something secret

I've been meaning to get back to my Soundtrack Saturday polyvore posts for absolutely ages now, (seriously, it's been months...) so when I saw that tech giant HP, and local darling, designer, and winner of Project Runway Season 9, Anya Ayoung Chee were collaborating with Polyvore  in a contest to celebrate the debut of her Spring/Summer 2013 collection Carnival of Colour , I thought that now was as good a time as any to get back on the horse. For what it's worth, I'm loving Anya's new collection. True to her aesthetic, it's full of breezy relaxed pieces infused with strikingly bold prints. You can't have a Carnival of colour without the COLOUR can you! My personal favourite piece is the gorgeous floor length dress in the bottom left corner. The cut is fabulous and flattering and the print is stunning. My only complaint? There is no way I could wear that dress with my massive boobs and not offend someone! The busty gals love your designs too Any...

via fashion gone rogue Yasmin le Bon by Robert Harper Do you love those eyebrows or do you love those eyebrows? I love covers like this because they really pull you in with barely any effort at all. Magazine ad space is sold on the strength of its cover, so it's no surprise that editors work so hard to create visuals that are so compelling and arresting. It's simple, but effective.

via fashion gone rogue Tamara by Javier Lovera I'm a sucker for bright colours. Between that electric manicure and those amazing ombre lips, this beauty shot is all kinds of perfection. I especially love the lips. I've been trying to achieve something similar on my own for weeks, but as I have nowhere to go, the sense of urgency to succeed isn't really there...

In which I post another Azealia Banks music video.  She does seem to be popping them out rather quickly these days no?  As usual I love. Do enjoy.

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 ...

There's been a lot written online about Beyoncé in the last week and a half. Between the initial frenzy of the release of her new album, the delight over her overtly feminist messages and the almost instantaneous backlash that Beyoncé the woman (and the body of work) was both anti-feminist, or simply not feminist enough, we've all had Beyoncé on the brain. While I did write a essay about her song Partition and had plans to write another piece examining the album as a whole, I've realized that many other writers have already done a much better job than I ever could have. There is already an amazing canon of work that critically analyzes this new album. Here are a few of my favourite pieces in approximate publication order: That Time Beyoncé's Album Invalidated Every Criticism of Feminism Ever  by Christina Coleman Beyoncé's New Self-Titled LP Is The Feminist's Album Of 2013 by Hayden Manders Beyoncé's New Self-Titled Album Is A Manifesto of Black Womanhood ...

There is a longer  more fleshed out essay on  BEYONCÉ in the works, (which probably won't be published until next week at this rate) but in rewatching King Bey's magnum opus, I have been uncovering gem after gem of naked feminist ideology, and I can't get enough. The latest little gem I found is this subversive little quote cleverly inserted in French into Partition , a song about Bey getting it on with Jay Z in the back of a limo on the way to the club: "Est-ce que tu aimes le sexe? Le sexe, je veux dire l'activité physique, le coït, tu aimes ça? Tu ne t'intéresses pas au sexe? Les hommes pensent que les féministes déstestent le sexe mais c'est une activité très stimulante et naturelle que les femmes adorent." According to friends who are much smarter than me, the above translates to: "Don't you like sex? Sex. I mean sex, the physical activity. Fucking. You like that? You're not interested in sex? Men think feminists don't like sex, b...

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?...