Posts tagged: culture
- On art movements and outsiders
- The myth of an avant-garde serves the same market forces avant-gardism pretends to overthrow. Art may challenge authority … But art doesn’t actually overthrow anything except itself, and never has, not in 19th-century France or 20th-century Russia or 21st-century China or Iran. Even when it manages to tilt popular thinking, it still ends up within [...] [18 Apr 2010]
- On Marriage and Equality
- Our work must be not just about marriage equality, it should also be about equal marriages, and about equal rights and security for those who opt out of marriage altogether. From Melissa Harris-Lacewell‘s post Reflections on Marriage (via Twanna). Yes. Read the whole thing. Harris-Lacewell captures most of my fears and concerns about marriage and [...] [8 Apr 2010]
- On class and marriage
- And in the absence of alternative models of masculinity, many low-income men will compensate for their lack of respect and resources by cultivating a hypermasculine identity that scorns traditional definitions of responsible manhood. Stephanie Coontz, in “For Women, Redefining Marriage Material: The Good and the Bad” on the New York Times’ Room for Debate blog. [22 Feb 2010]
- Africa(n movie roles) for Africans
- Now, let’s start by saying that Jennifer Hudson is a capable actress. She blew Beyoncé out the water in Dreamgirls and by all accounts she did her thing in The Secret Life of Bees. But like all outfits aren’t for all weather conditions, all parts aren’t for all people. It was an outright shock to [...] [21 Dec 2009]
- Defining the ’00s, revisited
- Something that spools from these is that we don’t really have style subcultures anymore. Instead we have a playlist culture, where you’re allowed to mash up everything around you in a sort of pick’n’mix. Ekow Eshun, Artistic director, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. From The i-Decade, on the More Intelligent Life blog. I think Eshun [...] [15 Nov 2009]
- On style in the ’00s: “Defining the Noughties”
- But the hoodie belonged to the Noughties. I don’t believe it was just about the ASBO generation hiding their faces from CCTV, either. It’s more practical than that. If you spend all your time hanging around on the street in a coldish, wettish country, a hood will keep you warm, and stops the rain spoiling [...] [13 Nov 2009]
- Who do you trust more: Corporations or Government?
- This post takes the long road. If you don’t want to take the long road, skip the train of thought and get to the point. In one of my moments of Random Thoughtitude, I was thinking about what my ideal country would look like. My first thought was infrastructure. I want a government that adequately [...] [28 Apr 2008]