Ebony Utley's Posts

Is the Whitest White Girl the Best B-Girl?

B-Girl, a new hip-hop film about break dancing, premiers on Showtime this Sunday. In it, protagonist Angel survives a vicious domestic violence attack and overcomes her physical and psychological obstacles to become the best b-girl on the block. Filmmakers, Elizabeth (producer) and Emily Dell (writer and director) are admittedly not b-girls, but their experience as women [...]

Daytime Drama

Sunday is the 37th annual Daytime Emmys, live from Las Vegas. Many feminists scoff at the genre, but its popularity is undeniable: Millions are expected to tune in. As a feminist and proud soap-watcher, I’d argue that soaps are too often wrongly dismissed as sex-filled drivel. Feminists, in particular, should support the feminine values, diverse [...]

5 Looks At Venus Williams’ Ass(ets)

Venus Williams’ recent French Open display of her assets (and by that I also mean her clothing line and her masterful tennis prowess), has upset a few people who feel that the wardrobe choice was risqué and inappropriate. I want to explore five important gender lessons we can all learn from a lingering look at [...]

Some College Students Earn “F” in Respect for Women Teachers

After years of hard work and often a huge investment, college students deserve to celebrate the end of a semester or the completion of their college careers. But unfortunately, as a young African American woman faculty member, the end of the spring semester is more emotionally exhausting than anything else. Many male and female students’ [...]

Breastfeeding for the Greater Good

Encouraging breastfeeding is good public policy. Finally, any lingering doubts can be laid aside because a) new research quantifies the public benefits and b) the U.S. government is making employers support it. A study in the journal Pediatrics reports that approximately 900 babies’ lives could be saved every year if 90% of U.S. mothers exclusively [...]

Can’t Black Women Do Better Than Tyler Perry?

After viewing the newly released Why Did I Get Married Too?, I’m asking myself why I chose to see another Tyler Perry film. If you’ve seen one Tyler Perry movie, you’ve pretty much seen them all, so I’ll just summarize how they go. Plot A: A slightly dense-but-desperate black woman is wronged by her professional, [...]

The Gayest City in America

Congratulations Atlanta! The ATL is now the gayest city in America. The Advocate’s “finely tuned (if totally arbitrary) calculus” raved about the city’s 29 gay bars, pride events and thriving LGBT bookstore—Outwrite Books. One would think that a story on the gayest city in America would also: recognize gay marriage lead the fight for marriage [...]

The Problem with Black Marriage Day

Getting married is easy. Staying married is hard. That opening is catchy, but it isn’t true–unless you are white, heterosexual and middle class. The rest of us (even some folks with privilege) are having a hard time at both. Black Marriage Day is Sunday, March 28. It was created by Nisa I. Muhammad to strengthen [...]

Justified: A Western Sans Damsels in Distress

From a feminist perspective, FX’s new series Justified doesn’t look good. Before the opening credits, a man is shot dead. Soon thereafter a black church is blown up by redneck white supremacists. Then a wife guns down her abusive ex-husband. Considerable more violence ensues. The plot centers on U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) who, [...]

Movie Review: Brooklyn’s Finest

Brooklyn’s Finest is a new movie about cops and robbers and cops who are sometimes robbers. The plot comes as no surprise. Before Brooklyn’s Finest, in 2001, Antoine Fuqua directed Training Day, the ultimate rogue cop film. Even though the movie is riddled with bullets, racist police and prostitutes who sometimes need saving and sometimes [...]

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