something secret

I joined OKCupid at the beginning of September; a little out of boredom, a little out of curiosity, and a little out of desperation, and it's been... an  interesting  experience so far. It's surprisingly hard to meet new people at this age. All of your old friends have either moved away or grown apart, and without the guarantee you had in college of constantly being around compatriots all day, it's really easy to find yourself spending a lot of time alone. If you know me, then you know that I don't do well alone. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine being on my own, and being an ambivert  means that as much as I love being around people, social interactions wear on me quickly, and I need to crawl back into my hole fairly often to recharge. The problem arises when there's no one around when I'm ready to crawl out again. So I took the plunge. I signed up, added a picture, filled out my profile, and answered some questions. And then I waited. And then I got a few r...

There's almost nothing I like more than a good Disney remix , so naturally I swooned when I saw these. This time around, the lovely princess swap digs with their man friends, making for some really cute menswear approximate looks. My favourite ones so far are Tiana as Naveen (above), Belle as the Beast , Jane as Tarzaan , and Megara as Hercules . They're really great illustrations and a lot of fun. Artist Haruki Godo does a really great job of bringing a more original concept to the Disney fan art genre. Check out the rest of the series on his Deviant Art page.

Well, I had so much fun reviewing #CNTM that I'm back for more, this time with the new docu-drama Glambition , filmed in Trinidad, and airing Tuesday nights on Synergy TV. I didn't initially know a lot about the series, so I missed the initial pilot broadcast, but caught up later online. The 20 minute episode was.... interesting  to say the least. If I'm being honest? I wasn't impressed. The entire thing feels like a contrived, rehashed, bootleg version of The Hills, and that show got cancelled. The show is poorly edited, voice overs are stiltingly delivered, cuts are jumpy and obvious, transitions are jarring, there's a lot of repeated information.... production wise, it's a mess. And that's just the beginning. There is that strange stilted feeling throughout; cast members on budding realities shows tend to be hyper-aware of the camera's presence. The few actual conversations were constructed in such a way as to feel almost scripted. We've always k...

Sometimes a human story is all it takes. Not having read the novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie , I went into the screening of TTFF2013 's opening night film, Half Of A Yellow Sun  on Tuesday last, completely blind in terms of characterization and plot. The film, starring Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor, was making it's Trinidadian debut after premiering in the Toronto International Film Festival the week before.  The story is set in Nigeria during the Nigerian-Biafran war of 1967-1970, and focuses largely on the personal relationship between Olanna and Odenigbo, (Newton and Ejiofor respectively) and their struggle to survive during the a bloody civil war. The couple go through familiar relationship rigors; testy in-laws, infidelity, hints at infertility; but they decide to commit to each other fully in a world that is crumbling around them, where the people they love are here one day and gone the next in frequently increasing air strikes that result from the war. I...

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...

When Blurred Lines has been declared the Song of the Summer , and We Can't Stop is breaking records, you know it's been a hard few months in popular music. But never fear! The last few weeks have given us reprieve, and all is right in the world again. Here are three great albums to listen to immediately if you need a palate cleanse from the summer that failed music. They've been on repeat on my iTunes for days now and I'm obsessed. Love In The Future: John Legend Love In The Future is John Legend's fourth studio album, and in my personal opinion, a major improvement on his 2010 offering Evolver.  On Love In The Future , John Legend goes back to his R&B/Gospel roots and brings back that deep heartfelt voice and simply sweet piano ballads that made me fall in love with him back in 2004. There's an emotional heaviness to the album. This is the lyrical output of a man in love, heavily contrasted with the soulful moaning musicality on tracks like Made To Love  a...

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...