Hey Pop Stars, Culture is More Than Skin Deep

I’m beginning to think pop stars should be required to take a course on cultural appropriation. Katy Perry’s recently added herself to the list of celebrities who make insulting displays of cultures that aren’t their own. At the recent American Music Awards, she sang “Unconditionally” in Japanese-inspired wardrobe, hair and makeup. And that performance followed […]

Miley Cyrus’ “Sluttiness” Is The Least of Our Problems

The universe (well, the media) is slut-shaming Miley Cyrus pretty damn hard today for her performance at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards. She wore little. She gyrated. She was sexual.  This is the least of our problems—or it should  be the least of our problems anyway. Cyrus used her sexuality–which is hers  to use–throughout the performance. […]

Porn: Pleasure or Profit? An Interview With Gail Dines, Part I

Move over dot-com, dot-org, and dot-gov. There’s a new domain on the block: dot-xxx. With 370 million sites and $3,000 spent for online porn every second, the industry’s revenues surpass earnings by Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple and Netflix combined. This is author Gail Dines’s point: Porn is about profit, not pleasure. Some people […]