something secret

Back again. This time  to share  this comment thread  (and specifically the comment below) where I talk about Rashida Jones' comments about "women being whores" and how it relates to Rihanna (because Rihanna is the devil incarnate/Illuminati Queen/Bringer of all that is Evil in the world. Naturally), and the way in which the conversations about "pop stars being whores" always manages to find a BW scapegoat: I also think that it's  imperative  that we talk about racial disparities when we talk about this stuff because sexual expectations  are  just different  for WoC. For WW, virginal is the assumed natural state, and expressions of sexuality are seen as liberating (Madonna). For WoC, crass and oversexed is the assumed natural state, and self motivated expressions of sexuality are seen as a reinforcement of that stereotype. (Rihanna) If we push against it we're prudes, and  how dare we refuse a sexual advance with our ugly black ass selves?...

I've been thinking about writing this post for a while. It was originally conceived as an examination of the "Stripper Anthem" as presented by Nicki Minaj and Rihanna in Beez In The Trap and Pour It Up, as it related to the sexuality and sexualization of black women, but after last week's post on Lily Allen, and some of the... ill-informed responses it received, I realized that there is a different conversation that needs to be had first. That conversation is about the distinction between the exploitation of black women's sexuality for the (white) male consumerist gaze, and a black female celebrity's reclamation of her own sexuality on her own terms. For whatever reason, there seems to some difficulty in grasping the concept that the most significant difference between these two scenarios is agency , and the way in which the presence or lack of agency determines how a display of sexuality is to be perceived and received. To that end, I want to examine the ima...

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 ...

Joss Whedon gave a speech the other day and had some things to say about feminism. A lot of it was problematic , but I won't go into it here because it's already been said , and the fact that he said it is only vaugely related to the point I want to make. See, Joss Whedon is free to say whatever he likes about feminism in a "freedom of speech" kind of way. That is his right. But the arrogance of suggesting that a movement centered on women and their efforts to advance their own causes should refocus itself based on the self-serving suggestion of a cishet white guy is, well.... astronomical. But truthfully, the bigger issue here is not what  he said, but the reaction to what he said. While I don't agree with the nitty gritty of his reasoning, there are legitimate complaints to be made about the word feminist, and the feminist movement. Women of Colour, and black women specifically, created womanism for this very reason; to address the issues that were unique to t...

I'm super tired of having to say this shit, so I'm compiling it here for future reference. For the last time, the google-fu is strong. Harness it. Use it to educate yourself. I am not here to educate you. I found a way to learn without teachers and so can you. Continue Reading My Brilliance! >>>

Because it was apparently  so much fucking fun  when Jezebel did it ,  Gawker  just doubled down  on their "Chris Brown is an asshole for getting raped at 8 years old" narrative. I.... See, this is one of those things that makes PoC go on protracted rants about white people. And I know it's not  all  white people, so please don't start. But the the way that CB has been treated in the media since he beat Rihanna has been tinged with racism from the very start (didn't Charlie Sheen SHOOT a woman?!?!?) and this just confirms that the reason white liberals love to shit on Chris Brown is not because he's an abuser, but because he's a  BLACK  abuser.  In the Guardian article that both pieces reference, CB admits to having been RAPED. He says he lost his virginity at 8.  THAT IS RAPE IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD . But it's okay to doubt his story or minimize his abuse because he's black. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that he gets a ...

To be clear, none of this is a comment on Ms. Miller's individual suitability for the position, but rather a comment on the way in which any and all attempts to call attention to racialized oppression are immediately delegitimized and ignored in Trinidad. It's not about her personally and it never will be. I have nothing bad to say about her because I don't know her. Honestly, I'm inclined to like her despite not knowing her because I so rarely meet another "Catherine." The following tweets are about the way in which people with power respond when the legitimacy that power is questioned. Continue Reading My Brilliance! >>>

I'm currently rewatching the Harry Potter movies, and because  yesterday's discussion  was still on my mind, I realized that Hermione Granger and S.P.E.W. are a great illustrative example of SIFWW! (Or I guess, solidarity is for magical beings...?) I'm not too mad about it because Hermione is amazing and I love her, and also she is  fictional,  but there are some really good parallels for how  poorly we treat  minority women and cultures in trying to "save them". In the novels, after seeing some of the abusive treatment of house elves in the magical world, specifically Winky, house elf to Barty Crouch, Hermione starts the Society For The Protection of Elvish Welfare, aimed at helping house elves gain a living wage, among other things. If you've read the books then you know that house elves are essentially magical slaves who do housework, cleaning and cooking. Scratch that. They  are  slaves. They just don't seem to mind that much.  Now, slav...

The Fashion Week poledance is almost over, and the final tallies are in. Unfortunately, when it comes to racial diversity, the numbers are (as usual)  not very good . Despite campaigning from models like Naomi Campbell and Iman  for more racial diversity in fashion, most of New York's runways remained as white as ever. But one collection stood apart from the crowd. Diane von Furstenberg, queen of the wrap dress, and President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, managed to present her Spring 2014 RTW Collection using a very diverse range of models. HOW REVOLUTIONARY! I kid, of course, but the fact remains that her decision to use models from many different ethnic groups, and not just choose a token Black or Asian model, is  revolutionary in this day and age. The idea that the runway reflecting the demographics of real life could be a positive for the fashion industry is a concept that is unfortunately still quite foreign. And aside from someone obviously ...

I just finished reading this article over on XOJane (filed under "Unpopular Opinions") about burlesque being boring and sexist. As a dancer and sex-positive feminist, the idea of burlesque has always appealed to me, but as I read the article, I realized that I kind of agreed with the author, and it got me thinking: Why is burlesque considered "more feminist" than plain old stripping? It's essentially exactly the same thing, with nicer costumes and maybe a wider, more mainstream appeal and longer documented historical tradition. Now don't get me wrong, I'd choose burlesque over stripping any day, mostly for the costumes and routines ( hey Xtina! ) but I don't know that I think it's any more empowering or feminist. It's getting (nearly) naked. Onstage. For people to look at you. And while it can definitely be fun as a woman to take control of your own sexuality in a society that does everything it can to repress expressions of female sexualit...

About two days after the article went viral, I did a great interview with Sammy Lyon of Feminist Magazine about the original article. It finally went live last Tuesday (yeah, I know, I'm slacking...) and you can  listen to it here , and follow along with the transcript after the jump (provided by an awesome member of GT) because the audio is a little spotty. Or you could just read it I guess... Whatever works for you. I almost didn't do the interview because the trolling got be a little overwhelming, and as someone who detests being the centre of attention, I really really  wanted to pretend that it never happened, and just go hide under the covers for a bit. But my mum convinced me that I if I believed what I had written, (I did) I had a duty to defend it. After all, I had to take my own advice : if your argument can't withstand a few dings, it wasn't a very strong argument to begin with was it? So check it out after the jump! Continue Reading My Brilliance! >>...

It's been two weeks now since I wrote that article , and I couldn't be more glad that it's over. Going viral isn't fun. Even when you have the most innocuous  content people will find a reason to be negative and hateful online. But throw race into it? Nope. Do. Not. Want. So I tried to keep this blog largely quiet in that time. But in the last two weeks I've done a lot of reading. I've done a lot of listening and a lot of paying attention, and I think that this experience was for the better. I definitely learned a lot about my own personal resilience, and about how little the world cares about you when they don't like what you have to say. But that's okay. Because in the last two weeks I've learned more about feminism and intersectionality that I ever thought I could know, and I'm grateful. So many discussions were borne out of this article (that I never thought would be seen outside the virtual gates of GT) and many of them taught me  things. Mo...

I want to discuss something that's been on my mind for a bit. On Sunday night, right after the VMA's, (and before it-which-must-not-be-named), I had a long discussion with my 20 year old brother about why I was offended by Miley's performance. He's not totally up on social justice issues, and doesn't have the same context for this stuff as I do, but he's insightful, and willing to engage and learn. The discussion eventually segued into the nature of the word  racist   and how it is used in conversation of this nature. He thinks that the word racist is " aggressive " and should only used to describe acts and people who do obviously and maliciously racist things (like... lynching I suppose?) because using it to refer to smaller, unintentional acts of racism immediately puts people on the defensive, and makes them unwilling to listen to you and your line of reasoning, even when you're right. Now, while I see his point, and agree with his reasoni...

On Monday 26th August, 2013, I published an article entitled Solidarity Is For Miley Cyrus: The Racial Implications Of Her VMA Performance.  The article quickly went viral, accumulating over one million views, 700 comments, and 100K facebook shares in a little over 24 hours. That does not include the traffic that this blog received from cross-posting the article. Response was divided, but largely positive, with many people emailing me personally to thank me for the piece, and a number of influential people reposting and discussing the article. This is a summary of the events that led up to my writing the article. Continue Reading My Brilliance! >>>

The response to the Miley article has been way, WAY disproportionate to what I was expecting. While I've gotten some really sincere positive feedback, I've also had to deal with some devious trolling and personal attacks, and I'm not really able to deal with all of it on my own. So the comments on this blog (and on the original article over at groupthink) are now closed indefinitely. I will likely never turn the GT comments back on, but the comments here will be back as soon as I think the trolls that have been circling find something else to do with their time. I'm just one person, and I can't deal with all of the moderation on my own, and frankly this whole thing is stressing me out. So I'm taking a mental health sabbatical, and simply making this space a rhetorical one until further notice.  To my new readers, I hope you will stay, and that you find other content here that you find engaging. I haven't forgotten you, and I've very grateful for your eye...

Yesterday's post on Miley's VMA performance and the racism she put on display has gotten way bigger than I ever expected. I originally wrote it for Jezebel's Groupthink forum , then cross posted it here. Between the two, the article has racked up close to 12K shares on facebook, nearly 100K views, and enough tweets that I've been getting follow requests to my private twitter account all day; and the numbers will likely only have grown by the time I hit publish.  But while on a superficial level I'm glad that so many people have read and shared my work, the bigger emotion that overtakes me is relief . Relief that so many people get  it. Relief that so many people understand that there was something very, very wrong with what Miley did onstage that night, and it had nothing to do with her costume. Relief that this many people understood that Miley's performance was not a stand-alone occurrence, but a symptom of a much, much  bigger problem with the way that black...

Editor's Note: The response to this piece has become a little overwhelming and I'm having some trouble trying to reign it all in, but do know that while I may have to deal with derailers and trolls over on Groupthink, I will not tolerate them here. This blog is my safe space and I will not let anonymous commenters change that. I will be heavily moderating the comments of this article, so think before you post. If your comment accuses me of "reverse racism" or includes derogatory remarks. It will be deleted. If you slut shame Miley Cyrus, your comment will be deleted. If you derail the conversation in any way, your comment will be deleted. Be forewarned. As a black woman, I feel like I owe a debt of gratitude to  Mikki Kendall , of  #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen  fame for managing to so perfectly encapsulate years of subjugation of black women by white women. With those five words, she was able to instantly zero in on why  Intersectional  Feminism is so necessary if the ...