“The Protestor” Is No “Basic Bitch”: The Politics and Aesthetics of Stereotypical Blackness in 2011
I want to take a minute to reflect on the representations of race, specifically, the representations of African-American blackness, in US pop culture in 2011. In several blog posts, and a few of my published works, I’ve argued that stereotypical…
Beyoncé, Gaga, Race, and Sexuality, or, 1+1 Doesn’t Always Equal 2
[This week I’m going to attempt a few “year-end” type posts. Being on semester break, now’s a god time for me to collect some thoughts that have been rattling around in my head all term, but I haven’t had time…
Thoughts on “Xenomania” (or, Orientialism 2.0)
Earlier this week, Simon Reyonlds published a great little essay on what he calls “xenomania”—i.e., Western hipsters’ internet-enabled digi-crate digging for increasingly exotic-sounding “ethnic” pop and/or dance music. Now, I realize that its publication venue—one of the MTV sites—probably limits…
I miss bell hooks, too.
You should check out Gina Ulysse’s post in the Ms. Magazine blog, “Why I miss bell hooks”. A short excerpt: “Where was the feminist response to this incident? I don’t doubt for a minute that Black feminists talked about it…
Pac, Perry, and Jacques: California (Love/Gurls) and a bit of Ranciere
Apart from their titular references to California, Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg’s “California Gurls” and Dre and TuPac’s “California Love” might appear to have little at all in common. However, the compositional genius of the Perry/Snoop track is that it…
Some Initial Thoughts on Beyonce’s New “Why Don’t You Love Me?” Video
Beyonce recently released a new video for her funkspolitation-style track “Why Don’t You Love Me?”. While everyone seems to be focusing on her continued use of the pinup aesthetic, I’m going to argue that this is, like “Single Ladies” a…
Synth Britania – a BBC Doc about [white dudes in] 70s/80s British Electronica
Synth Britania is available in full on YouTube, and it’s an interesting and informative enough documentary filled with a lot of good music. Some of the info is going to be redundant for a lot of serious fans of this…
Awesome review of white privilege in Avatar and other recent scifi
http://io9.com/5422666/when-will-white-people-stop-making-movies-like-avatar” This review, by Annalee Newitz of i09, is spot-on. I wish *I* wrote it. Some of the highlights: — “Avatar is a fantasy about ceasing to be white, giving up the old human meatsack to join the blue people,…
Phase-shifting process music as an analogue for social identitity: or, re-thinking intersectionality via “It’s Gonna Rain”
So, I’m working on am argument that social identities (race, gender, etc.) are mutually constitutive, and that metaphors of “intersection” and “blending” don’t accurately capture the ontology of social identities (as mutually constitutive). As a part of the argument, I…
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