Welcome to your weekly pop culture fix, in which I have popcorn for dinner because I’m an adult and I want to.
+ A trailer was released today for Indie flick Pimp, from writer-director Christine Crokos (the former girlfriend of Mel B of the Spice Girls). Pimp stars sexually fluid actress Keke Palmer and “looks at life for women on the streets of New York amidst the hustles and dangers facing those working in the illegal sex trade.” The film centers on the “love story between a pimp and her girlfriend who dream of a better life and hope to get out of the one they’re in.”
Billed as a love story, Pimp finds Palmer playing a pimp who is looking for a better life with her girlfriend (who is portrayed by Haley Ramm). Palmer’s family (which includes DMX, who plays Keke’s father) brought her up hard, and introduced her to the life that she’s extremely invested in. It not only deals with the struggles of sex workers and the pimps who run their lives, but specifically how this one woman survives a world where she’s seen as “half girl, half pimp,” while knowing in her heart that she’s “all girl, all pimp.”
https://youtu.be/Ps9kxKsPxpg
This film has been in the works for a while, and KeKe Palmer told fans in 2016 that she took the role ’cause she felt Wednesday was a relatable character, describing her as ‘flawed” like “we all are.” She added, “She loves her girlfriend and she knows right from wrong, but for money she excuses a lot of things and is willing to turn a blind eye.” Vanessa Morgan (Toni Topaz on Riverdale) and Aunjanue Ellis (Quantico, Ray) also star. Palmer is a co-executive producer on the film.
KeKe Palmer came out as sexually fluid in 2015. She’s recently shown up on Star, a Fox show with a trans woman of color character.
+ Writer Aya de León Tells A Different Story About Sex Work: the director of Poetry for the People, an arts/activism program at UC Berkeley founded by late bisexual poet June Jordan, humanizes sex workers with “action, romance, titillating sex scenes, and keep-it-real humor.”
+ Laneia linked this in her AAA on Monday, but it’s worth force-feeding you again: Which Queer Movies Get To Be Universal.
+ “Professor Marston and the Wonder Women” makes it onto Indiewire’s Most Underrated Movies of 2017
+ And Princess Cyd makes it onto Vanity Fair’s Best Movies of 2017 List:
Princess Cyd is also a soft-spoken coming-out film, a loving and subtle tribute to Chicago, and, in one sequence that should be corny but somehow isn’t, an earnest appreciation of good literature. The kind that can—like this little jewel of a movie—transport, uplift, and humbly inspire.
They also have an an exclusive clip for you.
+ Hello The New York Times has blown up your spot: Who Do You Ship? What Tumblr Tells Us About Fan Culture
+ Lena Waithe: ‘Why We Can’t Keep Telling Stories About a Singular Black Experience’
If it’s not my responsibility to tell our story, whose is it? I felt the same way about the “Thanksgiving” episode of Master of None, which was based on my own personal coming-out experience. I wanted to be honest to my memory of what happened: the humor and the missteps. For people to embrace a queer black girl’s story the way they did says a lot about where we are in society. We’re a lot further than we think. But for that reason, we can’t keep telling stories about a single black experience.
+ From me to you: Winter 2017/2018 TV Preview: Some Lesbian and Bisexual Content For Y’All
+ ‘Runaways’: Why Marvel’s YA-Superhero Show Could Be a Gamechanger:
After spending the past 20 years making these fanciful franchises palatable to adults, the company is starting to experiment with seeing the value of younger perspectives and giving teen do-gooders their due.
+ Here are the main characters of “Pretty Little Liars” spinoff “The Perfectionists”, which includes a character with lesbian Moms and, I guess, some gay guys. I don’t understand how Ali or Mona fit into this?
+ Faith is coming back for Season 4 of UnREAL so put that on your calendar for 2019. Your 2019 calendar is probably pretty chill, so.
+ ‘Easy’ Is The Most Sex Positive Show On Television
+ Superheroes Who Came Out As Queer (And Others They Won’t Allow To)
+ ‘Mrs. Maisel’ Is Marvelous: “Susie is also queer, though her personal life, like queer characters in Sherman-Palladino’s other works, gets too-little attention.”
Is your Winter TV Preview live yet?
yeah i published it the day before i published this! i just made an incorrect link
Thank you! Somehow I missed this before as something went awry with the feedly link too.