“China censors coverage of deadly Beijing floods”

Taken from: http://news.yahoo.com/china-censors-coverage-deadly-beijing-floods-064404487.html

July 24, 2012

Beijing authorities have reportedly ordered Chinese media to stick to positive news about record weekend floods, after the death of at least 37 people sparked fierce criticism of the government.

Censors also deleted microblog posts criticising the official response to the disaster in China’s rapidly modernising capital, which came at a time of heightened political sensitivity ahead of a 10-yearly handover of power. City propaganda chief Lu Wei told media outlets to stick to stories of “achievements worthy of praise and tears”, the Beijing Times daily reported, as authorities tried to stem a tide of accusations that they failed to do enough.

Many Beijing residents took to the country’s popular microblogs, or weibos, to complain that some of the deaths could have been prevented if better warnings had been issued and the city’s ancient drainage systems modernised. A call by the Beijing government for donations to an emergency flood relief fund was also criticised by microbloggers, with many ridiculing the authorities for asking ordinary people to pay for the damage. On Tuesday, over 72,000 postings on a microblog thread focused on the call for donations were deleted.

David Bandurski, who monitors China’s Internet censorship at the Hong Kong-based China Media Project, said most of the microblog postings censored in China over the last two days related to the Beijing floods. ”There could be a number of reasons for this, but the overarching reason could be the upcoming change of leadership at the (Communist Party’s) 18th Party Congress,” Bandurski told AFP. ”This is an important political meeting, so when people are pointing responsibility at local government incompetence, everyone goes into sensitive mode… no one wants to take responsibility for anything.”

This year’s Congress will see President Hu Jintao step down from his position as head of China’s ruling Communist party in a leadership change that will usher in a new generation of leaders expected to be led by Vice President Xi Jinping.

Authorities were still clearing up the damage from Saturday’s disaster as the country’s top leaders gathered in Beijing on Monday for a meeting addressed by Hu that was given front-page coverage in state newspapers.

The China Daily, a state-run English-language newspaper with a predominantly foreign readership, ran an editorial on Tuesday urging Beijing authorities to improve the drainage system, which it said “leaves much to be desired”. But much of China’s state-run media steered away from critical stories, focusing on human interest angles of residents helping each other out.

Senior Beijing leaders at an emergency meeting late Monday urged greater efforts to find those still missing, identify the bodies and repair flood-damaged roads. But residents in the worst hit district of Fangshan on the mountainous southwestern outskirts of China’s sprawling capital told AFP the government was doing little to help find their missing loved-ones. ”The government doesn’t help at all, every family is responsible for searching for their own family members,” said Wang Baoxiang, whose 30-year-old nephew had been missing since going out in Saturday’s rains.

According to official assessments released Monday, seven people remained missing, but in the badly hit Fangshan district, locals told AFP reporters that at least 10 people were missing in one small village. Tuesday’s Beijing Daily quoted mayor Guo Jinlong as saying any increases in the death toll should be reported immediately, amid suspicion that the authorities may be underplaying the impact of the floods. Guo also urged journalists to “correctly guide public opinion”, code words in China that which mean to only portray the government in a positive light. ”The news media has played a very good role in timely reporting the developments in emergency response operations, correctly leading the public opinion… and playing a role in boosting morale,” Guo said. ”The focus of our rescue work and news propaganda must now be moved toward the suburban areas, especially those areas severely hit by the disaster like Fangshan.”

“Posters Celebrate Asian American Masculinity, From George Takei to Jeremy Lin”

Taken from: http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/05/posters_celebrating_asian_manhood.html

May 16, 2012

The “Manhood” poster series was created by artist, and San Francisco native, Deborah Enrile Lao as a way to inspire young Asian American boys and men. The series consists of screen printed posters of five iconic Asian American men—Richard Aoki, George Takei, Jeremy Lin, Bruce Lee and DJ Qbert. In Lao’s artist statement, she writes:

This piece challenges the unkind, one dimensional portrait of Asian American men in mainstream Western media. By exuding strength, creativity, leadership and masculinity, these five icons buck characterizations of Asian American men as meek nerds who never get the girl (or guy). Bold paper colors and a minimal illustration style reclaims the one dimensional space into one that portrays these men as “superheroes” that young boys and men can aspire to be like.

I chatted with her on the phone to talk about her poster series and the inspiration behind them.

What inspired you to create these posters?

I had just finished an advanced screenprinting class which pushed me to explore and experiment with my personal ideas. I have a young brother—he was an inspiration behind creating the posters. I wondered about how the younger generation of Asian American boys would feel when they grow up, who do they have to look up to? So I came up with the “superhero” concept using primary colors and simple faceless outlines. I want people to be able to see themselves in these icons. The posters represent the ideals behind the people more than just the people themselves. And it started with Bruce Lee.

Why Bruce Lee?

A documentary about him was coming out when I was starting this project. When I was thinking of Asian American male sexuality and virility, Bruce Lee was the first person who came to mind. He was the first cross-over actor who appealed to both black and white audiences, and had international fans.

Asian Americans are always the ones being made fun of, the butt of jokes in mainstream media, and Bruce Lee defies that stereotype. He was well-respected and no one messed with Bruce Lee.

And the others?

I had a hard time thinking of men outside of Bruce Lee. So the purpose of the project was to think of men who had made an impact and remember them. I wanted to create positive portrats of Asian American men. Jeremy Lin seems to be “it” at the moment. He is really living his dream, yet humble, honest and seems really rooted. It’s inspirational to see an Asian American male figure so accepted and revered who is just being himself. To me, he represents the idea of being yourself, living out your dream, and being respected.

After Jeremy Lin, I did George Takei then Richard Aoki and lastly DJ Qbert.

Why DJ Qbert?

I felt like the series needed a fifth person to make it more substantial. Hip-hop has been inclusive within the movement. When the Invisibl Skratch  Piklz came out, they were the first Asians in hip-hop. It didn’t matter what race they were, what mattered was that they could really scratch. And the fact that Qbert is Filipino resonated with me since I’m Chinese-Filipino.

Now you see Asian American hip-hop groups like Far East Movement on MTV, and all these Asian American boys crews winning dance competitions. I feel DJ Qbert lead the way for Asians in hip-hop.

Do you think you will do more with this series? Possibly something with API women icons?

That’s a possibility. I would like to have more representation of Pacific Islanders and  Southeast Asians. But I want the ideas to come organically, naturally, and use people who really resonate with me. I’ve been thinking of extending this to Asian American women such as Patsy Mink. While working on this, names of iconic API women kept coming up.

**************

(Below are the five posters in the series.)

Richard Aoki

George Takei

Jeremy Lin

Bruce Lee

DJ Qbert 

“Teen Girl Petitions Seventeen Magazine to Stop Airbrushing Models”

Taken from: http://shine.yahoo.com/beauty/teen-girl-petitions-seventeen-magazine-stop-airbrushing-models-130000558.html

May 2, 2012

Julia Bluhm, 14, is an eighth grader from rural Waterville, Maine. She loves ballet and attends class six days a week. She is also gaining national attention as an activist who is challenging the media to take responsibility for the way it warps girls’ self-esteem.

“I’ve always noticed how a lot of the images in magazines look photo-shopped,” Bluhm tells Yahoo! Shine. She wants all girls to feel comfortable in their own skin. “Girls shouldn’t compare themselves to pictures in magazines,” she says. “Because they are fake.”

Eleven days ago, she launched a petition to ask one of her favorite magazines, Seventeen, to feature one un-retouched photo shoot a month. “They have already done a lot to help girls improve their body image. TheirBody Peace feature is great. I thought that they could take it one step further with an unaltered photo spread.” This morning, she is leading a protest outside of Seventeen’s offices in Manhattan which will include a mock fashion shoot.”I’m a little nervous. But excited.”

Julia BluhmBluhm started blogging about girls and self-esteem a year ago when she joined SPARK, a non-profit organization for 13 to 22 year-olds that calls itself a “girl-fueled activist movement to demand an end to the sexualization of women and girls in media.” One of SPARKS’ recent accomplishments was to get a meeting to with top LEGO executives to discuss, among other issues, the LEGO Friends line of toys which they say are demeaning to girls. However, the petition is, as Bluhm puts it, “my first big action.”

Her petition on change.org reads:

“To girls today, the word ‘pretty’ means skinny and blemish-free. Why is that, when so few girls actually fit into such a narrow category? It’s because the media tells us that ‘pretty’ girls are impossibly thin with perfect skin.

Here’s what lots of girls don’t know. Those ‘pretty women’ that we see in magazines are fake. They’re often photo-shopped, airbrushed, edited to look thinner, and to appear like they have perfect skin. A girl you see in a magazine probably looks a lot different in real life….I’ve been fighting to stop magazines, toy companies, and other big businesses from creating products, photo spreads and ads that hurt girls and break our self-esteem….I’ve learned that we have the power to fight back.”

The American Medical Association (AMA) backs up Bluhm’s assertions. In June 2011, they issued a press release stating, “A large body of literature links exposure to media-propagated images ofunrealistic body image to eating disorders and other child and adolescent health problems.” Board member Barbara L. McAneny, MD, added, “We must stop exposing impressionable children and teenagers to advertisements portraying models with body types only attainable with the help of photo editing software.”

So far, in the United States, only Glamour magazine has responded to the AMA’s call to action. In its March 2012 issue, the popular women’s magazine told readers, “And while our policy has always been not to alter a woman’s body shape, we’ll also be asking photographers we hire not to manipulate body size in the photos we commission, even if a celebrity or model requests a digital diet (alas, it happens).”

Some stars are also refusing to “go under the brush.” Notably, Jessica Simpson appeared without makeup or retouching for a Marie Claire photo shoot in 2010 and more recently, actress Cate Blanchett revealed her natural 42-year-old face for the online magazine morentelligentlife.com.

As of today, May 2, Bluhm’s petition has nearly 24 thousand signatures. She is surprised how quickly it’s taken off. “I didn’t think it would get this big,” she laughs. Even though she hasn’t quite reached her goal of 25 thousand signatures, editors are already listening. Bluhm says Anne Shoket, the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, has reached out and asked to see the petition. Fittingly, the current cover features Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Katniss Everdeen, the ultimate girl-power heroine, in the box office smash “The Hunger Games.”

Meanwhile, the eighth grader from Maine plans to enjoy her first trip to New York City. “I want to do some sight seeing with my mom who is here with me,” she says. “Maybe visit the Empire State Building.”

“Asian American Journalists Association releases guidelines on Jeremy Lin media coverage”

Taken from: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/asian-american-journalists-association-releases-guidelines-jeremy-lin-155822233.html

February 23, 2012

Given the media’s “Linsanity” surrounding Jeremy Lin, perhaps this was inevitable.

Following (justified) outrage over several examples of racially-insensitive coverage of Lin–including a headline published by ESPN.com which resulted in the firing of one staffer and suspension of another–the Asian American Journalists Association has issued a set of guidelines for media outlets salivating over the NBA’s Asian-American sensation.

“As NBA player Jeremy Lin’s prowess on the court continues to attract international attention and grab headlines, AAJA would like to remind media outlets about relevance and context regarding coverage of race,” the group wrote in an advisory. “In the past weeks, as more news outlets report on Lin, his game and his story, AAJA has noticed factual inaccuracies about Lin’s background as well as an alarming number of references that rely on stereotypes about Asians or Asian Americans.”

Among the “danger zones” identified by AAJA:

“CHINK”: Pejorative; do not use in a context involving an Asian person on someone who is Asian American. Extreme care is needed if using the well-trod phrase “chink in the armor”; be mindful that the context does not involve Asia, Asians or Asian Americans.

And:

“ME LOVE YOU LIN TIME”: Avoid. This is a lazy pun on the athlete’s name and alludes to the broken English of a Hollywood caricature from the 1980s.

AAJA urged caution “when discussing Lin’s physical characteristics, particularly those that feminize/emasculate the Asian male (Cinderella-story angles should not place Lin in a dress). Discussion of genetic differences in athletic ability among races should be avoided. In referring to Lin’s height or vision, be mindful of the context and avoid invoking stereotypes about Asians.”

The group added: “Stop to think: Would a similar statement be made about an athlete who is Caucasian, African American or Latino?”

Below are the AAJA’s guidelines in full:

THE FACTS

1. Jeremy Lin is Asian American, not Asian (more specifically, Taiwanese American). It’s an important distinction and one that should be considered before any references to former NBA players such as Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi, who were Chinese. Lin’s experiences were fundamentally different than people who immigrated to play in the NBA. Lin progressed through the ranks of American basketball from high school to college to the NBA, and to characterize him as a foreigner is both inaccurate and insulting.

2. Lin’s path to Madison Square Garden: More than 300 division schools passed on him. Harvard University has had only three other graduates go on to the NBA, the most recent one being in the 1950s. No NBA team wanted Lin in the draft after he graduated from Harvard.

3. Journalists don’t assume that African American players identify with NBA players who emigrated from Africa. The same principle applies with Asian Americans. It’s fair to ask Lin whether he looked up to or took pride in the accomplishments of Asian players. He may have. It’s unfair and poor journalism to assume he did.

4. Lin is not the first Asian American to play in the National Basketball Association. Raymond Townsend, who’s of Filipino descent, was a first-round choice of the Golden State Warriors in the 1970s. Rex Walters, who is of Japanese descent, was a first-round draft pick by the New Jersey Nets out of the University of Kansas in 1993 and played seven seasons in the NBA; Walters is now the coach at University of San Francisco. Wat Misaka is believed to have been the first Asian American to play professional basketball in the United States. Misaka, who’s of Japanese descent, appeared in three games for the New York Knicks in the 1947-48 season when the Knicks were part of the Basketball Association of America, which merged with the NBA after the 1948-49 season.

DANGER ZONES

“CHINK”: Pejorative; do not use in a context involving an Asian person on someone who is Asian American. Extreme care is needed if using the well-trod phrase “chink in the armor”; be mindful that the context does not involve Asia, Asians or Asian Americans. (The appearance of this phrase with regard to Lin led AAJA MediaWatch to issue statement to ESPN, which subsequently disciplined its employees.)

DRIVING: This is part of the sport of basketball, but resist the temptation to refer to an “Asian who knows how to drive.”

EYE SHAPE: This is irrelevant. Do not make such references if discussing Lin’s vision.

FOOD: Is there a compelling reason to draw a connection between Lin and fortune cookies, takeout boxes or similar imagery? In the majority of news coverage, the answer will be no.

MARTIAL ARTS: You’re writing about a basketball player. Don’t conflate his skills with judo, karate, tae kwon do, etc. Do not refer to Lin as “Grasshopper” or similar names associated with martial-arts stereotypes.

“ME LOVE YOU LIN TIME”: Avoid. This is a lazy pun on the athlete’s name and alludes to the broken English of a Hollywood caricature from the 1980s.

“YELLOW MAMBA”: This nickname that some have used for Lin plays off the “Black Mamba” nickname used by NBA star Kobe Bryant. It should be avoided. Asian immigrants in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries were subjected to discriminatory treatment resulting from a fear of a “Yellow Peril” that was touted in the media, which led to legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act.

“I’M NOT OKAY WITH CHRIS BROWN PERFORMING AT THE GRAMMYS AND I’M NOT SURE WHY YOU ARE”

Taken from: http://hellogiggles.com/im-not-okay-with-chris-brown-performing-at-the-grammys-and-im-not-sure-why-you-are

February 11, 2012

I’m sick and tired of people acting like it’s no big deal that Chris Brown will be performing at the Grammys.

I’m frustrated that the mainstream media is covering this story like it’s any comeback story, like an exiled prince’s return to a former glory, like this is another political timeline — as though some rich and powerful old white men in the music business have not just issued an enormous ‘f**k you’ to every woman who has been, is or will be on the receiving end of domestic violence.

We should be furious.

Why aren’t we?

A Long, Long Time Ago, or Three Years Ago, But Who’s Counting?

For those of you who are currently listening to ‘Look at Me Now’ and wondering what the big deal is, a quick recap: The night before the Grammys in 2009, Chris Brown got angry at his girlfriend, Rihanna, and he took it out on her face. She went to the hospital and then to the LAPD, where this photo was taken and promptly leaked to TMZ. (The LAPD issued a stern statement on the leak, threatening penalties “up to and including termination”. TMZ reportedly paid $62,500 for the photo.)

Both Rihanna and Brown had been scheduled to perform at the Grammys the following evening. Neither did.

Instead, Chris Brown turned himself into the LAPD at 7 pm, was booked on suspicion of criminal threats and was released on $50,000 bail.

Then the Internet exploded.

I was a full-time entertainment writer at the time, so I had a front-row seat to the action. This is what I expected: I expected a string of celebrities to comment on how horrific this situation was, how sad and angry they were for Rihanna, how domestic violence is unacceptable in any context, how as a nation we need to condemn this and condemn it loudly.

Instead, Hollywood went silent and, when they did speak, they teetered on the brink of defending Chris Brown.

Carrie Underwood: “I don’t think anybody actually knows what happened. I have no advice.”

Lindsay Lohan: “I have no comment on that. That’s not my relationship. I think they’re both great people.”

Nia Long: “I know both of them well. They’re young, and all we can do is pray for them at this point.”

Mary J. Blige: “They’re both young and beautiful people, and that’s it.”

Jay-Z, one of Rihanna’s mentors, spoke up: “You have to have compassion for others. Just imagine it being your sister or mom and then think about how we should talk about that. I just think we should all support her.” In a sane world, Jay-Z’s statement would sound insane. Why would he have to remind his fans to support Rihanna afterwhat happened is that she got hit in the face?

Jay-Z issued that statement because the Internet was, in early February 2009, engaged in a very serious conversation about whether or not all of this was Rihanna’s fault. In fact, large segments of the Internet had devoted themselves to making Rihanna the scapegoat for any woman who ever had the gall to do something worth getting hit, and then the cloying self-esteem to go to the cops about it. Bloggers and their commentators flocked to Chris Brown’s defense in droves. It was a full-blown tearing-down of female self-worth, an assault on any progress women have made in this country in the past 200 years, and the mainstream media ignored it.

It horrified me. It still does.

Later in February, a photo of Brown riding a jet ski in Miami hit the Internet, and singer Usher was caught on video commenting on it: “I’m a little disappointed in this photo,” Usher says in the video. “After the other photo [of Rihanna's bruised face]? C’mon, Chris. Have a little bit of remorse, man. The man’s on jet skis? Like, just relaxing in Miami?”

The backlash was so severe that Usher was later forced to publicly apologize.

“I apologize on behalf of myself and my friends if anyone was offended,” he said. “The intentions were not to pass judgment and we meant no harm. I respect and wish the best for all parties involved.”

The message we sent to young women was unmistakable: You are powerless. You are worthless. You will be a victim, and that will be okay with us.

The Fall-out, and the Lack Thereof

In August 2009, Brown was sentenced to five years probation and 180 hours of community service after pleading guilty to felony assault.

In December 2009, he released his third studio album. It sold over 100,000 copies in its first week and debuted at #7 on the Billboard charts.

On June 8, 2010, Brown was forced to cancel his tour dates in the UK when the British Home Office refused to grant him a work visa on the grounds of “being guilty of a serious criminal offence”. Less than three weeks later, he performed ‘Man in the Mirror’ at the BET Awards’ tribute to Michael Jackson.

His fourth studio album, released in March of last year, debuted at #1.

In December 2011, Billboard crowned him their artist of the year.

And, this week, Grammy producers confirmed that Chris Brown will be performing on Sunday’s show.

“We’re glad to have him back,” said executive producer Ken Ehrlich. “I think people deserve a second chance, you know. If you’ll note, he has not been on the Grammys for the past few years and it may have taken us a while to kind of get over the fact that we were the victim of what happened.”

Read that quote again. Think hard about what is being said. Here is what this quote says to any woman who’s ever been abused:

• By blacklisting Chris Brown from the Grammys for a “few” years (actually, a grand total of TWO Grammy Awards), the Grammys have gone above and beyond expectations for the social exile of an adult man who hit his girlfriend so hard she went to the hospital, and honestly it was really, really hard for them to show even that much support for victims of domestic violence worldwide.
• It was rather thoughtless of Rihanna to go and get herself hit in the face by her boyfriend, because it’s put such a burden on the Grammys. Maybe if she hadn’t made such a big fuss out of it, things could have been easier for everyone.
• The Grammys think that they were the victim of Chris Brown hitting Rihanna in the face.
• The Grammys. Think. That they. Were the victim. Of Chris Brown. Hitting. Rihanna. In the face.

Hitting People Is Wrong, Y’All

I agree that people deserve a second chance. It’s great that we live in a country with a justice system that allows offenders to reclaim themselves and their lives after their sentence. I’m happy about that, and I hope Brown is a changed man at the end of his sentence. (The US justice system has Chris Brown on probation through 2014. It was nice of the Grammys to let him off a couple years early for high record sales good behavior.)

And my suspicion is that Rihanna has no interest in being a poster child for victims of domestic violence. She probably wishes this would all disappear, and I don’t blame her for a minute. She didn’t ask for this – for any of it – and she’s under no obligation to speak out about it.

But someone has to. Because what is happening here is unmistakable. It is, in my eyes, so unmistakable that I wonder if I’m wrong, if I’m missing something huge, because I cannot believe more voices aren’t railing against this.

We – the grown-up influencers in this country, the people with platforms and with educations and with power — are allowing a clear message to be sent to women: We will easily forgive a person who victimizes you. We are able to look beyond the fact that you were treated as less than human, that a bigger, stronger person decided to resolve a conflict with you through violence. We know it happened, but it’s just not that big of a deal to us.

We were so mad when the Komen Foundation pulled its funding for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood. “This is not fair,” we shouted. “This is not fair to women, and this is not fair to the women who don’t have a voice, and we will not allow it.” We shouted it so loudly that Komen reversed its decision in three days. We forced the resignation of one of their top executives.

Planned Parenthood, no doubt, has a well-funded and fine-tuned PR machine, adept at galvanizing a population against a perceived injustice. They outmaneuvered Komen easily.

Does domestic violence have a less sophisticated PR machine than Chris Brown does?

Because to me, this situation isn’t all that different. Accepting that Chris Brown gets to perform at the Grammys because some people bought his album is no different from accepting that women without health insurance don’t get to be screened for breast cancer because some VP at Komen is anti-abortion. It may happen, but that doesn’t mean we should tacitly accept it. What if Chris Brown had hit your sister that night? Or your daughter? (What if Chris Brown had hit Taylor Swift that night?)

We’re accepting the message that women just aren’t that important, that their health and their safety and their self-respect is only important until it stops being convenient for everyone. We should be angry about this, and we should be angry publicly about this.

So I want to say this to anyone who is listening: This is not okay with me. A man hitting a woman in anger is unacceptable and is not easily forgotten or forgiven. A man who hits a woman in anger deserves to be reported to the authorities and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of who might be inconvenienced in the process. A man who hits a woman in anger may eventually be permitted to go on with his own life, but he is not permitted back in my life, even if it’s been three whole years.

“Vanity Fair cover controversy”

Taken from: http://www.examiner.com/literary-in-national/vanity-fair-cover-controversy

February 2, 2012

Once again the Vanity Fair “Hollywood” issue is causing quite a kerfuffle. The entertainment and fashion magazine’s Marchfront cover features some of film’s forecasted “it” girls of 2012. The likes of Oscar-nominated “Dragon Tattoo” star Rooney Mara and “The Help” starlet Jessica Chastain. “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence and “Alice in Wonderland” star Mia Wasikowska are also on the front cover. All very talented, beautiful actresses adorned in icy pastels backdropped by an all-white art deco set. Perhaps the only splashes of color are found on the magazine’s second and third foldout panels: women of color, that is.

“Mission Impossible” star Paula Patton and “Pariah” star Adepero Oduye, two women of color, are pictured inside the magazine’s fold – not on the front cover with their white counterparts.

“This has become a tradition at Vanity Fair,” Princeton professor of African American Studies Dr. Daphne A. Brooks recently told Fox News.

Vanity Fair has been tucking talent of color inside the folds of its “Hollywood” issues for years. In 2005 actresses Rosario Dawson and Kerry Washington were pushed to the inside pages. In 2008 it was Zoe Saldana and America Ferrera. In 2009 and 2010 no actors of color were featured at all. In 2011 “Hurt Locker” star Anthony Mackie was scooted to an inside panel.

In the previous eight years only one person of color has appeared on a Vanity Fair “Hollywood” cover: comedian Chris Rock.

In 2010, Access Hollywood’s Shaun Robinson blogged about the issue. She wrote:

If the criteria to be considered for the cover of Vanity Fair is the actresses must have a body of work behind them – then the question is, where are all the mainstream roles for the terrific and qualified young actresses – black, Hispanic, Asian, Indian? Where are they?

Maybe what we want Vanity Fair to do is not to follow Hollywood’s lead but to take the lead in changing attitudes and celebrate the many diverse and talented actresses out there. Because a picture is worth a thousand words.

Asked her opinion about the cover, actress Zoe Saldana told Access Hollywood Wednesday, “I know that it’s just a matter of time until magazines, the media, our art, our culture, our colloquial lifestyle tags along to our reality.”

***

For more pictures on covers from previous editions, as well as a similar article: http://blogs.babble.com/famecrawler/2012/01/31/vanity-fairs-hollywood-issue-pushes-actors-of-color-to-the-side-every-year-photos/

Asian Americans on YouTube – Covers of “Baby”, “The One That Got Away”

It’s not hard to turn on the TV and come to see that there are not very many accurate portrayals or roles for Asians and Asian Americans. The same goes for movies, and many other forms of entertainment. For example, it was not until 2010 that the first Asian American group had a top 10 song on US pop charts – Far East Movement’s “Like a G6″. However, many Asian Americans have turned to YouTube and quite a few are actually some of the most highly subscribed, like NigaHiga, KevJumba, WongFu Productions, HappySlip, Legaci, and many more.

Here is a look at a viral cover of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” by legaci, Traphik, Summerbreeze, and Cathy Nguyen. In case you don’t know, Legaci opened for Justin Bieber in one of his recent tours!

Here is a new cover by Legaci, Cathy Nguyen and Summerbreeze of Katy Perry’s “The One That Got Away”. Who says Asians can’t sing?

“Is Hollywood ‘whitewashing’ Asian roles?”

Taken from: http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/13/is-hollywood-whitewashing-asian-roles/

January 13, 2012

America’s embrace of Japanese pop culture, particularly manga and anime, hasn’t resulted in an embrace of Asian and Asian-American actors when those storylines go to Hollywood.

Two upcoming feature films based on Japanese material are already stirring controversy after rumors that white American actors will be cast as characters originally written as Japanese.

Tom Cruise is rumored to be in talks to play the lead role in the Warner Bros. adaptation of Japanese novel “All You Need is Kill,” replacing a Japanese main character. Warner Bros., which is owned by the same parent company as CNN, is also in the pre-production stages of making a live-action version of “Akira,” a graphic novel that was made into a landmark 1988 animated feature film in Japan. All of the actors rumored to be in consideration for the upcoming film’s main characters are white Americans, although casting calls invited actors of “any race” to audition.

That’s troubling to both the series’ devoted fans and advocates of diversity in casting.

Kent A. Ono, a professor of Asian-American studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said the practice of casting white actors to play Asians and Asian-American characters has a long history in Hollywood. Until recent decades, this mostly took the form of white actors playing stereotypical representations of Asian characters, such as Mickey Rooney’s portrayal of I.Y. Yunioshi in 1961′s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” Rita Moreno as Tuptim and Yul Brynner as King Mongkut in the 1956 film “The King and I,” and Katharine Hepburn as Jade Tan in 1944′s “Dragon Seed.”

In recent years, Ono said, Asian characters have been replaced with white American versions played by big-name Hollywood stars. It happened with films like the 1960 western, “The Magnificent Seven,” which starred Brynner, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson, and was based on the influential 1954 Japanese film by Akira Kurosawa, “Seven Samurai.” As Japanese manga and anime have grown more popular, it has happened in films like “Dragonball: Evolution” and “Speed Racer.”

“Animation and anime are these interesting contexts, because casting directors, producers and directors can say, ‘Well, the anime character is fictional and not a real live body … and to cast them as another race is OK,’” Ono said.

The result is fewer opportunities for Asian and Asian-American actors who want a shot at a powerful role.

“Not only do Asian-American actors find this a displacement of their ability to work as laborers, as performers in these sort of roles – they also find this an affront to their identity, to their work to overcome racism and be seen as legitimate actors,” Ono said.

Racebending.com, an international grassroots organization founded in 2009, protests what it sees as the “whitewashing” of film roles and pushes for the fair representation of minorities in media. Spokesman Michael Le said that the increasing popularity of manga and anime titles means that movie producers are keen to cash in, but many don’t see value in keeping the original Asian characters that made them popular. “I remember 10 years ago, I could walk into [the comics aisle of] a Barnes and Noble and it would be all western comics, all DC and Marvel. Now I walk in and the Asian section is bigger than the western comics section,” Le said. “Asian culture is enormously popular and acceptable, but the people are not. The people are inconveniently the wrong race, and so whitewashing is a result.”

Le and other fans want the studios to avoid the debacle associated with the 2010 live-action film “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” The M. Night Shamalyan production tanked with critics and fans after being dogged by controversy surrounding its casting. The ”Avatar” animated television series, on which the movie was based, takes place in a fantasy world populated by four Asian- and Inuit-based cultures. But the actors for each of the lead roles were white, except one – the villain, played by “Slumdog Millionaire” star Dev Patel. Racebending.com was formed to protest the production’s decision to “racebend” the characters – wordplay that alludes to the element “benders” from the “Avatar” series.

The Warner Bros.’ planned live-action adaptation of “Akira” has fans watching closely. According to articles in The Hollywood Reporter and sci-fi blog i09.com, Garret Hedlund was being tapped to play the lead role of Shotaro Kaneda, with Kristen Stewart, Helena Bonham Carter and Ken Watanabe in talks to play other main roles. Except for Watanabe, who is Japanese, all are white. An unnamed studio insider told the Hollywood Reporter for a January 5 storythat preproduction had stopped due to issues related to script, budget and casting. Warner Bros. spokeswoman Jessica Zacholl said the studio had no comment regarding the holdup in production for “Akira” or any rumored casting decisions.

The original Japanese anime version of “Akira,” made in 1988, is considered a pinnacle of Japanese animated film. The story revolves around a catastrophic explosion that destroys the city of Tokyo – an explosion which is first implied to be nuclear in origin, a reminder of fears about atomic destruction in Japan since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Fans of the manga and original movie question whether the nuances of a plot so deeply intertwined with Japanese history can survive a setting change to Manhattan.

“BAFTA Rising Stars Snub Women, Simon Pegg Displeased”

Taken from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/11/bafta-rising-stars-snub-women_n_1199466.html?ref=entertainment

January 10, 2012

This past year wasn’t a very good one for Hollywood by box office standards, as ticket sales slid to a 16-year low. One bright spot, however, came in the form of a number of terrific young actresses who broke out into the spotlight.

Three of those stars — Jessica Chastain, Felicity Jones and Jennifer Lawrence — were initially honored on the long list of eight names eligible for the BAFTA’s prestigious Rising Star Award. But when the final ballot was announced, none of those three made the final list that was chosen by the public.

Simon Pegg, who was on the jury that selected the initial candidates, tweeted his distaste for the way the final offering of potential winners looks.

“Sad to see no women on the BAFTA rising star shortlist. The panel that determined the long list had no say in the final five,” he wrote on Wednesday. “There were however women in the BSG final five. Two, to be exact but to reveal their identities would be unfair to lucky few who don’t know,” he continued.

The all-male list includes Chris O’Dowd (“Bridesmaids,” the British sitcom “The IT Squad); Chris Hemsworth (“Thor”); Eddie Redmayne (“My Week With Marilyn”); Tom Hiddleston (“Thor,” “War Horse”); and Adam Deacon (British show “Adulthood”).

For comparison’s sake, let’s look at the ladies who were snubbed.

Chastain starred in a long slew of films this year, earning a Golden Globe nomination for her work in “The Help” and taking home a number of critics awards for her turn in “The Tree of Life.” She also featured in “The Debt,” “Texas Killing Fields,” “Take Shelter,” “Wild Salome” and “Coriolanus.” Next year, she’ll star in “Wettest County” with Tom Hardy and Shia LaBeouf, “Tar” with James Franco and Mila Kunis, and “Mama” with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Megan Charpentier.

Jones was the star of the semi-improvised romance “Like Crazy,” for which she won the Special Jury Award at Sundance; she also featured in “Hysteria” with Maggie Gyllenhaal.

As for Lawrence, she also featured in “Like Crazy,” and earned an Oscar last year for her turn in “Winter’s Bone.” She’ll become an international sensation this March when she stars in “The Hunger Games.”

“Shonda Rhimes on why TV has so few African-American leads”

Taken from: http://omg.yahoo.com/news/shonda-rhimes-why-tv-few-african-american-leads-021720580.html

January 10, 2012

Why does network television have so few African-American lead actors? The team behind ABC’s “Scandal,” the only current network series with an African-American lead, has a few ideas.

Creator Shonda Rhimes, who cast Kerry Washington as a Washington, D.C., crisis PR expert, said the country has been ready for African-American leads for years. She referenced Diahann Carroll’s lead turn on “Julia” more than four decades ago. The problem, she said, is that “people have failed to cast the actors that they should have been casting.” Rhimes and the cast spoke during a panel Tuesday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour.

After decades of African-Americans leading some of television’s biggest shows — including “The Cosby Show” — series have increasingly featured African-American actors only in multi-racial casts that appeal to as many demographics as possible.

Laurence Fishburne was the key character on “CSI” before he departed at the end of last season, but even his show was an ensemble. NBC’s “Undercovers,” with two African-American leads, was quickly canceled last season.

“Scandal” co-star Columbus Short said minorities have been marginalized on television, and that he hopes Washington’s work on “Scandal” will encourage more colorblind casting. ”I think there’s a way people want to perceive people of color,” he said. “This is what they are, this is how they work, this is how we accept them. Which is a completely gross overassumption of people. And I think this show… tells the story of people. It has nothing to do with color.”

“‘Human Barbie’ Gives 7-Year-Old Daughter Liposuction Voucher”

Taken from: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/01/05/human-barbie-gives-7-year-old-daughter-liposuction-voucher/

January 5, 2012

The UK’s self-proclaimed “Human Barbie” gave her 7-year-old daughter an unusual stocking stuffer this Christmas: a £7,000 voucher for liposuction.  The holiday gift was a follow-up to Poppy’s most recent birthday present from her mum: A £6,000 voucher for breast augmentation. ‘She asks for surgery all the time. She wants to look good and lipo is one of those procedures that will always come in handy,” 51-year-old Sarah Burge told the UK’s Daily Mail. “I see these vouchers as investing in her future, like saving money for her education.”

Last year Burge, who says she taught her daughter how to pole dance when the girl was 6, defended giving her daughter a breast augmentation voucher when she told Closer Magazine, “Poppy begged me for a boob job, so I gave her the voucher so she can have it after she’s 16, when it’s legal. If she develops naturally big boobs, she can have something else done with it.”

The mother says that her other daughters, ages 27 and 17, have already had work done. As for Burge, the Daily Mail reported that she rang in her 51^stbirthday with £51,000 of cosmetic surgery. Burge has reportedly spent close to $ 1 million on her own plastic surgery endeavors. She works as an event planner for plastic surgery and swinging parties, and dabbles as a scribe of erotic novels.

“Some people think it’s controversial and I get angry when strangers say I’m a bad mother because I don’t think there’s any harm in giving her this gift,” Burge told the mag. “Poppy is a normal kid who is good at sports and loves playing outside. Girls don’t want Snow White and Cinderella any more.

“They want to be WAGs [a British term to describe wives and girlfriends of high-profile soccer stars], and famous like Cheryl Cole and Lady Gaga,” Burge said. “I’m just supporting her and making her dreams come true. Looks are a big part of how our futures pan out – there shouldn’t be a stigma around wanting to look good.”

As for Poppy, she said of her voucher, “I can’t wait to be like Mummy with big boobs. They’re pretty.”

With the rise of shows like “Toddlers & Tiaras” and other age-bending television dramas, many experts question whether girls’ expectations and their ideas of beauty and sexuality are getting to dangerously unsuitable levels.

In response to the issue of the sexualization of girls in the media, theAmerican Psychological Association created a task force. “We don’t want kids to grow up too fast,” Shari Miles-Cohen, senior director of women’s programs for the American Psychological Association, told ABCNews.com in August. “We want them to be able to develop physically, emotionally, psychologically and socially at appropriate rates for their age.”

As a mother to a 12-year-old girl, Dr. Ari Brown, author of the book “Baby 411,” acknowledged the difficulty in shielding her from the sexualization of girls and the objectification of women in society.

“Childhood is a time to learn about the world, explore, pretend, imagine and create in a safe vacuum of innocence,” she told ABCNews.com in September. “Bypassing those critical life experiences and developmental stages by trying to dress, act and be treated like an adult leaves these children lacking important life skills that help them be confident and successful adults.”

Jean Killbourne’s “Killing Us Softly”

I watched the whole thing last night and it is just so eye-opening, depressing, and inspiring all at the same time. Our society is indeed driven by media and images, and I’m glad that Jean Kilbourne is addressing the lack of media literacy in our society; we definitely need more people like her. 

In this update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series, Jean Kilbourne takes a fresh look at how advertising traffics in distorted and destructive ideals of femininity. Killing Us Softly 4 stands to challenge a new generation of students to take advertising seriously, and to think critically about popular culture and its relationship to sexism, eating disorders, and gender violence.

Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D. is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking work on the image of women in advertising and for her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising. In the late 1960s she began her exploration of the connection between advertising and several public health issues, including violence against women, eating disorders, and addiction, and launched a movement to promote media literacy as a way to prevent these problems. Kilbourne is the creator of the renowned Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women film series and the author of the award-winning book Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel and co-author of So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids.

Taken from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ujySz-_NFQ

“What sayeth the stars? Not enough minorities in Hollywood”

Taken from: http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/08/showbiz/hollywood-walk-of-fame-minorities/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

November 8, 2011

On Tuesday, recording artist Shakira will become the first Colombian to get her name on a monument to the globe’s entertainment industry: the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As the latest celebrity to get a terrazzo star, trimmed with bronze, on the sidewalks of Hollywood, Shakira joins a small but growing rank of minority performers making a dent in an overall industry that some criticize as not inviting enough to African-Americans, Latinos and Asians.

In fact, of the 2,354 stars on Hollywood sidewalks, only 3.4% of them belong to Hispanics such as Shakira, a CNN analysis shows. The figure is 5.1% for African-Americans and a mere 0.4% for Asians, according to an analysis of the stars on the Walk of Fame. Those figures fall short when compared with those minorities’ representation in the nation’s overall population: 16% for Hispanics, 13% for African-Americans, and about 5% for Asians.

To be sure, the Walk of Fame functions as a commercial attraction and publicity device, but given the international attention it receives whenever a prominent artist such as Shakira receives a star, the Walk is also a major indicator of industry trends and success. Hollywood analysts say they aren’t surprised at how the Walk lacks minorities, though its sponsor and operator, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, says it has been working hard to improve diversity in an attraction that stretches for blocks throughout Hollywood. ”The numbers are low,” said Andrew Weaver, an Indiana University assistant professor in the department of telecommunications, an expert in race and media. “The Walk of Fame reflects what we’re seeing in Hollywood in general.” Hollywood’s overall shortcomings in including more minorities — and representing them as more than stereotypes — are a longstanding problem and has been roundly decried by minority advocacy groups and many performers.

Still, the chamber says its committee that selects star honorees balances numerous factors in its annual process, including race, gender, nationality, genre of performance, and industry type. The 2,354 stars on the Walk line both sides of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street — the heart of Hollywood — and the chamber’s annual 24 or so induction ceremonies are broadcast around the world. ”We are equal opportunity star givers!” Leron Gubler, president and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, said in a written response to questions from CNN. The stars honor celebrities in five categories: motion pictures, television, radio, recording and live theater/performance. ”The committee tries to select candidates from each of the five categories, so with all of the different factors as well as the make up of who has been nominated, it is a challenge to balance all factors,” Gubler said. ”Since day one we have encouraged minorities to apply,” Gubler said about the Walk, which opened in 1961. “When the Walk of Fame was created some of the first stars included Anna May Wong, Dolores Del Rio, Cantinflas, Hattie McDaniel and many others. The committee does try to ensure that minorities are represented in the selections, but there is no set mandatory ratio.”

Indeed, a CNN analysis bears out Gubler’s assertions and shows an upward trend of minority representation on the Walk over recent decades. Latinos grew from 1.9% in 1980, 2.2% in 1990, 2.8% in 2000, to 3.2% in 2010. African-Americans showed similar growth: 1.6% in 1980, 2.3% in 1990, 4.7% in 2000, and 5.1% in 2010. Asians posted marginal increases: 0.20% in 1980, 0.22% in 1990, 0.41% in 2000, and 0.43% in 2010.

On one level, the Walk of Fame is a marketing tool. “The Hollywood Walk of Fame is undoubtedly one of the most successful marketing ideas ever produced,” the chamber touts on its website. The marketing aspect — in which a celeb sometimes gets a star timed with the release of a new project — is partly reflected in how the chamber requires a $30,000 “sponsorship fee,” often paid by a studio, recording label or even a group of fans, chamber officials said. The fee is for the lifetime maintenance of the star, its production, a replica plaque, and ceremony costs, officials said. ”Of course, it’s a promotional tool. That’s why studios and networks look for it,” said Hollywood publicist Michael Levine.

Still, the selection process is a serious-minded affair, according to the Walk’s gatekeepers. A star is awarded after a lengthy process in which hundreds of nomination applications are sent to the Hollywood chamber, and then its Walk of Fame committee selects the winners, with the approval of the chamber’s board of directors. The names also are submitted to the city of Los Angeles’ Board of Public Works Department. Sometimes, several annual nominations must be made before a nominee finally receives a star, chamber officials said.

The chamber has other criteria for who gets a star: professional achievement, longevity of five years or more, contributions to the community, and the guarantee that the celebrity will attend the dedication ceremony if selected. An honoree also has to agree to be nominated, which may be a factor in why not all major celebrities have a star. Some notable A-listers without one include Clint Eastwood, George Clooney, Al Pacino, George Lucas, Robert Redford, and Denzel Washington.

By the end of 2011 — with a few more minority celebrities scheduled to be honored later this year — the Walk of Fame will have 77 stars overall given to Latinos, 119 stars to African-Americans or African-American ensembles (three of those performers — Nat “King” Cole, Lena Horne, and Sarah Vaughn — have a second star, but they are counted only once), and only 10 stars to Asians, according to the chamber.

When asked about the dearth of Asian artists on the Walk of Fame, Gubler stated: “There have been relatively few nominations for Asian entertainers. Someone has to be nominated by a sponsor in order to be considered with a star. The issue must be pursued by a nominator. The committee can only consider from the pool of candidates that have been nominated.”

A recent decade-by-decade analysis of the stars on the Walk of Fame shows that the 1990s were a boom decade for African-Americans, when 49 stars were awarded to them. During the 1980s, they secured 24 stars. From 2000 to the end of 2011, the number will be 22. Latinos, however, have prospered from 2000 to the end of 2011: 19 stars were awarded, including six this year alone, according to a CNN analysis. That compares with 18 during the 1990s and 11 during the 1980s. Only one Asian — actor Philip Ahn, who played wise Master Kan in the TV series “Kung Fu” — received a star in the 1980s. Five Asians received stars in the 1990s, but only one (Jackie Chan) was placed on the Walk from 2000 to now, a CNN analysis shows.

It was the recent success of Latinos that caught the attention of several Hollywood analysts. That trend comes as the 2010 U.S. Census put the burgeoning Latino population at the nation’s No. 2 group for the first time ever, surpassing African-Americans. On Tuesday, two-time Grammy and seven-time Latin Grammy winner Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll — known professionally as Shakira — will receive a star for her accomplishments as a singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer and philanthropist, the chamber said.

It’s no secret that studios and record labels alike are hoping to find additional revenues in the rapidly growing Latino market. ”One of the ways to get Latinos into the movie theaters is getting Latino stars,” said Steven Ross, a University of Southern California history professor and author of “Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics.” ”Hollywood is also thinking about global markets — Central American and Latin markets. A majority of Hollywood revenue is coming from international revenue. It’s a much more significant part, more important to the studios’ bottom line now that it ever has been before,” Ross said.

Still, Ross wasn’t surprised by the low minority representation on the Walk of Fame, he said. ”It’s probably appropriate to the history of Hollywood, which has mainly been playing to (a) mainstream audience — which is a white audience,” Ross said. “Just remember, this is not the consciousness-raising industry. This is the money-making industry. They will always follow the money trail. If they see more Latinos going to movies, they’ll feature more Latino stars.”

In the end, that reality may put more minorities in Hollywood — and on its Walk of Fame. ”Very simple,” Ross said. “More minority audiences, more minority stars.”

“The plastic surgery a model needs to look like Barbie”

Taken from: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/the-plastic-surgery-a-model-needs-to-look-like-barbie-2584798/

October 14, 2011

We know that Barbie’s body is anatomically impossible. So why are we still trying for it?

Every day a new plastic surgery promise emerges: scooped-out backs, rear-end lifts, sculpted kneecaps. If it’s possible, it’s suddenly necessary.

But what exactly would you have to go through to get the ‘perfect’ Barbie body? In the latest issue of O Magazine, model Katie Halchishick becomes the human diagram. Posing for photographer Matthew Rolston, her glamorous, Marilyn Monroe-type features are surgically outlined according to Barbie’s proportions.

Here’s a breakdown of what she’d need done to be the kind of doll women aspire to: a brow lift, a jaw line shave, rhinoplasty, a cheek and neck reduction, a chin implant, scooped-out shoulders, a breast lift, liposuction on her arms, and tummy tuck, which would also have to be sculpted as if it were lined in whale-bone from the inside. And that’s just the half of her.

Halchishick doesn’t actually need or want any of these procedures. She’s proving a point: just because our distorted image of how a body should be is medically attainable, that doesn’t mean it should be attained. And if you doubt that anyone actually wants to look like Barbie, meet Cindy Jackson, a 55-year-old woman who’s had 52 cosmetic surgeries to look like her plastic idol.”This is the way I should look,” Jackson told Good Morning America. “It’s evolution. It’s medical progress.”  There’s also 10-in-one-day record-holder Heidi Montag, and a revolving door of on-screen personalities who look more like each other and less like human beings by the day.

Not everyone would call that progress. “The number one wish for all teenage girls is to be thinner,” said Halchishick, a former Ford Model who now mentors high school students about body image issues. “They think what makes a girl beautiful is skinny with big boobs, perfect hair, perfect make-up.”

Last year a total of 13.1 million body parts were surgically altered. Five percent of patients were under the age of 20.

Halchishick, who co-founded the website Healthy is the New Skinny, doesn’t place all the blame on surgery or a pint-sized rubber and plastic doll. She believes change has to start in schools, as well as in the fashion industry. “Girls want to know how to lose weight so badly, and the schools don’t want to talk about it, because they’re worried they’ll develop a complex,” she told The Gloss in March. “There need to be models to show [girls] to wish for more.”  She now heads up her own modeling agency for women with natural figures. She’s also campaigned to get plus-sized designers into New York Fashion Week. But her spread in O magazine, the first nude pictorial they’ve ever featured, has been the most buzz-worthy.

Accompanied by an essay by writer Amy Bloom, the photograph is intended to make women rethink their body image ideals. But it hasn’t had that effect on everyone. When one 15-year-old girl saw this photo of Halchishick, her first thought was of her own imperfection, according to a blogger for Healthy is the New Skinny.  “I thought if a girl as pretty as that has to change so much to be perfect, it made me wonder how much more I’d have to change.”