Pop’s Diva Daughter as Primal Mother

I’ve been looking forward to the music video of Lady Gaga’s much-hyped single “Born This Way” for several weeks, so, when it premiered Sunday on Vevo I really wanted to love it. Unfortunately, “Born This Way” just doesn’t have the twisted, Mad Hatter brilliance of Gaga’s “Bad Romance” video or the movie-pastiche playfulness and queer [...]

Why Aren’t We Protesting Miss America?

“When I was growing up, Miss America was the symbol of what every young girl wanted to be,” author Alix Kates Shulman, one of the organizers of the first Miss America protest in 1968, said in an interview with NPR in 2008. “That was the kind of attainment that everybody yearned for, to be considered [...]

Breaking News: Lindsay Lohan Benefits from White Privilege!

Last week, actress Regina King expressed chagrin in The Huffington Post at the lack of diversity at the 2010 Emmys. Earlier this year, Vanity Fair’s now-infamous all-white “young Hollywood” cover evinced that women of color are still completely marginalized in film. I thought about these events when I read yesterday that a bidding war of [...]

90210 on 9/02/10

When I think about growing up in the 90s, I always return to one particular place: Beverly Hills, California. I never actually stepped foot in the zip code (until recently, when I came to work as an intern for Ms.), but I watched Beverly Hills 90210 every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. I followed the [...]

Candied Katy Perry Says “Eat Me”

Katy Perry’s California Gurls is, without doubt, the it pop-song of the summer. It’s everything a summer pop song should be–sweet and easy to digest. The accompanying video lays bare, well, both Perry and the candy-like nature of her pop. Directed by Matthew Cullen, the video features Perry in a literal Candyland (called Candyfornia), lying nude on [...]

Top 5 Anti-Woman Myths in ABC Family’s “Pretty Little Liars”

In need of summer TV,I decided to test out the new ABC Family show Pretty Little Liars. Hey, it’s been a Twitter trending topic for the last day. It must be worth watching, right? The Tuesday-night show is based on a series of books by Sara Shepard. It centers on a group of four very popular [...]

Ode to Aretha, or Reconnecting Women and Singing

When I think of music’s–or specifically singing’s–potential for liberation, one voice immediately springs to mind: the earth-shattering, shiver-inducing, bone-chilling instrument possessed by Aretha Franklin. Aretha’s amazing talent is intimately linked for me with freedom, not only because of her own, very real struggle to express herself as a black woman artist, but also because of [...]

Bad Shoes and the Author Who Takes Them On

It happened in Milan at a 2008 Prada fashion show.  “I was having a panic attack, my hands were shaking,” a runway model recalls.  “Some of the girls were crying backstage, they were so scared.”  Why the dramatics—An Act of terrorism?  An explosion? Had the prime minister been assassinated? No. These women were fearful of [...]

The World According to Justin Bieber

It’s official–Bieber fever is sweeping the nation. Sixteen-year-old pop phenomenon Justin Bieber has won the hearts of tween America. His fans’ devotion knows no bounds: He’s been a top twitter trender for months, his appearances are so crowded that his manager has been arrested for endangering frenzied fans and Bieber fanatics are becoming stars in [...]

Oscar, I Didn’t Know it Mattered

When Kathryn Bigelow received an academy award nomination this year for best director for her film, The Hurt Locker, it barely caught my attention. Her movie wasn’t one I would be inclined to see. But as buzz around the Oscars increase, it dawned on me that I couldn’t remember whether or not a woman had ever [...]