Welcome to your pop culture fix, your weekly roundup of all the news you need in the whole world. All of it. Everything important is in this post.
LGBT Fans Deserve Better
+ The Bury Your Gays conversation is still happening, and that is a very good thing. Her Campus has a piece on why the trope needs to end, and The Washington Post did a story about the fan revolt against the frequent deaths of lesbian characters and you might notice that there’s a quote in there from somebody really cool (okay, it’s me). i09 notes that The Vampire Diaries picked the worst month for its pointless, tasteless deaths. Oh and luckily for all of us, the good people over at Newsbusters, committed to “exposing Liberal media bias,” have pointed out that LGBT people are overrepresented on television anyhow so what’s the big deal?
+ The AV Club looked more closely at the questions these situations raise about online relationships between showrunners and fans. A show consisting solely of fan-pleasing storylines would be a very boring show to watch and an impossible one to write — which means any social media romance with a showrunner is inevitably doomed. Although this story jumps off from what went down with The 100 and Shameless, the author is pretty careful not to disregard The 100’s issues of LGBT representation and its showrunner’s specific manipulations as their very own beast, even if some of the questions it raises have wider implications.
+ Here are 13 Shows with Lesbian & Bisexual women that are getting it right.
The People Vs. OJ Simpson
I’m so sad about this show being over that I stopped it ten minutes before it ended so that later today as a reward for sending the IRS an enormous check without crying I can watch it. Even if I do cry though I’m still gonna watch it. I deserve it. You know?
+ How The People Vs. OJ Simpson Stretched The Record to Reach a Higher Truth. I honestly cannot beleive that a Ryan Murphy project managed this, but it did:
This is the triumph of The People v. OJ Simpson: its 360-degree view of the trial demonstrates that many things can be true at the same time. Mark Fuhrman can be a vehement racist but still not have planted evidence. The LAPD can have a major race problem but still have treated OJ Simpson with kid gloves. The justice system can owe a serious debt to black Americans but also to victims of domestic violence. And finally, all this can be true, and still OJ Simpson could have murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
+ Sarah Paulson was really sad when they wrapped filming on The People Vs. OJ Simpson.
+ Vanity Fair does a post-episode fact-check every week. Here’s the one from last night.
+ 5 Reasons we’ll never see anything like the OJ Verdict again.
Award Shows & Events
+ Logo has a playlist of videos from the 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, which took place this weekend and honored Ruby Rose (Taylor Swift gave her the award), Demi Lovato, Sense8, Caitlyn Jenner, Jazz Jennings, and many other wonderful LGBT people. Also Queen Latifah, who won an award for Bessie (have you seen Bessie yet? Go see Bessie, it’s so fucking good.) gave a speech about LGBT people as if she was not an LGBT person which will never stop feeling awkward. We were there! Which you probably know if you follow us on Instagram.
+ Also last weekend was Dinah Shore! It was a star-studded event: Angel Haze, Kate Moennig, Samantha Ronson, Camilla Gray, Lea DeLaria and even Lady Gaga were in attendance.
+ The PFLAG Awards happened Monday night and was also star-studded. Such star studs! Rosie O’Donnell giving Kristen Chenoweth an award, Janet Mock gave Melissa Harris-Perry an award, it sounds neat!
+ Queer actress Keke Palmer will be honored with the NAB Television Chairman’s Award at their awards luncheon.
Television
+ Mo Welch has a new TV show on the internet and it’s called REBRAND and it’s gonna be really good, I think.
+ Bisexual celebrity Audrey O’Day is a famous lady looking for love on E!’s new series Famously Single.
+ The Faith Diaries is a webseries spin-off of UnREAL that focuses all its attention on the queers. So basically it’s like those YouTube playlists of the lesbian parts.
+ Caitlyn Jenner is gonna be on Season Three of Transparent, which Jill Solloway says is a “dream come true” even though Caitlyn Jenner is the worst. Seriously WHAT.
+ Brittani Nichols is in this webseries so you’re probably gonna wanna pitch in.
+ There’s a new trailer for Grace & Frankie, which returns to Netflix for Season Two on May 6th and a new trailer for Season Three of Salem.
+ On the premiere of Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta, MiMi Faust left Nikko for a lady named Chris.
+ Empire is back and very very messy.
Southwest of Salem
+ Here’s a trailer for the documentary Southwest of Salem, about four Latina lesbians who were convicted of a sex crime they didn’t commit during the Satanic Ritual Abuse panic of the ’80s. This is the film I am looking forward to more than any other film in the universe right now. This story needs to be told.
If you read my Things I Read That I Love column, you may recall a tangent I went on about a year ago specifically about this case and some of the things I’ve read about it. If you’re going to read one thing about the case, read this thing.
Etc.
+ Johnathon Schaech said it was an honor to be Ellen DeGeneres’s beard in the ’90s.
+ Abby Wambach got a DUI this past weekend and she feels really shitty about it.
+ Did you want Grant Morrison to write a kinky, queer Wonder Woman? Well, good news for you! He did!
+ “While American Idol showcased all sorts of contestants, and was happy to call out anyone as bad, there was always a special sort of meanness reserved for auditioners that fell into the queer end of the spectrum.”
+ What if the But I’m a Cheerleader musical came to Broadway? WHAT THEN.
+ “He says he hasn’t hooked up with a boy yet, nor has he visited a gay bar, as he doesn’t have any gay friends to go with and, though he recently told most of his straight homies about his sexuality, he feels weird about bringing them along. Using apps to meet guys makes him nervous because of his relative fame. Like so many before him, he is doing all of this blindly, with few people to help guide his path.”
Queen Latifah, bebe, it’s so much better on the other side!!
So this Wonder Woman is a DEAD ringer to Jaime Murray. Do you guys see it too ?
I need to see this turned to live action!
Omigosh! You’re so right!
Wanted to torture myself by reading that shitty article on how LGBT people are over-represented. Page does not work, ‘unable to handle request’. This must be the gods of internet telling me to stay away.
Yeah even the internet can’t handle that shitty article I bet.
Well if you want to torture yourself and read it, you need to take the “www.donotlink.com” part.
Argh, the comments are an extreme level of torture, so don’t go there.
I’m curious, do you think it counts as masochism for those of us who do?
Masochism implies pleasure and you can’t find anything similar there. Self-torture works better.
I think my torturing impulse is gone for the moment, so I am safe. Thanks for the tip though, I probably will click that at some point.
I love Grace and Frankie! I’ve been wondering when the show was coming back
Does anybody want to talk about how David Schwimmer deserves an Emmy for his nuanced portrayal of Robert Kardashian
Juice? Juice! Uncle Juice is a good man
omg i just realized that for sure sarah paulson has to win an emmy for playing marcia clark
people vs. oj are gonna sweep the emmys
Yeah, they are going to get all the Emmys at this point. The acting was fucking superb on this show. Well, most of it was, even the portrayal of the sexism Marcia Clark was put through, which coming from Ryan Murphy was a big surprise.
And one for Johnny Cochran too
I loved unreal (I know) and and super excited to hear that the web series is finally up – here’s hoping it’s not terrible.
UnReal was amazing ! such a gem.
A question about that piece of crap from NewsBusters. Why would the CDC report on the number of people that identified as gay and not the United States Census Bureau or a similar institution?
I know it’s a difficult question, but in the last census in my country (2010) at least we had a question about homoparental homes; our census bureau did make clear that the number we got doesn’t showed an estimate of the number LGBTs in the country.
Honestly, I think the people who think LGBT people are over represented in the media have the same mentality as men who think women talk too much, men only think women talk too much because they’d rather us be silent. The whole mentality of “I don’t have a problem with gays, I just don’t want it shoved in my face” is such bullshit because if you really didn’t have a problem with us you wouldn’t be freaking out at the sight of us or insisting we act straight in your presence.
Ugh I recently went over reviews / comments of Sense8 and there were so many straight people complaining about it being too “in your face” and having a gay agenda. Saying exactly “I don’t mind gay people but I don’t need to see a dildo full of lube”.
Okay I’m sorry, but how many straight sex do WE have to suffer through before we can get a hint of representation ? (and then it’s in the dark/under the covers/with the clothes on/just two gal pals holding hands and panting really hard…
As Hari Kondabolu says, “what’s more in-your-face than straight people?” (Shoving a baby in your face) “Look at our receipt of fuck! He’s dressed like a sailor!”
Okay that was really paraphrased and obviously I (and Hari) realize that all sorts of people either have or just enjoy babies, but the point still stands :-)
LOL so what is the answer?
Ahh, to make LGBT people feel like they are alone so they can ultimately decide their personality and love is wrong and they can correct the error in their ways.
Oh civilization, when will you get a clue and learn from the past.
Do you know who else is over represented in the media? Superheroes. All these people dying and the Avengers haven’t done shit. Just saying.
Maybe Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (Helbig and Harto) can avenge All the Lesbian Television Deaths!
and jessica jones ….
Great point
If Wambach feels shitty about driving drunk, why the fuck did she plead not guilty? smdh
She said on Twitter that it’s standard procedure to plead not guilty and that she still takes full responsibility.
Yeah, unfortunately I’ve only seen like one article that bothered to explain that.
“It is virtually unheard of for defendants in Oregon to plead guilty at their first court appearances. Judges generally discourage it because they want to make sure that defendants have had time to go over the case with their attorneys to ensure that they are making an educated decision if and when they decide to enter a guilty plea.”
Well, in some cases this might make sense, but it seems a bit strange to me.
Anyway I think the bottom line is, it’s a lot easier than we often think to accidentally be above the legal limit after a dinner party, night out or similar. Commercial breathalyzers aren’t terribly expensive and while perhaps not as accurate as a police breathalyzer, can definitely give you an idea of where your drinking fits with regards to the legal limit. My parents gave the family breathalyzers from Costco when I was in my early twenties and that thing has told me plenty of times that I needed to wait an hour or two longer before I drove home.
Also it’s fun to pass around at parties :-)
Yay! It looks like the ones they used to have at Costco are on Amazon for like $27 and have pretty good ratings.
I can’t believe I watched another Ryan Murphy show and not only loved it but will miss it
Argh what is wrong with me
I love Grace and Frankie! I am 100% Frankie in almost every way and I was married for a good long while. Plus I’m so looking forward to being old?
That American Idol article reminded me of what happened with Malaysian Idol!
I auditioned for the second season (circa 2004) and actually got to the judges round – purely gimmicky, I sang a song in a different language, I wanted to see if I could get on TV. Another contestant in that round was rejected because the judges said he sounded “too gay”.
I was LIVID. How does anyone “sound gay”, and why does that matter anyhoo!? I already recorded my post-audition interview thing, but the producers/crew noticed how upset I was, and asked if I would like to rerecord my rant. So I did – calling the judges out on their homophobia, saying that there’s no such thing as “sounding too gay”, that there are plenty of fantastic gay musicians.
I didn’t make it on TV at all. Not my audition, not my first rant, not my second rant. I get that it’s because homosexuality is still illegal in Malaysia and you can’t air pro-LGBTQ sentiment on air, but it was still pretty annoying.
And here I was hoping that Audrey O’Day was gonna have her own version of Tila Tequila. Her and DJ Pauly D though…their kids would use all of the hair spray.
*Squeals~!!!!!!!* SALEM! :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLJjoB_ibEg
Thank Goddess, Netflix put up season 2! <3 Been waiting since 2014 lol
Gonna re-watch season 1 tomorrow night. *Plays "Soft Power" by Ladytron!* :'D