Video of the Day: Jayne County in Derek Jarman's Jubilee

Video: Quentin Crisp on Letterman (1985)

Video of the Day: Jackie Curtis - Cabaret in the Sky

Video of the Day: Fran Lebowitz on Letterman (1983)

Video of the Day: Laverne Cox on Bullying and Being a Trans Woman of Color

I saw this posted to Jezebel's groupthink form, but I think it was originally posted at Racialicious's Tumblr (which you should follow right now). This is a great speech about the bullying and harassment that trans women face.

Random Video: Patti Smith on Kids Are People Too

Answering questions and singing "You Light Up My Life."

Watching: Racism vs White Guilt

Here's a fantastic video from Hari Kondabolu on racism and white guilt. (via crunkfeministcollective )

Watching: Spiritualized - Hey Jane

(TW for violence and transphobia)

Spiritualized video for the song "Hey Jane" is a mini-movie of sorts, staring drag performer James Ross (who performs under the name Tyra Sanchez and is best known as the second season winner of RuPaul's Drag Race) as a single trans woman making ends meet while trying to raise two kids. It's a gritty video that illustrates the violence trans people -- in particular trans people of color -- often face.

From a purely artistic standpoint, it's incredibly effective, but when does that cross that line into sensationalism? Thoughts?

Youtube Find of the Day: Odetta and Johnny Cash

 

I usually find some of the greatest stuff on YouTube by coincidence. I was looking for some older Odetta clips, which are few and far between even in today's archival culture. I did, however, stumble upon this old clip of Odetta on the Johnny Cash show from 1969. Here's the info provided:

Odetta on "The Johnny Cash Show," August 30, 1969. The first song she performs is based on a Negro "field blues" song known simply as "Black Woman," then duets with Cash on "Shame And Scandal In The Family," which was written by a calypso artist who went by Sir Lancelot, in the 40s.

Earworm of the Day: Lucinda Williams - Copenhagen

I wasn't entirely fair when I reviewed Blessed when it was released back in the spring. It's low-key charm actually does reveal itself through multiple listens, which sounds like a complete rock writer cliche, but it happens to be true this time. "Copenhagen," Lu's first official video, a tribute to her long-time manager who died unexpectedly in 2007, as directed by Dave Willis, co-creator of Cartoon Network's Squidbillies:

"We had that night off so we were getting ready to go out and get some dinner and we walked down from the hotel to this little place and the snow was coming down," she says. "It was all very literal of the song. It’s the combination of the news of his death and being so far away over there." (source)

Earworm of the Day: Keren Ann - Sugar Mama

Keren Ann's 101 is one of this year's most under-appreciate albums. I'm loving this track, "Sugar Mama" right now for its cool, minimalist video, and its twist on the "sugar daddy" trope. Enjoy.

One of the Boys: Female Musicians and Gender Play

I grew up on the edge 70s glam, right through its 80s incarnation as hair metal, and then 90s acceptance of gender play. Bowie, New York Dolls; Poison and Motley Crue's eyeliner misogyny; and Kurt Cobain showing up on Headbangers Ball in a full ball gown. There are tons of examples of male artists finding ways to play with gender roles, but very few of women. Female artists, to have any chance at mainstream success, are stuck with the dichotomy of playing the sexy vixen, or the good, innocent virgin.

The recent popularity of artists like Janelle Monae and La Roux's Elly Jackson provided some much needed androgyny that didn't play to some male fantasy. (Yeah, Madonna wore a suit in "Express Yourself" but with a hefty dose of self-awareness, and her co-opting of gay culture never sat right with me.)

The Blogosphere Reacts to Rihanna's "Man Down" Video

Rihanna's new video, "Man Down," in which she guns down a rapist, has garnered quite a bit of controversy since its release, coming under fire from conservative parents' groups and Fox News (shocking, I know), but I've been following the commentary within the feminist blogosphere, and I thought I'd excerpt some of the best of it here.

(Note: I've watched this video all of one time before it was pulled from YouTube, so I haven't much to add, but yeah, obviously, the controversy is based on the "woman with a revenge fantasy" trope, and it's a little more nuanced than that, and instead of condemning Rihanna, or demanding her video be pulled, how about using it as a means to spearhead discussions on women and agency, and the "good victim" stereotype?)

I find the absence of that song peculiar in these discussions, but I think–this is my theory anyway–it’s because the moment of that song–as she and her abuser are both about home, both about to finish what his stint in jail interrupted–doesn’t give room for sanctimony. It’s easy to pearl clutch once the dude is dead–”Oh, how terrible that Rihanna made a video in which a man [who rapes her character] is gunned down!” “Oh, how terrible that Garth Brooks sings about a woman who kills her [abusive] husband!” “Oh, it’s the end of the world that The Dixie Chicks make light of a woman and her friend murdering her [abusive] husband!” But when you’re in that moment before the confrontation–where you know as well as the singer that only one of them is going to come out standing–it’s harder to object. (Tiny Cat Pants)

Yes, Rihanna may simply be a good celebrity target, but it is utterly disturbing the manner in which any portraits that offer complicated, three dimensional representations of Black women are now unceremoniously banned from the air. These days, Black women and our experiences of rape and sexual violence are forced into invisibility when they don’t fit mainstream, pristine narratives of how to cope. Whether it be Rihanna’s teenaged fans, immigrants working as hotel maids all over this country, eleven year old Latina girls in Texas, or the Black girl next door to you, women of color are deemed deviant even for voicing our narratives of rape and sexual assault, especially when our stories insinuate that we are morally complex human beings. That is unfortunate, dangerous, and frankly infuriating. (The Crunk Feminist Collective)

Here's a fantastic thread on Tumblr about race, gender, and the society's expectations -- who we "allow" to have these kinds of emotions. Aerosmith's "Janie's Got a Gun" is referenced here, a twenty-year-old video with a similar theme. And also via Tumblr, Cara from The Curvature compares "Man Down" to the uproar over Thelma and Louise, and makes some important points about "Man Down" being as much about self-defense as it is revenge:

But the point is that it doesn’t even occur to most people that she might not have been killing (only) out of revenge, but out of self-defense. That she might have been actively protecting her safety. Because they don’t understand the fact that you don’t know whether your abuser is ever going to come back, that you don’t know whether they’re going to harm you again. They don’t know what it’s like (or don’t make the connection between it and these actions) to constantly look over your shoulder, to never ever feel safe, to know that you never, ever will until/unless that abuser gone.

Links & Bits for 4/22/11

Katie Makkai on "Pretty" (video and transcript courtesy of Sociological Images)



POC on the DL: Color-coding and Your Favorite TV Shows (Racialicious)

Prime-time television shows may be a lot more diverse than we give them credit for. And before you jump down my throat, think about it: Darren Criss from Glee? Part Filipino. Morena Baccarin on V is of Latin American origins. And Jesse Williams of Grey’s Anatomy—part black, part Scandinavian. See? That’s three more actors you didn’t think of as POC.

Black Female Sexuality in the Metal Scene (Writing is Fighting)

I still haven't quite figured it out yet. In my book, I write about how the presence of Black female rock / metal musicians is an important visual for me. I love the power of performing a white-male dominated music, I love the attitude and the raw sexuality that emanates from a woman on that stage. We are told that we are unwanted, unloved, invisible, but when you see someone like Tamar-Kali perform, or hell, even Erykah Badu perform, you are mesmerized.

Should Kanye's "Monster" video be barred from official release?

A handful of posts about Kanye West's leaked video, "Monster," were waiting for me yesterday morning as I checked my newsreader. Full disclosure: I am not a Kanye fan, nor am I a Kanye apologist (but I'm not not one either). But when something causes enough of a stir within the blogosphere, I feel obligated to check it out. Here's a short description of video via Salon's Tracy Clark-Flory:

The 40-second clip shows Kanye lying amid blue satin sheets, petting his own face with a woman's pale, lifeless fingers and later placing her hand on the crotch of the other unanimated woman sharing the bed. Although I wasn't able to spot it, the Wall Street Journal reports that there is also "the disturbing image of West holding what appears to be the decapitated head of a woman." Kanye's guest MCs get in on the necrophiliac fun, too: Rick Ross smokes a cigar while reclining in an ornate chair covered in protective plastic; and lingerie-clad women dangle lifelessly from the ceiling, their necks wrapped with industrial chain. In a behind-the-scenes video, we see Ross sitting at a table sipping red wine and feasting on a plate of bright-red raw meat that is placed right between the legs of a lifeless woman in thigh-highs and heels. The backdrop is straight out of "Dexter": There's a large plastic sheet splattered with blood and what looks like a tray of surgical tools. Jay-Z is shown spitting a verse in front of a naked woman lying on her stomach -- body limp, mouth agape and the purple "postmortem stain" setting in.

The blog Adios, Barbie posted a link to a petition to prevent the video's official release. This might get my feminist card revoked, but I'm not sure this is a good idea.

While I don't relish the idea of decapitated women, and I don't plan on seeking out "Monster," an outright ban of the video isn't the answer. To be honest, I'm uncomfortable with the idea of censorship in general. Judging from the screenshots, "Monster" is undeniably disturbing, but we need to be discussing what these images mean, and preventing the video from being shown at all shuts down that discussion making it even more scary and taboo.

One of my favorite comments on the matter comes courtesy of this Jezebel poster:

I'm curious how other women are responding to this. What do you think? Would you sign a petition to have a video barred from release because of its content? (Are we even watching videos anymore?)

Earworm of the Day: Mia Doi Todd - My Room Is White

I've had this song on my iPod for a while, but I'd never seen the video. I think it flows nicely from the stark loveliness of the Janelle Monae video I posted yesterday.

Janelle channels Sinead

I didn't pick up on the similarity to Sinead O'Connor's video for "Nothing Compares 2 U" until I saw this post on Idolator:

"The clip, directed by Wendy Morgan, features Monae from the shoulders up, during one continuous take. By the 1:42 mark, after singing the line “I was made to believe there’s something wrong with me,” Janelle begins to lose her composure and eventually tears start to flow."

Comparisons aside, the video is a pretty big departure from the dance-filled "Tightrope," but it's stark and moving, and proves she is a talent to watch.

Thoughts on Eminem and Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie"

First off, let me say I'm am not an Eminem apologist, though I have taken the heat a few times for defending him as a songwriter who I still think is, at times, nothing short of brilliant. If you haven't seen the video, or read the hype, "Love the Way You Lie" pairs Eminem with Rihanna, and features Megan Fox as a victim of domestic abuse. It's an odd song; Rihanana's vocals seem disjointed somehow, but overall effect is compelling. I think the song is nuanced enough to merit the hype, and I don't see the video as glamorizing domestic abuse -- quite the opposite, actually. Part of me feels like I shouldn't be defending it. On one hard, art is often messy and complicated, and it doesn't have to be responsible to be valid. The SF Gate wonders if the video should be used a teaching tool. (Via The Curvature)

"And the debate has begun: Is the song a treatise against (or apology for) domestic violence, or an irresponsible glorification of it? Or, is it something uncomfortable in between? And how exactly to explain the role of Rihanna, who has said she aims to help young people learn the lessons of her ordeal?"

Dodai from Jezebel adds:

"...when a sad-faced Rihanna sings, "I love the way you lie," it's almost as if she's yearning. Perhaps it's cathartic. But there's nothing glamorous about two people going up in flames, which is how the clip ends. There are no winners; only destruction. There have been excellent, artful films about war, with the message still clear: War is hell. And if there are mixed emotions in the video — an undefined line as to whether this particular type of suffering is attractive or repulsive — well, isn't that the point? It's not a public service announcement, it's just a perspective."

Kids Talk About Gender Stereotypes

Thanks to Feministing for the heads-up.

Lost and Found (Song): Imogen Heap - Bad Body Double

Yes, "Bad Body Double" is only a couple years old, far, far too new for nostalgia, but I've had it on repeat the past couple days and found an excellent live version on YouTube that I've been meaning to share.

I hate when writers dub certain albums or songs "universal." More often than not, they're only universal to the songwriter, but I think in this case, many women can relate to looking in the mirror and seeing an ugly stranger. (Video after the jump)