By Monique
I read a lot of stuff in the past few weeks, but I can’t post all of it, so I’m only posting the most recent stuff. So many things. Let’s get to it.
Armenian genocide: This week, the hot topic was the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. I am not well-versed in this portion of history as well as Turkey’s feelings about the subject but Tim Arango of the New York Times and Robert Kazandjian for Media Diversified examine the personal feelings associated with this atrocity.
The plight of Native women: Sexual attacks against Native women are extremely, horrifyingly high, yet the statistics don’t usually make the news. Compounding that are the sexual stereotypes out there negatively portraying Native women. Elizabeth Hawksworth wrote about this issue for BlogHer in her interview with House of Cards actor Tanis Parenteau about her new short film, A Big Black Space, detailing Parenteau’s own experience with sexual assault. The film also has a Kickstarter page which you can still donate to.
Ridiculous Six open letter: If you’ve already read in my Ridiculous Six post, several actors and a cultural adviser left the film after being offended by the “jokes” and treated with disrespect. Noel Altaha for Rez Media Group wrote an open letter thanking those who left the film for standing up the Apache culture and its people.
Fresh Off the Boat: The show has ended its first season, but that doesn’t mean coverage of the show is over. I’m currently smack-dab in the middle of rewatching the entire season for my post-mortem series, and Vulture’s Josef Adalian is picking the brain of Fresh Off the Boat‘s showrunner, Nahnatchka Khan about the ratings, her approach to the show, and her feelings about Eddie Huang’s dissatisfaction.
Asians on television: Fusion’s Molly Fitzpatrick has released a monster of a post detailing just how little Asians are represented on television. I knew it was bad, but seeing the stats paints an even bleaker picture. It’s a very fascinating article, pairing the stats with personal anecdotes.
Is there a problem with this season of RuPaul’s Drag Race? I’ve read and listened to several comments about this season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and the main complaint I’ve heard is that there aren’t enough funny drag queens on the show. But, to paraphrase a frustrated Kennedy Davenport from the latest Untucked video, she’s not a comedy queen, so why is she expected to be able to jump in and do comedy? Why should any of this current batch of queens be expected to have expert comedic chops? Brianna LeRose writes about this very issue in her critique of this season.
