Welcome to your weekly batch of queer-/feminist-themed pop culture news! This week’s column is going to be heavy on links and light on commentary because I spent too much time getting cute with graphics on my Pretty Little Liars recap.
Advertising Helps You Decide
+ Dolce & Gabbana are including same-sex couples in their new line of handbags and sweaters that (inexplicably) feature couples on them.
+ Have you seen Abby Wambach all over the commercials during (American) football games lately? I sure have.
https://youtu.be/cUruHNA-25w
+ Black lesbians smooching on a Hallmark ad!
https://youtu.be/rgH6kRPr778
It’s Lady Gaga’s World, We’re Just Livin’ In It
+ Fresh off the heels of her Golden Globe, Lady Gaga will perform a Bowie tribute at the Grammys later this month.
+ Oh, hey, and also she’s performing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl on Sunday.
+ Oh hey hey, and also she’s performing ‘Til It Happens to You — a song she co-wrote for the sexual assault documentary, The Hunting Ground — at The Oscars.
The Atlantic says Gaga is answering that age old question: “Where does a pop star go when they want to take a break from the radio race while remaining relevant?”
If she executes well at each of these events, by the end of February, anyone who’s not impressed by her voice will probably never be. Afterwards, perhaps she’ll settle into a long career of respectable, slow, safe-for-everyone singing. Who could blame her? If she bows out from dancepop for good, expect a Vegas residency by the end of the decade.
P.S. The cast of Hamilton is also performing at Grammys, which seems like something that will make your day.
Teevee
+ Look, I know it’s not queer but it’s the first show I ever loved that always passed the Bechdel test, so I want to celebrate with you that Gilmore Girls is getting a revival on Netflix. Four 90-minute installments penned by Amy Sherman-Palladino herself! Kelly Bishop gave a really sweet and earnest interview to TVLine.
I have to do it. I’d be heartbroken if the show went on without me. I would dry up and blow away like a leaf. This show is so deeply important to me, on so many levels. Part of it is the idealistic actor thing where you just want to do good material and feel proud of yourself. I work with such delightful people. I’m madly in love with Lauren — I was from practically the first day we said hi. It was just one of those situations where I was doing a really wonderful character with amazing writing with really good people.
I wonder if they’re going to kick Pretty Little Liars out of Rosewood because of how it’s the same town as Stars Hollow.
+ Here’s your Broad City season three trailer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guLt_A9Kl3c
+ I’m really psyched about Samantha Bee’s new show, y’all. Flavorwire wrote up a review after the first taping.
“My point of view is inherently different,” Bee told the press. “I’m steeped in — my woman-ness, quite frankly.” Though she acknowledged that the relative absence, apart from Chelsea Handler, of female late-night hosts was both an unavoidable aspect of her show and a “valid point to make,” Bee instead framed her gender as a point of view that subtly, but definitely, influences her perspective as both a comedian and a person responding to current events. Early in the presentation, she cited the Zika crisis and its impact on Central American women; later, she pointed to TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws as a type of story she may not have been able to do as a correspondent on someone else’s show as opposed to the host of her own.
Movies
+ The New York Times has coined “The DuVernay Test” in Ava DuVernay’s honor, “in which African-Americans and other minorities have fully realized lives rather than serve as scenery in white stories.”
Thanks for the round up, HH!
god i fucking love broad city so much.
So much! For a second at the start of that vid I wondered if the gals were going to be pit against each other – but of course they aren’t! BFFs for life!
Ilana “The Jewnami” Wexler. Love iiiiiit.
What! It’s the same town? How did I not notice?!
I am holding out hope that Paris will have come out in time for the new episodes. I always thought she was queer, even before I knew I was. The way she looked at Rory at the bangles concert and told her it was the best night of her life!
Also I think I owe you guys some money for a+? I was the asshole who drank too many margaritas and accidentally bought a gift membership for myself instead of a regular one and I’m pretty sure it was over a year ago but it hasn’t run out yet. I may be messing up my dates but I feel like it was right around New Year’s Eve because that was prime margarita time for me. If it’s easier I can just give the money through the donate now button, but I cant donate it and then have to pay for a new membership as well because unfortunately I am nowhere near financially stable right now. Is there someone I should email about this? (I don’t have a whole lot of Internet access these days so it might take me a little while to respond but i PROMISE i will pay you all for the wonderful work that you do). Anyway I just realized that this was the situation and I’m sorry for not asking about it sooner! And sorry for commenting it on this article but I’m not sure who to email about it and I only have a few minutes of uninterrupted internet access tonight. Thankyouuuu
Hello! Please email [email protected] if you can give me more details so I can further assist you! (Your name, rough purchase date) We’ll try to get to the bottom of this!
I was one of those people who always wanted Paris to be queer too. Is Liza Weil even going to be able to do this revival? She is full-time on How to Get Away with Murder.
I’ve read stuff saying she’ll be in it! Paris is the best.
Argh… Ryan Murphy fighting for diversity on Hollywood. We’re doomed.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ryan-murphy-launches-foundation-tackle-861436
lol our hero
That Hallmark commercial made me feel the feels. God I’m such a sap
oh man, remember when rory gilmore was in Jenny’s Wedding? I loved that movie
Heather, I don’t care if it’s not queer, I want to talk about Gilmore Girls forever and ever and ever! My all-time, number one, favourite tv show of all time, with Luke and Lorelai being my one and only OTP. Christoper can go kiss rocks.
I am so excited about this revival, and cannot even tell you. Normally, I would be worried, but Amy and Dan and writing every episode, most of the cast is coming back, and they’ve all been saying the new stuff feels like a return to form for the show. We even get Amy’s mythological final four words! All in all, I’m choosing to be optimistic.
But seriously I cannot wait. I bawled my eyes out when the finale aired, and I’m pretty sure these four episodes with kill me with feels.
my love for Lauren Graham is queer and that makes the show queer enough for me!
I saw that Zookie can’t be part of the revival though so my heart is a little bit broken. Still excited though!
“my love for Lauren Graham is queer and that makes the show queer enough for me!”
^Amen. There have been so many articles and comments on this site that have made me want to create an account and comment over the years. I think I will just have to proudly own the fact that this is the comment that finally sealed the deal.
And I’m still learning how the whole commenting thing works – that’s me!
If Rosewood is Stars Hollow, does that mean that Mona and Paris can commiserate over how Hanna and Rory don’t get it?
THOSE D&G HANDBAGS ARE HIDEOUS. Oh, gawd, my eyeballs…
Wow they really are. Maybe it was a passive-aggressive move.
Not that I didn’t believe you, but I generally think most designer things are hideous, so I was like “how bad can they really be”? NOPE THEY ARE SO BAD. They are probably the worst designer thing I have ever seen. They look like they belong on the tackiest dustiest shelf in a thrift store because someone brought them in 30 years ago and nobody has wanted them since.
it’s like they fused a 5 year old’s lunchbox with designer bags ?…
Soooooo excited for more Gilmore Girls episodes! It might not be a queer show, but in the made up world in my head it sure is
God, I love that “match of the century” wordplay so much :D
Broad City, how can you get any more perfect?
So Dolce & Gabbana are hoping we forgot about that “no gay adoptions/ in vitro babies are synthetic” comments?
please write more on Gilmore Girls as it develops! Really excited about the return
Rose Abdoo who plays Gipsy, the mechanic, on Gilmore Girls revealed on the Gilmore Guys Podcast that she portrayed her as if Gipsy was in love with Lorelai. Which, in return, justifies my own crush on Gipsy. Yap.