It’s not secret to those who know me well that after prolonged periods in my presence, children generally tend to either a) annoy me, or b) scare the crap out of me. (I’m talkin’ about cinematic children for the latter; I tend to coo instead of cower in the presence of live babies).
So when I came across this Evian ad over at Sociological Images, my first thought was, “AHHHH!!! Scary babies!“
Scary, scary, scary. If I were a person walking by that chain link fence when they all jump on it, I’d shit my pants and die. For real.
The analysis of the video is a worthy read: White Washing Black Art Forms, so check it out once you’re done creeping out.
Oh, no! I fell behind on reading this week. Part of it was that I got this book at the public library, and had to read ASAP (I’m a pro at accruing library fines). But mostly, I was just lazy and didn’t read.
So I’ll just talk about Joelle/Madame Psychosis. And I’m just gonna be blunt: I’m annoyed that she’s white.
Somewhere in my brain, I always knew she was white. Of course she was: look at the setting of the book, look at the cultural environment. But when we were first introduced to Madame Psychosis, I imagined her to be a pretty (but not beautiful), chain-smoking, early-thirty-something, sardonically intelligent black woman.
Imagine my dismay over getting it confirmed in black in white text that not only is she white, she’s gorgeous little addicted Joelle from Kentucky, walking around East coast academia in a veil and appropriating her Other-ness. *headdesk*
Suffice it to say, I wasn’t particularly moved when she killed herself, because even her suicide seemed completely toolish. The writing was superb? But no. Just no.
