What to do?
Posted on May 26, 2008
Filed Under Novelty, Women | Comments Off on What to do?
For all of you, like myself who have post-it scribbles strewn all over my desk, here’s a tongue-in-cheek solution for your shoddy short term memory.
To-Do Tattoo, the temporary tattoo with lines for making neat to-do lists right on your hand or anywhere else on your body. They come with a skin safe marker so you can write your list without fear of ink poisoning. No more lame excuses for forgetting your best friend’s birthday. If strategically placed, could come in handy if you want to remind yourself or your partner of some playful to-dos in the bedroom (wink-wink).
Calvin Klein Commercial Makes TV Execs Uncomfortable
Posted on May 26, 2008
Filed Under Advertising, Multimedia, Women | Comments Off on Calvin Klein Commercial Makes TV Execs Uncomfortable
According to New York Magazine, tv networks have their panties in a twist over Calvin Klein’s commercials for its new fragrance, Secret Obsession. They say the TV spots are too risqué and won’t air them unless Coty (the company that makes the fragrance) makes them more G-rated. The TV ads, like the print campaign debuting in September, were shot by Steven Meisel and star Eva Mendes:
“It really taps into the secrecy of a private moment — where it’s clear that Eva is having illicit thoughts,” said Lori Singer, vice president of global marketing for the brand at Coty Prestige, “It’s somewhat up to interpretation — because of how it’s shot, and what you see and hear, and what you can’t see and hear. You hear her voice, talking about having a sexy secret.”
Sounds like every Victoria’s Secret commercial we’ve ever seen. Another Coty rep said they plan to fight for their commercial — a cause we can totally get behind. A little lightening up would do this country good. By our calculations no one has yet died from Janet Jackson’s boob fiasco and look how much stress we wasted freaking out about that. We can’t imagine five extra seconds of Mendes’s bare thighs will send anyone into a frenzy either (except at the networks).
Black Homophobia Must End
Posted on May 24, 2008
Filed Under Gay/Lesbian, Women | Comments Off on Black Homophobia Must End
Africans throughout the diaspora may have conveniently blamed white people for the evil in the world, but it is no coincidence that black homophobia is rampant in areas where white/European male tourists have been able to rest assured of immunity from prosecution for child-molestation. Those molested boys – too ashamed to speak of what has been done to them – grow up to become black men who need a target for their hatred and their pent-up rage resulting from years of self-imposed silence. Their very manhood has been called into question, ergo their need to dominate the females in their culture. If a woman demonstrates that she is perfectly happy to live her life free of male-domination, then she represents a threat to every man’s survival. (“If she doesn’t want my dick, if she won’t cook for me or clean up after me, then how will I live? There must be something wrong with her.”) Soon, hatred and violence are justified in the name of propagation of the species. Witches and heretics are burned at the stake, and lesbians are gang-raped in the name of “showing her what a REAL man feels like.” But a real man neither has to rape, nor does he need the encouragement of his buddies to do the deed. Rapists are steeped in self-loathing, which is why they feel so unworthy of love in the first place.
Lesbianism is the ultimate expression of self-love for a woman. She is free of the assumed masochism inherent in the heterosexual act. She receives pleasure by virtue of giving pleasure. And when a black woman loves another black woman, this act defies every lie the dominant culture has tried to instill: that black women are waiting for any white person – male or female – to take them out of poverty, that black women are so self-hating that they’ll tolerate the abuse of black men because they don’t know any better, etc. etc.
African men, if indeed they are real men, must ask themselves what it is about the love between African women that they find so threatening. By contrast, African-American men seem to be more tolerant of same-sex relationships simply by virtue of being American. They are beginning to grapple with the hypocrisy of homophobia and antiquated sexism. But African and Caribbean men in many cases still remain free of prosecution for sex-crimes (unless they are committed against someone white).
The attitude that black women are not supposed to feel desire obviously is born out of a history of Slavery and white immunity from prosecution for rape. If she is seen as a loose woman with no morals, then she deserves what she gets. (And rarely does anyone stop to think about how a so-called “loose woman” became loose in the first place.) But any pious, self-respecting wife or mother is not supposed to desire sex; therefore, men are able to feel guilty and responsible for soiling her and lowering her to their level of banality. Some have even robbed her of her God-given clitoris in a desperate effort to kill her desire.
But if a woman desires another woman, then what’s that about? Answer: Lesbian love is life-affirming, mutually nurturing, and hot as hell! Yes, the earth quakes, mountains crumble, and flood waters cover the land when two sistahs love each other. Humanity as we know it had better watch out! If this kind of love spreads, then wars may soon become unjustifiable and obsolete.
