Sex & Media

#ThrowbackThursday: “The Loving Story,” 2011

Richard and Mildred Loving, ‘The Loving Story’ (Documentary Daze)

Documentary “The Loving Story” was released in 2011, and examined the lives of Richard and Mildred Loving. An interracial couple from Virginia, they were arrested for violating Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law shortly after their wedding in 1958. The film examines their struggle to remain married and able to live in Virginia, which led to the historic Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision of 1967.

The film was directed by Nancy Buirski, premiered in 2012, and won a Peabody Award.

Season 2 of Netflix’s “Jessica Jones” Will Only Feature Woman Directors

Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones (IndieWire)

Hey Hollywood, you know all that bluster about how you can’t find female directors/writers, etc.? You know how you keep saying you want to diversify but you just can’t? Even though you’re trying really hard? Well, “Jessica Jones” is calling your bluff and raising it.

The Netflix series, which focuses on the Marvel character of the same name (played by Krysten Ritter), has been praised for its depictions of sexual assault and female friendship, among other aspects. And now showrunner Melissa Rosenberg has thrown down the gauntlet and declared that no one shall sit in the director’s chair unless their chromosomes are of the XX variety.

This isn’t the first time a TV series has hired solely women directors to direct its episodes. That would be “Queen Sugar,” co-produced and written by Ava DuVernay (who’s the first Black woman to direct a $100M movie). And that happened earlier this year.

No word yet on who’ll be gracing the director’s chair for the second season of “Jessica Jones” (and also no release date), but I can’t wait to find out.

But one thing’s for certain: Your move, Hollywood.

“Loving” Film Releases Interracial Emoji Couples

Love-Moji (‘Glamour’ en Espanol)

Given our current obsession with all things tech, Focus Features has found a fitting way to promote the company’s upcoming film “Loving:” custom emojis.

The Love-Mojis feature a variety of emojis of interracial couples in about every combination you could think of. So if you’re in an interracial couple, and you haven’t yet felt your coupling properly represented by the Unicode Consortium, your time has finally come!

Why is this important? Let’s start with the film itself: “Loving” follows Richard and Mildred Loving, a Virginia couple who got married in 1958. This wouldn’t be so remarkable except that Richard was white and Mildred was black. Their marriage happened during a time where interracial dating, much less marriage, was frowned upon, to put it lightly. Interracial marriage could bring a charge of miscegenation (race mixing, in plain terms).

The Lovings were arrested after their marriage for the crime of their relationship, and forced to leave Virginia. Once in D.C., they began legal proceedings. The Loving v. Virginia case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, which struck down said laws that were on the books of sixteen states. (All sixteen states were in the South. Shocker.)

Needless to say, this was a landmark case.

But why use emojis to promote it?

Since emojis debuted, the options for emoji couples were pretty stark. They didn’t show the breadth of real-life relationships in terms of race and also sexual preference. The new Love-Moji take this into account, and rectify the oversight.

There’s also the fact that using emojis has become a convenient visual shorthand for emotions we don’t particularly feel like typing out in words.

You can get the Love-Moji via app stores and at VoteLoving.com.

“Loving” comes out on Friday, Nov. 4th.

Wonder Woman Will Be the U.N.’s Honorary Ambassador for Female Empowerment

Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman (Vulture)

In addition to being the Amazonian Princess of Themyscira and civilian Diana Prince, Wonder Woman can add another title to her resume: United Nations’ Honorary Ambassador.

Wonder Woman’s promotion will kick off a campaign dedicated to women’s empowerment. This ties into the U.N.’s sustainable development goal 5, which promotes worldwide gender equality.

Though Wonder Woman will be used as a symbol of women’s empowerment throughout the world, it’s worth noting that most of the top U.N. jobs are held by men.

Wonder Woman will be formally announced as the honorary ambassador on October 21st, 75 years after her character first debuted. Actresses Lynda Carter, who’s played the character in the 1970s TV show, and Gal Gadot, who’ll depict the character in a big-budget DC Comics movie next year, are expected to attend the ceremony.

Beauty Blogger James Charles is CoverGirl’s First Cover Boy

James Charles (Elle)

Cosmetics giant CoverGirl made history this past week with the announcement of their newest spokesmodel. The newest face is 17-year-old beauty blogger James Charles, who’s made history as the first male spokesmodel for CoverGirl. He’ll advertise the brand’s So Lashy mascara, and has already met fellow spokesmodel Katy Perry.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard Charles’ name: He came to our attention earlier this year with a tweet showing off his redone senior portraits, complete with notable highlight and his own ring light.

Charles only began experimenting with makeup last year, and has already amassed 74K+ subscribers to his YouTube channel and 500K followers on Instagram.

Charles’ selection isn’t without precedent, as men have been used in cosmetics advertising before: MAC has used RuPaul and Johnny Weir before.

The Cost of Kim Kardashian West’s Social Media Blackout: By The Numbers

Kim Kardashian and her ring (TMZ)

In light of getting robbed in Paris last week (losing $11M-worth of jewelry), Kim Kardashian West has decided to take a break from social media for a month to reassess her online presence. Prior to now, Kardashian West has had a far-reaching social media presence on various platforms. She’s reconsidering her use of social media to document her life because the Paris thieves were after the $4M ring gifted to her by husband Kanye West. How did the thieves know about the ring? Kardashian West had shown it off on Snapchat.

But Kardashian West also uses social media as an extension of her business: being a Kardashian. And she’s paid well to do so. But it’s estimated that her month-long social media hiatus could cost her.

Here are the projected numbers behind Kim Kardashian West’s self-imposed social media blackout:

Amount Kardashian West’s special event appearances make: $20-$30K

Amount Kardashian West’s personal posts are worth to her brand: $200-$300K

Amount Kardashian West makes on social media in a given month: $1M

Kardashian West’s estimated yearly salary: $50M

Kardashian West’s estimated net worth: $150M

#ThrowbackThursday: Kim Kardashian West, “Paper” Magazine, 2014

Kim Kardashian West, ‘Paper’ magazine 2014 (People)

Remember when Kim Kardashian West broke the Internet? This was (not so far) back in 2014. She posed for Paper magazine. Cover shot: see above. Inside, the magazine featured shots of Kardashian West imitating a more famous photo and posing completely nude save for strands of her pearl choker (not a sexual metaphor).

Kardashian West didn’t get paid for her Paper photo shoot.

Though this wasn’t the first time Kardashian West posed nude, it was the time that everyone couldn’t stop talking about.

“Luke Cage” Breaks Netflix

Luke Cage on Netflix (Metro UK)

Marvel’s newest superhero Luke Cage only arrived less than two weeks ago, but he’s already made a name for himself. And not just for his heroic deeds.

The titular character’s thirteen-episode first season dropped on Friday night, Sept. 30th. Not even a day later, Netflix received so much traffic that the site went down for two to three hours on Saturday afternoon. The outage affected the U.S. and most of the UK.

It’s posited that so many viewers streaming the new series at the same time led to the site crashing.

If anything, Netflix’s crash proves that there’s a very real audience for non-white superheroes that’s been underserved for far too long. I hope the success of “Luke Cage” changes that.

Trends: Female Superheroes’ LGBT Sexuality

Wonder Woman in ‘Justice League’ (Pink News UK)

Last week, DC comics writer Greg Rucka gave voice to what a lot of people suspected for many years: Wonder Woman is queer.

Shocking. (That was sarcastic.)

So far, Rucka is the only person affiliated with DC to speak definitively on Wonder Woman’s sexuality. But he said it’s canon, so…it’s canon. Take it as gospel.

Previous to this “revelation” (if you can call it that), Wonder Woman’s sexuality had been on the table virtually since she debuted in 1941. Think about it: she lived on an island populated solely by women. Audiences can read between the lines.

Wonder Woman isn’t the only strong female protagonist in comics confirmed to be queer. In 2006, Batwoman’s alter ego Kate (also known as Kathy) Kane came out as a lesbian. Batwoman debuted in 1956. (Does this mean it took Kate/Batwoman 50 years to figure out her sexuality?) In 2007, it was announced that Batwoman would be part of DC’s graphic novel series 52, which aimed to depict modern times (relationships included) more accurately.

Batwoman received her own love story with detective Renee Montoya in 2016’s animated movie Batman: Bad Blood. As you might assume, Batwoman is most closely associated with Batman. (Fun fact: Batwoman was originally created to counteract public perception that Batman might be gay.) But thus far, Batwoman (with or without her sexuality) has not been featured in a big-budget live-action movie.

Though she isn’t part of DC or its main rival Marvel Comics, Xena from the TV series Xena: Warrior Princess counts as a superhero in my book. New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless starred as the titular character, a reformed warrior who travels the world doing good deeds for various civilizations. Her friend Gabrielle (Renee O’Connor) usually traveled with her. The two (and the show) quickly developed a cult following, especially amongst lesbians. Xena and Gabrielle were depicted as having a close (emotionally and physically) and mutually supportive relationship that many assumed was more than platonic. (There’s even a Tumblr devoted to this.)

In 2003, Lawless talked to Lesbian News (actually the name of a real publication) about Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship. She felt that Xena was “definitely gay,” and that the character and Gabrielle were married. Lawless gave this interview two years after the show ended. In 2015, it was announced that Javier Grillo-Marxuach, executive producer behind the CW’s The 100, would reboot Xena and explore her sexuality in greater depth than the original show. So that basically confirms the yes, the character, and Gabrielle by extension, is indeed gay.

It’s exciting that we’re seeing more and more superheroes depicted as LGBT+, and that their sexuality isn’t the main aspect of their personality. But I wonder which character will be next: Ms. Marvel? Black Canary? Black Widow?

#ThrowbackThursday: Lucy Lawless in “Xena: Warrior Princess”

Lucy Lawless in “Xena: Warrior Princess” (Beyond The Marquee)

Who remembers this show? Originally a spinoff of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess quickly made a mark of its own. Lucy Lawless starred as the titular character, a warrior princess (obviously) who travels around the world throughout various civilizations to redeem her destructive past. Her friend Gabrielle (Renee O’Connor) often accompanies her in her adventures.

The TV series ran from 1995 to 2001, and ranked in the top five shows for ratings each year. It’s now seen as a major cult show. A rebooted series was announced in 2015; no word on who’ll take over the role of Xena.

Sex & Stats: Where Numbers Come to Bang

Statistics. Economics. Sex.