"collaborated with Japanese musicians and artists and created a cool hybrid thing where everyone had input and equal billing"

Valid points, but I think you are ignoring a key fact:

The thing with the Harajuku Girls is that it played on a fashion trend there—it is absolutely not the same as wearing a sacred headdress as a costume. It was a fad (one that was temporarily replaced by Japanese women parading around in blackface, I might add). Did Stefani really position herself as a creator of that…

Can someone help me understand the cultural appropriation argument a bit better? I get what Madeleine outlines above, and I understand why people object to, say, non-native people wearing war bonnets. But I hear cries of "cultural appropriation!" a lot, and some of it seems to me a genuine appreciation for a culture…

This does not make up for the period blood/vomit thing, Mark.

Eh, it might be a minor point but I don't think that's necessarily the case here. Jian Ghomeshi wasn't Bill Cosby. He wasn't "beloved". I don't even think the population at large had trouble believing this about him. Within the fairly insular Toronto CanCon scene that might play out but the problem I think with how…

It's the avant garde arts that confuse you.

In this area of the arts, you become more and more grounded in your decisions (and yourself) because you are always pushing your personal limits. And the more you do that, the more you deviate from the "mainstream" — and thus, to most people, you seem insane.

I also am seen…

Black woman here. It would seem rather forced, IMO, to shoehorn a "minority friend" into their clique.

Remember when Stewart very publicly cheated on Robert Pattinson and got put through the ringer by Jezebel and other media outlets ?

So my cousin's two kids are visiting their rat bastard of a dad. "Dad" never spent any time with these kids choosing to dump them off at his mom and dad's house and then heading out to spend time with his underage girlfriend, his smelly coonhounds and his beloved truck. While at the grandparent's house one weekend the…

All I'm taking from these pictures is that nobody should ever wear that dress.

Oh, EF! Well, thanks for reading!

Please. She has a right to be this way. She was probably all, "So, wait, I actually had to be talented to succeed, but these idiots get away with it?"

petra's friend from vancouver : -)

Am I dealing with someone making a funny or someone who doesn't know the french words that are used in English now and again?

AS a former prisoner myself, I usually never read "fishtank's" (Umm, that's tales of prison..ever hear of that book "Fish"...bleh!) But, I was intrigued and glad I stopped my work day to read this. Thank you for your inside look into the system. I am glad you are free and it seems like you have the right frame of…

At this point, I am with your dad. But then again, I am in Oregon, with a Democratic Governor and Dem control of the Senate and House. It will be harder for a lot of folks :-(

Basically, this. I said it last time and I'll say it again now - mental illness is not something that should be laughed at, mocked, or gawked at. It's a serious, life-threatening disease. She is going through something terrible, and the whole country is basically pointing and saying "what a wierdo" or laughing. I…

You're absolutely right and I brought it up yesterday during Tweet Beat. She's ILL, we shouldn't be talking about her in a gossip setting. Also, no, it isn't better that she's not in an involuntary hold. A judge releasing her is a legal tactic and isn't a choice made by her doctors and it's just indicative of how…

Great piece. Based on what people write in these comments, I guess we're supposed to assume that prison is worthless and the idea of rehabilitation a pipe dream? People fuck up. People learn. People grow. Give him a chance to get his bearings. Michael may yet do something good.