Tag Archives: Beyoncé

Changing The Game: The World’s Most Influential Feminists

The people on this list are each encouraging feminist conversation and challenging people to do more to make the world more equal for all of us.


1. Carrie Brownstein

Carrie Brownstein

Actor, writer and musician Carrie Brownstein is an outspoken feminist. As part of American rock band Sleater-Kinney, she has made songs such as #1 Must Have and helped further the riot grrrl (feminist/hardcore punk) movement.


2. bell hooks

bell hooks’ writing on feminism, in which she encourages people to consider gender in relation to race, class and sex, is often cited as one of the reasons why we have the phrase intersectionality. hook’s book Ain’t I a Woman?: Black women and feminism also looks at racism and sexism in relation to black women and it also examines stereotypes of white women and how those have had an impact on black women too.


3. Beyoncé

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Beyoncé was once quoted as saying that she wasn’t a feminist because she loves her husband. However, the international superstar has since learnt a great understanding of feminism even including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s quote on feminism on ***Flawless, also educating her millions of fans learn in the process.


4. Amandla Stenberg

Amandla Stenberg

Since rocketing to fame as Rue in The Hunger Games, Amandla Stenberg has begun to use social media platforms such as Tumblr and Twitter to educate people about feminism and how it can be more intersectional.

After being named one of the Ms. Foundation for Women’s feminists of the year, Stenberg said “let’s continue demanding space for women who are not thin, white, straight, able-bodied, neurotypical and cisgender.”


5. Janet Mock

Janet Mock

Although Janet Mock was once proud not to call herself a feminist, the writer, host and activist now wears the label proudly. In a 2014 essay, she wrote “our duty is to use feminism as a tool to check systems that uphold racism and slut shaming and sex worker erasure and anti-trans woman bias and general policing of other people’s choices.”


Andi Zeisler

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As the co-founder and creative/editorial director of independent feminist media organisation Bitch Media, Zeisler’s work offers feminist interpretations of pop culture. Bitch Media – and Zeisler’s writing – is a massively useful feminist tool as people look for different angles of the media that they consume.


Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou, who passed away in 2014, was a hugely influential feminist. Angelou’s work discussed racism, identity and social injustices with her autobiographical work I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings being considered a large reason why black feminist writings increased in the 1970s.


Hillary Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton Signs Copies Of Her Book 'Hard Choices' In New York

What could be more inspiring (and badass) then possibly becoming the first female president of the United States? Hillary has always used her platform to speak out for women’s rights – as she did most notably during her 1995 “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” speech in Beijing.


Gloria Steinem

Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist, who became nationally recognized as a leader and a spokeswoman for the feminist movement. She has inspired generations of feminists since her 1969 article After Black Power, Women’s Liberation.


Lena Dunham

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Lena Dunham’s tv show Girls broke the mould by depicting real girls with real bodies and real issues. Since then she’s never stopped encouraging women to love themselves since.

She also makes sure to give feminism-doubters a reality check: “Feminism doesn’t mean women are going to rise, take over the planet, and like cut off men’s testicles.”


Emma Watson

Emma-Watson

Emma Watson has bravely rallied for women’s rights even after being threatened because of her #HeForShe speech at the UN.

But the attacks only motivated the actress and Women’s Goodwill Ambassador to keep working against all the harmful ways that women are viewed and treated.


Pussy Riot

Russian collective Pussy Riot represents one of the strongest combinations of activism and music out there. Its members stage guerilla protests and performances, speak out against injustices for women in their music (especially against abortion laws), and demonstrate fierce bravery even in the face of jail time and government threats.


Ellen Page

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In a time when many female celebrities put a purposeful distance between themselves and the feminist label, actress Ellen Page embraces feminism as a personal mission. Whether at street protests or on Twitter, she rallies for equality, reproductive rights, gay rights and improvement in the representation of women in film.


Meredith Graves

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Meredith Graves is the lead singer of Perfect Pussy, solo artist, writer, record label owner. She is a role model who teaches through her actions that passion and drive can help change an entire scene like punk rock.

And she’s never backed down from speaking out against sexism – either in interviews or onstage, confronting misogynist hecklers.


Miranda July

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Throughout her career, Miranda July has weaved thoughtful feminism through her seemingly endless list of projects. She’s become an icon for this generation’s young women, especially those interested in artistic pursuits, most recently tackling issues of aggression and violence in her debut novel The First Bad Man.


Betty Friedan

Betty Friedan has helped lead the way for women to understand their rights and fight for them. Friedan helped spur on the second wave of feminism with her book The Feminist Mystique and she co-founded and presided over the National Organization of Women.


Cindy Sherman

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Cindy Sherman became one of the few women to dominate the contemporary art scene from the late 70s on. And she says she’s “still really competitive when it comes to […] male painters and male artists.”


Wendy Davis

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Wendy Davis made waves when she led the now-famous 11-hour filibuster against Senate Bill 5, which would require stricter abortion regulations in Texas. While the bill eventually passed, we haven’t forgotten the lawyer and politician’s fierce support, and we hope her views on reproductive rights, LGBT rights and gun control continue to be heard.


Grimes

grimes333It’s probably a scary thing to speak out and potentially alienate people right after your album has become huge, but that’s exactly what Grimes did with her anti-sexism manifesto in 2013. The Tumblr post calls out misogynist fans, condescending male musicians, and the media.

Ellen DeGeneres & Wanda Sykes Take On Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ – The Results Are Legendary

Ellen DeGeneres and Wanda Sykes were at their best this past week, as the duo spoofed Beyonce’s hit video album Lemonade.

In the video, DeGeneres spots Beyonce walking down the street while sitting in her car and quickly whips out her phone to call her friend “Becky with the good hair” while watching the singer grab hold of a baseball bat.

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“You will not believe this but Queen Bey has gone cra-cra!” she tells her friend “Becky” on the phone.

“I think she hates cars!” she quips while watching Beyonce smashing her way past cars and a water hydrant with the bat.

DeGeneres ends the call quickly saying: “Becky, I have to go. I’m gonna call you back. But I do love what you’re doing with your hair. It looks good,” touching on the singer’s reference in her song to a woman who her husband Jay Z may (or may not) have been involved with.

The funniest part of the video is probably Beyonce is shown as walking towards DeGeneres and later standing on the roof of her car, smashing the windscreen with her bat.

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Trying to deflect the violent attack, the show host yells: “Look! Look! That’s Becky with the good hair,” and gestures to wig and baseball bat sporting-funny lady Wanda Sykes, who responds with:

“What? Girl, I’m Wanda with the good weave!” before swinging her bat at the screen and ending the video.

Daily Juice: Shay Mitchell Is Open To Dating Women, Beyoncé Slams Anti-LGBT Laws In North Carolina

Pretty Little Liars’ Shay Mitchell is Cosmopolitan‘s cover girl this month and in the mag she talks about the possibility of dating women in the future.

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When I started, people were like, ‘What are you?’ I’m like, right now I’m dating a guy. I don’t know what it’s going to be in three years,” Shay told the mag. “You love who you love. Black, white, polka-dot, that’s what my dad always said. I’m never going to label myself. I could be 50 and dating a woman and then what? I said I was straight and now I’m not?’”

Beyoncé slams Anti-LGBT laws in North Carolina, ahead of ‘Formation’ tour date

She said:

As the ‘Formation’ tour makes its stop in the Tar Heel state in the midst of such a controversial time, we think it is important for us to bring attention to those who are committed to being good and carrying on the message of equality in this core of controversy.

Among the many organizations doing the good work to get this bill overturned, there is Equality NC, a local organization dedicated to securing equal rights and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) North Carolinians.”

Tegan and Sara take a ride in the music video for U-Turn.

Ellen DeGeneres is bringing Tyler Oakley into her expanding digital universe. The deal with Oakley comes with the launch of the Ellen Digital Network, a new umbrella brand encompassing all of her online content that will combine original programming and user-generated content. DeGeneres and Oakley are set to collaborate on a range of original digital projects with an aim toward developing projects for TV as well.

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Princess Nokia new music video – directed by Milah Libin – which is titled “Tomboy”. It is seen as her most personal look into her life as a New York City youth thus far.

 

 

The directors of Captain America: Civil War, Joe and Anthony Russo, have said there’s a “strong” chance that we’ll see an LGBT character in a Marvel movie.

I think the chances are strong. I mean, it’s incumbent upon us as storytellers who are making mass-appeal movies to make mass-appeal movies, and to diversify as much as possible. It’s sad in the way that Hollywood lags behind other industries so significantly, one because you think that it would be a progressive industry, and two it’s such a visible industry. So I think it’s important that on all fronts we keep pushing for diversification because then the storytelling becomes more interesting, more rich, and more truthful.”

And the Guardian talks with Somalian lesbian rapper Berlin, who had to leave Uganda after she was attacked.

Daily Juice: Azealia Banks Beef With Beyonce ‘Lemonade’, And Tegan & Sara Release New Video

Bisexual singer Azealia Banks has beef with Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ – tweeting it’s bad for feminism and black women.

https://twitter.com/AZEALIABANKS/status/724771276636704768

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Tegan and Sara have released their new video for “Boyfriend,” directed by Clea DuVall.

The Abs Fab trailer has finally dropped, seeing the duo kill off Kate Moss

Ellen DeGeneres celebrates first transgender man to compete on an NCAA Division 1 Men’s Team

Leandra Joubert has become the first openly gay woman to make the top 100 selection in the annual Mrs South Africa pageant.

Isle of Man finally passes same-sex marriage – meaning Northern Ireland is the last place in the United Kingdom without marriage equality.

Daily Juice: Maisie Williams Doesn’t Want To Label Her Sexuality, And Ruby Rose Gets Crabs

Maisie Williams – aka Game Of Thrones ‘ Arya Stark – is making headlines recently for her thought on feminism – more precisely that “you are either a normal person or a sexist”.

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And in a new interview with Nylon, Williams opened up about her sexuality, saying she doesn’t feel the need to label herself – “I’ve never sat up and thought about my sexuality for hours.”

‘I fall in love with personalities and not people or genders,’ I have no problem with anyone who would want to be labeled, but I also think that it is no one’s business… Do what you want.”

Jodie Foster says she cried the first time she put on her costume for ‘Taxi Driver’.

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Ruby rose gets her trailer filled with crabs curtsey of Nina Dobrev – Following a surprise supersoaker battle the day before, Nina decided to put a tub of live crabs inside Ruby’s trailer for her to discover.

She captured the prank in an Instagram video, writing, “Don’t be so crabby, Ruby.”

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Three character posters of the new Ghostbusters film have been released. For some reason Melissa McCarthy’s character wasn’t included, but here’s Kate McKinnon’s.

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Beyonce’s LEMONADE was released on HBO this weekend, and in it she included some LGBT couples, and young actress Amandla Stenberg.

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Obama has praised his daughters for helping him understand the difference between civil unions and marriage.

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While the First Lady has spoke out against Mississippi’s religious freedom law, while speaking at Jackson State University.

Donald Trump Says Transgender people should be able to use the bathroom they want.

A lesbian couple – Beverly Newell, 45, and Kelly Trent, 39 – has filed a lawsuit against the state of North Carolina over the recently introduced HB2.

And finally, Gayle Newland – the lesbian who ‘tricked’ female friend into sex by pretending to be a man and using a dildo – is appealing against her 8-year jail sentence.

‘SNL’ School White Americans With ‘The Day Beyoncé Turned Black’ Parody (Video)

This weekend Saturday Night Live kicked off with one of its funniest skits: a parody of white America’s reaction to Beyoncé’s new song Formation, a black power anthem featuring a Black Lives Matter-themed video and a Super Bowl performance with Black Panther Party-styled costumes.

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The sketch essentially makes fun of the shock and awe surrounding Bey’s video, sarcastically poking fun at the fact that people seemed surprised to see the singer own her blackness.

It’s a wonderful, perfect SNL response to the media frenzy.

Check it out below

Viewers Accuse Beyoncé And Coldplay Of Promoting ‘Gay Agenda’ At The Super Bowl

Antigay viewers of Sunday’s Super Bowl 50 Halftime show have been quick to lash out on social media about Coldplay, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars performance.

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The halftime show ended in a wonderfully colourful performance promoting one message: ‘Believe In Love’.

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However, it was all the bright lights and rainbow colours (which equals gay) that did it for them.

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The colourful display used by Coldplay was in fact based on their latest album’s – A Head Full of dreams – artwork.

Watch below

https://vimeo.com/154604497

So How Many Celebrities Can You Cram into a Three-Minute Madonna Video? (Must-See-Video)

The video for Rebel Heart’s resident banger “Bitch I’m Madonna” has arrived – via Tidal, of course – and it’s chock-full of big names.

Aside from Nicki Minaj, who features on the track, Alex Wang, Chris Rock, and Miley Cyrus have mini-cameos. There are also short clips of Beyoncé, Katy Perry, and Kanye West.

If all these celebs were all actually present at the Standard Hotel when the video was shot, this might’ve been the party of the, uh, year. But, alas, they weren’t…

Watch the full video below…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9cCUZFhcgc

 

2015 Grammy Awards Noms Include Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj

Each year, the Grammy Awards (or the Gramophone Awards to give them their less headline friendly title) are doled out to those who deliver the best content to our earholes. From live performances, full albums, remixes and even audiobooks, those who do the best with audio receive the industry’s highest accolade.

With so many famous faces (and plenty of over-sized egos) getting together under one roof, the Grammys is a hotbed of controversy. The biggest moments from the show’s history include a 2001 live performance of Elton John and Eminem (the rapper was only beginning to spout his infamous homophobia), Bruce Springsteen’s call for troops to come home in 2006 (when the Iraq War was still taking place) and the Grammys of 2009 where Barack Obama not only won a Grammy but received a tribute too.

Also just as controversial are the nominations. Before the Grammys even take place people start to squabble over each other about who deserves to win and who doesn’t deserve it but will probably win anyway. So ahead of the 2015 Grammy Awards which are set to take place in February, we’ve got a fresh batch of noms to both cheer and shake our heads at.

The first set of nominations that we can all collectively agree upon are Beyoncé’s. Immensely talented and an outspoken feminist, Beyoncé is rounding off a great year with nominations in six categories including: Album of the Year, Best R&B Song, Best R&B Performance, Best Urban Contemporary Album, Best Music Film and Best Surround Sound Album. As impressive as those noms are, they also make her the most nominated female artist of all time with 48 noms during her career, one ahead of Dolly Parton’s 47.

Also doing it for the girls are Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift. Nicki has yet to win a Grammy (which is surprising to everybody, really) but she has two more chances now, picking up nominations for Best Rap Song and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for Anaconda and Bang Bang, respectively. Meanwhile, Taylor’s latest album 1989 wasn’t eligible for album categories (it was released too late and will be eligible next year instead) but her feel-good single Shake It Off was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.

As for our queer favourites, there was plenty to celebrate there too. Sam Smith is tied for most nominations with Beyoncé and Pharrell, having picked up his first noms for Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Pop Solo Performance. Sia’s track Chandelier got Record and Song of the Year, Pop Solo Performance and Best Music Video noms, Brandy Clark (who co-wrote queer friendly country hit Follow Your Arrow with Kacey Musgraves) got nominations for Best Country Album and Best New Artist while Tegan and Sara also have a nomination in Best Song Written for Visual Media for their work on The LEGO Movie’s soundtrack.

Also possibly relevant to your interests are: all girl group HAIM are nominated for Best New Artist, John Legend’s tearjerker All of Me is up for Best Solo Pop Performance and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren (who supports same-sex marriage, ENDA and the repeal of DOMA) received a nom for her spoken word book.

It’s a bit soon to say who will win (or who’ll be snubbed) but you can tune into the Grammys on February 8, 2015 for the results.

KitschMix’s Tracks of The Week – Beyoncé, Raye, Girlpool and Meghan Trainor

Beyoncé – 7/11

This fun and playful video features Beyoncé dancing in her underwear, making a human pyramid and straight up playing around with friends in what looks like a hotel. It’s an impromptu party and we’re glad we got the invite.

 

Raye – Need Me

17 year old London teenager, RAYE, is the UK’s latest offering to the music industry and we love her. Releasing her first EP entitled ‘Welcome to the Winter’, this year – she credits Ella Fitzgerald, Lauryn Hill and Drake as some of her biggest inspirations. Having being compared to Lorde, RAYE ensures she injects enough depth into every one of her tracks.

Girlpool – Blah Blah Blah

Girlpool have just released a new track and video, which they shot with Sini Anderson, director of The Punk Singer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWqzp3JGrRY

Meghan Trainor – Lips Are Movin

‘Lips Are Movin’ is the follow up to Meghan Trainor mega hit ‘All About That Bass’. This video has had over 9 million hits in less than 10 days – POW!