T Lo’s Weekend Pop Culture Reading List

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Kittens, the imaginary bar where we take all the imaginary employees of T Lo Media International every Friday evening for a job well done is flashing its imaginary HAPPY HOUR sign, beckoning us to bid you all farewell for the weekend so we can get our drank on. Still imaginary, of course. In all likelihood, it’s an Indian takeout and Diet Coke on the couch kind of night for us. But no matter whether we’re planning a fabulous weekend or a sweatpants-wearing one,  we couldn’t leave you without dropping a list of all the posts, essays and articles that caught our eyes this week. Enjoy all the zeitgeist and have a fabulous weekend!

What exactly does it look like to translate this traditional Dior “femininity” into feminism, or female empowerment, today? 
It’s important to give women a wardrobe that supports them, and allows them to be confident in themselves. Fashion has a huge responsibility: If you feel confident, you can do things well. But I don’t want to impose a point of view; I want to support women.

Maria Grazia Chiuri Is Learning to See Fashion Through Her Daughter’s Eyes by Emilia Petrarca at The Cut

A couple of days before my twelfth birthday, my aunt took me to get my inaugural relaxer, a burning alchemy that promised to turn my frizzy hair straight—and to transform me in the process. About halfway into the ordeal, the gendarmes arrived. Out of the thin Harmattan air, dozens of militia began parading outside the salon, dressed in full uniform, singing patriotic songs and marching loudly through the otherwise quiet residential neighborhood. When I picture it now, I can still hear the sound of metal pins clinking against plastic rollers.

Does Citizenship Shape Identity? A “Third-Culture” Writer Takes Stock by Rawiya Kameir at Vogue

The character became an instantly recognizable symbol of youthful guilelessness, traveling the world and appearing on other TV shows like “Saturday Night Live,” “The West Wing” and “The Colbert Report.” Big Bird was the protagonist of the 1985 “Sesame Street” feature film, “Follow That Bird,” and Spinney was the subject of a 2014 documentary, “I Am Big Bird.”

Spinney has said that over the years his work on “Sesame Street” acquainted him with countless fans who could not help but tell him — often with eyes full of tears — how the show had changed their lives.

Original Big Bird Caroll Spinney Leaves Sesame Street after nearly 50 Years by Dave Itzoff at the New York Times

While his life may not be all jet-set glamour, Michael Kors, let it be said, does alright. We knocked on the door of the beautiful Manhattan home that he shares with husband Lance LePere the other morning and peppered him with our trademark 73 Questions. A sampling: How does he define fashion? “The right thing at the right time.” What’s the wildest thing he’s ever done? “Dancing in my underwear at 5 am in South Beach.”

Michael Kors Explores His Greenwich Village Apartment and Chats With Bette Midler by Staff at Vogue

This fall, a new book, “Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote,” pairs vibrantly painted portraits of early women’s-rights activists by Maira Kalman with text by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, of New York, that outlines these women’s contributions to history. The book covers a wide range of women: Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a young mother who organized one of the first conventions for suffragists, in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848; Sojourner Truth was a former slave who advocated for women of color; Jovita Idár, a Texas-born journalist, became the first president of the League of Mexican Women. Kalman’s energetic hand brings to life stories of tenacity and resolve that span the seventy-year-long suffragette movement and beyond.

An Illustrated History of the Women Who Earned the Right to Vote by Françoise Mouly and Genevieve Bormes at The New Yorker

There are a lot of positive things that kids can learn from watching these movies — things they should do, like work hard to achieve their dreams, and things they should not do, like take an apple from a sketchy lady they’ve never met. If you must, take Bell’s approach — she told Parents magazine that she asks her daughters to think critically about Snow White’s decisions when she reads her story to them. These movies aren’t just entertaining, they can also be a great starting point for some really awesome conversations. Banning movies that you don’t agree with can be more harmful to your kids than allowing them to watch and opening a dialogue.

Please, Let Your Daughters Watch Disney Princess Movies by Nicole Pomarico at Instyle Magazine

In some cases, the changes are minor — Captain America’s shifts have, for the most part, revolved around his footwear and how realistic the armor is drawn, or whether his hood gets to keep the wings he started with or not, and Batman goes back and forth about his look constantly, but the all-important silhouette stays the same. (That’s not always the case; the comic book X-Men shifted to their own version of the movie outfits from 2001 through 2004, for example.) The characters’ looks change slightly, but not too much, for the most part; each hero or villain still manages to look essentially like themselves, despite everything.

Why Do Superhero Costumes Keep Changing? by Etan Vlessing at The Hollywood Reporter

On Wednesday, the duchess’s chancellery (that is, her office) issued a news release on the show. “The Chancellery of Her Imperial Highness concurs with the general consensus of the critics,” it says. It then quotes the Rotten Tomatoes website’s summary of reviews, saying the show is “fatally indulgent, asking for the utmost patience from audiences without a compelling incentive.”

A Romanov Is Not Too Happy With ‘The Romanoffs’ by Alex Marshall at The New York Times

Consider the outtake from “This Is Forty” in which McCarthy berates every person in the room. “I’m going to light you all on fire.” “I’m glad your husband died.” When asked if she has been drinking: “I’m gonna slit somebody open like a fish and drink their blood. That’s what I’m going to drink.” As she went, Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann laugh too visibly and too loudly for any of the film to be usable, but McCarthy keeps going. Judd Apatow, the movie’s director, couldn’t use it because of the laughter, but he also couldn’t allow it to be lost to legend and so he ran it during the movie’s credits. Everyone, including McCarthy, knew in the moment that it wasn’t going to make it into the movie. She didn’t care. She was making people laugh.

This Melissa McCarthy Story Just Might (Maybe? Possibly?) Cheer You Up by Taffy Brodesser-Akner at The New York Times

“You sort of have this image in your head that doesn’t reflect how you feel inside,” says Margit Detweiler, founder of TueNight, a storytelling series, newsletter, and private Facebook group for women in midlife (though that is not her preferred terminology). “You’re not wearing a cardigan sweater set suddenly. You’re still in your jeans and your cool sneakers and you’re just like, Whaaat? What happened here?” What has happened is that generation by generation, we have delayed certain life milestones. The average age of getting married is creeping upward.

The Mid-30s Awkward Phase No One Tells You About by Laura Norkin at InStyle Magazine

Under this reading, when Jackson responds to Ally’s transformation with mingled sorrow and disgust, the audience is supposed to feel that he is correct. He is right to advise her that she needs to write only about what she feels deep in her soul, and the further implication that she can’t possibly feel anything deep about a cute boy seems only reasonable. He is right to mockingly repeat her lyrics to her and tell her that she is embarrassing, and when he is driven to drink by the sight of Ally lip-synching her way through “Why Did You Do That?” on SNL, he is right once again.

A Star Is Born is built on a rock vs. pop music binary. Does one side win? by Constance Grady at Vox

I was a terrible reader as a child. I know now that I suffered from a learning disability, so that’s why words and numbers were hard for me. But I always loved stories. The first time I saw that books, magazines and culture of any kind could be an important part of life was when I was a teenager working for the Hendersons, a lovely white couple who hired me to help take care of their baby. I developed a lifelong addiction to magazines like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Women’s Wear Daily. I wanted to improve myself, and the magazines were my teachers. That’s where I learned how to dress, how to wear makeup and how to develop a personal sense of style.

Tina Turner: By the Book at The New York Times

[Photo Credit: The New Yorker]

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