Jezebel: corn rows

Teen Vogue: Be A "Gender Bender" With A Blazer & Cornrows

Dodai — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:20:00 EDT

The November issue of Teen Vogue has the words "Pretty in Punk" on the cover, but the closest thing you'll find inside is a peculiar, joyless "Gender Benders" fashion spread. The concept? Mixing pretty dresses with structured jackets, "tomboy" shoes and playful purses. Sounds fun! Unfortunately, the results are, well, bizarre. Confusing, even. And it's hard to focus on the clothes, because they've given the pretty, blonde, Caucasian model cornrows. Gender bending? If you're channeling Latrell Sprewell, perhaps. Check out a few of the pictures from the shoot, after the jump.

Apart from the scandalously high hemlines, it's hard to see where they're putting the "teen" in Teen Vogue in this shoot. This doesn't look like something a 13, 14, 15, 16 or 17 year old would wear. Any older than that and you're reading regular Vogue, no? Also: The hair. The hair! Please explain the hair. Someone. Please.

There are no prices printed for this ensemble, but since the designers are Karen Walker, Phillip Lim and Lulu Guinness, it's safe to say recreating this would be expen$ive. One could definitely get those pants and a band jacket at the Salvation Army, but that wouldn't be very Teen Vogue, now would it?

Please note that she is carrying nothing but rubber ducks in her purse. The recession has really hit hard. Hopefully I can buy a bagel with Post-It notes.

Finally! An ensemble I understand. It's the I-just-rolled-out-of-bed-and-threw-a-jacket-over-my-nightgown-and-grabbed-my-sparkly-purse-from-last-night look. Been there.

Teen Vogue [Official Site]

After This Week, We Never Want To Hear The Words "Manolo" or "Cosmo" Ever Again

Jessica — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:40:00 EDT

Unless you're living in a closet on Mars, you know that the Sex and the City movie premiered today.
Slut Machine live blogged it wearing flip flops and eating some skittles. Suck on that, Louboutin wearers.
The only part of the Sex and the City franchise that we're not sick of is Pat Field and her fabulous, gay, Payless lifestyle.
Tyra Banks revealed her plans for world domination in the New York Times.
TyTy sort of looked like a Bratz doll on that Times Mag cover; Bratz are also involved in world domination schemes

Instead of casting a black actress in the forthcoming movie Stuck, they decided to get Mena Suvari in cornrows. Sigh.
We didn't get cornrows at summer camp. We hated it anyway.
But remember, even in a world where teenage Starbucks-swillers rob girl scouts without remorse, there are still puppies who nurse orphaned baby bunnies, and isn't that a world worth drinking in?

Why Cast A Black Actress In Your Movie When You Can Get Mena Suvari In Cornrows?

Dodai — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Today's Los Angeles Times has a story about Mena Suvari, who is starring in a new film, Stuck, by Stuart Gordon. She plays Brandi, a young woman who hits a homeless man with her car late one night, sending him right through the windshield. Brandi panics and drives home (with the guy still in her windshield) and tries to go on with her life. The plot is based on a true story — the woman's name was Chante Mallard, and she hit a homeless man in 2001 after she spent an evening smoking pot, drinking and taking Ecstasy with friends. Her boyfriend later ditched the body in a park. Mallard is now serving a 50-year jail sentence. Mallard, it should be noted, is black. Mena Suvari is not. But she does wear cornrows to play the role of Brandi.

In an interview with Premiere magazine, Mena says of the decision to have cornrows: "It was in conjunction with [director] Stuart. I think we just wanted to kind of establish Brandi as a particular kind of girl from a particular place. I think that we felt that it would be, like, Providence, Rhode Island, with a mix of cultures. That's kind of what we were going for."

Stuart Gordon, whose films include Re-Animator, Castle Freak and Space Truckers, has the right to take creative license and make what ever kind of film he likes. But why didn't he use a black actress? Why was it okay to just put blonde, ethnically Estonian Suvari in cornrows? Why have Angelina Jolie play Marianne Pearl? There are so few black actresses in great, meaty roles (Jennifer Hudson in SATC does not count) and most of the big releases have male stars. There's a lack of parts for women in Hollywood altogether — do actresses of color have a chance if white women can just put on some corn rows (or a curly wig) and play "a particular kind of girl from a particular place" ?

Mena Suvari: 'I Never Had My Jaw Hit The Floor So Many Times' [LA Times]
Mena Suvari Gets 'Stuck' [Premiere]

Earlier: Coming Soon: 2008, The Summer Of The Dick Flick

Despite What 'Glamour' Editors Say, Wear An Afro... Or Go Bald And Get AIDS

Jennifer — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:30:00 EDT

Black women have got it hard! First Glamour magazine tells them that Afros and dreads are absolutely not okay for the workplace, and now a new study shows that wearing tight braids/cornrows yields extreme hair loss in women:

A study of nearly 2,000 adults and children in South Africa found that one in seven schoolgirls and a third of women were suffering from "traction alopecia", hair loss thought to be caused by excessive and prolonged pulling of the hair....Hair loss was found to be more common in children whose hair had been chemically "relaxed" or straightened to form a ponytail. One in five children with relaxed hair had traction alopecia, against just one in twenty of those with natural hair. In adults, hair loss was found to be more likely among women with either "relaxed" hair or braided natural hair, as against natural hair without braids; and it was most common when the hair was relaxed and also had extensions (such as braids or weaves) attached.

And while women have to worry about baldness, men aren't free and clear either:

[T]he frequent close-shave haircuts that are popular among black men...could also increase the risk of blood-borne infections....To achieve the shortest possible haircut, electric shavers are often dug into the scalp. The possible risk for blood-borne disease transmission, such as viral hepatitis and HIV, associated with such haircuts needs to be quantified and nonmechanical methods of cutting hair may be safer.

Now wait a second — HIV?! No way in hell is Glamour magazine going to stand for that one! Though, then again, they might still prefer the symptomatic extreme weight-loss that commonly accompanies AIDS to the horrors of non-chemically straightened black hair. 'Cause, well, y'know.

Why Children Who Braid It Like Beckham Risk Losing Hair [Times of London]