This week, a group of black women in Columbus, Ga., started a campaign to donate 40 black Barbie dolls to young black girls. And here’s the twist: Before gifting the Barbies, the women used boiling water and pipe cleaners to transform them into curly-haired “beauties.” In my 32 years on this earth, I’ve owned a […]
Author: Martha Pitts
Martha Pitts is a feminist mother and pseudo-academic hailing from New Orleans, Louisiana, where she is also raising her children. A graduate of Princeton University, Martha is pursuing a PhD in English literature with a minor in women's and gender studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She has written for various publications including the Times-Picayune and Gambit Weekly in New Orleans and the Washington City Paper. She's interested in issues related to motherhood, black women, and popular culture.
A Single Lady Watches “Single Ladies”
For the past few years, single women of all races, shapes and sizes have pumped their fists in the air, lip-synced, writhed their hips and/or done the ring-finger-hand-flip dance to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” an anthem for unattached women who know what they want and when they want it. But on Monday night as I, a […]
White Christmas, White Santas, White Privilege
I am dreaming of a white Christmas, and I’m not too thrilled about it.
Sexy Cancer
One friend likes it on the coffee table. Another friend posted that she likes it on the floor near the couch. Then there’s one who like it on the desk. And no, these statements aren’t related to Karen Owen’s sex “thesis”—these are actual status messages on Facebook by my female friends. First reaction: Um? Second […]
bell hooks Is My Fairy Godmother
After our eleventh viewing of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, my four-year-old daughter announced to her brother and me that Mama Odie, the blind and toothless Voodoo witch of the swamp, is her favorite character in the movie. Not Tiana, the hardworking heroine who gets her prince in the end. I asked why, and […]
Betty White in Cleveland: Still Funny, Still Underused
Hot in Cleveland‘s premiere began with three fabulous 40-something best friends on an airplane from Los Angeles to Paris and ended with three fabulous 40-something best friends and one white-haired, track-suit-wearing 80-something (played by Betty White) nestled together on a porch swing in Cleveland. Sure, the new TV Land series has a vaguely familiar plot, […]