Twenty-six year-old Jamie Lynn Grumet is shown on the cover of TIME Magazine’s most recent issue, casually pressing Aram, her nearly four year-old son, to her exposed breast alongside the caption, “Are You Mom Enough?” The picture prompts concerns over Grumet’s position (in relationship to her son) and its bold, unapologetic exhibition of nursing an older child. What exactly is the picture’s composition insinuating about the woman’s body and who, besides Aram of course, is savoring it? Read more…
Marco Rubio Reimagines American Exceptionalism
I’ll just come right out and say it: media coverage of vice presidential “buzz” is one of the lamest, most vapid moments in the American political journalism cycle. We have to endure it every four years and, with rare exceptions (Hi, Sarah Palin and Geraldine Ferraro!), it tends to be swiftly and mercifully forgotten once it’s over. But this time around, VP speculation has given us an opportunity to take a second look at Marco Rubio, a Tea Party darling who’s definitely on the VP shortlist, however demure he acts when asked about it.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) gave an address on foreign policy last week at the Brookings Institute in Washington that asked “Is the American world order sustainable and necessary in the 21st century?” (Short answer: yes). His speech deserves a close look, whether or not Rubio gets the VP nod, because it carves out an interesting middle ground for American exceptionalism, something Republicans hold dear and Obama is not exactly keen on. Rubio’s speech also offers a preview of how Republican candidates might respond to Obama’s foreign policy record, a record that has “Obama 1, Osama 0” written in big letters at the top of it. Read more…
Williams-Sonoma and the Bougie-ification of DIY
Earlier this month, upscale housewares retailer Williams-Sonoma launched their Agrarian line of gardening supplies. It includes stuff ranging from supplies to tools to seeds to more advanced fare like chicken coops and beehives, all at a rather premium price. And not that there’s anything particularly odd about keeping chickens or bees (BEES?), or gardening in general, but this whole product line really struck me as bizarre.
Here’s why. Read more…
Whiteness’ Invisibility Momentarily Made Transparent: Representations of Race(s) in the Trayvon Martin Case
Many white Americans have resented the media attention Martin’s case has attracted and, in retort, have brought forth the “grief of the white man.” Versions of the question, “Why don’t racially motivated crimes against white people get more coverage?” offer us, as critics and citizens, a fleeting mindfulness that white is a race. Martin’s story is an opportunity to reconsider our own attitudes toward a society in which whiteness is invisible and in which white’s normalization has perpetuated racial inequalities. Have we made note (again) that our forgetfulness of the white race is the source and vitality of white privilege?
Read more…
