I have a fancy phone for two reasons: GPS and Instagram. GPS, because honestly without it, I will die lost in the woods, cold and alone. Even though when I was younger I traversed most of the 50 states and a couple foreign lands without it, I have become completely dependent on my phone telling me where to go in a period of less than 2 years.
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Hey Everyone, I had the honor of speaking with artists Mary Tremonte and Rosemarie Romero and their experience with Riot Grrrl. As usual, I got schooled on a variety learning about Rebecca Walker’s take on being a Feminist and enjoying “unconscious” media and Jose Munoz’s work.
Enjoy!
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The neighborhood I grew up in has changed a great deal, just over the last ten years. It’s gone through a common cycle found in cities, European immigrants, primarily Eastern European, followed by people of color, white flight and new immigrants from India and Asia, followed by younger “upwardly” mobile “students.” My family is part of the group that didn’t quite achieve white flight. My neighborhood is not really gentrifying as much as functioning as campus housing to the over five colleges in the area. After spending my time actively being the first wave of Gentrification in neighborhoods across the country, I guess this is my payback.
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In the new issue of BUST, there is an interview with Kathleen Hanna by Kim Gordon. Being the die-hard Riot Grrrl I will always be, I immediately read it when it arrived at my home. Hanna really has the amazing ability to always address whatever the underlying pivotal issues of the time are. There are a few things she said that I feel have been sorely missing from the discussion in some Feminist camps. Quotes that really “spoke to me” are:
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So there is this idea you may have encountered, about white women being less abrasive, less demanding, easier to deal with, and/or generally more pleasant than black women, which floats around American culture. I remember the first time I encountered this idea, years ago through a Richard Pryor routine. At the time, I remember thinking, “That doesn’t make sense, …Oh that must have been a long time ago, before all the shrill, demanding, Femi-Nazis really established themselves.” In the world I live in white women are not easier, white women at not easy. In my little bubble of a world white women care about, get upset about, cry about things of no consequence. They are overly emotional and overly picky. My white lady world is the world of Julianne Moore’s character in the movie Safe by Todd Haynes. In which a woman becomes so paranoid and obsessed about pollutants in her environment she must leave her family and live alone in a germ free, sterile environment. One that only certain people can afford to inhabit.
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Yesterday I saw the Sinead O’Connor commentary on Miley Cyrus make the rounds online. Mostly by Feminists my age. Feminists that grew up with Madonna, mind you. My first thought was “really? Sinead, is commenting on “bad decisions”? Don’t get me wrong, that Wrecking Ball video is terrible. I was so excited to see some good quality, pop music, pushing the envelope shit and there is nothing there. That’s why none of this makes sense, a pop star is naked,…. ok, a pop star is doing drugs…ok, a pop star is having sex, ….ok. I really don’t care…a pop star is “appropriating” black culture…ok maybe I care a little, but that’s a whole other topic. While, I agree with much of what O’Connor says and love her to deaf. I wanted to write something about how instead of doing a Miley “pile on” Sinead shoulda listed all the amazing, talented women out there TRYING to get clicks without taking off their clothes. But then I thought Miley DID make an atrocious video referencing Sinead, so she deserves this commentary. And thus I gave up on writing a blog. Which I do quite often, haha.
But later, a post by a younger feminist questioning the letter by Sinead as “slut shaming” and prejudiced, in that (in my mind), it’s fine for all these other pop stars to be all sexy but not Miley, DEAR GOD NOT MILEY!!!!! ugh. I really don’t know how I feel about the term “slut shaming,” I general think we should be doing more shaming, but that’s another topic.
Do we bat an eye when a young black, female celebrity engages in such behavior? Has there been a young black female celebrity engaging in such behavior? Lawrence Fishborne’s daughter and her porn career, possibly, that girl from Family Matters and her weed addiction and foray into porn, possibly. I don’t even know her name.(I’m not going to Google it cause I’m lazy and racist.)
So here click on theeeese shits instead of the Miley pile on, or click on the Miley stuff AND click on these! Positivity!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/blackgirlnerds
http://www.istillloveherinc.com/home/