I won’t pretend I didn’t cry this morning. I didn’t watch the Emmys live last night, so waking up to the news that not only did Viola Davis win herself an Emmy (as I predicted back when she de-wigged on primetime), but two other black women, (Regina King for American Crime and Uzo Aduba for Orange is […]
After all the hoopla, debate, and thinkpieces, I finally saw Mad Max: Fury Road last night and it did not disappoint. The movie was a masterpiece of the senses and totally overwhelmed me with how engaging it was on all fronts. By about 15 minutes in, I was at the edge of my seat whispering, “this […]
A few weeks ago, after I’d (finally) gotten around to finishing season one of Top of the Lake, I posted some thoughts about the rape as backstory trope, and my distaste for it. I figured that while it could be an instance of the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon gone awry, there seemed to be far too many […]
Friday morning, there was grumbling on my twitter timeline about the storyline of last night’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy. A hashtag, #ShameOnShonda, had been started in protest of what was perceived as a stigmatization of mothers with post-partum depression, or PPD.
Have you ever felt like there’s just too much television to watch? I have, and it turns out, that’s not just in my head. According to the research department at FX networks, there were “328 scripted first-run prime-time programs aired on ad supported or subscription-based broadcast, cable and streaming networks in the U.S.” in 2014 […]
White Feminists, we need to have a chat about this unruly beast we call feminism, and the intersection of race and sexuality. I like to assume that you mean well, but you’ve been fucking up quite a bit in the last few months, and I think it’s my duty as your presumptive sister-in-arms to do […]
Trigger Warning: This post contains discussion of rape and sexual assault. Let me start by saying that Reign is a great show. I started watching during the break between seasons one and two and haven’t turned back since. In a lot of ways, Reign is typical CW fare, pretty people’s pretty problems, but in others, it’s a very progressive […]
If you haven’t seen Nicki Minaj’s new “Anaconda” video yet, stop what you’re doing and watch it immediately! If you have seen it, then you already know that I love it. Ass, ass, everywhere. It’s a big booty black girl’s dream! But deeper than that, I love the way that it’s an expression of agency […]
Recently I decided to break my standing rule about going to see movie adaptations blind, and I went to see the Gone Girl move without having read the book. I had a vague idea of the plot from the book’s reputation, but for the most part, I didn’t know the story going in. Ever since […]
If there’s any show you need to catch up on this summer, Cinemax’s The Knick is it. Set at the titular Knickerbocker Hospital in 1900’s New York, the show centers on a group of surgeons working at the turn of the century, using the era’s boom in technological advancements to refine and improve their craft, and […]
Because I’m a cheater, I’m rereading the Harry Potter series in order to meet my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal for this year. (Too lazy to hit the library for new books!) I reread the novels every year, but this is the first time I’ve really been reading with a critical eye. I sped through both Philosopher’s […]
You may have heard that Nathan Rabin, the writer who coined the term “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” and named the trope apologized last week for doing so, saying:
I’m pretty convinced Suzanne Warren’s mother is racist. Unintentionally so, but to detrimental effect.
As far as I can tell, there’s a stark difference between a “feminist character” and a “character who is a feminist.” While there certainly can be overlap, there rarely ever seems to be, and I can’t understand why there seems to be so much confusion.
By now, most people know that serial boundary pusher Robin Thicke is reluctantly single, and in the middle of a full-on media blitz to prove contrition for the unnamed offenses that drove away his lady love, actress Paula Patton. Said media blitz is supposedly meant to “Get Her Back,” as indicated by the lead single of the same name, […]