The Season 4 premiere of Southern Charm opens with Thomas Ravenel, a 54-year-old former South Carolina State Treasurer who was indicted on federal cocaine distribution charges and removed from office in 2007.

There is probably no Bravo series as horribly addictive as Southern Charm, with its trust funds and stupid family names and loving references to Henry Kissinger and embarrassing meetings with Vox Media’s Lockhart Steele. If you are, like me, trapped in a confusing relationship with these upsetting libertarians, you’re…

I remember the first time I voted: Jeb was up for re-election as Florida’s gubernatorial candidate and I thought, why not? Actually, I thought nothing at all, I just went into the booth and pulled the lever, or pressed the button, or hung the chad, or did whatever the fuck I thought I was supposed to do to fulfill my…

Much of television is written by people who grew up, or at least who have lived the majority of their lives, in a big city—often New York or Los Angeles. For that reason, characters who are culturally not from one of those places are at risk of getting written in broad strokes, becoming caricatures of whatever culture…

Let’s acknowledge a simple truth: Being part of the wedding party sucks. It’s a special honor, yes, but wearing a knockoff Jessica McClintock as you walk down the aisle holding your neck in a spine-breaking position (so the pics look good) is also a special circle of hell. So, if you’re looking to avoid that, don’t…

As South Carolina moves to take down the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the statehouse, the national debate surrounding the flag grows to a new height. Among all of the impassioned arguments for and against removing this contentious symbol from the public space, it is strange that lawmakers and the public…

South Carolina, a state that thoughtfully welcomes its 19 known hate groups by flying a Confederate flag over the statehouse, is facing a real quandary today. When a white man walks into a black church—a church that was targeted, surveilled and burned down 200 years ago in a period when black churches were prohibited…

There is a phrase that a woman can deploy like a verbal stiletto. It's increasingly dangerous to use, because many people are catching on to the phrase's true meaning. You've got a decent shot at sneaking it by folks who aren't from the South, but more and more, you try unloading it on anyone at all in America and you…