Yessss!
Seeing this today over at Clutch put a much needed smile on my face.
Kweli I. Wright says it's about time, and points out some interesting tid bits about the history of Vogue magazine covers and models of a certain age (Tina Turner is 73):
"Meryl Streep was American Vogue’s oldest cover girl at 62, so this just might make Miss Tina the oldest Vogue cover star of all time." (Clutch)
Ah yes, the old ageism beast ... Although in the case of a force of nature like Tina Turner, I feel like Vogue is fortunate to have her grace its cover, at any age. Not to suggest an adversarial stance on the story. Just sayin', it's Tina Turner. She BEEN transcending age, beauty standards, all'a dat, for decades:
I finally saw the pictures of Zoe Saldana made up to play the role of Nina Simone. I'd stayed away from the story and accompanying images, thinking everyone probably needed to relax a bit, and open their minds; thinking that this, like most other headlines, would calmly fade away once folks found the next thing to get upset about. But Saldana's recent reaction to the backlash that came after she was announced as Mary J. Blige's replacement in the film, brought the story back through my Reader along with this particularly jarring image:
photo:Coqueran/FameFlynet Pictures; Michael Putland/Getty Images
My eyes can't believe that this is the best way to bring a likeness of Nina Simone to the screen. It's unsettling, because if you know Nina Simone's story and understand her impact, you know that
her appearance, her dark skin, her natural hair, her broad features,
all of how she looked can not be separated from how her story is told. We can love and respect Zoe Saldana all we want but we can't hide (especially not with these pictures floating around) that her being cast in this role is like a mirror being held up to a society (or a Hollywood) that still isn't ready to really see Nina Simone.
I feel bad (but only a little) for Ms. Saldana as she is the colorism poster girl in the middle of all this brouhaha, and she's being called upon to speak about it. To be fair, we haven't even seen the film yet and she's pretty much under attack. But she handles herself, as always, with poise and grace:
Far be it for me to try and tell her who she is, or what Nina Simone means to her, but as far as I'm concerned, Uptown Magazine is spot on:
"Casting someone to play Nina Simone who does not look like Nina Simone
greatly dilutes her story and undermines her strength. Had Zoe been
born back then, she and Nina would have had very different life
experiences because of the way they look. Nina couldn’t pass.
She didn’t have the societal advantage of light skin or fine hair to
ease the road a little bit. And it was the pride she took in that that
made her such a subversive figure. She didn’t try to make herself
palatable to mainstream society. She didn’t bleach her skin or get a
nose job. She was unapologetically her natural black self, in visage
and in politics, and that is where her power lied." (Uptown)
Okay. New Series: Stopplayinwitme! It's the way I seem to react to things I find shocking in any way. It just flies out of my mouth, as it did when I read this story over at Clutch. Walk with me:
The headline "Hair Theft: Cut-and-Run Robberies Target People with Locs in South Africa"
(Hunh?) ... It went on to talk about how people with long locs are being attacked and robbed of their hair on the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa, shorn with broken glass and what not; how the demand on the black market has locs selling for $200 to $2,000 rand. ... (What?) By the time I got to:
“I’m even afraid of walking through town with my locs loose especially at night. I make sure I cover my head. It is scary because you never know what they will use to cut your hair — these people are ruthless.” (Clutch)
I was like Stopplayinwitme! Read the whole story here.
Just saying, on any given day, even today in 2013 U.S.A., at any given time, there's a dreadlock-wearing woman wondering if it was the hair, since everything else seemed to have gone so well at the interview (not that she would change anything about the hair; she just wonders).
Thoughts?
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