something secret

Anyone who knows me or has paid a lick of attention to this blog in the last month or so knows that I am no friend of Miley Cyrus . The woman is obliviously racist, willfully obtuse and completely ignorant. And that doesn't even take into account the fact that she spent yesterday shaming two women for their mental health issues. So no, Miley and I are not bosom buddies. But you see this shit ? I DO NOT NEED YOUR MALE OPINIONS SCORCH MAGAZINE, NOR DO I WANT THEM. And I'm no stranger to calling out misogynistic Trinidadian men on their shitty interpretations of gender relations. I've already cussed out a radio DJ  and a friend of a friend . There's nothing new about this asinine explanation of events. But it's still insidious, so I guess I'll go lace up my patriarchy smashing boots. This "article" is full of slut-shaming, body-shaming, concern trolling, gender essentialist, patriarchal bullshit. I do not need to read that. I have spend the last few ye...

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...

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 ...

It's the VMA'S TONIGHT! I'm irrationally excited and I can't explain why. There's so much buzz this year about who will and won't be there ( *NSYNC ), who may or may not be reuniting ( Danity Kane !), that I cannot contain myself! I have never fangirled so hard in my life!* Not to mention the list of performers for tonight's show. Lady Gaga will be opening the show with her new single Applause, and I can't WAIT to see how she'll translate the song's spectacular music video into a stage performance. Katy Perry will also be performing her new single Roar  and Miley Cyrus , Robin Thicke , Bruno Mars and Justin Timberlake will all be taking a turn on the Brooklyn stage. It is gonna be bananas! I can't wait to see who takes the Moonmen for Video of the Year and Song of The Summer. I'm rooting for Bruno Mars' Locked Out Of Heaven  and Daft Punk's Get Lucky respectively. But let's be real. I'm completely and totally watching ...

The Read is the best podcast you're not listening to. Seriously. If you love Scandal and Beyonce, you NEED to be tuning in every week. Hosted by KidFury of Youtube fame, and his friend Crissle, The Read covers the week's most interesting pop culture events, fan advice letters, and one spectacular read each from the two hosts.  The show is as NWFW as it is deliciously enjoyable, but the slight taboos of dirty words and sex talk makes it that much more amazing. Kid Fury and Crissle tackle everything from relationship advice and racial politics, to Beyonce's haircut and Miley's cultural appropriation, and they do it with the intelligence and real world experience of people who know what they're talking about. My favourite thing about them is the fact that they aren't afraid to take on political issues and infuse them with their specific brand of humour and outrage. They know what they're doing, and they aren't about to slow down for ignorant folk who can...