This summer, Hollywood came to a standstill. For the first time in 63 years, writers and actors went on strike together as both the Writers Guild of America (WGA), representing 11,500 writers, and SAG-AFTRA, a 160,000-strong coalition of actors and media professionals, failed to settle contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television […]
Tag: hollywood
How Surface Level Social Liberalism Hides Hollywood’s Deeply Exploitative Labor Practices
When we think of Hollywood’s politics, we often remember recent Oscars acceptance speeches with topics ranging from recognizing the accomplishments of immigrants to the condemnation of drinking cow’s milk. It feels as if every year, moments like these become more and more common, a seemingly odd trend in the entertainment industry. However, this trend is […]
The Wandering Earth and the “new” Chinese nationalist idea
Recently, a Chinese sci-fi film called The Wandering Earth has not only made headlines in Chinese mainstream media but has also aroused heated discussion about its quality, symbolic meaning, and theme, reflecting the emergence of a new type of nationalism among the Chinese general population. What is The Wandering Earth about? “The sun is aging […]
How Much Does Feminism Cost? High Fashion and the Commercialization of #MeToo
Sheathed in black cloth and armed with badges pinned to lapels, they marched across a battlefield rolled out in red. The seasoned and the newly inducted alike faced off against swarming barrels of cameras and brandished microphones. Shoulder to shoulder they descended on a different kind of combat zone: the Golden Globes. It is not […]
#OscarsSoWhite: The Call for Racial Diversity in Hollywood
Lack of racial diversity in Hollywood made headlines last year when the 2015 Academy Awards (AKA the Oscars) featured nominations for twenty white actors and zero minority actors in its acting categories. The outrage caught on social media fire with a blunt and catchy Twitter hashtag : #OscarsSoWhite. The #OscarsSoWhite people received backlash, too, mostly […]
Fighting Off the Bias
“Mo’ money, mo’ problems” is a refrain uttered by the hip-hop loving, Notorious B.I.G. obsessed 11-year old Eddie Huang, star of ABC’s new hit television show Fresh Off the Boat. There are two very interesting things about the previous sentence. The first is the phrase, “fresh off the boat.” The second is Eddie’s last name, […]