Passengers Should Have Been Brave Enough To Explore Its Dark Premise

Imagine the scenario: your high-tech hibernation pod on the spaceship you're travelling in to colonize a far flung planet has popped open 90 years too early because of a technical malfunction. Faced with the knowledge that you will be long dead when everyone else wakes up, what do you do? According to Passengers, the answer is "doom a beautiful woman to the same fate and lie about the fact that said fate was in fact your choice. Fall in love with her then stalk her across the ship when she discovers the truth and wants nothing to do with you."

In another world, this would be the perfect setup for an exciting thriller with feminist undertones about men's entitlement to women's bodies. But if you can believe it, Passengers is meant to be a story of true love, forged in the fires of intergalactic peril.

No, I'm not kidding.

Other critics have noted the sinister undercurrent of the film's very premise, but the problem with Passengers is that it tried to have its cake and eat it too. Either you're making a film about unconscionable behavior in the vast emptiness of space, or you're making a romance drama about two people effectively lost to time who find love. It takes a level of skill that this film lacks to blend the two successfully.

Meditation, Anointing and Anger in Beyoncé's #Lemonade

There's very little that I can add to the conversation about Beyoncé's latest visual masterpiece, Lemonade. The pros, cons, dos and don'ts have already been talked to death, and all the best things have been said. But truthfully I'm more interested in how Lemonade makes me feel. I want to interrogate the reactions I had to what I consider to be one of the most profound pieces of work ever created by a black woman, both artistically and economically.

I watched Lemonade, end to end, on my own. I turned my phone off, silenced my notifications, and paid attention to the journey that Beyoncé had decided to take me on. I watched in awe as black women congregated and communed with each other as Beyoncé lay bear her own feelings and tapped into universal truths about existing both black and female. I cried as a Mardi Gras Indian blessed a dinner table full of empty chairs; places set for people who could never join the offering.

Much has been made of Becky with the good hair; an attempt by white women to find something recognizable to latch onto in a sea of womanhood both public and commercial, that for the first time, deliberately excludes them. But Becky is beside the point. Because the point is that Beyoncé sees us. Beyoncé sees and acknowledges black women and our struggles, and she centered her art around affirming our hurt, our pain, our suspicion and our betrayal. Beyoncé made an (another) album about being a black woman, and the pain and joy that it can entail.


Guiding us through the stages of grief, Beyoncé weaves a story of pain, heartbreak and most of all anger, that is all too familiar to black women. Routinely, we are labelled as crazy or unpredictable without acknowledgement of the abuse that warranted that reaction. We are betrayed and told his infidelity is our sin to bear, we're mocked for our attempts to become the women the world holds in high esteem. Lemonade explores the blatant lies and half-truths that black women are forced to swallow and the pathology we are cursed to bear. But most importantly it justifies the delicious destruction born of righteous and justified anger. It allows our anger, ever stymied, always dismissed, to bubble over, froth and foment, and acknowledges it as a valid reaction to repeated abuse. As Ijeoma Oluo writes in the Guardian:

This expectation of black women to suffer in silence is passed from generation to generation. Beyoncé explores this inheritance unflinchingly: "You remind me of my father - a magician, able to exist in two places at once/In the tradition of men in my blood you come home at 3am and lie to me."

And it is this inheritance that Beyoncé rejects throughout Lemonade. She refuses to suffer in silence, and instead delves deep into the hurt and betrayal that has rended her life and her love apart, and encourages us all to do the same. She rips our generational burden to shreds and sets herself and us, on a path to redemption through shared communion. The hurt she explores here is real and familiar; an old prophecy passed from mother to daughter and back again, repeated ad infinitum until it fulfills itself. It is a battle we prepare for from the moment we are old enough to distinguish our blackness.

Rape, Consent and Race in Marvel's #JessicaJones

Marvel's Jessica Jones is the latest, best example of white feminist fiction: excellent on sexism, terrible on racism. There are a lot of great things about this series that speak directly to the ills that women face on a daily basis. Kilgrave, the central villain, is chillingly terrifying, specifically because the only difference between him and your garden variety abuser is his total power to enact his will. The examination of male entitlement in ways both large and small (by contrasting Kilgrave and Simpson for example) are excellent and poignant. But as I watched the 13 episode first season, I was struck by how callously black people's lives were treated on the show, rendered into convenient plot devices in service of the white female protagonist's character development. As a black woman viewing the show, it was easy to see that the active pursuit of liberation from abuse was not a struggle that this show believes includes me (an ongoing struggle for Marvel). Ironically, the best parts of the show are its treatment with its villain, while the worst are its treatments with its female anti-heroine.

While I do have several critiques of the show, there were a number of things that I thought were handled exceptionally well. Firstly, this is a show driven by women about the fears and terrors that women must navigate in the world shrunk down to a micro-level, enabling us an intimate look at the various levels of abuse women routinely endure. The contrast between Kilgrave and Simpson is genius, as it helps demonstrate the full scale of abuse that men knowingly and unknowingly enact on the women around them. The two men are flip-sides of the same coin. While Kilgrave simply takes what he feels he is entitled to by means of his powers of enhanced persuasion, Simpson intially takes a less forceful but no less sinister approach, exemplified in his treatment of Trish after he realizes that Kilgrave has compelled him to murder her. As Stephanie Yang writes in a Bitch Magazine review:

The warning signs are there early on. Under Kilgrave's control, Simpson assaults Trish inside her own apartment. Once Kilgrave's control wears off, he's wracked with guilt and comes back to apologize. The problem is that Trish doesn't want Simpson's apology; she wants him to just leave. Trish doesn't want to be reminded that she was attacked in her own home, or feel trapped by her own high-end security system while her attacker lingers outside. But Simpson is insistent, sitting in her hallway and talking to her through the intercom. Simpson makes his apology about his needs and his absolution, not about Trish's needs, safety or mental health. It's entirely understandable, but it's still wrong. 

Simpson and Kilgrave certainly have different motivation for their destructive actions. But as Jessica points out, intent doesn't matter. Their actions and consequences are what matter. That's an important distinction that needs to be made at a time when courts and media alike dismiss many real-life cases of abuse because the abuser "couldn't know" what they were doing was wrong. Violence is a symptom of a culture that indulges bad behavior as being inherently and unavoidably part of masculinity, or even a romantic expression of desire and protectiveness.

I would go a step further and name Simpson's insistent apologies to Trish as outright abusive on their face, specifically because they prioritize his need for absolution over her need to heal. Trish is the victim in the situation, and yet Simpson manages to find a way to center himself in the story of this trauma. As with Kilgrave and Jessica, Simpson's abuse is rooted not in a cartoonish hatred of women as we are often led to believe, but rather in prioritizing his own will and desires over Trish's.

On The "Rape As Backstory" Trope

A few weeks ago, after I'd (finally) gotten around to finishing season one of Top Of The Lake, I posted some thoughts about the rape as backstory trope, and my distaste for it. I figured that while it could be an instance of the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon gone awry, there seemed to be far too many fictional women who'd been raped or sexually assaulted in some way.

So I have this conflict: I truly, viscerally, despise the "rape as backstory" trope.
— NinjaCate (@BattyMamzelle) March 23, 2015

It's so reductive to imply that every woman's problems can be distilled down to some past sexual trauma.
— NinjaCate (@BattyMamzelle) March 23, 2015

On #Reign, Rape And Sexual Assault As Plot Device

Trigger Warning: This post contains discussion of rape and sexual assault.

Let me start by saying that Reign is a great show. I started watching during the break between seasons one and two and haven't turned back since. In a lot of ways, Reign is typical CW fare: pretty people's pretty problems, but in others, it's a very progressive and feminist look (even if wildly historically inaccurate) at the life of one of history's most notorious and fascinating women.

One of the show's biggest strengths is that Reign deals quite openly with the struggles that women faced at the time; from their inability to own property to their inability to guide the very direction of their lives. The show expertly demonstrates how the show's female characters find ways to move through a world that refuses them power or autonomy. Because of this, I'm very surprised and disappointed that the show chose to have its title character violently raped as a way to advance the plot.

I am not as plugged into this show's online fandom as I am with other shows that I watch, so I was not aware that the details of this particular plot had leaked online a few months ago, and consequently did not see it coming. I will admit that even as it happened, I thought Mary might escape. After all, this would hardly be the first time that Mary has been under threat of rape in the show. Additionally, Reign had previously tackled rape (poorly) when Catherine de Medici, Mary's mother-in-law, admitted that she had been gang-raped as a child in a season one episode. A petition started back in October to persuade the showrunners not to go through with the storyline nicely sums up many of my issues with this episode:

Many of us have come to love this show for its portrayal of strong female characters and the unflinchingly feminine light it shines on the dynamics and pitfalls of power in a world that is dominated by men. Much of the series has focused on Mary's womanhood and how she has learned to utilize it, manipulate and weaponize it, even as the outside world has looked upon it as her greatest weakness. After persevering through so much adversity and triumphing over those who have fought so hard to silence her, to have her suffer through this violent assault sends the message that the world will only punish--crushingly and humiliatingly--those women who dare to assert their places within it. It is a message jarringly out of tune with everything we have come to admire about this series, and it has no place in a show geared toward young women who dream of a future in which they may rise without fear of retribution at the hands of men.

As with the HBO drama Game of Thrones the argument can certainly be made that the threat of rape is a historically accurate concern for women of the time. But Reign makes no pretense at accuracy and never has; this rape is a fictional concoction inserted into the story solely to create controversy and advance the plot. They cannot even hide behind the defense that they simply bungled the retelling of a true story.

#Glee: Can We Discuss The Return Of #Samcedes?

I want to talk about last night's episode of Glee. Specifically the return of Samcedes.

I know, I know, who even watches that show anymore? I do. I love musicals. Even though Glee's decline over the last few seasons has been stark and unceasing, it's brilliant moments of meta-comedy (far and few between as they may be) keep me coming back. Plus I really love a show I can sing along to. I'm secretly five years old. Judge me.

That said, one of the biggest reasons Glee began careening off the rails way back in season three was its insistence on cramming the show full of Very Special Episodes when the show's strength was the comedy derived from following around a band of sometimes eccentric misfits and outsiders who shared a love of music. Two season laters, after having dealt with teen pregnancy, a character's untimely death, coming out, homophobia and 294 other issues, you'd think they'd at least have tackling serious topics like this down to a science. But alas, Glee is a Ryan Murphy show. Continuity and sensitivity are two words he's never heard of if he's dealing with issues that don't directly speak to his own experience.

Now, I'm a fan of the couple, but though this is the third go-around for Samcedes, it's the first time their relationship is ever really being addressed with any depth. (Which Kurt references in meta-fashion after they announce their reunion) When their relationship was initially introduced back at the very end of season two, it took place entirely off-screen and we never got to examine their relationship dynamics. Glee has always been fond of off the cuff pairings, (and they have had interracial couples before) but Samcedes was by far the most interesting one, and the audience was largely denied any opportunity to enjoy them, except in retrospect after Mercedes already had a new boyfriend and Sam had moved away, only to come back again and try to win her back. Though, to be fair, this was due mostly to Chord Overstreet getting fired and then rehired in between seasons.

Lusty, Busty & Fine: Jill Scott in "Baggage Claim" Shows That Big Girls Can Get Sexy Too

Today, I finally saw the Paula Patton led movie, Baggage Claim, and it was.... a predictably mediocre romantic comedy. Girl meets guy, girl wants ring, guy cheats, girl shame spirals and tries to get any one of several ex-boyfriend to propose, girl's plan fails, girl realizes the right guy was (literally) next door the whole time. And, fin. So, terrible. I did like the man-candy though.

But what stuck out to me in this film was Jill Scott's character Gail, best friend to Patton's Montgomery. Gail, a fellow flight attendant, is like Scott, plus-sized and busty. But she's also blatantly sexual. From the first few scenes of the movie, we establish that Gail is "that girl"; the one who has no shame and chases after her men the way she chases her drinks.

Normally, the idea of yet another hypersexualized black female character would irritate me, but this was different. We have very specific narratives for how we interact with black women in the media. We get the Jezebels, and we get the Mammies. The Jezebels are sleek, sexy and can't keep their legs closed. The Mammies are overweight and asexual; never the twain shall meet. But with Gail, we have a voluptuous woman, who is very sexual, and not even a little bit ashamed of it. It was refreshing for me to see a plus-sized black woman engage with men sexually onscreen, and not be the subject of derision.

The contrast that immediately comes to mind is the way in which sexual plus-sized women are so often played for laughs in comedies. Take Melissa McCarthy's character, Megan Price in Bridesmaids. In that infamous scene with the Air Marshall, Megan comes on strong and makes her sexual interest very well known. We laugh, not because there's anything particularly funny about her being so forthcoming, (if anything, it borders on sexual harassment and really isn't funny) but because "Ha, ha! The fat girl thinks he'd want to have sex with her!" Her fatness nullifies her sexual attractiveness, making the scene funny because of the audience's incredulity at the situation.

It also makes me think of other plus-sized black female characters like Retta's Donna Meagle on Parks & Recreation's. Donna's active sex life is a running gag on the show that is often referenced, but we've never actually seen any of the many men she claims to bed. We see the expensive cars they gift her, and we hear tales of the different ways in which she doesn't tolerate their nonsense, but we have yet to see Donna actually have a romantic storyline. It's fine for the big black woman to have lots of sex, as long as we're only made to laugh at it.

What really made me love Gail's portrayal in Baggage Claim was that fact that all the men she came onto over the course of the film were totally into it. Her sexuality wasn't played for laughs in a cruel way. The scenes are entirely believable, and rather than thinking of Jill Scott's weight, we're thinking that we all have that friend who behaves exactly like her. Here, the situation is funny because of the "this woman has no shame, oh my god, I could never" element. We're not ashamed of her. We're rooting for her.

In the scene that the picture above is taken from, Gail spills peanuts on the passenger's lap in order to have an excuse to dust his pants, and shove her cleavage into his face. As you can tell from the picture, the man is... rather enjoying the display. There's no disgust, there's no incredulity. This man is depicted as being just as sexually interested in Gail as we the audience might expect him to be in Montgomery; read, skinny women. I think that's the a huge deal, no pun intended. Too often, plus-seized women are excised from the pool of sexuality for no other reason than the fact that they aren't thin, when the fact remains that being overweight doesn't mean that your libido evaporates, or that you're no longer desirable.

All in all, I think that this character is great. If I'm honest, Jill Scott is just about the only bright spot in this movie, but that's an issue for another time. I really enjoyed seeing a plus-sized black woman be sexy onscreen without it being seen as problematic in some way. No one slut-shames her, no one condemns her behaviour. Gail is left to her own lusty devices, and it's not an issue. She gets to express and explore her sexuality without being told that her desire to do so is ridiculous because of her weight. That's in stark contrast to another of Jill Scott's characters: Sheila in Why Did I Get Married, whose husband laughs at her for trying to be sexy for him.

Moral of the story? Jill Scott is a gem, I love her and it's refreshing to see the big girls get sexy onscreen. More please!

I'm Not Okay With Lily Allen's Racist New Video: When Satire Crosses The Line [UPDATED]

I'm.... conflicted about this video. 

Lily Allen has always been a bit of a socially progressive, feminist badass, and I do love her for that. In her new single "Hard Out Here", Allen discusses the state of the pop industry, and the impossible standards that women are held to in order to be allowed to progress. The lyrics are classic Lily Allen; she calls out sexism pretty blatantly, and points to the ways in which women are expected to conform in order to succeed:

If I told you about my sex life, you'd call me a slut/When boys be talking about their bitches no one's making a fuss/There's a glass ceiling to break/There's money to make/ And now it's time to speed it up because I can't move at this pace. [...] 

If you're not a size 6, then you're not good looking/Well you better be rich or be real good at cooking/You should probably lose some weight 'cause we can't see your bones/You should probably fix your face or you'll end up on your own/Don't you want to have somebody who objectifies you?/Have you thought about your butt, who's gonna tear it in two?/We've never had it so good, uh huh, we're out of the woods/And if you can't detect the sarcasm, you've misunderstood.

But the video....? It makes me very uncomfortable, and I'm not okay with it.

#AHSCoven: Gabourey Sidibe's Queenie As An Embodiment Of The "Strong Black Woman" Stereotype

Last week, I read a great article by Nichole Perkins on Buzzfeed that talked about the way the character development of the leading ladies of both Scandal and Sleepy Hollow were working towards dismantling the harmful depictions of "strong black women" in media. It was a great read, and I loved that someone else shared my conclusions about Olivia Pope's characterization. 

What stuck out to me however, was Perkins' characterization of Gabourey Sidibe's character Queenie on American Horror Story Coven as a negative embodiment of the "strong black woman" stereotype. She says:

"Then there is Gabourey Sidibe as Queenie on American Horror Story: Coven, a “human voodoo doll” whose supernatural power is the inability to feel pain, even as she inflicts said pain onto someone else. [...] These Strong Black Women feel no emotional pain, tolerate severe physical trauma with no reaction, and menace others with stone faces."

I love American Horror Story Coven. But even though I had immediately made the connection to the racialized violence against black bodies this season, I hadn't picked up on Perkins' perspective of Queenie as a SBW. After seeing last week's episode "The Replacements", I not only vehemently agree with her, I want to expand on her observations.

[Movie Review] Gravity: A World Filled With Awe

These days, I approach all media critically as a matter of course. It comes naturally to me to look for the symbolism and coded messages present in any body of work. When people create, it's with an eye for transmitting a message; a way to convey their interpretation of the world, and the exciting thing about television and films is delving into those varied perspectives.

But I've just come from seeing the film Gravity for the first time and all I can say is, "WOW." I'm not entirely sure I'm able to form a cohesive thought about this movie because I'm so in awe.

The entire movie is like a slow motion ballet; elegant and graceful. The film's stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, float through the air like lithe nymphs acting out a play. And yet there are moments of such emotional intensity that it's almost unbearable. Gravity is beautifully shot. It is absolutely wonderful to look at, and it really gives weight to the majesty and vast intensity of space. So much of the movie is simply a stark contemplation on our individual insignificance amidst the expansiveness of the universe.

Alfonso Cuarón has created here a world that is familiar and yet completely foreign. He will not allow you to escape the profoundness of the world as seen from above, and he will force you to observe in awe, the spectacle that is our lowly place in the universe.

What struck me too, was the overwhelming silence of the film that spoke to the loneliness of Sandra Bullock's character, "Ryan Stone." There are several moments where her panicked breathing is the only thing between the audience and an utterly complete lack of sound. Her sheer terror echoes all around you, and you can't escape it. The audience's first person perspective of her experience at several points heightened the suspense, and forced you to engage the film with all your senses. I paid rapt attention throughout, which is rare for me as I'm usually analyzing things internally as they unfold onscreen. This time, it was all I could do to take it in.

Plot-wise, this entire movie could probably be summed up on one sentence, but critically, there is so much here about the human condition that I genuinely don't feel qualified to talk about it. There is a reverence here; a respectful understanding that there is so much more than ourselves in play. This is a movie about disaster yes, but not the one you think. Gravity deals with not just the disaster, but the aftermath; how do you continue to survive when you think all hope is lost? How do you push forward when you've exhausted your options? How do you fight when you have nothing left to live for?

We get to the heart of these questions primarily through Bullock's character, and boy does her performance deliver. We learn that Ryan Stone had a daughter who died in an accident, and that her death has weighed heavily on her heart, keeping her from moving forward and from pushing through; from doing any more than is required. But by the end of the film, Stone has reached deep into the depths of her pain to find the will to live. To fight against all odds to survive and to come out on the other side of her pain. Her final triumph makes the previous tribulations seem worth it; she found the strength to survive. Her struggles meant something.

All in all, I'm glad that I gave the film a shot. It has sent me into a contemplative tailspin for which I'm grateful. Gravity is an exquisitely beautiful and haunting translation of the trials of the human spirit. It will stay with you in a way that no other film ever has.

#Scandal: Hell Hath No Fury Like Mellie Grant Scorned

Last night's episode of Scandal was too much to handle on a number of levels. There was a ton going on, and if you blinked too often you probably missed half of it. But what stood out the most to me this week, was the incremental development of the souring relationship between FLOTUS Mellie Grant, and her husband, POTUS Fitzgerald Grant. 

At the beginning of the season, I made a case for why Mellie doesn't deserve the bad reputation she's gotten, and this week, I think we got a little more information to back up my case. Bellamy Young's fantastic performance gave Mellie an emotional depth that I'm so glad we're finally getting to explore. 

Firstly, Mellie still loves Fitz. There is no question about that. It is fact, and it becomes even more obvious as the weeks roll by. For whatever reason, Mellie loves her abusive asshole of a husband, and she wants things to work out between them. To me this episode, specifically her drunk speech in the dining room, shows that Mellie is finally beginning to realize that there is nothing left for her to do. There is nothing she can do that will ever make Fitz love her the way that he loves Olivia, and it's making her bitter and hard. 

Work B*tch: Compliment Or Command?

This post is painfully overdue! It's been about a week and a half now since Britney's video for her new single "Work Bitch" dropped, and I have some thoughts! Many thoughts. Critical commentary thoughts! Let's get cracking.

This song is terrible. There's no getting around that. But I actually really like the video; it's fun and energetic, and it at least makes a show of trying to return Britney to her former glory, but it never quite manages to get to "peak Britney."

Firstly, the dancing. Oh good lord the dancing.... Britney's always been a bit of a one trick pony when it comes to choreography. She's lots of arms, torso and face. That's fine, but she's been doing that since 1999, and her repertoire needs a little updating. But all of that could be overlooked if she still had the same intensity of Toxic era Britney. I know that she has a knee injury a few years back and hasn't really been as physically capable since, but there's a fire in her eyes that's been missing since her breakdown. 

Don't get me wrong, Britney looks better here than she has in a really long time. Physically she's back in fighting shape, but she looks like she'd rather be anywhere but where she is. She's no longer the Britney who enjoyed entertaining us. Which brings me to the main point of this post:                                   

Although Britney has co-opted drag culture slang for her new single, she's completely flipped the context of the epithet. In drag, "work bitch!" is a compliment akin to "You know you look good! Get on with your bad self!" It's encouragement; it's praise.

With Britney's new single, she presents "Work Bitch!" as a command, especially in the context of the lyrics of the song. Here, "Work bitch" serves as a command; a warning. You want a hot body? You want a Bugatti? You better work bitch. In a way it speaks to her work ethic. She knows that if you want the finer things, you have to be prepared to work for them. On the same token however, it reads like a reprimand and a reminder. Britney is her family's cash cow. This club anthem is actually a call to arms for herself; a blaring reminder that she has no choice but to keep the monkey dancing if want to maintain her lifestyle. Britney has publicly expressed that she's no longer comfortable with her sexy image and that she'd rather just be at home with her boys, but for whatever reason, she's unable to do that.

So is this song an empowering anthem, or a metaphorical cattle prod reminding her to keep going? What do you think?

#Scandal: I Know That Olivia Pope Isn't Perfect; It's Part Of The Reason I Love Her

It irks me that people (usually black men) keep saying that black women shouldn't love Olivia Pope because she is flawed. "Flawed" in this case usually equals "having an affair with a white guy". They don't realize it, but the concentrated hate that they hold for her is steeped in a very specific kind of racialized misogyny. Walter White was no hero, but somehow we managed to love him. Dexter was a serial killer and yet, we lauded him too. What do they have in common? You guessed it. Men. White men. Who also happened to be anti-hero characters whose virtues were valued alongside their flaws. But I'm going to set that aside for now.

I'm a black woman and I LOVE Scandal. I am not blind to Olivia's flaws. I love her because she has flaws. 

Black women are so severely underrepresented in media that Kerry Washington's role has garnered a considerable amount of attention simply because she is a black woman in a lead role of a network television show. And because she remains the only black female lead on primetime (Megan Good's Deception unfortunately didn't get picked up for a second season) she is expected to be everything for everybody. But Aunty Shonda rebukes your bullshit notions of black respectability, and instead, has created Olivia Pope as a fully fleshed out person. She is neither completely good nor completely evil; neither stark black nor brilliant white. Olivia Pope is a beautiful mix of all the eternal shades of grey. She is composed of both light and dark. She is often morally ambiguous. Like a real person.

#Scandal: In Defense of FLOTUS Mellie Grant (And 4 Reasons You Should Give Her A Chance)

Like most true Scandal fans, I've re-watched both seasons of the show (twice!) in preparation for the glorious even that occurs tonight: the Scandal Season 3 premiere.

Scandal is a show with many, many villains and very few true heroes, and that complexity has appealed to millions of people. The one thing that many people seem to agree on however, is the general terribleness of Mellie Grant, First Lady and wife to President Fitzgerald Grant; the man who is also Olivia Pope's lover.

Audiences see Mellie as the obstacle keeping Olivia from her true love, and a bitch in her own right for her many behind the scenes machinations; both personal and political. But I have sympathy for her. I actually really like Mellie, and I think she's get an unfair level of hate.

Hear me out: Mellie is definitely a problematic, sometimes amoral person. Remember Nobody Likes Babies? But she's not the denizen of evil that people make her out to be. She's a complex character just as much as Olivia is, and she is the best character on the show to me after Olivia. Shonda made sure that even though Mellie is "the villain", she has depth to her and complexity, and it really shows through. So here are four reason why I think You should Mellie Grant a chance this season. (Or at least give her the benefit of the doubt!)

1. She Loves Fitz.
Mellie loves Fitz, to her detriment. God alone knows how or why this man has TWO intelligent, capable and ambitious women completely dickmotized, but he does. Despite Fitz's tantrums, despite his disrespect, despite his affairs, she loves him and stands by him, even though she knows that exposing his adultery would garner her cultural capital she could use to launch her own career. Even after she does give an interview, effectively getting the public on her side, she refuses to leak Olivia's name, because she knows that it will mean Fitz could never forgive her, and in the end, she wants their marriage to be whole again. Mellie does everything in her power to keep Fitz happy, to help him to guide him, and he appreciates none of it. Lord knows I could go on about what's wrong with Fitz, but the real issue is that her love for Fitz, frankly, holds her back. She is devious up until the point where it impacts Fitz, and it continues to be the reason she gets the shit end of the stick.

2. She's Intelligent And Ambitious
Mellie gave up her own career aspirations to be with Fitz, and be his First Lady. There is a delightful scene towards the end of the season where Molivia Nope reads Mellie and makes mention of the "law degree she always mentions but never uses."Mellie didn't need to hitch her wagon to Fitz. She's whip smart and devious, and likely could have made it to the white house on her own. But she chose to set aside her ambitions for his, because she loved and believed in him. She chose to raise their profile together, rather than set out on her own (without Fitz's manchild baggage) because I think, she truly believed in his ability to do good work as a politician. Many of Mellie's little schemes are in direct response to the fact that she can tell Fitz's resolve is waning. He no longer wants the power he spent so long chasing, and Mellie is desperate to get him back to the man she fell in love with.

3. She Doesn't Go Down Without A Fight
The scenes that made me really root for Mellie for the ones in the last two episodes where she refused to buckle to Cyrus' demands. If you think about it, those scenes were all about a scorned wife trying to exact revenge as penance for her broken heart. And honestly? I'm not mad at her. Fitz disrespected her, cheated on her, belittled her, and made a mockery of their marriage. (Remember, "You are ornamental, not functional!"? And let's not forget that Fitz didn't even have the decency to tell her in person that he was choosing Olivia) In those moments, Mellie did what many women wish they had the strength to do; she stuck to her guns. She refused to be bullied, and she recognized that she was the one with the upper hand. I'll admit, I did a little fist bump for her, and those final scenes where Ftiz comes crawling back on his knees? SO satisfying!

4. She Doesn't Delude Herself About Who She Is Or What Her Motivations Are
Finally, Mellie Grant is very simply the most honest person on a show full of people who bend and twist the truth as it suits them. Mellie is political and ambitious and has machinations beyond what any of us can imagine, and she's never been shy about making that clear. With Mellie, what you see is what you get. She doesn't try to make light of her actions or justify her decisions. She is very transparently a "means justify the ends" kind of person, and that's refreshing in a scenario where the goal seems to be to screw over as many people as possible. When it comes to Fitz, Mellie isn't the one who changed in their relationship; he is. He is the one who no longer has the stomach for the work they do, and lashes out at Mellie for being exactly the person she was when they married. Mellie knows where she planned to let their star fall, and it wasn't going to be as a one term President. She's gunning for political longevity, and she's not shy about it.

*****

At the end of the day, Mellie Grant is a spectacular political animal who doesn't need Ftiz. If you ask me, she and Olivia should team up and dump the sucker altogether. What do you think? Are you gonna give Mellie a chance? And will you be watching Scandal tonight? Follow the #Scandal hastag on twitter for live tweets of the premiere.

Solidarity Is For White Women (But It Doesn't Have To Be)

I've been discussing the #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen hashtag over on Jezebel for the better part of two days now, and I've noticed that a lot of people had been replying to me in the threads to say that they didn't know, or didn't really understand what happened with this Hugo Schwyzer debacle, so I figured I'd compile all the best links I could find and post them into one spot (off the Gawker server) so people can browse them as they see fit. 

First, a (slightly edited) summary, from the comment I posted on Jezebel's pitiful response of an article: 

Basically Hugo Schwyzer wormed his way into feminist spaces and used white feminists as a shield against criticism for his racism from WoC. Feminist WoC complained, Hugo blackballed and harassed them, and the WoC were labelled troublemakers for making a fuss. 

Come to find, last week HS basically has a meltdown on twitter, and admits that Yes! He is a racist, misogynistic fuck, and he knew it the whole time! He lied to everybody! 

So now, all the white led spaces that ignored WoC's protests are faced with having to deal with the metaphorical jizz on their face, (for empowerment, naturally) from having been TOLD repeatedly by feminist WoC, that he was harmful to feminist spaces and specifically to WoC, and choosing to side with an abuser.

Now, for follow up and background information, start with these:

• Hugo Schwyzer Has What Appears To Be A Major Manic Episode On Twitter
• Controversial "Feminist" Hugo Schwyzer Has A Very Public Meltdown

And continue with the the following:

• Storify of Solidarity Is For White Women
• Does Feminism Have a Race Problem?
• We Need To Talk About Hugo Race And Feminism
• #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen Has Nothing To Do With Hugo; Everything To Do With Listening
• The Soapbox: On #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen; Feminism Is Not Black And White
• Retired Male Feminist Inadvertently Prompts Meaningful Conversation
• H Is For Hubris, Hugo; S Is For Sordid, Schwyzer
• 1o Thoughts On Mental Illness, Abuse And Survivors
• Now Collecting: Hugo Schwyzer Apologists
• I'm The Sex Worker Who Was Outed As Hugo Schwyzer's Sexting Partner
• What I Think of Apologies

The links aren't in chronological order or in order of escalation unfortunately, but together they give a pretty comprehensive view of everything that's happened in the last two days I think. If you have found other links, let me know and I'll add them to the list.

I'm really glad that so many people seemed to be willing to have this discussion even if the editors at Jezebel, XOJane and The Atlantic aren't. I'd also encourage you to engage Mikki Kendall (who started the hashtag) directly on twitter if you have any other questions or concerns I guess. I mean, I can answer stuff from my perspective, but she started this, andI don't want to speak for  her if I can avoid it. Anyway, happy* reading!

*By happy, I mean I hope you don't puke.

5 Awesome Television Shows To Binge Watch This Summer (Because I Said So)

It's SUMMER TIME! Or, you know, Thursday for my local readers. Either way, the appropriate reaction is to... hole up in your room and binge watch television shows! Naturally.

Thanks to the internet I watch approximately 500% more television than I used to, (conflicting schedules be damned!) and while it means I don't get nearly enough sleep, I've found a lot of great shows over the last few seasons. Some of these shows are available on Netflix, but a few of them are still in season one and aren't available yet. To catch up on those, you definitely shouldn't click here to watch them for free online under any circumstance....

So, anyway... this is my list of shows that you have to watch this summer because I want more people to talk about them with because I said so. The list is arranged by "likelihood anyone reading this will actually start watching the show" ordered from least likely to most likely. These are all seriously great shows, and are some of my current favourites. PLEASE WATCH THEM AND TALK TO ME ABOUT IT! (Seriously, I'm here: @battymamzelle. Come talk to me)

Anyway, just in case, a *spoiler alert* is in effect for the rest of this post because I am detail rich kind of person and I'm not good at being vague. To the television!

In Defense of Uniforms (And Repetitive Dressing)

In the short time I spent as a fashion tourist in the US, I noticed that "uniform" is a dirty word.

While school uniforms were a pretty normal part of my childhood growing up, (both in primary and secondary school), in the US, uniforms seem to be a cultural signifier of private schools and the upper crust; a shorthand descriptor of strict Catholic schools stripping teens of their individuality with dowdy pleated skirts and plaid ties.

The idea is so pervasive that hundreds of teen movies employ the trope. How do you know the new private school student is a social rebel? They refuse to conform. They reject the uniform, and refuse to wear it as requested. It's so common, it's cliché.

But when it comes to fashion, choices and practicality, I think there's a serious case to be made in defense of uniforms.

Adult uniforms aren't quite the same as prep school pleats, but uniforms have practical advantages. Who doesn't love not having to worry about what to wear everyday? Fashion is always changing, and it can be hard to keep up with the latest styles over time, through seasons, and on a budget. Creating a "personal uniform" can be an easy way to always have an idea of what to wear, without actually wearing the same thing each time.

That's where wardrobe building comes into play; accumulating timeless pieces that you can mix and match to create great looks that make you feel great, help you add variety, and not have to go shopping every week. Things like blazers and straight leg pants, are always in style, always looks good, and are generally appropriate in most formal situations. Creating a personal uniform is like creating your own personal fashion shorthand that you can easily access in different situations.

Depending on what you do everyday, a personal uniform may or may not be practical, but it's an easy way to stay fashionable and comfortable, and reduce the number of times you find you "have nothing to wear".

Changing The Conversation Pt. 2: The Dove "Real Beauty" Sketches

If you've been anywhere near social media in the last few days then you've probably already seen or heard about Dove's latest campaign effort: The Dove "Real Beauty" Sketches.

The sketches are presented as a "social experiment" to show women that they are "more beautiful than they think." A forensic artist draws two sketches of each woman: one drawn from descriptions she gives of herself, the other from a stranger's description of her features. We then sit back in awe as the woman in question is presented with both sketches; confronted with the fact that she is perceived to be significantly more attractive than she considers herself to be.

Now, I've taken Dove to task for this campaign before (in fact that post remains the most read and visited post on this blog, week after week, more than 6 months later) but I think that it bears repeating why this campaign, while clearly well-intentioned, is horribly misguided.

I'll even admit that I fell for it at first, I really did. When you watch these women's reactions to seeing how much worse they perceive themselves, it's very hard to not get sucked into the emotion of the moment, and to commiserate with your own insecurities about your appearance. It's a burden that women are forced to bear from the moment they are old enough to perceive their femininity. We all know how critical we can be about our appearance; we're desperate to find a way to fit ourselves into the box that is society's definition of "beauty".

So I smiled, and I felt fuzzy inside, and I came away with the message Dove wanted me to come away with: "You are more beautiful than you think." And I even felt good that Dove had "finally gotten it right". But after reading this excellent piece that calls out all the problematic elements of the campaign, I realized that I had let myself be bamboozled by good intentions. The marketing machine had swallowed me. 

Because in actuality, this new iteration of the campaign is just as problematic as the first.

CNTM: Overstated, Underwhelmed, Unimpressed

via CNTM
Stephany photographed by Pedro Virgil

I'll spoil it for you now. Both Trudy and Susan were eliminated and only Stephany and Treveen remain. There really isn't much more to say about it other than that, so we'll skip straight to the recap.

Stephany continues to surprise me. While I'm not completely convinced that she's ready for the kind of work that CNTM should be preparing her for, she's been creeping up in the ranks. She improves every week, and  has been focusing on improving rather than interpersonal drama. She's slowly convincing me that she's a contender. This shot is one her strongest to date. It's dramatic and eye-catching, but I can't be sure that that is due to her skill as a model. I am confident that she has a future in modelling however. She has an incredible presence and continues to show that she would be pleasant to work with. Going into the finale, I'm cautiously putting my bets on Curacao.

I'm beginning to think that the competition is actually doing a disservice to these girls because it isn't requiring them to really push themselves to their limits. It's so apparent that these girls have talent and potential, but week after week, they fall short of what they're capable of. If it's a problem that affflicts all the models, then I have to think that the issue is in the competition, and not with the models.

CNTM: Disrupting the CHI

via CNTM
A still from Stephany's winning CHI nailpolish commercial

My biddies, I apologize for this very late review. This week has been hectic, and unfortunately it meant that CNTM dropped to the bottom of my list of priorities. I promise, I did not forget you. But since episode seven airs tonight, and as of yet the footage from the models' commercials has not been made available online, this will be a very abbreviated review.

Honestly, the only thing I really want to talk about this week was Athaliah's unceremonious ejection in favour of Susan in the bottom two last week. Now, Athaliah has garnered herself very few fans over the course of this season, and I would hardly count myself among them, but she did not deserve to be eliminated so early. That is simply a fact. And to send her home in favour of keeping a girl who has yet to take a good picture on purpose, well... I'm every bit as pissed as Athaliah must have been.

I think we can all agree that Athaliah is an outspoken and divisive character on the show. That pretty much goes without saying. But attitude aside, Athaliah has consistently been one of the strongest girls in the competition. Whether or  not you like her, you have to admit that. Athaliah's walk is strong, her presence is dramatic, and her look is stellar. (Don't hold that terrible makeover against her. It wasn't her fault.) She is one of the only girls who has a working understanding of her body and her angles, and as much as I'm rooting for my girls Trudy and Treveen, Athaliah is the girl I would pick if I needed a spectacular model on short notice. She is the only one that I think would go into a shoot confident that she could deliver.

I said it last week and I'll say it again: at this point I'm actively campaigning for Susan to go home. It isn't that I dislike her, or that she isn't beautiful, or doesn't deserve a chance to shine. It's that she is all of those things and still hasn't managed to make any major improvements. And with Athaliah gone in order to preserve her place, she is now at the point where her presence is denying more qualified, talented and deserving models from access to the few opportunities available to Caribbean models.

It was a strange week. The acting challenge in preparation for the commercial shoot was cringe-worthy on many levels, and often unintentionally hilarious. (I'm looking at you Trudy). The shoot itself was also less than stellar. Most of the girls were able to cobble together enough takes to create a decent clip, but if we're honest, none of them really produced anything that could air in syndication without embarrassing everyone involved.

The only bright spot was that for ONCE the callout order was as it should have been, which is why Athaliah's dismissal came as such a surprise to everyone who watched with me on twitter. The general consensus seemed to be that though she was not well liked, she was talented, and deserved to stay. But alas, all of this unfolded almost two years ago, so there's little any of us can do about it now but whine and tweet passive aggressive things!

Tonight, the models get a visit from the ANTM hall of fame: Bianace Golden (who has her own reputation for being difficult) drops in to teach them a thing or two about making it in the industry. I have to admit, I'm a little bummed Athaliah won't be here for that. That would have made some spectacular television.

What were your thoughts on Athaliah's exit? Do you think Susan deserved to be saved? As the competition gets tighter, who are your picks for the top three?

Previously on Caribbean's Next TopModel: 
CNTM Cycle 1, Episode 6: I'm In Redface, Hear Me ROAR!
CNTM Cycle 1, Episode 5: Who Been Sipping That Jesus Juice?
CNTM Cycle 1, Episode 4: Carnival is Bacchanal 

CNTM Cycle 1, Episode 3: Flounder or Flourish?

CNTM Cycle 1, Episode 2: Beginners, Bullies and Buck-Toothed Bitches

CNTM Cycle 1, Episode 1: Introducing Caribbean's Next Top Model