something secret

Today, I finally saw the Paula Patton led movie, Baggage Claim , and it was.... a predictably mediocre romantic comedy. Girl meets guy, girl wants ring, guy cheats, girl shame spirals and tries to get any one of several ex-boyfriend to propose, girl's plan fails, girl realizes the right guy was (literally) next door the whole time. And, fin.  So, terrible. I did like the man-candy though. But what stuck out to me in this film was Jill Scott's character Gail, best friend to Patton's Montgomery. Gail, a fellow flight attendant, is like Scott, plus-sized and busty. But she's also blatantly sexual. From the first few scenes of the movie, we establish that Gail is "that girl"; the one who has no shame and chases after her men the way she chases her drinks. Normally, the idea of yet another hypersexualized black female character would irritate me, but this was different. We have very specific narratives for how we interact with black women in the media. We get the ...

I'm.... conflicted about this video.  Lily Allen has always been a bit of a socially progressive, feminist badass, and I do love her for that. In her new single "Hard Out Here", Allen discusses the state of the pop industry, and the impossible standards that women are held to in order to be allowed to progress. The lyrics are classic Lily Allen; she calls out sexism pretty blatantly, and points to the ways in which women are expected to conform in order to succeed: If I told you about my sex life, you'd call me a slut/When boys be talking about their bitches no one's making a fuss/There's a glass ceiling to break/There's money to make/ And now it's time to speed it up because I can't move at this pace. [...]  If you're not a size 6, then you're not good looking/Well you better be rich or be real good at cooking/You should probably lose some weight 'cause we can't see your bones/You should probably fix your face or you'll end up ...

Last week, I read a great article  by Nichole Perkins on Buzzfeed that talked about the way the character development of the leading ladies of both Scandal and Sleepy Hollow were working towards dismantling the harmful depictions of "strong black women" in media. It was a great read, and I loved that someone else shared my conclusions about Olivia Pope's characterization.  What stuck out to me however, was Perkins' characterization of Gabourey Sidibe's character Queenie  on American Horror Story Coven as a negative embodiment of the "strong black woman" stereotype. She says: "Then there is Gabourey Sidibe as Queenie on  American Horror Story: Coven , a “human voodoo doll” whose supernatural power is the inability to feel pain, even as she inflicts said pain onto someone else. [...]  These Strong Black Women feel no emotional pain, tolerate severe physical trauma with no reaction, and menace others with stone faces." I love American Horror Stor...

These days, I approach all media critically as a matter of course. It comes naturally to me to look for the symbolism and coded messages present in any body of work. When people create, it's with an eye for transmitting a message; a way to convey their interpretation of the world, and the exciting thing about television and films is delving into those varied perspectives. But I've just come from seeing the film  Gravity  for the first time and all I can say is, "WOW." I'm not entirely sure I'm able to form a cohesive thought about this movie because I'm so in awe. The entire movie is like a slow motion ballet; elegant and graceful. The film's stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, float through the air like lithe nymphs acting out a play. And yet there are moments of such emotional intensity that it's almost unbearable. Gravity  is beautifully shot. It is absolutely wonderful to look at, and it really gives weight to the majesty and vast intensit...

Last night's episode of Scandal was too much to handle on a number of levels. There was a ton going on, and if you blinked too often you probably missed half of it. But what stood out the most to me this week, was the incremental development of the souring relationship between FLOTUS Mellie Grant, and her husband, POTUS Fitzgerald Grant.  At the beginning of the season, I made a case for why Mellie doesn't deserve the bad reputation she's gotten, and this week, I think we got a little more information to back up my case. Bellamy Young's fantastic performance gave Mellie an emotional depth that I'm so glad we're finally getting to explore.  Firstly, Mellie still loves Fitz. There is no question about that. It is fact, and it becomes even more obvious as the weeks roll by. For whatever reason, Mellie loves her abusive asshole of a husband, and she wants things to work out between them. To me this episode, specifically her drunk speech in the dining room, shows th...

This post is painfully overdue! It's been about a week and a half now since Britney's video for her new single "Work Bitch" dropped, and I have some thoughts! Many thoughts. Critical commentary thoughts! Let's get cracking. This song is terrible. There's no getting around that. But I actually really like the video; it's fun and energetic, and it at least makes a show of trying to return Britney to her former glory, but it never quite manages to get to "peak Britney." Firstly, the dancing. Oh good lord the dancing.... Britney's always been a bit of a one trick pony when it comes to choreography. She's lots of arms, torso and face. That's fine, but she's been doing that since 1999, and her repertoire needs a little updating. But all of that could be overlooked if she still had the same intensity of Toxic era Britney. I know that she has a knee injury a few years back and hasn't really been as physically capable since, but there...

It irks me that people (usually black men) keep saying that black women shouldn't love Olivia Pope because she is flawed. "Flawed" in this case usually equals "having an affair with a white guy". They don't realize it, but the concentrated hate that they hold for her is steeped in a very specific kind of racialized misogyny . Walter White was no hero, but somehow we managed to love him. Dexter was a serial killer  and yet, we lauded him too. What do they have in common? You guessed it. Men. White  men. Who also happened to be anti-hero characters whose virtues were valued alongside their flaws. But I'm going to set that aside for now. I'm a black woman and I LOVE Scandal. I am not blind to Olivia's flaws. I love her  because she has flaws.  Black women are so severely underrepresented in media that Kerry Washington's role has garnered a considerable amount of attention simply because she is a black woman in a lead role of a network televisi...

Like most true Scandal fans, I've re-watched both seasons of the show (twice!) in preparation for the glorious even that occurs tonight: the Scandal Season 3 premiere. Scandal is a show with many, many villains and very few true heroes, and that complexity has appealed to millions of people. The one thing that many people seem to agree on however, is the general terribleness of Mellie Grant, First Lady and wife to President Fitzgerald Grant; the man who is also Olivia Pope's lover. Audiences see Mellie as the obstacle keeping Olivia from her true love, and a bitch in her own right for her many behind the scenes machinations; both personal and political. But I have sympathy for her. I actually really like Mellie, and I think she's get an unfair level of hate. Hear me out: Mellie is definitely a problematic, sometimes amoral person. Remember Nobody Likes Babies ? But she's not the denizen of evil that people make her out to be. She's a complex character just as much a...

I've been discussing the  #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen  hashtag over on Jezebel for the better part of two days now, and I've noticed that a lot of people had been replying to me in the threads to say that they didn't know, or didn't really understand what happened with this Hugo Schwyzer debacle, so I figured I'd compile all the best links I could find and post them into one spot (off the Gawker server) so people can browse them as they see fit.  First, a (slightly edited) summary, from the comment I posted on Jezebel's  pitiful response  of an article:  Basically Hugo Schwyzer wormed his way into feminist spaces and used white feminists as a shield against criticism for his racism from WoC. Feminist WoC complained, Hugo blackballed and harassed them, and the WoC were labelled troublemakers for making a fuss.   Come to find, last week HS basically has a meltdown on twitter, and  admits  that Yes! He is a racist, misogynistic fuck, and he knew ...

It's SUMMER TIME! Or, you know, Thursday for my local readers . Either way, the appropriate reaction is to... hole up in your room and binge watch television shows! Naturally. Thanks to the internet I watch approximately 500% more television than I used to, (conflicting schedules be damned!) and while it means I don't get nearly enough sleep, I've found a lot of great shows over the last few seasons. Some of these shows are available on Netflix, but a few of them are still in season one and aren't available yet. To catch up on those, you definitely shouldn't click here to watch them for free online under any circumstance.... So, anyway... this is my list of shows that you have to watch this summer because I want more people to talk about them with  because I said so. The list is arranged by "likelihood anyone reading this will actually start watching the show" ordered from least likely to most likely. These are all seriously great shows, and are some of m...

In the short time I spent as a fashion tourist in the US, I noticed that "uniform" is a dirty word. While school uniforms were a pretty normal part of my childhood growing up, (both in primary and secondary school), in the US, uniforms seem to be a cultural signifier of private schools and the upper crust; a shorthand descriptor of strict Catholic schools stripping teens of their individuality with dowdy pleated skirts and plaid ties. The idea is so pervasive that hundreds of teen movies employ the trope. How do you know the new private school student is a social rebel? They refuse to conform. They reject the uniform, and refuse to wear it as requested. It's so common, it's cliché. But when it comes to fashion, choices and practicality, I think there's a serious case to be made in defense of uniforms. Adult uniforms aren't quite the same as prep school pleats, but uniforms have practical advantages. Who doesn't love not having to worry about what to wear e...

If you've been anywhere near social media in the last few days then you've probably already seen or heard about Dove's latest campaign effort: The Dove "Real Beauty" Sketches. The sketches are presented as a "social experiment" to show women that they are "more beautiful than they think." A forensic artist draws two sketches of each woman: one drawn from descriptions she gives of herself, the other from a stranger's description of her features. We then sit back in awe as the woman in question is presented with both sketches; confronted with the fact that she is perceived to be significantly more  attractive  than she considers herself to be. Now, I've taken Dove to task for this campaign before (in fact that post remains the most read and visited post on this blog, week after week, more than 6 months later) but I think that it bears repeating why this campaign, while clearly well-intentioned, is horribly misguided. I'll even admit ...

via  CNTM Stephany photographed by Pedro Virgil I'll spoil it for you now. Both Trudy and Susan were eliminated and only Stephany and Treveen remain. There really isn't much more to say about it other than that, so we'll skip straight to the recap. Stephany continues to surprise me. While I'm not completely convinced that she's ready for the kind of work that CNTM should  be preparing her for, she's been creeping up in the ranks. She improves every week, and  has been focusing on improving rather than interpersonal drama. She's slowly convincing me that she's a contender. This shot is one her strongest to date. It's dramatic and eye-catching, but I can't be sure that that is due to her skill as a model. I am confident that she has a future in modelling however. She has an incredible presence and continues to show that she would be pleasant to work with. Going into the finale, I'm cautiously putting my bets on Curacao. I'm beginning to th...

via CNTM A still from Stephany's winning CHI nailpolish commercial My biddies, I apologize for this very late review. This week has been hectic, and unfortunately it meant that CNTM dropped to the bottom of my list of priorities. I promise, I did not forget you. But since episode seven airs tonight, and as of yet the footage from the models' commercials has not been made available online, this will be a very abbreviated review. Honestly, the only thing I really  want to talk about this week was Athaliah's unceremonious ejection in favour of Susan in the bottom two last week. Now, Athaliah has garnered herself very few fans over the course of this season, and I would hardly count myself among them, but she did not deserve to be eliminated so early. That is simply a fact. And to send her home in favour of keeping a girl who has yet to take a good picture on purpose, well... I'm every bit as pissed as Athaliah must have been. I think we can all agree that Athaliah is an...

via  CNTM Trudy photographed by Calvin French I always start these posts off with a ton of preamble, and it makes the reviews rather long, so this week, I'm trying to make a conscious effort to cut down on the word count. But before I get to the reviews, I want to call attention to something that I'm sure went over most people's heads: this entire shoot was done in redface, and that is NOT OKAY . Naturally I blame the producers of the show for not thinking, even for a second, that this might be problematic, but I'm a little disappointed that none of the girls pointed it out. (Or maybe they did and it was edited out? Let's pretend that happened.) Other people have said it more eloquently than I, (specifically as it relates to Native Americans in the US, however the lesson translates well) but the basics are this: to be Amerindian is an identity. It is not a costume. It is the very essence of who the indigenous people are. To reduce their existence to a homogeneous ...

It's been a week, and the season finale of GIRLS was still a little more than I can handle. After  On All Fours,  and all of the spectacular shame spiraling that occurred, I was weirdly looking forward to some season-ending closure for these girls: some indication that they had learned something from this season of hardship and emotional struggle. But, nope. All we got was more of the same. Hannah's self indulgence, Marnie's near deliberate obtuseness, Shoshanna's innocence (more on this in a bit), and Jessa's flightiness. The finale made sense in the context of this season's larger story arcs, but it leaves the audience, (okay, me) with a sense of dissatisfaction. With the exception of Shoshanna, each of the players is essentially right back where they started in the pilot, and it feels like regression much more than progress. Continue Reading My Brilliance! >>>

via  CNTM Stephany photographed by Marvin Bartley This week was... interesting. There were a lot of problems that had nothing to do with the girls, but can we just agree that the drama between them is just too draining to be worth mentioning anymore? Kendra, you are not humble if you talk about how humble you are. Athaliah, someone not asking excuse, while rude, is not a capital offense. Calm down. Lisa, stop with the passive-aggressiveness. It's not cute. And all of you, leave poor Treveen alone please. There's a reason she's shooting past the rest of you while you battle for a spot in the bottom two. Top Model is a  family franchise . There is no reason TV6 should have to place a parental guidance warning before the show. Tone it down ladies.  But as we mention the bottom two, can we please discuss how completely messed up the call out order was this week?  AGAIN?  Somebody on that judging panel is hitting that Jesus Juice a little hard. I won't say who, but it rhymes...

via  CNTM Treveen photographed by Kerron Riley Oh my darling biddies, I'm sorry to say that I missed everything but the judging this week, so I have little to say about the models' interpersonal drama. Unfortunately that means that this week, I'll have to base this review exclusively on the their performance in the photoshoot. I know! Comment très ennuyeux! But that can't be helped. Let's get on with it.  It seems Treveen has once again found herself at the top of the pack and with good reason! This shot has all the  Charima Uniquness Nerve and Talent  you could ask for. Treveen is engaged with her body and in her face, she's interacting with the other characters in frame, and she still manages to stand out amongst all the feathers. I can easily see this as an ad for Trinidad Carnival, as it fantastically captures the idea of interacting with a new culture, while also being wary of it. In this shot, Treveen has accomplished the near impossible: she looks demure ...

The discussion continues! What say you about the peacock blogger wars?  As Christina of Profresh Style detailed earlier this week, tolerance for snotty, entitled bloggers is at an all time low. A lot of this stems from the peacocking behavior of bloggers at fashion weeks. There are interesting arguments/justifications for this phenomenon on both sides of the fence, but have we gotten to the point where bloggers consider themselves to be legitimate fashion celebrities, with the egos and attitudes to match?  What do you think?

via Afrobella With all the controversy surrounding Django Unchained upon its release, I purposely waited until after awards season to watch and review the movie. As much as I love getting into the thick of things, I'd already  seen and read so much about the merits and failings of Quentin Tarantino's latest offering that I knew that there was no way I could love or hate it in a void. I needed distance. So now, two weeks after the airing of the 85th Annual Academy Awards (at which Django won for Best Original Screenplay ), I'm finally sitting down to ruminate on how I felt about this movie. I almost don't know what to say about Django Unchained, but I will say this: I didn't hate it. I've never seen any of Quentin Tarantino's other films. From the trailers alone , he seems to specialize in a kind of overwrought, violent camp that does not appeal to me. But Django was his first directorial credit since 2009's Inglorious Bastards, the film featured several ...