Behind The Make Up

Obama Reality Television Show, "The District": Dangerous?

Newsweek recently launched reality television show, The District (see below) a spoof on the MTV reality show The City (I'd strongly suggest you watch the first sixty seconds or so of The City to contextualize The District; it makes a big difference).

The City features Whitney Pratt, a young blonde leaving all she knows in California to pursue a fashion career in New York City. The District features Barack Obama, leaving all he knows as a Senator in Illinios to pursue a career in Washington D.C. as the United States President.

Each episode is about three minutes long and provides a bubble gum version of the past weeks politics. Footage is created from a mix of news video clips and uses the celebrated Obama impersonator, Iman Crosson (aka Alphacat) for voiceover.

Simplifying politics into a popular format can be a useful way to engage and inform a wider audience. That said, the using the rhetoric of the reality TV show is problematic as it’s dominated by one perspective, here, Obama’s. Politics are and need to be a multifaceted subject, their foundation should be a forum of discussion; this is the very basis of democracy. The District undermines the importance of political conversation by streamlining very complex issues into a shallow, one sided image of the current days issues. The episodes comes off as objective, not subjective.

Human Rights Steal The Stage At ’09 Academy Awards

Human rights became the centerpiece of the Academy Awards last night, as Slumdog Millionaire and Milk stole the stage, collecting the majority of the golden men.

Where Milk speaks to the struggles of the gay and lesbian community for basic civil liberties, Slumdog shook the American psyche into reality with their high levels of liberty, justice and privilege by depicting the brutal poverty of Mumbai plagued by classism and sexism.

By honoring cinematic achievements deeply invested in widening the scope of the American socio-cultural psyche, the 2009 Academy Awards emphasized the importance of film as an artistic, subversive, and above all, highly politically medium.

Never has their been a more important time. Slumdog well puts America’s alarming unemployment rates, recession and failing economy into perspective.  Similarly, the extreme bigotry and intolerance brought out by the passage of Proposition 8 in California, makes a film like Milk and the words of Dustin Lance Black and Sean Penn more important than ever.

What is up with Chick Flicks these days?

The newest chick flick on the block, He’s Just Not That Into You brims with over exaggerated, unrealistic, unflattering portrayals of women. As if to make sure not one negative female stereotype was missed, the film has whopping five leading ladies who all represent some female neurosis that men fear more than the black plague. Please welcome:

    Jenine (Jennifer Connelly)- The paranoid, control-freak wife who has no interest in sex. Need I say more?

    Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin)- The really dumb chick that never takes a hint. And calls you every hour on the hour. (That such a loveable actress cannot make this painfully annoying character endearing, says mountains about this film… watching her is like hearing nails on a chalk board, over and over and over and over again)

    Beth (Jennifer Aniston)- The girlfriend absolutely obsessed with getting the ring.

    Mary (Drew Barrymore)- the lovely young lady so hopelessly out of touch with reality she genuinely believes trolling Myspace for dates is a good idea. NOTE: Trolling Myspace is never, ever a good idea.

   Anna (Scarlett Johanson)- The temptress. She meets a married man and becomes certain that the stars are in there favor. Positive he will leave his wife to live happily ever after with her, she pursues, flirts, and strips causing Mr. married to question marriage. And cheat on his wife.

Essentially, the film sends the message that all women are obsessive compulsive creatures who’s lives completely revolve around the following: securing a long term relationship, securing a ring, securing a baby, oh and, securing a secret GPS system in your significant others you-know-what.

Tantalizing or Tasteless? Sport's Illustrated 2009 Swimsuit Issue

I took great interest in this article, from Back In Skinny Jeans, one of my favorite blogs, that analyzed the overtly sexual cover of this year’s swimsuit issue. I second Steph’s critique; I can’t say I was overjoyed to see Bar Rafeali, a simply beautiful model, beginning to strip off her nearly transparent bikini to showcase her petunia.

While the the image highlights Rafeali’s stellar physique and features, the stripping steals the spotlight causing the cover to be less a portrait of female beauty and sensuality, and more of an explicit sexual statement. As the focus is bluntly on her sexual goods, and subsequently, less about her, Rafeali moves from autonomous subject (i.e. empowered sensual goddess) to subjugated object (i.e. body of good looking sexual parts). Her averted gaze only accentuates this, emphasizing her as passive and disempowered.