As an unapologetic feminist, I have a love-hate relationship with hip-hop. While I love a great deal of both mainstream and underground hip-hop, I am often uncomfortable with the violent, misogynistic and homophobic themes in some (though not all) of the music I listen to.
The Internet is abuzz this week with news of Rhianna's 20/20 and Good Morning America interviews (Jodi also wrote about Rhianna speaking out about her domestic violence experience here), the ones she's giving in conjunction with the release of her new album, Rated R. Now, on the eve of those media appearances, a few additional people are speaking out about what specifically happened to Rhianna and about domestic violence in general.
The recent Miss Plastic Hungary pageant that required that its contestants have had extensive plastic surgery threw me for a bit of a loop, because it just seems strange to publicly reward women for disliking their own physical appearance. Oh, wait. We do that all the time. North America came up with The Swan, which required that its contestants also be emotionally scarred enough to agree to on-camera therapy beamed into millions of American households, so who am I to judge?
What definitely threw me for a loop is that, right on the heels of Miss Plastic Hungary, it was announced that Therese Van Belle, 58, is the winner of the Miss Homeless Belgium pageant.
Tori Spelling graced the cover of a recent Star Magazine issue, looking bony and sickly-thin, with an accompanying headline that read: 95 lbs! Sure, this is Star Magazine, and factual reporting is not what they're known for, but it wasn't as if the claim that Tori Spelling weighs 95 lbs is such a far stretch that people automatically dismissed it.
Um, look at her.
Tori Spelling took to Twitter to set the record straight. She isn't 95 lbs -- horrible, awful, lie-spreading journalists -- she's 107 lbs. Which, yes, is more than 95, but isn't like SO MUCH MORE we're all wagging our fingers at Star. I mean, not over this. 107 pounds. That's ... very, very thin. But, then again, is it very, very thin for a woman who lives and works in Hollywood? Fine lines, gray areas, different environment, all that jazz. What's more, though, Tori is obviously proud enough of each of those extra 12 pounds that she wanted to clarify her weight for, you know, THE INTERNET (or at the least the 75,000+ people on the Internet who subscribe to her Twitter updates).
Spike TV, a division of MTV Networks that has made itself synonymous with blood, beer, and babes, has staked out some strong territory in the American television market. Its violent and misogynist programming can be found piping bone-crunching, blood-letting UFC gore into bars across the continent to the cheers of the alcohol-steeped masses. Few stations have been able to garner so much free advertising to such a cognitively submissive crowd, and so it comes as no surprise that Spike TV and its online arm have muscled their way into 98 million homes.
If you are at all familiar with Spike TV, it will also come as no surprise to you that this makes me more than a little stabby.
Here are the top 5 reasons why Spike TV can kiss my sweet ass:
In a word: no. Or at least, probably not, but from the looks of the first five minutes of Disney's upcoming The Princess and the Frog - the movie that's being called its "first black princess" movie - it seems that Disney might come out okay on this one. Sure, it's just five minutes - which leaves somewhere in the area of 75 to 90 minutes for Disney to trip-up with some dodgy racial sterotypes - and we are, after all, still talking princess movie - but these are a pretty good five minutes.
Watch them after the jump:
Lady Gaga has been put under the microscope for supposedly being misleading when it comes to her gender representation, by which I am referring to a recent video crotch shot of her at the Glastonbury Festival which supposedly reveals a larger bulge between her legs than one might expect. Personally, I don't really see it, but enough people have been so moved by her supposedly monumental mound that they have been typing out the word hermaphrodite all over the internet with the feverish zeal of a witch hunt.
Why does a barely-there crotch bump on someone publicly identified as female cause people to feel that they have the license to ask her for proof of her genital structure when Prince, a somewhat feminine male whose crotch bump is often barely apparent, is left in relative peace as it concerns his specific anatomy?
I know, another post about Jon Gosselin. We'd all be happy if we never saw his greasy, weaselly face again, sure, but he just keeps giving us reason to talk about him. This is probably as he wants it, but I'm weak and can't resist. I MUST COMMENT. Right after I roll my eyes exaggeratedly and then throw up after reading his tweets.
This time he's taking his own turn on Good Morning America, in response to Kate's recent interviews. His interview will run next week, September 8 and 9, but pieces have leaked, and, rest assured, HE BRINGS THE DOUCHE.
Heidi Pratt (née Montag) performed at the Miss Universe 2009 pageant last night, and, somehow, I don't think that she has gotten the joke yet.
Or maybe she has and I am just not giving her enough credit, but she is a punchline, isn't she? Whether she realizes it or not barely matters across a broader cultural context, though, because the joke isn't very funny no matter how you look at it. It's pathetic.
On the one hand, she praises Jesus on Twitter and thanks God for all her prosperity whenever she's in front of a microphone, and yet, on the other hand, this Jesus-blessed prosperity is partially born from her pimping out her own ass for cash and fame.
Kourtney Kardashian, 30, cast member of the reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians, announced her pregnancy on her weblog on August 13th, and, suddenly, the only pictures that accompany stories about her show her in what appear to be super shiny mumus.
Aside from any buzz generated from her reality show, in which she only rates as sixth among the cast members on IMDb, I am hard pressed to remember exactly why it is we pay attention to Kourtney and her family, but she did something important recently that is worth paying attention to. When talking about decisions she had to make with regard to her unplanned pregnancy with sometimes boyfriend Scott Disick, she said the word abortion. Out loud. To reporters.
The husband and I went to see Funny People last night (which was, indeed, kind of crappy) and saw a preview for the newest Sandra Bullock vehicle.
I've been mostly ambivalent about Sandra Bullock. She never did anything extremely offensive and she's entertaining enough. But the preview for All About Steve made me wonder if she had made someone angry during her early years in Hollywood.
Kelly Clarkson is a woman whose career has skyrocketed after her success on American Idol. In fact, she's one of the few contestants that we still remember and who has actually sustained a damn fine career beyond the manufactured-popularity, reality-television American Idol model.
I'm not saying anything against that model necessarily, but I am saying that Kelly Clarkson is more interesting than most of the people that the American Idol machine spits out. She's spunky, talented, and not celebrity cookie-cutter. We love her because she's like us, only wildly successful.
So, I find it confusing that SELF magazine would put the gorgeous and successful Clarkson on the cover of their September 2009 issue while at the same time making it abundantly clear that they don't think she is good enough to be there:
I'm writing this noon post much later than I should be and much later than I normally do, because I've been fretting over Weeds (and other stuff because I'm not totally shallow) all morning and thinking a lot about the comments from my last Weeds Uncap.
July is almost over and yet nobody told me about Cankles Awareness Month until today. All month I could have been collecting pledges, doing walkathons and writing blog posts about this devastating condition plaguing U.S. women, but sadly I have only two days left to do my part to spread awareness. Did you know that a horrific condition called "cankles" (wherein one's ankles appear to have no clear definition from one's calves) is ravishing the nation, condemning countless women to a life where espadrille sandals and capri pants are but a mockery of their hideously and freakishly deformed lower leg regions?
Last week, I wrote about MTV's show 16 and Pregnant. I talked about how, as someone who had a baby at a relatively young age, I related very much to the young parents featured on the show and that I thought that MTV made every effort to present the parents and the larger issue of teen pregnancy in a mature, realistic, non-judgmental, and responsible way.
The final episode of the series will air tomorrow night and follows a young Michigan woman named Catelynn. Her story differs from those of the other mothers on the show because she decides to give her baby up for adoption. As we see in the preview, her reasons are pretty simple: the adoptive couple can provide for the baby better than she can and Catelynn simply wants her daughter to have better than what she did.
I had the opportunity to speak with Catelynn yesterday. She is now 17 and her baby, who is now 8 weeks old, is doing well with her adoptive family.
When I first heard about MTV's new show, 16 and Pregnant, I cringed a little. In my opinion, MTV is not exactly a somber source for commentary on social issues, at least not lately. Think back to the first season of The Real World, when the cast members discussed things like finding a job, being young and broke, race, sexuality, AIDS, politics. More recent seasons have found the cast members discussing pressing issues like hot tubs, alcohol, and being a bitch.
I really did not want to see some sensationalized, Springer-esque depiction of teen pregnancy.
ABC has acquired the rights to Gravity, a science fiction show from the U.K. about eight astronauts who undertake a six-year mission. But the producers want you to know, LADIES, that you shouldn't be scared of those words like "science fiction" and "astronauts" and especially "science."
This is "vagina-friendly" science fiction, apparently.
MAMAPOP IS SMART POP CULTURE ANALYSIS, COMMENTARY, MERCILESS FUN-MAKING AND OTHER SUNDRY AWESOME, DISHED UP DAILY BY PARENTS, FOR PARENTS, AND ANYONE ELSE WHO UNDERSTANDS THAT PLAYTIME IS BETTER WITH VODKA. PLEASE TO ENJOY. READ MORE...
