Comedy, Blackness And The "Pursuit of Sexiness"

If you haven't heard of web series Pursuit of Sexiness, you're missing out. Starring SNL's Sasheer Zamata and Girl Code's Nicole Byer, the six episode first season focuses on the two besties living in NYC and, you guessed it, getting sexy.

Comparisons to Girls are pretty inevitable, but truthfully, the show reminds me more of Comedy Central's newest show, the brilliant Broad City; which itself started out online. It's less "self-conscious, over-earnest examination of life and love" and more "shameless pursuit to get laid at all costs." It's raucous, funny, and completely bananas.

I'm not going to pretend that the stars' blackness doesn't impact my enjoyment of the show. It does. It matters greatly to me to see two dark skinned black women, one of them plus-sized, unabashedly take charge of their sex lives. Byer's character is delightfully inappropriate, spending the end of the pilot desperately trying to coax her date's penis into a satisfactory erection. Zamata's character spends the pilot dropping increasingly obvious hints that she's more interested in her date's financial prospects than his company.

For all the writing I've done about the lack of presumption of sexual agency for black women, it's incredibly refreshing to see two black women; women who look like me; move through their sexual interactions unencumbered by the racial micro-aggressions that most black women are far too familiar with. In Zamata and Byer's universe, neither Sasheer's natural hair or Nicole's body are obstacles that must be overcome. They are simply parts of the people that they are; mere footnotes that accompany their whole.

#BlackGirlsKillingIt: All Hail Lupita Nyong'o

via USA Today

And the Oscar goes to Lupita Nyong'o! I don't have anything more to say about her impact on pop culture, or my feelings about her that hasn't already been said, or that I didn't say the last time I mentioned her, but I am beyond over the moon that the academy gave her the recognition she deserved. 12 Years A Slave is a powerful film with many powerful performances, but Lupita, as a newcomer, really stood out for bringing the visceral pain of Patsey to life. Her performance was heart-wrenching and triggering as hell, but it was worth it to see that pain be so passionately portrayed, when stories of slavery are so often diluted in order to assuage white guilt.

With last night's win, Lupita becomes only the 7th black woman to take home an Oscar in the academy's 75 year history. That's MAJOR. I love everything about this woman; her talent, her humility, her poise and her style. I love her conscious acknowledgement of what her visibility means for black women, and especially dark skinned black women. I love that she constantly pays respect to the women who came before her and gave her to confidence to believe that she was worthy. I love her understanding of her place in Hollywood because of her skin colour and her willingness to be vocal about pushing against it. Lupita is such a spectacular woman and talent and she deserved the hell out of this award.

I only hope that this win translates into a huge career, full of meaty roles worthy of a woman of her talents. Don't ever sleep on us black girls. We are coming for you, and we're taking over.

Crissle X Nicki Minaj: Say No To F*ckboys

If you listen to the The Read, you're probably familiar with Crissle's "Say No to Fuckboys" rant from one of the early episodes. It's her feminist, anti-misogynoir mantra, and it's awesome. When I heard Nicki's new song, I IMMEDIATELY thought of Crissle, because (unlike Jezebel apparently) I recognized that it expresses the exact same sentiment. They actually talked about the song on this week's episode which was awesome. They both love it and recognize the (pretty blatant) feminist message in the lyrics, and they also both agree that the rape line was not okay. (It's really not, and Crissle does a great job explaining why.)

#HouseOfCards: Is Claire Underwood A Caricature Of Feminism?

I just came across this piece in the The Atlantic entitled "Feminism, Depravity and Power in House of Cards" that I think gives a very nuanced view of the reasons why labeling Claire Underwood a feminist after the season two release of House of Cards might be a contentious pronouncement. I have to say, I really like it. It manages to articulate the nuances of the conflicting things I feel about Claire's character in a very good way, and it makes some great points that hadn't even occurred to me as I was parsing the issue on my own. One of the quotes that really stuck out to me was this one:

Several observers go even farther, arguing that Claire isn't a feminist so much as a right-wing caricature of a feminist: a ruthless, calculating, power-hungry career woman who stabs other women in the back and uses abortion as birth control. Cognizant of the way that she uses the sexual-assault bill to raise her political profile, only to abandon it when doing so is useful political leverage, Mollie Hemingway writes that "it’s sort of like House of Cards is running the Democratic playbook’s ‘War on Women’ as a major storyline," except without the mainstream-media filter, "we get to see how calculated and manipulative it really is.”

Emphasis mine. Now this hadn't really occurred to be in the course of thinking through this, but I actually think this might be a pretty accurate assessment. The basic tenets of feminism are there; she's pro-choice, against sexual assault, a rape survivor who is able to get respite from her rapist, she champions a bill to combat sexual assault in the military. And yet, the way she treats the other women in the show, as the piece notes, is also quite illuminating. As the author notes:

"Women need Claire as a feminist ally like a fish needs a wood-chopper."

I laughed, but he has a point. Female solidarity is largely non-existent to Claire. Her loyalties are to her husband. She may help you, if your agenda aligns with hers, but as we see with the young private who risks her reputation and her mental health to come forward to corroborate Claire's story that her rapist is, in fact a rapist, she will abandon you the second your motives diverge from hers. And heaven help you if manage to find yourself in her crosshairs like poor Gillian did.

The Beyoncé Conversation: Feminism, Black Women and The Presumption Of Sexual Agency

It's been a while since I've posted a substantial essay, but I wanted to stop in and talk about an issue that's very important to me as a black, sex-positive feminist. That is, sex, obviously; specifically the sex that black women are or are not having, and how the conversation about their sexual agency keeps getting derailed.

As I've written about several times now, (here, here and relatedly here) conversations about sex and sexuality become very different when you are talking about a black body. This is because of the historical context of the negative sexual stereotypes that were applied to those bodies in order to dehumanize, subjugate and ridicule them, and elevate white (female) sexuality in the process. Black men were uncontrollable, brute savages who would rape a white woman as soon as look at her, and black women were lascivious whores, always searching for a dick, unrapeable by their very existence.

The loaded racist history of these still prevalent tropes leaves black women especially, in a misogynoirist double bind. Either we deny our sexuality entirely in order to be considered respectable and worthy (not so coincidentally placing ourselves firmly into Mammy territory), or embrace our sexuality, as all women should have the right to do, and be seen as a confirmation of negative black sexual stereotypes.

In effect, our choices as sexual beings are wrapped up in a lose-lose catch-22 that denies our agency from the outset, and punishes us for trying to exercise it. All the while, black women's bodies continue to be used to ridicule our very existence and deify white female sexuality.

So what does this have to do with Beyoncé? Everything.