Category Archives: All Posts
Reads of the Week: Billings, Trauma, Gender and Straightsplaining
Take a look at this week’s Reads of the Week: Great articles about the LGBTQ community, feminism, women and anything else worth reading.
“We have got to realize that we are all students of the human experience. And if we do not start learning from each other and really listening and receiving the gift from the person across from us, we are lost.” –Alexndra Billings, Jezebel
- “The paradox of the current system is that the reliability of the victim is crucial to the prosecution of a crime that features unreliability as an almost guaranteed byproduct. This point seems lost on many of the people currently swept up in a reactionary obsession with the account of one alleged survivor.” – ThinkProgress, “I Was Sexually Assaulted as a Child. Here’s Why I Didn’t Remember for Years”
- “Gender is not sex, and sex is not gender, although explanations of both will vary. And gender identity is not gender expression, although they might play into each other. And a sandwich is not a wrap, although you can convert it into one.” – Autostraddle, “Rebel Girls: Waiter, There’s Some Theory in My Gender”
- “If you want to know about gay people—their lives, their desires, their ideas, their cultures—listen to gay people. If you want to know about straight people, listen to straight people talking about gay people.” – Gawker, “A Fieldguide to Straightsplaining”
Jimmy Fallon vs. Parks & Rec
Just a fun little video for a Monday, featuring the cast of Parks and Recreation versus Jimmy Fallon in a Glee-style sing-off from a couple of years ago.
Really Don’t Care – Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato’s “Really Don’t Care” filmed at Los Angeles Pride early this month. Happy Pride Month!!!
Frozen’s ‘Let it Go’ – The Diva Version
Just some Frozen fun for today with vocalist Christina Biano’s diva-filled cover of Frozen’s “Let it Go.” Enjoy!
TEDxTeen – Tavi Gevinson: Still Figuring it Out
Found this TEDx video about female characters, female representation, feminism and what that means for teenage girls. Pretty cool little video.
The Presidential Inauguration – Something to be said for Pop Culture
I am lucky enough to live in Washington, DC when President Obama was inaugurated for his second term last weekend. While the hordes of people that swarmed into my favorite eateries was certainly an inconvenience (I never have any groceries), being able to stand on the National Mall amongst fellow Americans while the president took the (ceremonial) oath of office was nonetheless exciting.
Thousands of us were standing there huddled in the grass around large screens watching the important government people walk onto the “stage” area at the Capitol before the ceremony. Former President Jimmy Carter walked out. He got some cheers, but people in my age bracket (myself, admittedly included) had to ask the wiser among us who he even was. Sure the other recognizable faces of government got respectable cheers (or jeers); John McCain, John Boehner, Bill and Hilary Clinton, Jill Biden, Vice President Biden, Michelle Obama, and of course for President Obama himself.
Then, Beyoncé and Jay Z walked out and the whole crowd really went wild. Someone near me made the comment of the pop singer couple, “You’d think they were the first family.” And that comment was absolutely right. The feeling I got was the crowd recognized a handful of the politicians, and I would bet many people (again, myself included) wouldn’t even recognize the representatives from their own state. But everybody knew who Beyoncé was.
The experience was a powerful illustration of the wide reach of pop culture; those politicians are no match for Beyoncé (except maybe President Obama himself.)