During the pandemic of 2020, working mostly from home, I quickly discovered that I enjoyed working on my laptop, a cup of coffee beside me, with something playing on the TV. But it had to be the right something. A well-plotted movie or engaging TV show would be too distracting. I needed entertainment that was […]
Category: Visual Culture
Why is Afroman throwing shade at Ana Kasparian?
I hit the Googlewebs hard today with a question I was sure every third person on this overpopulated planet must be asking: Why is Afroman throwing shade at Ana Kasparian?
Why redneck women are so hot: the theory of Natural Light selection
I whiled away my teenage years and much of my twenties in Northwest Florida where rural communities are plentiful as are the redneck women and men who inhabit them. And a question that came up again and again was: Why are there so many beautiful women living out in the middle of Bumfuck Nowhere? I mean, […]
Rise of the professional troll
I’d never heard of professional trolls until I watched a Kali Muscle video on YouTube recently. After his antics ended, YouTube made its usual “you might also like” suggestions. I clicked on one purporting to be about how nobody should take Kali’s exercise advice. But the video wasn’t about that. It was just some twenty-something guy doing a voice-over […]
Gender socialization, resocialization & multiplicity
Sex and gender seem inextricably married for most people. Many do not even know the difference between the two. This paper will explore those differences, the problems that arise when one comes into conflict with the other and possible solutions for those who face such problems. First there is a brief overview of some of […]
Real world events that NCIS predicted
Anybody who’s been reading this blog for a while knows that I like the the CBS TV series NCIS. And, while the show may be a bit corny, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t occasionally hit the nail right on the head. Here are some examples of NCIS episodes predicting real world events. Let me know […]
Kathryn Steinle: a DIY guide to exploiting the dead
I don’t have cable. I can’t bear witness to the bobbleheads on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and the rest spewing bunkum into the universe. Unfortunately, sometimes some of it seeps through my filters and reaches me. That happened with the Kathryn Steinle case.
Thelephobia & the problem of the nipple
While watching old episodes of NCIS recently, I was surprised by how fake one of the cadavers appeared. Usually, props and makeup on the show look pretty realistic considering it’s an older program. Then I realized what made this body look so artificial: The woman had no nipples. That’s right: no nipples, no areolae–just pale, bulbous blobs […]
Tania Bruguera: discomfort artist
Tania Bruguera is a controversial performance artist of international acclaim. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1968, Bruguera grew up in a time when Cuba’s relations with the global community, and the United States in particular, were strained. Receiving degrees from the Cuban Instituto Superior de Arte and the American School of the Art Institute of […]
Beauty that inheres
Hair is political “Hair is political” has become a commonplace statement in black feminist circles. I don’t know that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is responsible for popularizing the phrase, but she certainly seems to be the person saying it most often these days. The first time I can recall hearing someone discuss the racial-cum-gender politics of hair was […]