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 […]
Author: Ebony Utley
Ebony A. Utley, Ph.D. is an expert in popular culture, race, and love relationships. Dr. Utley’s research explores the tension between power and pleasure in popular culture, examines how Americans talk about race and racism, asks probing questions about marriage and infidelity, and explores hip hop’s relationship to love and religion. She is the author of Rap and Religion: Understanding the Gangsta’s God. In addition to national radio, print, and online appearances, Dr. Utley lectures at universities across the country and is an assistant professor of communication studies at California State University Long Beach. She resides on the web at theutleyexperience.com.
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
The online promotional push for Black Marriage Day glosses over the history of Black marriage, disregards the economic impediments to marriage and ignores Black gay marriage.
Justified: A Western Sans Damsels in Distress
Justified is doing something different. It’s the complicated relationships among the characters and the colorful composition of anger that makes the show worth watching. For example, Rachel is cautioned to be nice when questioning a witness. Must she be angry because she’s the only African American in the cast or will she too have a fully developed back-story? Ava was angry enough to kill. How much more will she feel empowered to do? Winona hints at the simmering nature of her relationship with Raylan when she tells him that he’s the angriest man she’s ever known.
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 hold their own, Brooklyn’s Finest is not about what it means to be a police officer; it’s about what it means to be a man.