This has been a teachable moment for Waithe but I regret greatly that Tiffany Boone and Ayanna Floyd’s bodies, minds and safety were the sites for her lessons. This article has been re-published with permission from DanielleDash.com and the original can be found here. I came out to my mum in an Ikea car park,...
Tag: Aziz Ansari
Post
‘Surviving R. Kelly’ and the Abusers Who Hide Behind Him
We have to remember that this cultural moment is about far more than the despicable things R. Kelly has done, and we cannot allow others to use him or anyone else’s more visible forms of misconduct in order to deflect from their own. This essay contains discussions of r/pe and sexual violence against minors, sexual...
Post
Navigating Desire In The Wake of #MeToo
We have important steps to take in learning about desire, consent and pleasure-based sexual experiences in the wake of #MeToo. [TW: this piece contains discussions of #MeToo and sexual violence in varying forms.] Started almost ten years ago by Tarana Burke, #MeToo has spread (and in some ways, been co-opted) and become synonymous of the large-scale...
Post
Non-Black People of Color Are Salty About Black Panther’s Success
Instead of viewing Black Panther’s success as an opportunity to complain about something that is lacking in our communities, non-Black people of color should appreciate the work it took to create something of its caliber. By Sanjana Lakshmi It’s been a few weeks since “Black Panther” came out, and its reception has been deservedly overwhelmingly positive....
Post
The #MeToo Backlash and United States’ Disintegration of Rule of Law
What’s becoming clear as crystal is people are realizing just how many men would be behind bars if sexual assault and coercion were treated as the serious crimes they are. One of the most disturbing things that emerged from the debate around “Grace” and Aziz Ansari’s date was how normalized coercive sexual encounters have been,...
Post
How Myths and False Assumptions are Still Making Sexual Assault Hard to Report
The assumption that most sexual assault victims lie has been proven false and this fact has been known for quite some time. Yet, the toxic notion still prevails. Since late last year we have heard women and men come forward with their experiences with harassment and sexual assault as part of #MeToo, a movement started...
Post
When We Talk About Grace and Aziz Ansari, We Need to Discuss Emotional Labor Too
Women and femmes learn how to please others, and cisgender men learn to be pleased or to discard us until they are. A Babe dot net article (a site I’d never heard of until a few days ago) broke a story about Aziz Ansari allegedly assaulting a young woman named Grace* and a media frenzy...
Post
Aziz Ansari is Not Emmett Till, Nor the Straw Man of Asian American Masculinity
Let’s interrogate the politic of comparing Aziz Ansari to Emmett Till. A storm of articles has appeared over the last 48 hours regarding the account published by Babe magazine on the disturbing encounter between Aziz Ansari and a young woman who, in the account, is simply called “Grace.” A large majority of these articles, particularly...
Post
What Aziz Ansari Did Was Coercion, Not Consent
Coercion is not consent. It is sexual abuse. It is sexual assault. It is rape. And “no” is a complete motherfucking sentence. [TW/CW: Descriptions of sexual assault, violence and rape culture.] With each 24-hour breaking news cycle I wait for the inevitable fall of another admired hero. I’ve almost gotten used to the gut-punch that...
Post
We’re Not Shocked That The Golden Globes Lacked in Representation
While the majority of the nominees and winners reflected a very white ideal within the entertainment industry, there were some powerful wins. By Thelma Rose The 75th Golden Globes saw women taking representation and resources for non-men into their own hands with, #TIMESUP, an organization and initiative aimed at providing resources for victims of harassment...