In the music video for Janelle Monáe’s song “Q.U.E.E.N.” Monáe is described as a “rebel that time travels” and the notorious leader of a “musical weapons program.” In the beginning of the video, several groups of people who represent different musical eras are frozen in history, and when the music starts, all the people in […]
Pendulum by FKA twigs is a song about overcoming a challenging relationship, and the video is a piece of performance art. The video begins with the a shot of the artist’s mouth as she sings the opening lyric “I’m a sweet, little love maker.” Her position is revealed slowly; she’s suspended in the air bound tightly by […]
“I am Jazz” is a TLC show that depicts the life of Jazz Jennings. Jazz is a transgender girl who, with the support of her parents and family, decided at a young age that she was born in the wrong body and wanted to live life a girl. In the show, we see her day […]
Anita Hill is an iconic figure in the history of women and sexual harassment. The documentary, Anita, is an expose on her journey of coming out with her story of the abuse she received from Clarence Thomas, a Supreme Court nominee. She presented her story to an all-white, all-male Senate Judiciary Committee who accused Hill […]
After watching Lemonade I was struck by its power. For a moment, I felt myself questioning: why hasn’t everyone watched this? Part of what stopped me from watching it in the months after its release was its cost. I figure that I am not alone in not wanting to drop $15 dollars on the visual album, […]
Season 18 of Big Brother was controversial at best. It premiered during one of the most tense sociopolitical moments in recent American memory. Consequently, issues of race, feminism, and intersectionality—especially hot-button issues at the time (and at the time of writing this post)—were simply unavoidable. The two black women in the show—Da’Vonne Rogers and Zakiyah Everette—were the […]
http://www.npr.org/2017/02/18/515388491/oddisees-the-iceberg-has-a-trove-of-stories-beneath-its-surface I just caught this excellent interview with rapper Oddisee on NPR’s morning edition about how he draws on his perspective as an African American and Sudanese American in today’s political climate in his new album, The Iceberg. I’ll link the audio of the interview when it’s up later today. Definitely worth a listen!
I thought this video from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air would be a good example to use because it is an example of the way that the issues we have discussed in class are represented in popular media. The short television clip is surprisingly insightful in the way it presents an issue of discrimination as […]
With the coming-out of Bruce Jenner as Caitlyn Jenner came a spinoff of the original Keeping Up With the Kardashians. I Am Cait featured the daily life, activities, excitement, and struggles of Caitlyn Jenner while going through her transition. Audiences saw how the relationships changed with her family members and friends, and the acceptability (or lack thereof) […]
This trailer relates most to Kimberle Crenshaw’s article on intersectionality in American culture. The video, and the film it presents, follows members of the Kiki scene, a safe haven of performance and self-expression for LGBTQ youth-of-color in Harlem. While it is possible to analyze the people the film presents by one distinct aspect of their identity, sexuality alone […]
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