pop culture

I was reading the paper earlier this week and I stumbled across an article about Avatar (shocking, I know) and how director James Cameron was the only director who could pull something like Avatar off.

“Hypersexualization.”

This word gives me grief.

Not Dr. Phil grief, or prime-time news grief, or after-school-special grief. Not “what about the children?!” mama grief. And not even that kind of academic grief that insists on calling endless conference meetings to discuss its impact on our contemporary social world.

It’s grief that (I think) stems from the realization that this word—one that, as far as I know, emerged only very, very recently (like within this decade recently) in our popular cultural imaginary—has become deeply entrenched into everyday vocabularies. Grief that it now seems to be—ugh, perhaps indelibly—fixed into our collective memories alongside terms like “social networking” and “wardrobe malfunctions.”

OK, so while we're on the topic of books, pop culture and sexualization - let's talk Twilight. For those of you not acquainted with the series, here's a summary: Vampire boy/octogenarian meets girl. Boy wants to eat girl. Girl is totally stoked - can't wait to get eaten. Native (Can you believe it's not PC?) American werewolves, demonic rapid age children, fast cars & motorcycles, evil vampire armies, and prom also feature.

Last year, a friend of mine told me that actress Juliette Lewis started up a band and that their sound was seriously a rockin’.

I was like “Really? Cool!” since I’d always appreciated the versatility Lewis demonstrated in her acting craft with movies like “The Other Sister,” “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” or even “Old School.”

Off to Google I went searching for her website, when I came up with this image:

 

Oh no, not again.

Another appropriator.

So I know that I'm a bit addicted to the internet, and that I spend a lot more time on feminist blogs of various kinds than a lot of people out there. More often than not, that means that I’m up to the minute on the latest infuriating statistics published, the most recent extremely biased studies, the newest frustrating stories of discrimination and violence (based on gender, sexuality, race, ability, class, or some combination of those), and I’m always up-to-the-minute on the latest idiotic things politicians have said. For example, Ohio State Representative Sally Kern’s rant against ‘homosexuals’ and their ‘homosexual agenda’ – see video after the jump.

Êtes-vous aussi dégoûtées que moi du traitement que les médias réservent aux jeunes actrices et chanteuses ces derniers temps?

So over the holidays I went home. Spent some quality time with family, relaxed, even managed to avoid having the same arguments I have every year with my mother about school, religion, being queer...

What does Hilary Duff know 'about men'? Well, she knows that she wants to marry one and have "a nice little life baking pies". At the same time, though, any guy she dates has to "be in the business, so that he understands how hard it can be, with the lifestyle". Also, she knows that "women are definitely home-makers" and "obviously very different from men".

Not that I don't love the Harry Potter books - I'm a seven year fan - but I just wish there were some girls in the books who got to break the rules too!