For almost fifty years, the disempowered and the marginalized and the outcasts have held up Star Trek as a show that said, “This is what we can aspire to: a humanity that has evolved beyond inequality and oppression”. The show presents a vision of Earth that has moved beyond racism and classism, beyond ableism and sexism and homophobia. As a life-long Trekkie, it is tempting to agree with this reputation. Me and Star Trek, hand in hand, running through fields of wildflowers on a soft-focus sunny day while I gaze upon them longingly. Oh Star Trek! So progressive! So feminist!
TV networks announced their fall programming schedules last week and the slate of new shows is both (kind of) good and bad news for portrayals of people people with disabilities.
The good news is that there is a meager improvement in the representation of disabled characters in starring roles. By “meager” I mean out of seventeen new shows debuting on NBC, (only) three main characters have physical disabilities.
Welcome back to another week in the wonderful world of Mad Men. One of the strangest episodes on record, "The Crash" was all about altered states, false identities, and hidden talents (we see you tap dancing, Ken Cosgrove!). Load up a "vitamin shot" and join us, won't you?
This picture is worth a thousand words about how nuts this episode was.
Welcome to another recap of Mad Men. This week, it's all about newness, and weirdness, and drunkenness, and margarine. Peggy returns to the hallowed halls of the former Sterling Cooper Draper Campbell, Ted Chaough reveals himself to be both an amusingly bacon-focused drunk and an ace small-plane pilot, and Bob Benson finally makes himself useful. In other news, that poor Kennedy boy gets shot. Join us, won't you?
So, finally, we reach the faboulus finale of RuPaul's Drag Race, season 5. Of course, it has been padded more than a drag queen's hips. In the finale, we get brief renunions, and briefer briefs. Did your pick win?
Welcome back to our weekly recap of Mad Men. This one had everything we love about the show—gripping office drama, hilarious fantasy sequences, righteously angry women, and Pete Campbell incurring bodily harm. Kelsey couldn't join us this week thanks to a wedding in Arizona, but we've got plenty to say regardless. So grab a drink—sorry, Bert, we don't have any spirits of elderflower—and settle in.
This season Project Runway welcomed its first-ever Native American designer, textile artist Patricia Michaels. The show raps up tonight and the Taos, New Mexico designer is one of the final three competitors.
But whether Michaels wins or loses tonight, having her viewpoint and hand-crafted talents highlighted on one of the most popular shows on TV has been, quite honestly, a welcome change from several recent factory-made fashion appropriations of Native American culture.
We're down to the final three competitors in this season of RuPaul's Drag Race. Each of the trio has the crown and cash directly in their crosshairs, yet this week had to compete in challenges as rigorous as they were random. Will the winner be Alaska the all-around pro, Jinkx the jester, or Roxxxy the... um... hair choreographer? Read my illustrated recap of the show's best moments below!
Sorry for the late recap, folks — some of us needed a little longer to process all the condiment-laced drama of this episode. And others of us had tickets to a Prince show and had to wait until Monday to take this episode in. But we all had thoughts. Read on for our musings on loyalty, competition, secrets—and, of course, ketchup.
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