London to chat about her self-love beauty secrets and the tricks that keep her happy and glowing—on the small screen, red carpet, and everywhere in between.
Glamour: What’s your beauty philosophy?
Cara Delevingne: Not to label yourself or care about what other people think. It’s about being confident in who you are, what you wear, and what you look like. That’s easier said than done, but I think it’s something we should live by. And we need to praise each other. By lifting others up, we lift ourselves up.
Glamour: Is there anything that gives you a fast pick-me-up?
CD: When I’ve had a really long day, a fragrance can lift my spirits. Burberry Her reminds me of a happy person, carefree and living life to the fullest. And I always carry a mascara. I like having those really spiky Twiggy lashes that frame your eyes. When you’re tired, people don’t see that, they’re looking at your eyelashes.
Glamour: Any other products you love?
CD: Dior skin care has really made a difference in how tired my skin looks. I’m only 26, but I travel a lot and deal with eye bags. It keeps my skin looking fresh.
PHOTO: Juergen Teller
Cara Delevingne for Burberry Her
Glamour: You do a lot of advocacy work for young women. How would you like to see the definitions of beauty and sexuality change?
CD: Everyone’s idea of themselves, sexuality, femininity, and what it is to be human is different. The more we’re honest with each other, the more we can grow. Through acceptance and communication, we can better understand one another.
Glamour: What is your healthiest habit?
CD: I meditate, and I do yoga as much as I can. I try to do it twice a day, but sometimes I prefer to be sleeping.
Glamour: What’s your least healthy habit?
CD: Being hard on myself. Even if I do something I should be proud of, I automatically disregard it. I get scared about what other people think, and that’s bad. It’s something I’m working to change.
Glamour: How so?
CD: Realizing that the mistakes you make don’t define who you are, and that it’s OK to be angry, to be upset, to not be happy all the time. It’s OK to not smile if you don’t want to smile. It’s about learning to accept yourself.
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Shop Cara’s Essentials:
Shop it: Burberry Her Eau de Parfum Spray, $94, macys.com
Shop it: Rimmel London Wonder’Fully Real Mascara, $6, target.com
On Thursday Christine Blasey Ford will testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about the allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982. Women around the country have taken to social media over the past week to voice their support of Ford, even staging the National #BelieveSurvivors Walkout on Monday.
Now it’s time for the men to step up.
Today’s New York Times features a full-page ad with the headline, “We believe Anita Hill. We also believe Christine Blasey Ford,” plastered along the top. The ad echoes one placed in the paper back in 1991 when 1,600 African American women in support of Anita Hill—the law professor who testified during the Clarence Thomas nomination hearings—banded together to buy the ad, “African American Women in Defense of Ourselves.”
The ad was crowdfunded in an initiative started last Friday by Meena Harris, founder of the Phenomenal Women Action Campaign, and Alicia Garza, cofounder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network. Their goal was to raise $100,000. Currently, their fund-raising page notes that over $134,000 has been donated. (The page notes that excess funds will go to Futures Without Violence, a group dedicated to ending violence against women, children, and families around the world.)
“I had been very inspired by the story of the 1,600 black women who came together in 1991 to take out a full-page ad in The New York Times,” Harris (who also happens to be the niece of California Senator Kamala Harris) told Mic.
“We’ve asked men to step up [and sign], so it’s not only the burden of women to do this,” she continued.
The full text of the ad references its inspiration, as well:
Twenty-seven years ago, on November 17, 1991, 1,600 black women joined together and placed a full-page ad in The New York Times to support Professor Anita Hill when she faced backlash for accusing Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. They called it, ‘African American Women in Defense of Ourselves.’ Today we follow in the footsteps of those courageous women.
We are 1,600 men who now stand behind both Professor Anita Hill, as well as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, because we believe them. As men who are allies in the fight to end violence and harassment against women and girls, we write to express our strong support of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford for her willingness to speak out publicly and testify before the Senate about the sexual assault that she says was perpetrated against her by Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh.
We believe survivors, and we call on all men of good will to stand with us to ensure that Dr. Blasey Ford’s story is carefully and fully examined without bias or prejudice. It is imperative that the politics of this moment not discolor the facts. Justice demands that both Dr. Blasey Ford and her story be treated fairly, impartially, and with respect.
Too frequently, survivors of sexual assault are forced to suffer in silence. Those that choose to speak out often face backlash, skepticism, and ridicule. As we’ve seen once again the last few weeks, that kind of virulent backlash is most acutely on display whenever those accused of misdeeds are powerful men. If appointed to the Supreme Court, few men would be more powerful than Judge Kavanaugh.
We are a group of men with varying political and legal views. But we each believe women should no longer have to carry these burdens alone.
For decades, a culture of misogyny has allowed men to act with impunity and without consequence. We demand an end to that culture, and we pledge to do our part in dismantling it. That’s why we are speaking out today in favor of a just process, and for the rights of women like Dr. Blasey Ford to be heard fully, fairly, and with respect.
In the words of Anita Hill, ‘There is no way to redo 1991, but there are ways to do better.'”
Male allies are also sharing the ad and its message across their social media platforms.
Nike’s latest advertisement will give you both goosebumps and teary eyes. Why? Because it features a home video of a young Serena Williams training with her dad and first trainer, Richard.
The ad, entitled “Voice of Belief,” begins with vintage footage of the tennis icon and her father training at a tennis court, filmed when she was nine years old, according to ESPN reporter Darren Rovell. “This is you at the U.S. Open. This is you,” he says, before she serves. The film then cuts to an older Williams completing the serve and playing at the actual U.S. Open while her father’s voiceover continues. “Boom!” he says. “Very good. Keep that service motion you have. Right there, good.” As he continues coaching her, the older Williams completes all the tennis shots that her father was talking her through back in 1991. The film ends with a cut back to Williams’ childhood footage, her father repeating, “This is you” as she perfects her serve. “Very good, Serena Williams,” he says, as the ad switches to a black screen that says, “It’s only a crazy dream until you do it.”
Watch it for yourself, below:
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This isn’t the only Serena Williams support Nike has put out over the past couple days. Last Friday news broke of the French Tennis Federation imposing a new dress code for the French Open. The FTF singled out Williams’ black Nike catsuit, which she’d worn to prevent blood clots (like the ones she experienced after giving birth). A day later, Nike released a response featuring the tennis star competing in that very same catsuit, captioned, “You can take the superhero out of her costume, but you can never take away her superpowers. #justdoit.”
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