Saturday, February 13, 2010

We Are The World Remake

I just saw this video and I had to watch it 3 times just to catch all the different celebrities. The video made me a little sad in that it was a tribute to Michael Jackson and also a Haiti benefit video/song. Love the autotune bit with Lil Wayne and T-Payne. Justin Bieber? Hmmm...questionable....But beautifully done. Check it out.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

"Young Hollywood": White and Thin

I saw this article online and it upset me a great deal to know that as far as we have come, beauty standards have not budged, rather they have become increasingly hegemonic, and I am sure they continue to implode the self-esteem of young girls of color and girls that are not a size 2.
What does "Young Hollywood" look like? According to Vanity Fair, it's pretty, thin, female and white.

Amanda Seyfried, Anna Kendrick, Kristen Stewart, Carey Mulligan, Abbie Cornish, Rebecca Hall, Emma Stone, Mia Wasikowska, Evan Rachel Wood: There's not a single woman of color on the cover of Vanity Fair's "Young Hollywood" issue. Two of the ladies — Kristen Stewart and Amanda Seyfried — were already on the August 2008 "Hollywood's New Wave." issue. There were two women of color — Zoe Saldana, America Ferraraon the cover of 2008's "Hollywood Issue," but apparently the next decade is not about diversity.

VF's "Young Hollywood" is much like the golden age of Hollywood: There was a fetishization of the lithe, gorgeous, virginal ingenue, whose virtues and ambitions were pure, and therefore desirable. You either wanted to be her or sleep with her. She was the photographed wearing white, and her "All-American" good looks meant that she was a WASP or a fresh-faced farmgirl. Certainly not black, definitely not fat, and never both. Looking at the March 2010 issue, has anything changed? Even Evgenia Peretz's descriptions of the actresses — "Ivory-soap-girl features," "patrician looks" "dewy, wide-eyed loveliness" — reinforce the idea that a successful actress is a pretty, aristocratic-looking (read: white) actress.

It's hard to say if fault lies with the editors of the magazine, or with Hollywood itself — trying to come up with some projects employing new, young Asian, black or Latin actors and actresses is a tough exercise. The few names which come to mind — Jaden Smith (The Pursuit Of Happiness, The Kung-Fu Kid), Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire, Julian Schnabel's Miral, Woody Allen's next film), Gianna Jun (Blood: The Last Vampire, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan) — are up-and-comers with just a few roles under their belts. The Hurt Locker's Anthony Mackie recently did a Q&A with VF.

Gabourey Sidibe — cover girl for the March issue of Ebony — is an obvious choice, though she admits in the accompanying interview:

"I don't try to live up to the standards of Hollywood or any of that – I know that I'm different and I celebrate it. In a weird way, I kind of really, really love being the alien in the room. I dig it."

And it's good that Gabby doesn't care about living up to Hollywood standards. Because judging from the VF cover, the "Hollywood" standards need to change.

Touche. So unfortunate that Hollywood still refuses to acknoledge some talented actress because of their deviation from the white standard of beauty. Where are the Freida Pinto's, the Jurnee Smollett's, Zoe Saldana's, America Ferrara's? Well, you get the point.

But, anywho, who really reads Vanity Fair anyways?

Pretty Wedding Hairstyles I'm Feeling at The Moment

After, recently working a wedding doing hair and makeup, I've been temporarily obsessed with wedding hairstyles. Of course the hairstyle that I would personally looove to walk down the aisle in is:And I don't care what anybody says. This hairstyle is truly a showstopper and would make a great statement on my wedding day. It would say: "Today's my day and I don't give a damn what you think because I'm B-E-U -Tee-Ful". Lol
Yea, so that was the plan until myy cousin mention how I would have a honeymoon soon after and do I want such a grandiose fro as I'm frolicking the Virgin Islands? Or sipping tea underneath the Eiffel Tower? Or swimming in Dubai? This got me thinking and here are some new options for my wedding day hairstyle.

Locs perhaps....



Or maybe I will do an updo with my natural curls...



Of course all my bridesmaids must wear their hair natural on that day:
I guess I should probably work on getting the groom situation all figured out before I start making these plans.