Category Archives: Magazines

Was Kristen Stewart’s Public Apology Really Necessary?

By Posted in In the News, Magazines Tagged , , , , , , 7 Comments

 

In what was revealed to be a Mini Cooper romp between Kristen Stewart and her Snow White & the Huntsman director with over fifty photos as proof of the affair (according to Famous, at least. Have you seen the photos? They look completely staged for someone as notoriously private and publicity-shunning as Stewart. Rupert Sanders even seems to be looking at the camera in several shots.), I’m puzzled as to why Stewart felt the need to issue a public apology about something so intimately private.

I’ve never been cheated on nor been a cheater, but I imagine it’s an intense situation to find yourself in. Should your dirty deeds come out, there’d be a lot of apology-making and trust-proving to be had between all parties, assuming it was a “momentary indiscretion”, as Stewart claims her dalliance with Sanders was. But those parties do not include the masses, no matter how public your persona may be. You should be groveling to your partner if you want to make amends and perhaps even seeking out the other party’s other party, but really, Kristen has no obligation to do so: Sanders was just as attached as Stewart, if not more so, with a wife and two children. He’s responsible for the trust he breaks within his own family, not his mistress. That Stewart had to apologise for the “hurt and embarrassment I’ve cause to… everyone this has affected” is accepting a blame that is not hers and, quite frankly, out of character for her.

The Kristen Stewart we know and mostly hate is one who doesn’t give a fuck and blatantly says so in interviews and whose attitude at events and towards the paparazzi demonstrates this. For her to have been in a relationship with Robert Pattinson for the past three and a half years means she obviously cares about him, but no matter how sorry she is, publicly apologising for a private transgression is not something I can see her doing willingly: chances are her Twilight bosses demanded she do so at the risk of tainting the final instalment of the movies that made her and, arguably, her relationship.

The Kristen Stewart I know (y’know, cos reading gossip magazines and snippets of some interviews she’s done makes me the authority on her personal life) and kinda like would have flipped the bird at press releases stating her “hurt” and “embarrassment” at what transpired, and I think the few fans she still has would love her more for it. Let’s face it, she didn’t really have that many to begin with for whom a public admission of guilt is going to make much difference.

Elsewhere: [Jezebel] Kristen Stewart’s Apology is Totally Unnecessary.

Image via Famous.

Magazines: Lara Bingle in Who—A Prized Tall Poppy Who Polarises.

By Posted in Magazines, Who Tagged , , , , , , 2 Comments

 

Following on from Being Lara Bingle’s debut on Tuesday night, Bingle is profiled in this week’s Who. While the actual show wasn’t exactly what I’d hoped it would be, the article does address some issues about Bingle’s public persona and just how hateful some people find her.

For example, one of the early creators of the reality show, John McAvoy of Eyeworks, said he “was intrigued at the obsession with her… She polarises like almost nobody else.”

But why so?

Bingle herself thinks it’s because of “this tall-poppy syndrome in Australia, it’s never ending.” True that. Just look at Australia’s sweetheart Delta Goodrem, who has apparently gotten too big for her boots coaching other young singers on The Voice.

Perhaps the most insightful comments about how people see Bingle—as someone who’s capitalising on her looks as her primary skill, and should be hated for it, I think—come from her bestie, Hermione. She says her new boyfriend, fashion designer Gareth Moody, “is able to love both sides [of Lara, the public Lara and the very private Lara], and not many men in her life have ever been able to do that. Lara usually attracts men who have massive egos—she represents a prize, she is someone who feeds their egos.”

Brendan Fevola comes to mind…

Related: Shaming Lara Bingle.

Elsewhere: [MamaMia] Delta Goodrem: What’s With All the Hate?

Image via Who.

TV: Shaming Lara Bingle.

By Posted in Beauty, Body Image, Feminism, Magazines, TV Tagged , , , , , , 8 Comments

 

Lara Bingle: she can’t catch a break, can she?

She was called a whore for her affair with Brendan Fevola, fat when she put on weight after her breakup with Michael Clarke, and an attention-seeking diva when it was revealed channel Ten would air her reality show, Being Lara Bingle, which premiered last night.

I actually like Lara Bingle and thought her show would be an opportunity for her to commentate on how she’s been treated by the media for being an attractive young woman who happens to trade on her looks as her job. TheVine wrote this in anticipation for what the show could be:

“After another vicious attack on her intelligence and relevance by the tabloids, Lara Bingle delivers a thirty minute long piece-to-camera about how she is the ultimate personification of the misogyny that is still inherent in Australian culture, particularly surrounding our sporting ‘heroes’. In this monologue, she will argue that she has been torn down for exactly the qualities that first made her famous—her youth, beauty and privilege. Drawing on the groundbreaking work by Anne Summers, Damned Whores and God’s Police, Bingle will suggest that our simultaneous adoration and condemnation of these qualities speak more to our view of women in this country as objects of either moral upright (or uptight)ness or sexual depravity, but never as fully rounded beings for themselves. She will tie this in to her own journey as a cultural artefact from covetable innocent on a virgin beach to disgraced, discarded mistress. Finally, she will conclude that as a beautiful young woman, she is a shiny scapegoat that is in many ways the opposite of those who are really disenfranchising and frustrating everyday, working Australian families. These puppet masters, who would throw her to the dogs to distract from their own shortcomings are typically ugly, old men.”

Like the one who was allegedly behind the naked pictures of her in her new apartment that were sold to the media a few weeks (months?) ago. Paparazzo Darryn Lyons, formerly Bingle’s friend, was said to be shopping images of Lara around, lending doubt to the credibility of Bingle’s violation.

This isn’t the first time nude pictures of the model have emerged. Remember the one in the shower taken by her ex Fevola, or the publication of unused photos from a German GQ shoot when she was an unknown model in Zoo Weekly once she’d hit the big time? Yes, Lara’s posed nude before in high fashion editorials, but that’s different; she consented to those. It’s plain to see that she did not consent to the tacky shower shot of her captured on Fev’s phone. No matter, the general public will still shame her for being a young, beautiful woman who loves the skin she’s in.

And even when she puts on a bit of weight, which she did last year and is sporting a more voluptuous figure these days, Bingle’s not free from public torment. In a Who cover story late last year, Bingle had this to say about her others’ battles with her body:

“Tread carefully, because it doesn’t just affect me, it affects all women who read it… They have to ask themselves, would they do that to their wives, girlfriends or sisters? It’s just a negative message that doesn’t help anyone… If I’m fat, how does that make a girl who is a size 12–14 feel, and that’s the size of an average Australian woman? It’s ridiculous.”

Also cashing in on the Bingle-hoopla is this week’s Famous, which has published months-old shots of Bingle on the beach showing a bit of cellulite and asking, is she “Fat or Fab?”

Lara attempted to address all this on last night’s episode, which conveniently dealt with the fallout of the Lyons balcony pics. Her bestie/roomie/manager-ie, Hermoine, tells Lara she needs to be more careful and show a “sense of responsibility” about her own body:

“You don’t just walk around naked.”

Um, in your own home you do. Hermoine confesses she doesn’t even walk around nude in her own bedroom, which I think reveals some deep-seated issues about sex and nudity. One thing Bingle’s got going for her is that she is unashamed of her body; my thinking is that if you’re in your own home and feel the desire to get nekkid, then why the fuck not?! If the paparazzi happen to use a zoom lens and trespass on private property to capture this, then that’s on them. But misogynists will always find a way to blame women for the unwanted attention their bodies generate: uncovered meat, amiright?

At the end of the day, “This is a world that everyone makes fun of, but… it’s my life.”

Related: Who the Bloody Hell is Body-Bullying Lara Bingle?

Elsewhere: [TheVine] 5 Things We Hope Happen on Being Lara Bingle Tonight.

Image via Famous.

The Allure of TV.

By Posted in Magazines Tagged , , , , , 6 Comments

 

Yesterday I was accused of “going home to watch TV” every night, when usually what I do when I get home is take the dog for a walk and spend the rest of the night reading. I do watch a lot of TV (this year especially I have managed to watch pretty much all my series’ as they air, including the deluge of new shows like New Girl, Revenge and 2 Broke Girls, and still have plenty of spare time left over. Previous years have seen me struggle to keep up. Odd.), so I don’t know why I was so offended by the comment. I think it was because I was judged based on some throwaway comments I’ve said in passing about catching up on Revenge and Once Upon a Time. Fittingly, last night I read this in The Big Issue:

“Nobody really cares about TV. What they care about is how TV makes them feel: smart, carefree or enjoyably furious at something or someone who isn’t the person they sit next to a work all day.

“Watching TV us one way of ensuring you’re not left making daisy chains [a reference to an earlier metaphor about cricket]. You’re on a team. You’ve studied a show alone in your lounge room, much like those other kids who practised cricket alone in their backyards. You love that character, and anyone who doesn’t like her is dead to you. Unless they’ve read the book, in which case they’re an asset to the side and you’ll pick them first, until they stop watching or admit that they kind of prefer Boardwalk Empire.”

Image via HuffPo.

Magazines: A Farewell to Feminism.

By Posted in Feminism, Magazines Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

 

Ahh, Nicole Kidman. You either love her or you hate her.

In her most recent magazine interview, for W, in which she is featured alongside her co-star in Hemingway & Gellhorn, Clive Owen, she discusses the HBO movie about the tumultuous love life of two of America’s greatest writers. Kidman also had this to say about her marriage to Keith Urban:

“He says I’m raw… He thinks the world is not a great place for me because he fears that I’ll be hurt. He says, ‘That’s my job: I’ll protect you’.”

Yes, because one of the most lauded and famous actresses of our time, who was married to the basket case that is Tom Cruise and played such tortured souls as Virginia Woolf, a war activist (Vietnam) and a mother who has lost her son in a car accident needs to be sheltered from the world. And let me guess? She needs her husband’s approval before she buys anything with her millions and must always have dinner on the table for him (which is a bit hard when he’s currently in Australia for The Voice while she’s fiming Grace of Monaco). Because we’re still living in the time Hemingway & Gellhorn is set, didn’t you know?

Image via Pop Sugar.

Magazines: Unfortunately, Rihanna IS an Influential Person, That’s What Makes the Whole Chris Brown Situation That Much Worse.

By Posted in Magazines Tagged , , , , , Leave a comment

 

When I first heard Rihanna made Time’s annual list of 100 most influential people, I wondered why. Maybe when she was a Good Girl Gone Bad and “Umbrella” and her short-back-and-sides haircut were sweeping the globe. Or even last year, with “S&M”, “Only Girl in the World” and her plagiarism lawsuits making headlines. But what has she done recently? (Okay, recently, she either snorted cocaine or rolled a joint off a bald man’s head and tweeted that she couldn’t give a shit, but I’m guessing Time’s list was finalised much earlier than those Coachella shenanigans.)

Whether I would have put her on the list or not is irrelevant: to many people she is extremely influential. And that’s a problem because of her public refusal to condemn Chris Brown for what he did to her. Not only that, but that she is actively collaborating with him on music. God only knows what they’re collaborating on in their personal lives.

Stella McCartney writes the blurb for Rihanna’s entry on the list (huh? Has Rihanna even worn a McCartney design recently?), saying she “goes out of her way to support the people she believes in… She’ll give a real part of herself…” I’m sure Brown would agree. McCartney goes on to write that “[s]he’s one of the coolest… most liked, most listened to, most followed… artists at work today… She gives to her fans, friends and foundation not just herself by her energy and spirit.” Indeed.

Rihanna’s always maintained that she’s not a role model and she’s not willing to be the spokesperson against domestic violence. That’s not something we, the public, should force on her, but working together on two tracks, calling Brown “the hottest R&B artist out right now”, and mouthing off to fans about how she doesn’t give a fuck about what they think of her is the polar opposite. Whether she likes it or not, people are looking to her to see what’s in and how to act.

Add to that the blatant drug use that she’s been flaunting all over Instagram and it’s very troublesome that Rihanna is so influential.

Related: Rihanna & Domestic Violence.

My Thoughts on Chris Brown.

Rihanna Upholds Traditional Gender Roles.

Rihanna’s “Man Down”: Revenge is a Dish Best Served in Cold Blood.

Rihanna’s “S&M”—Is It Really So Much Worse Than Her Other Stuff?

Elsewhere: [Time] Time 100: The List—Rihanna.

Magazines: The Justin Bieber Complex.

By Posted in Magazines Tagged , , , , 2 Comments

 

Heather Morris is just the most recent starlet in a long line to be involved in a domestic violence-themed photoshoot, and outrage appropriately ensued.

But where’s the outrage following Justin Bieber’s cover story for Complex magazine? While I’m sure I’m not the only one who takes some pleasure in seeing Bieber get knocked out, even if it is for entertainment purposes only, where’s the accountability?

Sure, he’s now an 18-year-old man (because we all know age has no bearing on maturity) who can pretty much do whatever he wants. So is it because he’s a man that there’s no outcry about the glorification of violence? And what about all the tweens who look up to him? Doesn’t he have a responsibility to them, to be a good role model?

I guess once you’ve done a duet with Chris Brown, it’s Never Say Never to everything else.

Related: Heather Morris Glee-ful About Domestic Violence?

My Thoughts on Chris Brown.

Elsewhere: [Complex] Justin Bieber Cover Story: Second Round KO.

Images via Complex.

Feminism, Jackie O & C*nts.

By Posted in Good Weekend, Magazines, Sunday Life Tagged , , , , 1 Comment

 

The weekend newspapers really produced their fair share of thought provoking articles, with Jacqueline Maley’s exposé on the word c*nt, and Jackie O’s anti-feminist and pro-Kyle Sandilands outing in new-look Sunday Life.

The first article was an entertaining read, detailing the historical responses to the word c*nt which, when it was a street name in London in the 13th century (albeit in the red light district), suggested a sort of acceptance in the old world. PC run wild in the modern day one, perhaps?

Maley also writes of the feminist connotations of c*nt, and why it’s deemed acceptable in some circles (“Hey, c*nt!” as a term of endearment) and not in others.

Personally, it’s just a word to me, like “fuck”, “slut” and a plethora of other expletives that can be used to offend. While the article insists on writing it “c…”, as per The Sydney Morning Herald’s editorial guidelines, I guess I’m doing the word no favours in its quest to become destigmatised: even though I use it quite often and in affection, I still asterisked the “u” out.

*

On to the apparent “Better Half” of Kyle Sandilands, Jackie “O” Henderson, who unshockingly somewhat excuses Sandilands treatment of women on his show. In last year’s “fat slag” journalist controversy, Henderson stayed mum, saying in the article that, “I wasn’t about to beat up on my friend when the rest of the country was, just to save my behind. So I did keep quiet.”

So it doesn’t surprise me when Henderson say she’s not a feminist:

“Does she consider herself a feminist? ‘No,’ she says, with a shy smile.

““Why?’ I cry in disappointed tones. ‘You’re a woman.’

“‘I know,’ she says, laughing. ‘I know. I do feel like I have achieved so much, in radio especially. But I’ve never considered myself a feminist. I’m just, you know, I’m doing what I love. I’m really proud of how far I’ve come. But … you know.’”

Yeah, we do. You’re embarrassed about the stigma being a feminist has, much like the connotations of c*nt. But someone who’s best friends and business partners with a man who uses his platform and influence to berate women on air for all manner of things—their appearance, their sexuality, their opinions—is not someone I want standing under the feminist umbrella.

Related: Who Thinks Jackie O’s Parenting Style is Beautiful?

I Think I’m Beginning to Understand This #MenCallMeThings Thing. Except It’s Not Just Men & It’s Not Really Me.

Ain’t Nothin’ Gonna Break My Slutty Stride.

Elsewhere: [Sydney Morning Herald] The Incredible Explosive Word.

[Sydney Morning Herald] What Jackie O Really Thinks About Kyle Sandilands.

[MamaMia] A Letter to Jackei O & All the Other Non-Feminists.

Image via Facebook.

Magazines: Rachel Bilson Jumps on the Slut-Shaming Bandwagon.

By Posted in Magazines Tagged , , , Leave a comment

 

Rachel Bilson has been caught slut-shaming in the latest issue of Lucky magazine. From Jezebel:

“It would appear that Rachel Bilson has taken up some part-time work with the purity police after she took a dig at any woman who dare expose her slutty back, chest and thigh skin. Sitting down to discuss the important things in life with Lucky magazine – shopping, of course! – she confessed that she’s not a fan of wearing dresses that are short and backless with a plunging neckline because she’s afraid of looking like a filthy harlot. ‘I guess I’m not too crazy about slutty dresses,’ she said. ‘You try something on, and if you feel like a slut, you probably look like one.'”

Mmm, because the dress she’s wearing above isn’t slutty at all…*

*I don’t actually think the dress Bilson is wearing in the picture above is “slutty” at all, whatever that means. I think she looks very nice and classy, but it was the “sluttiest” picture of her I could find in which she was representing herself, not a character or a brand for a magazine.

Elsewhere: [Jezebel] Rachel Bilson Thinks Women Who Wear Revealing Dresses Are Total Sluts.

Image via Short Skirt.

Magazines: Dakota Fanning & Lea Michele’s Cosmo Covers—Why Are Anti-Child Sexualisation Activists Kicking Up a Stink?

By Posted in Magazines Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

 

Outrage has ensued after 17-year-old Dakota Fanning appeared on the cover of US Cosmo as their Fun, Fearless Female of the Year, which echoes the reaction to Lea Michele’s plunging neckline cover from the same time last year.

The difference is, though, that Michele is a 25-year-old and Fanning is 17. I’ve written before on letting grown women get their sexy on to their heart’s content, and I’m going to say the same thing here about Fanning.

While I do agree that her Marc Jacobs Lola perfume ad should have been banned (it was probably shot when she was younger than her 17 years, makes her look a lot younger, too, and suggestively places an oversized perfume bottle between her legs), Fanning looks no sexier on the Cosmo cover than she does on the red carpet. And did anyone see The Runaways?

As a 17-year-old young woman, she’s around the age a lot of teens start becoming sexually active. I was 15 when I started reading Cosmo (albeit the far more well-rounded Australian version) and became sexually active soon after. I’m not saying the two go hand in hand, but teens Fanning’s age are naturally sexually curious.

As some commentators have added, magazines buy images and interviews of stars from photo agencies, and very often the celebrities haven’t approved and have no idea they’re featured in certain mags. Fanning’s reps haven’t commented on the Cosmo cover, leading us to draw our own conclusions as to what she thinks of this hullabaloo.

Furthermore, Fanning’s a child star; how many fellow graduates have made a seamless transition into adulthood and being taken seriously as an adult performer? Lindsay Lohan? Britney Spears? The Coreys? Mischa Barton?

Considering Fanning’s—to my mind—tame outing on a young women’s magazine cover compared with, say, Nikki Webster’s attempt to be seen as an adult, I’d say she’s doing pretty well. No need to start panicking yet.

Related: Is Lea Michele Too Sexy?

Lea Michele Just Can’t Win.

Disturbing Behaviour: Terry Richardson Does Glee.

Images via Eonline, CocoPerez.