SheThing's New Writeups

k.d. lang (person)

2001-11-29T17:31:02Z

Born in Alberta, Canada k.d. lang was always controversial within the traditional close-knit back-biting world of country music. Like Dwight Yoakam and Lyle Lovett, kd was considered a Nashville outsider. Her first major label album in was released 1987, her campy wardrobe, androgynous appearance, and torch infused music put her at odds with the rest of the country community which was undergoing a pop music revival under the auspices of successful radio-friendly artists like Garth Brooks and Randy Travis. Very few people knew what to make of her even though her hauntingly beautiful voice was hard to ignore.

lang discovered the music of Patsy Cline while studying theater in college. She was so influenced by the legendary singer that she formed her own band with Ben Mink, named the re-clines in tribute to Patsy. In 1983 and they recorded an album called "Friday Dance Promenade." The following year they recorded "A Truly Western Experience." People took notice and lang…

Wilma Mankiller (person)

2001-11-26T15:59:08Z

Chief of the Cherokee Nation, a 220,000 member Native American tribe based in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Her name "Mankiller" is a Cherokee military term for a village protector but she is fond of telling outsiders that her name was given to her because of her reputation.

Mankiller grew up poor in Oklahoma. Her father later took a job with the [Bureau of Indian Affairs[ (BIA) program that moved the family to San Francisco where they lived in a poor African American community. Mankiller says that this is where she learned that "...that poor people have a much, much greater capacity for solving their own problems than most people give them credit for."

When Wilma became Chief, she made education and health care top tribal priorities. As a fundraiser, she she raised millions of dollars to build school infrastructure, a health clinic and a job training center for Cherokee Indians. She also made efforts to reunite the North Carolina Eastern Cherokees with the larger…

Benicio Del Toro (person)

2001-01-16T15:25:59Z

Actor born February 19, 1967 in Santurce, Puerto Rico to lawyer parents.

Benicio is Hollywood's latest "It" boy having made memorable performances in films such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Usual Suspects, and most recently Traffic and Snatch, a movie directed by Guy Ritchie, Madonna's hubby.

Benicio got his start making guest appearances on television shows like Miami Vice and in a mini-series called Drug Wars: The Kiki Camarena Story. His first feature film performance was as "Duke the Dog-Faced Boy," in the sequel to Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Big Top Pee-Wee. It was all uphill from there.

His exotic (read: non white) good looks and heavy lidded bedroom eyes lead one critic to compare del Toro to "James Dean channeling Ricardo Montalban." In actuality he exudes an agressive and smoldering sexuality that makes Brad Pitt look like a pansy.

Credits

Actor
Traffic — 2000
The Way of the Gun — 2000
Fear and…

Venus of Willendorf (thing)

2000-12-27T16:13:29Z

Found in 1908, on a dig in Willendorf, Austria. The tiny clay figurine is of a woman with large breasts and well defined genitalia. The carving is attributed to the Paleolithic era, between 25,000 and 30,000 BC. Because of the sexual characteristics, many scholars concluded that the figure was some type of fertility idol. Other scholars believe that the figurine might have been a child's doll or a portrait of an individual woman.

Fear of Flying (thing)

2000-12-20T16:42:55Z

Erica Jong novel published in 1974 by Rhinehart and Winston. It was about women's sexual values and desires. Initially the book received only a tepid response but after Henry Miller and John Updike reviewed Flying in The New Yorker and the New York Times, a media frenzyensued. Although Miller praised the novel's "cheerful, sexual frankness," other critics ripped it apart. They accused Jong of "falsifying reality" by suggesting women were helpless sexual victims and being anti-marriage. In spite of the backlash the book made it to number one on the NYT Bestseller list and sold 15 million copies worldwide.

Adrian Piper (person)

2000-12-19T22:06:19Z

Adrian Margaret Smith Piper is Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College. Although her principle publications are in metaethics and Kant's metaphysics she is also a conceptual artist whose work, has focused on racism, racial stereotyping and xenophobia. She has been exhibited internationally to critical acclaim.