Good lord how did I end up getting into this one?
Here I am, finally graduated with my BA. SnotFace is now in middle school. San Fransisco found us a beautiful 2-bedroom place in a fantastic neighborhood... and.... I'm pregnant.
I thought I was half way done. In the clear. The hard part where they need you there all the time was just ending and I could focus more on me and my goals as a person... Not just as mom.
In a way it's perfect timing. SnotFace can totally help. I just turned 31. San Fransisco can finally learn that parenting is not as straight forward as he seems to think.
I know, I know... the whole "a mom is the greatest thing, your greatest accomplishment" just doesn't do it for me.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Rib It!
The announcement of the release of Princess and the Frog was met with much excitement in my home. My daughter was excited for the first Disney Princess feature since 1998’s Mulan. (Though, I argue Mulan was not a princess. Therefore the last true princess film was Pocahantas, in 1995.) She was born in 1999, so we loved the idea that for the first time we would get o see a Disney Princess film together on the big screen. To top it all off, this princess would be black, and to my little girl, who has lately been finding much pride in her African American ancestry… this was gonna be good!
Before going to see it, I did some research to mentally prepare for any upsets. I wanted to make sure here wasn’t anything that would really tick me off or that I would have to rectify for my daughter. Stereotypes are one thing; they are almost endearing in a cartoon character. (Do be prepared, this movie is chock full of them. My favorite is the Cajun firefly Raymone.)
What I found was the African American community all up in arms, not so much about the stereotypes, but everything else, from the original name of the heroine (Maddy, which was changed to Tiana) to the prince’s ambiguous ethnicity, was ticking them off. The Disney animators were making concessions left and right in order to get it right.
Rumor has it that the animators even had a black model come in and act out the scenes to capture the true movements of a black woman. They didn’t want the black women to go “Oh, she’s not really a black princess. They just painted her brown; she looks like every other princess.”
It could and probably would happen; it’s just how black folks are.
With all that huffing and puffing, it amazed me that no one mentioned the most obvious problem with this film. Much of the focus is that the prince isn’t black, because he has an Indian name and a Brazilian accent. But, I found something worse.
Set in New Orleans during the 1920s Jazz Era, Tiana is not a princess, but a workaholic waitress set on realizing her dead father’s dream of owning a restaurant. She saves every penny she can and works two jobs while her best friend, the daughter of the wealthy mayor, frolics around being cute.
The buzz around town is the arrival of Prince Naveen of the fictional Maldonia. He has been cut off by his royal parents for his lazy and womanizing ways. He has to settle down and become productive before his family will endow him with his inheritance. Guided by his affinity to jazz music, he ends up in New Orleans just in time for Mardi gras. Soon after his arrival he meets up with Shadow Man, a voodoo practioner, and gets himself turned into a frog.
Also, just in time for the celebrations, Tiana earns enough money to buy the building for her restaurant. This means she gets to go to the masquerade ball at her best friend’s mansion, where Prince Naveen will also attend. At the celebration, the poor girl is all dressed up when the realtors tell her she has been out bid for the property.
This is when she meets the little green version of Prince Naveen and he coaxes her into kissing him which turns her into a frog. This is where their adventure begins. They end up in the bayou, pick up a couple of sidekicks and try to find the old voodoo witch doctor Mama Odie so she can turn then back into humans.
All frivolous and trivial descriptions of ethnicity aside, my concern lies with the type of prince the black girl got. The other princesses have princes who go through hell and high water for them. They battle dragons, slay ogres and outsmart witches just to get their woman. This Prince Naveen does nothing. Tiana gets them out of trouble, Tiana makes them food and Tiana rows them through the bayou to Mama Odie.
All Prince Naveen does is decide, ‘Hey this chick is kinda hot. She’s smart and she does everything. I think I like her.’ Somehow, she falls for it!?!?
Forget that she doesn’t get a “black prince,” this cartoon upholds old Restoration Period themes where the black women are depicted as hardworking as well as beautiful, while their male counterparts are incompetent. This image was a tool used to exploit black women during that time and is still prevalent in the black community. Too many strong black women have stuck it out with no-good black men, and for what? A handsome face?
What’s more, Tiana works her butt off to earn the money for her restaurant and somehow she still needs some prince’s lazy behind in order to get it. I worry about the self esteem of little black girls around the nation who now have implanted in the back of their minds that their prince shouldn’t fight for them because she’s just a little black girl.
Before going to see it, I did some research to mentally prepare for any upsets. I wanted to make sure here wasn’t anything that would really tick me off or that I would have to rectify for my daughter. Stereotypes are one thing; they are almost endearing in a cartoon character. (Do be prepared, this movie is chock full of them. My favorite is the Cajun firefly Raymone.)
What I found was the African American community all up in arms, not so much about the stereotypes, but everything else, from the original name of the heroine (Maddy, which was changed to Tiana) to the prince’s ambiguous ethnicity, was ticking them off. The Disney animators were making concessions left and right in order to get it right.
Rumor has it that the animators even had a black model come in and act out the scenes to capture the true movements of a black woman. They didn’t want the black women to go “Oh, she’s not really a black princess. They just painted her brown; she looks like every other princess.”
It could and probably would happen; it’s just how black folks are.
With all that huffing and puffing, it amazed me that no one mentioned the most obvious problem with this film. Much of the focus is that the prince isn’t black, because he has an Indian name and a Brazilian accent. But, I found something worse.
Set in New Orleans during the 1920s Jazz Era, Tiana is not a princess, but a workaholic waitress set on realizing her dead father’s dream of owning a restaurant. She saves every penny she can and works two jobs while her best friend, the daughter of the wealthy mayor, frolics around being cute.
The buzz around town is the arrival of Prince Naveen of the fictional Maldonia. He has been cut off by his royal parents for his lazy and womanizing ways. He has to settle down and become productive before his family will endow him with his inheritance. Guided by his affinity to jazz music, he ends up in New Orleans just in time for Mardi gras. Soon after his arrival he meets up with Shadow Man, a voodoo practioner, and gets himself turned into a frog.
Also, just in time for the celebrations, Tiana earns enough money to buy the building for her restaurant. This means she gets to go to the masquerade ball at her best friend’s mansion, where Prince Naveen will also attend. At the celebration, the poor girl is all dressed up when the realtors tell her she has been out bid for the property.
This is when she meets the little green version of Prince Naveen and he coaxes her into kissing him which turns her into a frog. This is where their adventure begins. They end up in the bayou, pick up a couple of sidekicks and try to find the old voodoo witch doctor Mama Odie so she can turn then back into humans.
All frivolous and trivial descriptions of ethnicity aside, my concern lies with the type of prince the black girl got. The other princesses have princes who go through hell and high water for them. They battle dragons, slay ogres and outsmart witches just to get their woman. This Prince Naveen does nothing. Tiana gets them out of trouble, Tiana makes them food and Tiana rows them through the bayou to Mama Odie.
All Prince Naveen does is decide, ‘Hey this chick is kinda hot. She’s smart and she does everything. I think I like her.’ Somehow, she falls for it!?!?
Forget that she doesn’t get a “black prince,” this cartoon upholds old Restoration Period themes where the black women are depicted as hardworking as well as beautiful, while their male counterparts are incompetent. This image was a tool used to exploit black women during that time and is still prevalent in the black community. Too many strong black women have stuck it out with no-good black men, and for what? A handsome face?
What’s more, Tiana works her butt off to earn the money for her restaurant and somehow she still needs some prince’s lazy behind in order to get it. I worry about the self esteem of little black girls around the nation who now have implanted in the back of their minds that their prince shouldn’t fight for them because she’s just a little black girl.
Friday, February 12, 2010
IT’S RAINING, IT’S POURING
It’s been really, really pouring lately here in SoCal. I’m sure it could be much worse, I could live on the east coast, but the rain is bad enough for me. I don’t like rain unless I can sit at home bundled up with a book in front of the fireplace. But, I’m a mom, a student and I still have to work, so I find myself sloshing through the rain far more often than I want.
Snot Face, however, is different. Tuesday morning it sounded like the rain was going to break my window in. I woke San Francisco and asked “if I take her to school will you pick her up?”
“Yes.”
When I opened my bedroom door there was Snot Face in the hallway decked in her blue plastic parka and a smile on her face.
“K, I love you see you later.” She said.
“Hold up missy, I’m taking you to school today.”
“But I want to ride my bike,” she whined. “I like the rain.”
“It’s pouring out there,” I argued.
She stomped, she pouted, she tried to talk back. It was cold and wet outside and I sure didn’t want to go out. I thought about giving in…Why lose the 15 minutes I had left to stay snuggled in bed?
I shook it off and put on my Uggs. It was too cold to have her out there, the rain was too ferocious and I was worried that her long parka would get caught in the spokes of her bike and that she’d end up face first in some gigantic puddle along the way. So I held firm…. And the ungrateful little thing wouldn’t even give me a kiss goodbye as she got out of the car.
Snot Face, however, is different. Tuesday morning it sounded like the rain was going to break my window in. I woke San Francisco and asked “if I take her to school will you pick her up?”
“Yes.”
When I opened my bedroom door there was Snot Face in the hallway decked in her blue plastic parka and a smile on her face.
“K, I love you see you later.” She said.
“Hold up missy, I’m taking you to school today.”
“But I want to ride my bike,” she whined. “I like the rain.”
“It’s pouring out there,” I argued.
She stomped, she pouted, she tried to talk back. It was cold and wet outside and I sure didn’t want to go out. I thought about giving in…Why lose the 15 minutes I had left to stay snuggled in bed?
I shook it off and put on my Uggs. It was too cold to have her out there, the rain was too ferocious and I was worried that her long parka would get caught in the spokes of her bike and that she’d end up face first in some gigantic puddle along the way. So I held firm…. And the ungrateful little thing wouldn’t even give me a kiss goodbye as she got out of the car.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Who's the Boss
Brilliant MILF is back. I took a much needed six-week hiatus from school and this blog. I’m sorry to have left you. Yes, I missed you, but boy did I need it!
If you recall, San Francisco moved in at the beginning of August. Last semester was pretty stressful for us just trying to get him acclimated to being around a kid all the time, me trying to get my schedule on point and Snotface trying to figure out how to get over on the both of us.
By get over on the both of us, I really mean San Francisco. He works from home for the most part, but technically, he’s not working anyhow. That said, he is the one home most of the time. He tries, he does, I see it. Snotface though, she is pretty dang good.
Here’s how this transpires …… I send Snotface outside to get her outta my hair so I can think. While she’s out I need to go to the grocery store and I instruct San Francisco to instruct Snotface to take a shower as soon as she gets home, which should be and is in 20 minutes. I return an hour and a half later to find an un-showered Snotface is sitting on the couch reading her book for school and San Francisco at his usual spot at the kitchen table on the internet.
I flash ‘the look’ at him and holler to her:
“Were you told to take a shower?”
I have to ask this because there is a chance that he didn’t say anything and then it is not her fault. She however was not off the hook.
“I told her to,” he chimes in, “and she said you would want her to get her homework done first.”
“What did I tell you?” It’s a rhetorical question. I know what I said, so I quickly turn to her. “Get in the shower!”
She jumps. That’s called Mommy Power.
“We need to have a more united front.” San Francisco dares to tell me.
“Are you serious?” I chuckle.
“She can’t be able to use us against each other,” for some reason he goes on, “She knows how to work you already, and she sees that she can’t get over on me.”
I leave it at:
“If I tell you she has to do something that means she does that and nothing else, understand?”
I proceed to make dinner.
If you recall, San Francisco moved in at the beginning of August. Last semester was pretty stressful for us just trying to get him acclimated to being around a kid all the time, me trying to get my schedule on point and Snotface trying to figure out how to get over on the both of us.
By get over on the both of us, I really mean San Francisco. He works from home for the most part, but technically, he’s not working anyhow. That said, he is the one home most of the time. He tries, he does, I see it. Snotface though, she is pretty dang good.
Here’s how this transpires …… I send Snotface outside to get her outta my hair so I can think. While she’s out I need to go to the grocery store and I instruct San Francisco to instruct Snotface to take a shower as soon as she gets home, which should be and is in 20 minutes. I return an hour and a half later to find an un-showered Snotface is sitting on the couch reading her book for school and San Francisco at his usual spot at the kitchen table on the internet.
I flash ‘the look’ at him and holler to her:
“Were you told to take a shower?”
I have to ask this because there is a chance that he didn’t say anything and then it is not her fault. She however was not off the hook.
“I told her to,” he chimes in, “and she said you would want her to get her homework done first.”
“What did I tell you?” It’s a rhetorical question. I know what I said, so I quickly turn to her. “Get in the shower!”
She jumps. That’s called Mommy Power.
“We need to have a more united front.” San Francisco dares to tell me.
“Are you serious?” I chuckle.
“She can’t be able to use us against each other,” for some reason he goes on, “She knows how to work you already, and she sees that she can’t get over on me.”
I leave it at:
“If I tell you she has to do something that means she does that and nothing else, understand?”
I proceed to make dinner.
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