Hazel

Emoji art at Woman Zine.

Emoji art at Woman Zine.

I am in L-U-V with the latest issue of Woman Zine, which is all about emoji. Every single piece—from emoji haiku to an essay about emoji-enhanced engagement announcements—rules. My favorite, though, has to be “Face Screaming in Fear” by Samantha Meier, which is about possible uses for this little guy. It’s just too good!


When I saw the ad for a high-heeled Skechers line called Daddy’$ Money, I didn’t believe it. I thought it had to be some weird spoof. But, no—this totally gross and stupid ad campaign is real! Well, the mommy bloggers also have spoken, and they’re totally offended. “We don’t want [girls] thinking that instead of working for things, they just go ask Daddy (or whatever other man they have in their life in the future),” one mom told the Los Angeles Times. BURN.

Gabby's room.

Gabby’s room.

Fellow Rookie Gabby showed off her amazing dorm room and style this week at Teen Vogue. Her knickknacks, clothes, and accessories are the cutest, and she has a great eye for vintage. Prepare to be really, really jealous.


Caitlin


It has been such a good week for new music videos, especially this beautiful “film” for David Bowie’s “The Stars (Are Out Tonight).” Among other (less important) things, it features Bowie getting kisses from TILDA SWINTON. The song is from Bowie’s forthcoming album, The Next Day, which, at least for now, is streaming for free. The artist Tracey Emin reviews it in this really cute article about her lifelong love for him.



I also really love Atoms For Peace’s latest video. It’s for their single “Ingenue” and stars lead singer Thom Yorke, who sings and dances in his amazing style once again. This time, though, a female partner joins him wearing a three-piece suit that matches his. It couldn’t be more perfect.


Stephanie
There’s been a lot of talk on the internet this week about the Academy Awards, specifically about the host, Seth MacFarlane, and his negative “humor.” I didn’t actually see the show live (The Walking Dead and Girls were on), but afterward I watched a lot of the YouTube clips and read many, many Oscars-related articles—most of which were rife with comments saying MacFarlane’s critics need to learn how to take a joke. A blog post by the author Libba Bray resonated with me—more than anything else I read on the subject—because it argues that really it’s MacFarlane who needs to learn how to make a joke. Bray writes that great humor “is great because it moves the conversation into new territory by exposing hypocrisy and vanity.” MacFarlane’s bit, she continues, was “simply a parade of the same old, tired, sexist, racist, homophobic, fat-chick jokes devoid of the clever or subversive being presented as if they were ‘hip’ and ‘edgy.’” I hope MacFarlane and the Academy bigwigs take note, because the smart kind of humor Bray is talking about is what might lead me to actually watch the Oscars next year.


Suzy
Quvenzhané Wallis, the nine-year-old Oscar nominee for best actress, sparked a total media meltdown this week, which led the whole internet to explode, occasionally thoughtfully. The whole mess is summarized really well in this article on Shakesville. It’s fascinating to me how incredibly destabilizing Wallis’s presence is in Hollywood. Her success seems to have entertainers and reporters completely stumped, grappling for the right (or wrong) words to describe her talent. And they still keep tripping over themselves as they try to figure out how to say her name. Back in January, Quvenzhané broke down its pronunciation in this video, with the help of the TV producer Mikey Glazer and some quality visuals aids:




Anaheed
Like Stephanie, I missed the Oscars and caught up the next day online (unlike her I have no good excuse), and my favorite video from the night is for sure this one of Jennifer Lawrence speaking to the press right after winning her best-actress award. She responds to their ridiculous questions (“The fall on the way to the stage: what happened?”) with cheerfully mocking disbelief, not even pretending she’s taking them seriously:

I love love LOVE that young badasses like Quvenzhané and Jennifer are taking over and calling bullshit on Hollywood pretention! It feels like if one of your best friends became famous and you got to stand in the corner with her and make fun of the whole experience.


Anna

A family photo of Trayvon Martin.

A family photo of Trayvon Martin.

Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Trayvon Martin, a teenager who was shot while walking home from a 7-Eleven by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer. Zimmerman claims he was acting in self-defense—though Martin was armed with nothing more than a hoodie and a pack of Skittles. There are a lot of articles out there that detail where Zimmerman, who was charged with second-degree murder, and his case stand, but this week I think it’s especially important to remember Martin’s life. This essay, by Michael Skolnik at Global Grind, is particularly emotional. Skolnik considers the implications of buying a baby-size hoodie for his yet-to-be-born son, and the racist environments in which we live, where a person of color can be considered a “threat” just for wearing a particular article of clothing.

If you haven’t seen Thelma & Louise, you owe it to yourself to stop whatever you’re doing and track down a copy of that classic road movie. Then read this gushing account about what it meant for The Awl’s Maud Newton and Carrie Frye as burgeoning feminists in the early ’90s. They really just GET it:

Carrie: You know how in the beginning of the movie, Thelma’s not sure what to pack for their fishing trip, and so she brings along everything, including a lantern and the entire contents of her underwear drawer? This movie felt like it had to carry a similar load when it came out. Like it wasn’t enough that it be a sharp buddy road-trip movie in the western mold, but it also had to stand as a definitive statement on feminism and being a woman in the ’90s.

The sad thing is I think you could still say that for any piece of female-centered pop culture today.

Sandy

The comedian Chelsea Davison’s impression of Hannah Horvath, Lena Dunham’s character on Girls, is killer. Davison gets every inflection and body movement correct, and she dresses so remarkably like Hannah that when I first saw the thumbnail for the video I thought thought it was her. ♦