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A message directly from Perez:

“This comes from my heart, after much thought.

You may have recently heard about the “#NoKidsPolicy“, a movement spearheaded by several Hollywood stars asking media outlets to avoid using photos of the children of celebrities.

Some of you may be aware of Perezitos.com, my website dedicated to celebrity families, parenting and the beautiful blessings that are children.

Some of you may also be aware that I am humbled and honored to be the father to a one year old son.

The “#NoKidsPolicy” intersects my personal and professional worlds in a very complex way, and I’ve been thinking about how to best publicly address the movement for a while.

If you know me, you know I am a fierce youth advocate. I am a member of the board of directors of the Vh1 Save The Music foundation. I have been actively involved with GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian Straight Education Network, and have spoken to teens at their leadership conference multiple times. I have even written a children’s book, “The Boy With Pink Hair”, which to this day is the thing I have done professionally of which I am most proud.

I strongly support all legislation, some championed and initiated by celebs, that helps protect children.

And, quietly, I have instituted my own internal “Kids” policy over the last few months and changed my practices. However, I realize that now is the time to speak publicly and address where I stand on this important issue.

Last week, People magazine released their thoughts on the “#NoKidsPolicy”. In many ways, they are the bar of the celebrity news industry and you either fall below it or you raise yourself up to it.

I am choosing to raise the bar and follow their lead!

I want to echo some of their points and explicitly state what my sites will and will not do going forward.

Henceforth, all of my five websites…

- Will NOT post even the most happy-looking “paparazzi” photos of the children of celebrities whose parents object to such photo practices
- WILL post photos of any children of celebs if their parents take them to a red carpet, fashion show, media event or something of the like where it is expected and understood they will be photographed
- Will NOT post any photos whatsoever of any children going to or leaving school
- WILL post photos of children that celebs post themselves on social media, photos of children whose parents include them on reality television or do not object to them being photographed by paparazzi at family outings. Many celebs “stage” these pictures and then sell them to paparazzi themselves. Countless do this, and there’s no need to name names.

Additionally, I am instituting a policy internally and sharing it publicly in the hope others will follow. Henceforth, all of my sites will NOT post any photos of celebrities at funerals or going to pay their respects to someone.

After the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, paparazzi was camped outside the home of his longtime girlfriend and mother of his three kids. That just made an already painful time even more painful for her. To have to deal with photographers outside your apartment after their children’s dad died – no one should have to endure that added suffering.

And it saddened me to see that so many mainstream media outlets ran photos of celebs, like Cate Blanchett and JustinTheroux, going to visit Hoffman’s fiancee.

I did not run any of those photos. Nor did I run them when the same thing happened to Michelle Williams.

Hopefully other outlets can respect the feelings of HUMANS who happen to be famous when they are in times of mourning.

I’m not perfect. I’m not a saint. I have made many mistakes in the past. I continue to make them. I will make them in the future.

I’m trying to do better. My intentions are pure.

I started blogging 10 years ago, back in September of 2004, because I love pop culture and am fascinated by celebrities.

I love children.

I want to do my part to make things better for children.

I want to do my part to make things better for all of us.

I’m not trying to be Oprah.

I’m just trying to be the best Perez possible.

With the utmost sincerity,

Perez

P.S. I know this was long. Thank you for reading it all!”

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Felicity Morse: High heels holding women back in business

High heels are to feet what cages are to canaries: as much as they show off the canary, they enslave and damage the bird. For years women have been infatuated with this form of footwear, yet now we’re realising we’ve been writing love letters to our own prison guards.

Sex and the City’s Kristin Davis is the latest high-profile figure to turn her back on stiletto servitude. Earlier this week she apologised for encouraging women to wear high heels, telling the Sunday Telegraph:  “I do feel guilt about the heels. It did seem we were trying to say to women, ‘You should be wearing heels like these’. But we definitely weren’t. Were they beautiful shoes? Yes. Were they appropriate for the characters? Yes, that’s what women like that wear. But it became a bigger picture thing, where it seemed women should be wearing them every day.”

Squeezing our feet into these fashion bastilles can lead to irreparable damage. High heels force our spine and hips out of alignment, they pile pressure on our fragile knee joints, they cause abnormality in the heels (the gruesome sounding affliction ‘Haglund’s deformity’) as well as inflaming tissue on the soles of the feet and shortening muscles. Up to a third of women suffer permanent problems as a result of wearing high heels. Sarah Jessica Parker recently admitted going to a foot doctor who told her “‘your foot does things it shouldn’t be able to. That bone there – you’ve created that bone. It doesn’t belong there’.”

We are told sliding into high heels makes us feel powerful, taller, stylish, and more feminine. Manolo Blahnik has said that heels “makes life more exciting.. it’s about elegance…If you are a woman, it’s a way to appeal to the male species, it’s a way to attract.” Even scientists have set out to prove that high heels make us look sexier.

Historically it was never so, but for generations now, high heels have been associated with eroticism.  This form of footwear has moved from being a fetish into a fashion item and now high heels are practically an obligation for some working women. It is this that is most worrying, and has the potential to do the exact opposite of what retailers promise when they sell us their tall tales. This consumerist construct has teetered so far into la-la land that women are now choosing to wear high heels for interviews, believing heels make them look “business like”, well-presented and competent. Some bosses even expect us to wear heels, as a TUC report highlighted. But the truth is, we’re crippling ourselves. Plus there’s nothing well-put together about trotting ten paces behind your male colleague to make it to a meeting on time. Or having your handbags stuffed with a pair of flats instead of a laptop. It’s concerning that our daughters are copying us too, with one primary school in Inverness reporting that children as young as eight were turning up to class in high heels.

Today, high heels are one of the only items of clothing (excluding lingerie) made exclusively for women. There is nothing empowering about that. Let’s get men to look us in the eye because they respect us, not because we’re in six- inch heels.

The Independent

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