And this is why I cry...

As a African woman trying to make it in this world , I can add a 100 more problems to Jay-Z's 99 problem, and I'm not about to begin writing the list here. So one thing that really gets me angry and emotional is the treatment of kids anywhere and everywhere. I grew up wanting to adopt a child for various but as I'm getting older I realised that I would like one of my own , as selfish as this sounds especially in this day and age. Yesterday I saw a post on Gawker entitled "New World's Worst Mother..." which is basically about an American woman who adopted a Russian boy only to return him six months later to Russia because apparently he has some sort of "psychological problems". I know nothing about the mother, I barely know anything about international adoptions or Russian orphanages but all I know that watching the video on this adoption debacle really hurt me or made me feel something and its got me thinking on parenting, children, adoption and a whole lot more...

Afro-nordic , such a term should exist...

I've been thinking of my new found interest of Nordic culture , well a superficial attraction to all things Nordic or at least the men ... Something thats been banging in my head is "...I need a Nordic viking to find my nomadic huntress self" does that even make sense?! However I think there's somewhat of a connection between Nordic viking and African nomads/hunters and I know that the image of a viking is sometimes conjured and associated with neo-nazi culture and yes I can see why but something about the history and culture speaks to the latent African normadic huntress me. I think i need to finish this with Bjork track that sums me and this above train of thought...

What I learned from M.T.O

In the words of the great Huey Freeman from The Boondocks , "...... are crazy" Why write this post 'What I learned from M.T.O' aka MediaTakeOut ? Well I got to congratulate the creator and "editor" of the website Fred (too lazy to type his surname) for being featured in the New York Times's The Rising Stars of Gossip Blogs

Yeah a newspaper that was once held in high esteem like the New York Times included Fred in their article and they also included Maureen from Gawker(which is perfectly acceptable as gawker is the ish! and this is not a black inferiority versus white superiority as I do not endorse or acknowledge such a view!) But the guy who created M.T.O are they serious?!
I have to say I respect Fred for being a black man from immigrant parent from Africa for achieving the "American Dream" but M.T.O is a joke and the only reason I go on it (yep I do "read" it daily) is merely for laughs and no besides the atrocious spelling and grammatical error(and this is coming from me, a person who's blog is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors!), the commentators and the comments made on the site provide me with the best entertainment.Like everyone (or one of the few people who admits so) I get bored at work and the best way to kill time for me is going on to M.T.O. and reading most of the comments by the time I'm done , I'm rolling on the floor and laughing while my colleagues give me serious side eyes. Never(okay not never...) have I en counted such ignorance, disillusionment and stupidity being spewed on the Internet - seriously! And like some people I do perhaps feel that some of the posts on the site are merely posted to incite ignorance , hatred etc etc

So as the title of the post is 'What I learned from M.T.O. here's a shorts list of things I seriously did learn from the site

1. There are many ways to write the n word such as knee-gah. Yep I saw that on M.T.O. never seen it before in my life...

2. M.T.O. commentators take e-beefs to new heights. Seriously the site is the arena of all beefs such as west Indians v.s. black Americans, puerto ricans v.s. Dominicans, Africans v.s. black Americans, light skin v.s. dark skin, straights versus gay and off -course the old age beef of black versus white

3."Hoodrats" I won't say anymore on this subject...

So how did the commentators respond to the write up about Fred in the New York Times. follow the link I'm going to finish this post with my own take on Maya Angelou's "Still I rise" with "Still I laugh..." in regards to MediaTakeOut">

RoboHo,Cyberfeminism...Basically women dorning robowear in pop culture

Okay so something that I've noticed is robotic imagery being used by certain female singers and in the case of one entertainer(because she is not great singer but the girl can definitely put on a show or at least I enjoy the DVD of her concert). Let me break it down - the evolution of robot imagery as used by female singers . First, Bjork - does anyone remember her video's for Hunter and then All is full of love. Then before you know it Al Sharpton is going on TV talking about Beyonce's "RoboHo" outfit as seen in the last bit of Sweet Dreams/Beautiful Nightmare video. Here we are in 2010 and two new female artist are yet again being inspired by robot imagery and using that image . There's Christina Aguilera as "Bionic Woman"





image via www.dlisted.com

And now Erykah Badu with her "New Amerykah Part 2" album cover , is this supposed to be roboshewarrior in the post Apocalypse era? (I bought "New Ameryah Part 1" , overall it wasn't her best album but I'm excited for New Amerykah after hearing two tracks)




image via www.rap-up.com

Why are these women in the mainstream using the bionic women/robot image? As for now I've been really thinking about it especially since I've been wanting to re-read Donna Haraway's "Cyber-feminism:A manifesto" but I think this is an interesting route being taken by certain female artist in popular culture...

nail art, what's the deal?

As mentioned before I'm currently living in Japan and Japanese women are well known for their love of fashion , labels , accessories, cuteness and beauty/cosmetics. Something I've noticed here in Japan is women here are really into nail art. Okay, so I come from South Africa where nail art basically just involves getting a basic french manicure ; which is considered "classy" (even my own mother utters such a sentiment) but as for me I've always associated nail art with women who don't work and there's nothing I detest more then I woman who doesn't work - it doesn't matter what kind of work you doing , as long as you working, you cool with me (this includes housewives-well kind off...)I remember a while ago back in South Africa seeing a women who was struggling to type because of her false french manicured hands , so that's basically the impression I had of nail art and women who are into nail art. However I started thinking back of Lauryn Hill and she had a line in that track "everything is everything" about getting nails done by Koreans. Judging from my last trip to Korea , Korean women are also into nail art and they good at doing it to but then again according to the Korean lady who was putting my weave in (yeah I had one , I said it) "Korean women are good with their hands, we can sew , do all types of hair and do nails" (from that statement alone I could get into a whole rant about the 'division of labour') And then when I was in New York , I couldn't help but notice all the African American and Hispanic women with very well decorated nails. So is the nail art trend something that only women of colour are into? I've yet to encounter a white woman with her nails done/nails did, every Caucasian women I know has basic colour or clear nail polish.I just find it funny that Asian women are into nail art since it something that I (and surely I'm not alone in this thinking) clearly associate with black and Hispanic women because from what I know and see here in Asia whiteness is the height of beauty and whatever is associated with white beauty and femininity is something that women here gladly follow and nail art is something I just don't see white girls into... I got to find a book or something to explain this to me because I just don't understand it...To see what I'm talking about this link clearly shows you how popular nail art is here in Japan

Am I a woman?Yes. Am I a feminist? Um , I don't know...

I said I would be back trying to get my blogging on. I'm not giving up. So I've been thinking what am I about and what this blog should be about? Many people would say I'm a feminist and I will admit I'm one of those women very weary of using that label on myself (but then again aren't most women of colour? and why is that , please don't blame it on white liberal feminists or maybe I gotta accept they are to blame...)Anyways so I've often been called a feminist or as one guy/or was it a girl? said "you one of them activist sista's huh?" My response would be "um , I don't think so #and do a kanye shrug#" I don't think of myself as any kind of activist because as much as I've got concerns and opinions , I don't go mouthing them at every opportunity (even more so know since I think I've co-opted Japanese ethics on cooperation and creating a "smooth atmosphere") plus you won't see me marching and rallying just because I've got a fear of being arrested every since watching my father getting in the back of a police van at a tender age ...So , why do people have this impression that I'm some sort of activist feminist maybe its because one of my major's at university was Gender Studies. Yep, I did Gender Studies at U.C.T under the guidance of some white liberal lecturer called Jane (who insisted of using this fictional girl called Thandi every time she used an example of gender when it came to black women in South Africa, but then again I got this theory that all white liberals in South Africa love the name Thandi , seriously - I think I know like two black girls adopted by white families and both are named Thandi and I'm sure there is more...) Oh and how can I forget the fiery coloured women named Ellen , I really liked her she seemed she was once one of those women who was once an activist but somehow got burned out because she always seemed tired during lectures and then there was Amina Mama the head of the department whose daughter I went to school with. Gender Studies was good for me seriously , it was probably the only department where A)I passed all the courses and B) I got to really explore certain interests of mine using academic lingo and the readings were awesome. So where am I going with all this reminiscing , well I figured that although I'm not an outright feminist (maybe a womanist you know the saying "womanism to feminism is purple to lilac" and I forgot who said that, damn me and my foggy memory) I'm going to dedicated a part of this blog airing my thoughts on "womenism" , or basically being a black women who is rightfully concerned about being a black women and the experiences or thoughts of other women whom I find interesting or somewhat inspirational. I'm going to primarily feature sisters of the same hues(catch my drift..."black , brown and yellow we are the majority"according to a t-shirt a friend of mine owned) but I now I got to put the spotlight on "sisters doing it for themselves"

F the first attempt I'm doing this !

Last week, I thought that I'm going to give up on blogging since I wasn't pleased with what I first came up with in terms of my first posts. I know that I need to do this, perhaps for my own sanity - joking . I just know I want to create and maintain a blog for the time being. So a little time has passed and during this time . I've been perusing the Internet as per usual. One of my first stops being twitter, although I have an account I'll be honest and admit , I don't like twitter and find it too constraining however I do follow certain people on twitter. I'm always entertained by the mc C RAYZ WALZ tweets , I think he's kinda crazy but I find his tweets funny nonetheless , a while back he tweeted about this female MC called Dessa. I don't want to get into some long sch peel about female MC's/ femcees because I find it tiring...Anyways he tweeted about Dessa being like Jean Grae when she was rapping under the moniker MC WHAT WHAT. I got to say I'm a big Jean Grae fan , I think she is JEANIUS so I had to check out this Dessa chick. She is certainly different , but Jean Grae she is not - and I don't think she is trying to be either because there is only one Jean. I have to give props to Dessa though for her one track called "Dixon's Girl",I've been listening to it quite a lot plus I dig the video


I definitely relate to the lines "back to the wall/back to the ball/back to the drawing board again..." That's what I need to be doing right now with my life and with this blog