When Publishing Goes Too Far: The Game On The Cover of The Source

I mean I know that ever since XXL came to be, The Source has become as relevant as Jet, so it would make sense that they would want to sell issues by any means necessary, but isn’t this just a bit harsh?

Do we really need another violent media image of black men? Aren’t O.J and Clarence Thomas offensive enough?

 

He Reminds Me Of My Jeep: Barack Obama

It in un-feminist of me to be get the giggles every time this man is on television? Before, I never looked at him in that way, I just respected him for his beliefs, his vision for this country and his “audacity to hope.” But after that whole “brush your shoulders off” incident, I see his swagger. We all know how I love a man with swagger.

Sigh.

FYI: Don’t worry Michelle, I won’t cross the line. I know you don’t play. You would tear me up if I attempted to step to your man.

 

When Publishing Goes Too Far…Kim Porter on the Cover of Jet

For the Mother’s Day edition of Jet, the weekly African American pamphlet magazine, Kim Porter graces its cover. She talks about her life beyond Diddy (you two were just pictured being boo’d up last week), her business ventures and motherhood. The cover line is hilarious: “Makes her own life” (yeah with Diddy’s money.) Like I said in the past she is an embarassment to black women. KIM, GET SOME COUNSELING AND A NEW MAN, IN THAT PARTICULAR ORDER.

I would like to know who at the Jet headquarters thought it would be a great idea to use this woman as an example of anything positive? Of all of the black mamas in the world to choose from–Jada, Halle, Mary J, Iman, Nia Long, Vanessa Williams, Nicole Ritchie, Kimora–this is what you come up with. Hell I would rather them have put Keishya Cole’s mother Frankie on the cover! At least that would be an encouraging story about getting past your demons in order to be a better mom. Kim is still being possessed by her demons: greed and stupidity. What is she going to teach her daughters about relationships and self-esteem?

And now I hear she is getting a reality show on Lifetime! This nonsense only gives hope to other groupies, gold diggers, NFL baby mommas, jump-offs and lazy women who just don’t want to work, that this triffling, settling for less behavior can get you something other than a new car, a Dior clutch and paid parking tickets. Using your uterus as a vessel to procreate in order to make money should not get you on the cover of a magazine, EVEN IF IT IS JET!

Some of you think that I am taking this too far, but watch in a month The Learning Annex is going to offer a class on “How to make being a jump-off a sustainable career.” You’ll see.

 

When Publishing Goes Too Far…Miley Cyrus in Vanity Fair

(Disclaimer: I know that everyone is talking about Miley Cyrus. So when in Rome…)

Hannah Montana megastar Miley Cyrus is doing damage control by apologizing for her recent photo spread in Hollywood culture bible Vanity Fair for a semi-nude picture of her taken by famed photographer Annie Lebowtiz. Cyrus claims she was manipulated by Lebowitz while Lebowitz is giving the “bitch please” defense claiming that everyone was happy and approved of the art including Cyrus and her parents.

Lebowitz also stated that people are misinterpreintg her work. So tell me this: When is it ever appropriate for an artist to suggest that a 15-year old girl pose shirtless while being wrapped in sheet rocking just-got-f***ed hair? Never. Shame on Lebowitz for not knowing better, for not falling back for a second and thinking to herself “Now I got critisized for the Jennifer Hudson Vogue spread last year for making her look like a lifeless whale, I got really shit on for the LeBron James-Gisele Bundchen Vogue cover for reinforcing stereotypes of black men being primitive apes…so maybe I should be easy with this little girl and do something that will keep my name out of the news.” Or maybe this was her plan all along.

But regardless of the intent, we as a society cannot forget that although Cyrus may have Julia Roberts’ money, she is still a child.

Now I respect Vanity Fair, but it doesn’t get a pass because it’s Vanity Fair, just like Lebowitz doesn’t get a pass because she is one of the best photographers of the 21st century. A foul up is a foul up and they need to stop hiding behind art’s sake and man up. This picture whether splashed on a MySpace page or on the cover of Time is equally problematic.

And I know that people are saying, “Where were the parents? They should have been there.” Who knows where they were, but if they weren’t there, shame on them for trusting a capitalist magazine to have their daughter’s best interest in mind. Now if they were there and they didn’t say anything, this could be a product of one of two things. Either they don’t give a damn like Lindsay Lohan’s mom aka White Oprah OR they got caught up in the moment listening to elitist folks telling these hillbillies, they don’t know fine art and that this is what is people really want to see. It’s this same mentality that got Andre Leon Talley to talk Jennifer Hudson into wearing that hideous gold lamet shrug-thing at the Oscars in 2007. You keep telling someone, “You’re great, you’re fabulous, give it to the camera. this is what’s up” and POOF! You have a child in tears, embarrassed parents, Disney with their panties in a twist and a major corporation i.e. Conde Nast making millions off of the fallout.

Yet this one incident speaks to a larger problem in this country: the sexualization of young women at way too early of an age. There are 10 year-olds wearing thongs and getting Brazilian waxes along with high schoolers who give better head than Karrine Steffans. We have music videos with naked women having money thrown on them, reality shows with spoiled brats who will do anything for attention, ads like House of Dereon For Girls pimping 3 year olds in f**k-me pumps, commercials like CW ‘s Gossip Girl showing kids riding each other, movies like Superbad that display a teen character begging some dork to put his “cock” in her, the list could go on and on.

Do we have any idea what we are doing to the psyches of young girls in this country? We are telling them that being overtly sexual is more important than being articulate, or being goofy or being smart or being REAL. We are encouraging girls to engage in sexual activities that they are not mentally or emotionally ready for and all we can offer them is abstinence-only education, so they have no idea how to protect themselves. Then we wonder why one in four teen girls has an STD. And parents are just as messed up as the media–stop being your kid’s homegirl and be her mamma.

We have fallen pop stars, knocked up teen idols and hairless vaginas plastered in every magazine. And when young girls finally have someone they can look up to, we ruin it by letting greed take over common sense and decency. Oh well, VF will get what it wanted: to sell more copies than Suri “Alien” Cruise’s debut and Jennifer Aniston “Boo-hoo Brad left me” issues combined. I hope it was all worth it.

 

Quote of The Day: Spike Lee on The Clintons

I am not one to agree with Spike Lee–we all know he has issues with black women. What black woman’s role in any of this movies hasn’t been problematic? I’ll give you moment to think about it. (The little girl in Crooklyn doesn’t count, she’s a child AND Betty Shabaz from Malcolm X doesn’t count because she is not a fictional character) Couldn’t think of one, that’s what I thought.

Well in an interview with New York Magazine about his 1989 Oscar-nominated masterpiece Do The Right Thing, Lee spit some serious knowledge on slave mentality black folks and their undying love for the Bubba and Co. I am happy to say that I can finally co-sign on something that he has said:

The Clintons, man, they would lie on a stack of Bibles. Snipers? That’s not misspeaking; that’s some pure bullshit. I voted for Clinton twice, but that’s over with. These old black politicians say, ‘Ooh, Massuh Clinton was good to us, massuh hired a lot of us, massuh was good!’ Hoo! Charlie Rangel, David Dinkins—they have to understand this is a new day. People ain’t feelin’ that stuff. It’s like a tide, and the people who get in the way are just gonna get swept out into the ocean.

He does have a point. Don’t love Hillary because you think we owe her husband something, love her because you’re into ball busting bitches into her policies and her vision for this country. Her husband has done nothing but allow for men to continue to believe that getting head is not really cheating.

FYI Black people over the age of 60: It’s okay to publically disagree with white people or support Barack Obama. You will not get fired or lose your house to a mysterious fire. We are free now–sort of.

 

When Advertising Goes Too Far: House of Dereon for Girls

I know that I am late on this one, but these damn House of Dereon ads really irk the hell out of me.

I don’t know about you, but the words “fuck me pumps” and “pre-schoolers” do not need to go together in the same sentence.

Tina, we understand that you had to pimp out your daughter at a young age in order to make her a star and bring money into the home. Without that sacrifice, “bootylicious” might never have made it into the American vernacular. So for that we are truly grateful, but this boo, is a disgrace. These little girls look like whores. Why all the lipstick?

What is the next ad going to look like? Babies wearing gold metallic bikinis while five-year old boys throw Monopoly money on them.

Let our children be damn children atleast ’till the age of 8. Then they can worry about bikini waxes and putting out.

I am not blaming Bey and her Creole mama for the raising rates in pedophilia in this country, but this mess definitely doesn’t help.

 

Five Reasons Why I Love Lil’ Wayne

Now I want to be clear that I am a feminist. I am fully aware of how lyrics like “Whoop that trick” along with images of half-naked women gyrating on cars while having money thrown on them, has on our culture–low self-esteem, riskier sex among youth, the growing difficulty to get a man to take you on a date that does not require some form of sex at the end of the night, etc.

I also do not condone or understand why women, especially women of color have to be demeaned in order for white record execs and the owners of BET, MTV and VH1 to make billions.

1. With all of that being said, I AM IN LOVE WITH LIL’ WAYNE! I cannot help it and here are five reason why:
3. It takes a real man to admit that he is addicted to cough syrup.

People think he’s gay–We all know I love a black gay man, especialy since I often think I am one.

He ain’t afraid of working hard. There is a reason why GQ named him the “Man of The Year” for being a workaholic. This negro was on every remix that came out last year.

He is ugly sexy and that is the best kind.

That “Lollipop” song is hot! He can make it juicy for me anytime.

(All of these reasons trump the fact that he slept with Trina and Superhead along with the tats on his face, We all have our lapses in judgement)

Speaking of Lollipop, here is the video. Notice that the women have on more clothes than usual:

 

The Negro Please Award Goes To…DMX in XXL

On XXL.com, DMX was interviewed by Clover Hope to discuss his gospel CD, his rap CD, his family and his thoughts on our next president Barack Obama.

Here’s an excerpt:

Are you following the presidential race?
Not at all.

You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
His name is Barack?!

Barack Obama, yeah.
Barack?!

Barack.
What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?

Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
Barack Obama?

Yeah.
What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.

You’re telling me you haven’t heard about him before.
I ain’t really paying much attention.

I mean, it’s pretty big if a Black…
Wow, Barack! The nigga’s name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain’t his fuckin’ name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, “Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit” [laughs] “That ain’t your fuckin’ name.” Your momma ain’t name you no damn Barack.

So you’re not following the race. You can’t vote right?
Nope.

Is that why you’re not following it?
No, because it’s just—it doesn’t matter. They’re gonna do what they’re gonna do. It doesn’t really make a difference. These are the last years.

But it would be pretty big if we had a first Black president. That would be huge.
I mean, I guess…. What, they gon’ give a dog a bone? There you go. Ooh, we have a Black president now. They should’ve done that shit a long time ago, we wouldn’t be in the fuckin’ position we in now. With world war coming up right now. They done fucked this shit up then give it to the Black people, “Here you take it. Take my mess.”

Right, exactly.
It’s all a fuckin’ setup. It’s all a setup. All fuckin’ bullshit. All bullshit. I don’t give a fuck about none of that.

We could have a female president also, Hillary Clinton.
I mean, either way it doesn’t matter. I don’t care. No one person is directly affected by which president, you know, so what does it matter.

Yeah, but the country is.
I guess. The president is a puppet anyway. The president don’t make no damn decisions.

Well Barack has a good chance of winning so that might be something.
Good for him, good for him.

Ok look, I completely understand that many people in this country have distanced themselves from politics because they are tired of the corruptness of it all, the lying about weapons of mass destruction, institutionalized racism, policies that continue to widen the gap between the rich and the poor, etc–I GET IT! But this is just a disgrace.

Barack Obama has been on everything short of a Wheaties box: every magazine including VIBE, every television show, every newspaper, he has a MySpace account, all over YouTube, you name it. Even if DMX was flipping through the channels to get to BET, he must have come across Obama somewhere–HE IS THE ONLY BLACK CANDIDATE THAT EVER HAD A REAL SHOT IN HELL TO BE PRESIDENT.

It must be nice not to know shit or want to know. My hair is going gray because of this election, my mother’s nerves keep her up at night because she is so sick of all this Clinton nonsense and this crackhead has no idea who Barack Obama is. All of this work that we as black people are doing to make change and get ahead and this loser who gets dropped from his label, who is trying his hardest to stay relevant by coming out of his mouth

“Isa dunno nuffin ’bout no ‘Banana. Who that nigga be?”

Thanks for setting us back 175 years you coon.

Then he had the nerve to try to school folks on politics, like we don’t know how the system works. Well for those who don’t know how the system works, at least you know who Obama is.

The kicker of it all is the assertion that he would step to Obama. I dare this fool to call Barack Obama a “nigga” and tell him to stop “bullshitting about his name.” Obama would stomp his little ass and then make a speech about it that even FOX News wouldn’t criticize.

Some of us don’t need to be free, we really don’t. Yeah, I said it.

 

When Celebrities Come Out Of Their Mouth: The Beyonce and Latina Magazine Edition

In the newest issue of Latina, Beyonce was interviewed to discuss her all-Spanish rendition of her screamfest, B-Day. When asked was there there anything that she wanted her Latino fans to know, Beyonce responded with the following:

I would thank them for embracing me. I did radio (promotions) this morning for hours and hours and I noticed a big difference between speaking to all of the Latino stations and speaking to the pop stations or the other stations. With the Latino stations, there was so much love and everyone is so genuine. I’m just jealous that I wasn’t born Latina. I wish I had been because the culture is so beautiful. I’m very grateful Latinos are embracing me.

Dear Ms. Knowles,

Please stop with these lies. For starters, you are not jealous of anyone, partially because your father Matthew has made sure there is no one for you to be jealous of (Other than J-Hud and Rihanna)–either he has mismanaged your competition, dogged them out, or had them assassinated. Bey–as much as people want to hate on you–you are one of the best performers and one of the most beautiful people in the world right now despite being so OVEREXPOSED. You know how to put on a show, engage your audience, and dance your ass off, but at times you don’t know how to express yourself in a very intelligent manner. Which is fine to me, you are a singer not the White House Press Secretary.

But let me be honest with you; You don’t have to kiss ass by pretending to want to be Latina in order to sell albums or to admire their culture. Just do what I do: befriend Latinos, read about Latinos, visit historic Latino areas like Washington Heights or San Antonio, of sit in a Dominican beauty shop on a Sunday afternoon.

In your defense, I know how editors take things out on context, so you never really know what was said. But what irks me about you, is that we never learn anything new about you in interviews: we don’t know if you are a Democrat or not, we don’t know where you stand on gay rights, we don’t even know if you recycle, or if you prefer Pepsi or Coke. And to our dismay, this is what comes out of your mouth.

I love my brown sisters, don’t get me wrong. But Bey you don’t have to be so damn self-depreciating in order to express your gratitude to others. You are a black woman, don’t ever downplay that again.

xoxoxo

KT

P.S. Please purchase a Brita and place it on your mouth. START FILTERING WHAT YOU SAY IN INTERVIEWS.

 

When Photoshopping Goes Too Far: The America Ferrera and Glamour Magazine Edition

In the October issue of women’s mag Glamour , Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera graces the cover for the very first time. Although her face looks utterly flawless, that cropped and digitally enhanced body that WE ALL KNOW IS NOT HERS, looks a hot mess.

So, just as I wrote to Terrence Howard, it is now Glamour’s turn….

Dear Cynthia Leive (Editor-In-Chief) and Suzanne Donaldson (Photo Director),

I am writing to inquire why in the hell and who in the hell approved the October cover of Glamour? We all know that this is not America Ferrera’s beautiful and curvy body–that is Nicole Ritchie’s emaciated corpse with America’s fierce face. This is insulting for many reasons: one, because you assume that this is what your readers want to see and two, that we are so stupid that we were actually going to believe this nonsense. Try again. Look at those arms!

If a celebrity does not fit your backward ass standards, then DO NOT BOTHER PUTTING HER ON THE COVER IN THE FIRST PLACE IF YOU ARE JUST GOING TO EFF IT UP. What’s next, you will put Venus Williams on the cover and make her as light as Beyonce? I mean, Photoshop can really do anything.

Let me be clear: You are not doing us women of color or curvy women a favor by putting us in your publication. It’s not like Ugly Betty just came out–it has been on for a year and now after the Golden Globe and the SAG and the Emmy nomination, she gets to be on the cover. It is bad enough that we are barely represented, but PLEASE represent us right or not at all! (Pass this message on to your fellow Conde Nast EIC Anna Wintour because March 2007 Vogue’s cover and spread with Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson looked as if Ms. Lebowitz took the photos with her eyes closed.)

And you have the audacity to call it the 1st Annual Figure-Flattery Issue.

How do you think America feels about this? You don’t think that being brown, short, and weighing over 100 pounds has been a roadblock in her career? You don’t think that she realizes that roles that she should have gotten have gone to the same boring cookie cutter actresses that you seem to love to plaster on your pages. I find it very ironic, that America’s character Betty represents the beauty on the inside and sadly your cover perpetuates that inner beauty is just another word for “ugly.”

Glamour has really been messing up lately. Last month, you all had that little slip up with your racist editor who referred to twists and dreads as “political hairstyles” and claimed that they “had to go,” now this. Please get a grip on things over there at 4 Times Square, because I would hate to cancel my subscription, especially since I need to write it off on my taxes.

Much Love,

KT