Watching Roots in the Age of Trump
…slavery isn’t African-American history, it’s American history.
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Television
You Can Never Escape the Jersey Shore
To watch Jersey Shore is to watch my fantasy, only it’s an imperfect recreation.
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You Like That, Baby?: The Myth of Feminine Mystery
“It’s like a damn Rubik’s cube down there!”
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Look at How the Bullets Have Missed
I praise everyone I can still touch, their warmth a violent protest against the cold weapons of death.
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I Can’t Shake the Guru Bhagwan
In 1979, my mother decided she wanted to join Bhagwan’s ashram in Pune, India.
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FUNNY WOMEN: Lifetime Network’s New Channel for Men
Mark your calendars, gentlemen—and watch your backs!
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Living Proof: A Review of Wild Wild Country
The story of Rajneeshpuram is told in a series of events and everything within it is true. But it is not real. It does not come alive.
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The Unexpected Feminism of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Perhaps it’s more productive then to think about Rebecca’s craziness as a source of sanity in a crazy world in which women are routinely disregarded.
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The Sleepwalking American Male
The Real Fake News
In 2017, newscaster cameos may be the only fact-fiction crossovers for which people have no difficulty keeping the two concepts apart.
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I Am Here to Make Friends
I’m not here to wallow in what feels like our new dystopia, no. Me? I am here, to rest up before the next bout. I am here to watch The Price Is Right and make friends.
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The Peep King’s Legacy: A Family Portrait
The day after Hugh Hefner died, I received a text from my sister that our grandfather was starring alongside James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal in HBO’s new series, The Deuce.
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You Still Got It: Bar-Hopping with Burt Young
Actor and painter Burt Young talks filmmaking, art, and the years he spent living on a sixty-three-foot yacht.
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You Are Nowhere
Didn’t he see what I saw: how a person could survive the unthinkable and still be broken by something as soft and uncertain as loneliness?
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Watching the World End: A History of The Weather Channel
[A]ll this sensationalism has made The Weather Channel, inadvertently and ever increasingly, the essential television viewing experience of the Anthropocene.
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“Everywhere They Hurt Little Girls”: Female Revenge in Game of Thrones
In Westeros, revenge mostly operates within the feminine realm…
...moreHanging Off the TV Cliff
At the New York Times Sunday Review, Rumpus Funny Women Editor Elissa Bassist asks whether television shows have become reliant on cliffhangers as a way to retain viewership season over season.
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The Aura of Baby Einstein, the Child, the Toy
If there is no distinction between show and commercial, ethics and entertainment, what kind of distinctions, if any, exists between her imaginary play, her consumer life, and our reality?
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How The Keepers Reframes Confession as a Feminist Act
Critics have noted how The Keepers is similar to other prestige documentaries but with a significant difference—its focus on the victims and their stories.
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Just Chaste Me
The more first-time stories I heard, the longer I was willing to wait.
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Susan Sarandon, “Bernie Bro” Politics, and White Privilege
As a longtime fan, it pains me to say it, but Sarandon is everything that’s wrong with mainstream, non-intersectional white feminism.
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Learning to Live Alone through the Legacy of Mary Tyler Moore
Characters like Mary and Rhoda hadn’t been turned into stereotypes of single women in their thirties or career women or divorcees. They couldn’t be: they were the first.
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The Evergreen Appeal of Bob Ross
This painter’s enduring popularity goes beyond surface-level soothing and pop culture camp. Ross is far more than a happy little frizzy-haired hippy.
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Good Girls Revolt and Female-Focused Sex on TV
Sexual politics run through the very veins of this show. They are its blood, and they know how to get the female viewer’s heart pumping.
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Luke Cage: When Representation Isn’t Enough
This show’s true strength is its diverse portrayal of African-American subjectivity and morality, amongst both the male and female characters.
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An Ultimate Illustrated Fantasy Guide of Gilmore Girls Mashups
HOW AWESOME WOULD THESE MASHUPS BE? Oh well. Maybe next year.
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I Love(d) Dick, but Not the Show
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to convey the arc of a series of letters in a TV show. Words flash on the screen at regular intervals in bright Helvetica.
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Mr. Clarke, the Real Hero of Stranger Things
He’s the teacher who encourages questions beyond the class assessment, who always gets his students to open the “Curiosity Door.”
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Vigilantism and Orange is the New Black: The Anxiety of Injustice
When those in power stifle the voices of survivors, they find other ways of expressing their truths.
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Winning the Game of Thrones Like a Girl
The days of testosterone-fueled warmongering are long past. Instead, at the end of Season 6, the queens reign, stronger than ever.
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