Posts Tagged Popular Culture

Yahoo names Google executive Marissa Mayer as new CEO

Yahoo made a major announcement yesterday, naming Google executive Marissa Mayer as their new president and CEO.  Mayer – Yahoo’s fifth CEO in as many years – is one of the most well known women in tech and business and the move came as a huge surprise even though she has a stellar reputation in Silicon Valley.

An even bigger surprise came later in the day with is Mayer’s announcement via Twitter that she is pregnant.  Mayer has already said her future maternity leave will be brief and it’s clear that such a demanding and high profile position for a woman may reignite the “Having It All,” conversations from a few weeks ago.  Mayer told Fortune that ...

Yahoo made a major announcement yesterday, naming Google executive Marissa Mayer as their new president and CEO.  Mayer – Yahoo’s fifth CEO in as many years – is one of the most well known women in ...

Domino’s Pizza thinks rape is a joke

Not sure how many times we have to say it, but RAPE IS NOT A JOKE.  It’s not a metaphor.  Or a clever play on words.  Or a good way to scare women into never drinking alcoholIt’s a reality for so many people, a trauma that warrants empathy and that requires years of healing.

So when I see Domino’s pizza making a joke about rape with their, “No, is the new yes” campaign, which is featured across the top of their artisan pizza boxes, I have to call them out for insensitive, inappropriate and vile advertising that hurts people.

Not sure how many times we have to say it, but RAPE IS NOT A JOKE.  It’s not a metaphor.  Or a clever play on words.  Or a good way to scare women into never ...

Nicki Minaj on sexism in the music industry

Nicki Minaj gives us some straight talk about double standards in the music industry.

There is a lot of room for feminist critique around Nicki Minaj’s creative, visual or verbal choices–but I lay off intense scrutiny because she is the only woman in popular hip-hop. That doesn’t mean those critiques aren’t valid, or I don’t see them, I just see her role as the only woman in mainstream hip-hop as patently unfair and probably dictates a lot of her creative choices.

And I totally appreciate what she is talking about here. For those that say we don’t need feminism anymore–watch someone who probably doesn’t identify as a “feminist” talk about sexism in her industry.

Transcript after the jump, thanks to reader Kelly.

Nicki Minaj gives us some straight talk about double standards in the music industry.

There is a lot of room for feminist critique around Nicki Minaj’s creative, visual or verbal choices–but I lay off intense scrutiny because she ...

“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” – Nora Ephron, 1941-2012

Essayist and filmmaker Nora Ephron has died.

Nora Ephron was a giant. Ephron wrote the screenplay for “Silkwood”, best known as the writer of the seminal romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally” and wrote and directed the wildly successful (and still one of my favorites) “You’ve Got Mail”. If you haven’t seen “Silkwood”, please seek to remedy that fact immediately.

But I leave you with Ephron’s commencement address to the Wellesley Class of 1996:

Don’t let the number of women in the work force trick you — there are still lots of magazines devoted almost exclusively to making perfect casseroles and turning various things into tents.

Don’t underestimate how much antagonism there is toward women and how many people wish we ...

Essayist and filmmaker Nora Ephron has died.

Nora Ephron was a giant. Ephron wrote the screenplay for “Silkwood”, best known as the writer of the seminal romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally” and wrote and directed ...

‘Brave’ has a gender problem

*If you haven’t yet seen Brave and want to avoid any spoilers at all, avoid this post.  If you don’t mind minor spoilers for plot points (but not outcome) continue reading*

I avoided any reviews or spoilers before seeing the new Pixar movie Brave yesterday.  I wanted to go into the movie about a young heroine archer Merida unbiased by group think.

While I enjoyed the film, I was underwhelmed. Perhaps, I was in need of a plot, centered around this medieval Scottish princess with firey red curls, that packed more of an emotional punch.  After I got home I went to read my favorite culture blogger Alyssa Rosenberg over at ThinkProgress who highlighted one of the more problematic themes in ...

*If you haven’t yet seen Brave and want to avoid any spoilers at all, avoid this post.  If you don’t mind minor spoilers for plot points (but not outcome) continue reading*

I avoided any reviews or spoilers before ...

Adidas “shackle shoe” canceled before it’s debut

Designer Jeremy Scott created a shoe for Nike that was debuted last January on their Facebook page–a regular pair of sneakers with a shackle attached. In an effort to be edgy they failed to recognize that the use of “shackles” harkens back to a time when people were, you know, shackled and enslaved. Is this what hipster racism looks like in the corporate context? Was this supposed to be ironic?

The purple and orange sneakers come with a set of plastic “shackles” that strap around the ankles. “Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?” the company asked in the Facebook post. The post was “liked” by more than 36,000 people by Monday morning and had received ...

Designer Jeremy Scott created a shoe for Nike that was debuted last January on their Facebook page–a regular pair of sneakers with a shackle attached. In an effort to be edgy they failed to recognize that ...

Quick hit: TNC on the “Django Unchained” trailer

No one does analysis of race in pop culture like Ta-Nehisi Coates does, and on the newly-released trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained,” he’s predictably on-point.

Here’s the trailer (no transcript, I’m afraid, but if a reader would like to write one up and post it in comments, I’d be really thankful).

TNC writes,

Perhaps no aspect of my recent foray into the Civil War and slavery has moved me more than my investigations into the colored soldiers. It’s nice to see black men, so often rendered as bystanders, grabbing guns, asserting their humanity, and surely enacting some measure of revenge.

It’s also really dangerous to get caught up in that narrative. The violence is seductive and can find you ...

No one does analysis of race in pop culture like Ta-Nehisi Coates does, and on the newly-released trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained,” he’s predictably on-point.

Here’s the trailer (no transcript, I’m afraid, but if a reader would ...

Venus was her name

By now, you’ve all have seen these stunning images from the rare transit of Venus around the Sun on Tuesday and Wednesday. Again, we will never be privilege to see the lady planet up close ever again in our lifetime.

Science geek me loves this. Photographer me is grateful for the technology that allows to see the planet and star with such detail. Poet geek me, can’t help but see a poem here. Greek mythology tells that Venus (Aphrodite) is the goddess of love, sex, fertility, prosperity, and military victory. A news week flooded with confounding events (a failed recall campaign, a failed vote for pay equity, a drone strike, a presidential kill list target, vanquished, another black mother mourning ...

By now, you’ve all have seen these stunning images from the rare transit of Venus around the Sun on Tuesday and Wednesday. Again, we will never be privilege to see the lady planet up close ever ...

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