Latest Articles

The 99%:

January 13, 2012 at 11:18am

For the Bluths, their wealth is a performance, but their class privilege is real. They live in a former shell of their old life: they share a model home built by the once-lucrative Bluth construction company that stands alone in an unfinished development. Beautiful inside and out, the home deteriorates throughout the series, but the façade remains intact. And to most of the members of...

2 Broke Girls Showrunner Doubles Down on Racist Humor

by Kelsey Wallace

January 12, 2012 at 2:07pm

The CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls has earned a reputation for racist jokes (also for unfunny jokes). You’d like to think that showrunner Michael Patrick King was working on fixing these problems instead of sticking to—and defending—his racist joke guns. Think again.

Double Rainbow: Stepping Back

by Caroline Narby

January 12, 2012 at 11:16am

This blog series is rapidly closing in on its second week and I have only just gotten started. I have a lot in mind to cover—autistic gender and sexuality in parents’ guides, autism and sex ed, the pathologization of gender non-normative behavior—and I have barely scratched the surface of portrayals of autists in film, television, and news media. As I did with my previous post on Erasure and...

Douchebag Decree: '60s Movie Star Kim Novak Dislikes a Movie, is a Complete Douche About It

by Ann-Derrick Gaillot

January 12, 2012 at 10:42am

Remember what a douchebag Johnny Depp was last year when he compared his many celebrity photoshoots to instances of rape? You’d think his fellow actors would have learned from his mistake that “rape” is not a word that can be thrown about to describe any mildly uncomfortable situation, but some actors obviously did not get the message. Earlier this week actress Kim Novak, star of...

Childhood Obesity Campaign Still Bullying Fat Kids

by Kelsey Wallace

January 11, 2012 at 3:11pm

You may have seen these ads last week from Atlanta’s Strong4Life Campaign, which attempt to let kids (and their parents) know that they are fat and shame/scare/bully them into just stopping being fat already.

Bechdel Test Canon: Saving Face

by Alyx Vesey

January 11, 2012 at 12:42pm

A look at Alice Wu’s Saving Face, a film about Chinese-American lesbian identity, that makes the case for why it’s much more thrilling and difficult to be a person rather than an example.

Sm{art}: Eve Arnold

by Bianca Butler

January 11, 2012 at 12:00pm

The first week of the new year brought with it the passing of Eve Arnold, one of the first women to earn recognition as a photojournalist in the mid-twentieth century. Though she is perhaps best known for capturing celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Joan Crawford in rare, unguarded moments, Arnold should also be recognized for the political and social commentaries her archives...

The 99%: Trashy People Talking Trash on Trash Television, or Jersey Shore

by Gretchen Sisson

January 11, 2012 at 10:49am

Trailer trash, white trash—these ways of describing low-income people aren’t new. They’re meant to make people quite literally disposable, a way of denying their humanity and their potential to offer anything of value. With Jersey Shore, though, we get the “trash” without talking about money at all. What the castmates wear, how they behave, how they style their...

Marimacho Seeks Hunky Heartbreakers!

by Kelsey Wallace

January 10, 2012 at 2:34pm

The super stylish folks at Marimacho—the masculine clothing line for cis women and transmasculine bodies—are launching a new Tumblr! To kick things off, they’re hosting a Hunky Heartbreakers photo contest and they want YOU to submit your hunkiest pics!

B-Sides: The Last Names

by Kelsey Wallace

January 10, 2012 at 12:53pm

The Last Names is a pretty new band, and as such they don’t have much music beyond a pleasant EP that makes me think their upcoming album, Wilderness, will also be pleasant. What they do have, though, is the 52 Covers Project.