Trigger warning: This article contains mention and discussion of abuse The public rift between rapper/podcaster Joe Budden and his former co-hosts Rory Farrell and Jamil “Mal” Clay created a social media frenzy. Many people took sympathy towards Rory and Mal as they were on the receiving end of Joe’s callous, loud rants and bad business…
In the early 2010s, a blog titled Your Fave Is Problematic (YFIP) on Tumblr became very popular and dominated the public online sphere. If not for its then cult circulation, the content still remains familiar and culturally-relevant today. YFIP contained long lists of celebrities’ regrettable (racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ethnophobic, ableist etc.) statements and actions,…
In 2015, a little known Twitter user named A’Ziah-Monae King posted the first words of a viral 148-tweet saga: “Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this here bitch fell out???????? It’s kind of long but full of suspense”. The then 19-year-old, also known as Zola, was a waitress at the American food…
I can honestly say that I have never understood the mass appeal and hype surrounding Victoria’s Secret fashion shows. The few that I have seen, were background visuals that played at the gym probably aimed to serve as motivation. However, all it ever inspired me to do, was question why thousands of people would anticipate…
Since 2008, after her public mental health-related hospitalisation, rehab and recovery, global pop star Britney Spears has been under a conservatorship managed primarily by her father, Jamie Spears. The singer’s career has been in the hands of legal guardians, as is the arrangement of the conservatorship, and even though she has continued to release albums,…
Every year, every movie cycle, every new television season, Hollywood faces criticism for its lack of racial diversity. Not a major, or much-anticipated premiere of a reboot or adaptation goes by without producers, directors and even cast members facing backlash for these representational shortcomings. What we often overlook at times, though simultaneously occurring, is the…
Whilst this young decade has presently defined itself as being unpredictable as ever, I don’t think I would have ever expected that the cyclical nature of pop culture would return us to the sound of the rumbling belly of the 2000s: pop-punk. And one of this decade’s young pop-punk faces – Olivia Rodrigo – adorning…
“Symbols matter. Especially for oppressed people.” Khaled Beydoun Last week Louis Vuitton began selling a “monogramed keffieh” on their website despite the luxury fashion brand’s commitment to remaining “neutral” in the face of Palestinian oppression by the settler-colonial state of Israel. While Louis Vuitton may be coming under fire now, the keffiyeh has a long…
What is the work of a film or television critic? Why do we need somebody to perform that work? What good do the opinions and thoughts of a selected few do for art consumption from a worldview perspective? And is there a need for such? These questions come to mind when I begin to think…
This past week a Black femme decided to choose herself — and as expected — the world responded in all manner of pressed and stressed ways to her assertion of agency and humanity rooted in self-care. The Black femme in question is 23 year old top 3 world-ranked professional tennis player Naomi Osaka, who is…
It is a truth universally known that former president Donald Trump was as close to a real-life comic book supervillain as one might come to find. Trump’s one-term presidency was littered with human rights violations, war crimes and almost starting World War III so it is understandable that at the end of his reign of…
As the month of June rolls around again, it isn’t the gripping cold of winter that sends shivers down my spine. Instead, it’s the insidious nature of corporations digging into their own winter closets to bring out the old colourful logos and pride flags. While a few years back, a younger, rose-tinted glasses-wearing me might…
