Is The Character Olivia Pope On TV Show Scandal Just The White Man’s Whore?
I agree with the black lady’s You Tube critique of the hit ABC show Scandal that the character Olivia Pope is the white man’s whore. I understand, that a lot of black women love Scandal because it is the first show since 1974 to have a black lady in the lead. Olivia Pope isn’t a mammy or a maid which is often a popular representation of a black woman on television. Remember, Nell Carter’s 1980s hit show Gimme A Break? Carter’s character was a maid for a white middle class family.
A common image of a black woman on television is to be mammy the black female character is usually overweight, unattractive, a loudmouth, and of course asexual. On another ABC show Grey’s Anatomy, Chandra Wilson’s character Dr. Bailey is a mammy she doesn’t really have a life of her own. Dr. Bailey is tough but she’s also very loving and nurturing she conforms to the black mammy stereotype.
Scandal is different from Gimme A Break and Grey’s Anatomy because Kerry Washington is a very attractive black woman she’s presenting a more feminine image of a black woman. Washington’s character on Scandal Olivia Pope is intelligent, sexy, and she gets to wear fancy clothes. However, beneath the surface, there are some subliminal messages that I find unsettling.
Scandal presents another stereotype of the black woman, the oversexed black whore. There seems to be no in between for black female characters on television they are either maids, a mammy, or a whore.
First, the relationship between Olivia Pope and President Grant is based on lust and sex that’s it. The You Tube critique is correct, Olivia Pope is the white man’s whore because she isn’t getting what she wants which is a loving relationship where is treated like an equal. One argument is, Scandal is a television show so why can’t black characters be flawed just like white characters? There is some veracity to this argument that black characters do not need to be noble saints.
However, given the fact there are very negative stereotypes about black women in pop culture in relation to sexuality Scandal simply engenders and reinforces these representations of black women.
Second, Olivia Pope sleeps with the President but she’s not his wife she’s his side chick, she’s the mistress, the jump off but she’s not his wife. Olivia Pope is never going to be more than the president’s whore that’s all she is. President Grant gets to have sex with Olivia and go back to his wife Mellie and have sex with her too. President Grant is getting what he wants a lot of sex without the commitment from Olivia Pope.
I don’t think Olivia Pope is like Sally Hemmings, but I do believe there is a strong power imbalance in the relationship.
Shonda Rhimes the executive producer of Scandal is also a black woman but she doesn’t have a problem making Olivia Pope so weak, fragile, and vulnerable.
Third, Scandal isn’t a positive image of a black woman because it depicts the black woman as being licentious and all about sex. The interracial relationship is hidden from the public’s view it is treated as though it is a secret not something that people should respect. Yes, certain characters are aware of the interracial affair but the general public do not. The fact that the interracial relationship is a secret simply magnifies the fact it is considered negative and bad.
I believe the interracial element to Scandal is indeed it is still taboo for a black woman to have an affair with a powerful white man. The Scandal is indeed the interracial relationship it is considered dirty, dangerous, and could be disastrous.
Where is Olivia Pope’s dignity? Doesn’t Olivia have enough self respect to break off a relationship with a man who clearly doesn’t love her?
I am aware that Olivia Pope did have a black male love interest in the second season but the black senator was an old man. The black male love interest wasn’t someone who could have become a serious threat to President Grant.
Hopefully, as Scandal progresses Shonda Rhimes will allow Olivia Pope to become more independent from President Grant but I doubt it. The audience seems to like Olivia Pope being the white man’s whore which is sad. Scandal isn’t progressive the program depicts black women as loose sluts willing to drop their panties for powerful white men.
Time Magazine Article:”Queen of Erotica” Zane On How Fifty Shades Affects the Sexy-Book Scene.
When it comes to bestselling erotica, Zane has been a trailblazer. The 44-year-old, Washington, D.C.–based author had sold more than 5 million copies of her books worldwide before anyone had heard of Fifty Shades of Grey. While E.L. James, the author of the latter book, dropped an atom bomb this year on the competition (30 million copies sold worldwide in four months), Zane was indisputably there first. She is known as the queen of urban erotica, famous for its no-holds-barred, raw sexuality, juicier even than more restrained-by-comparison books such as Fifty Shades, a genre which has been labeled as “Mommy Porn” by critics.
Zane, which is a pseudonym (it means “God’s precious gift”), first made her name writing sexy stories on her AOL website, until the company shut it down because of its X-rated content. As her far-flung fans (sometimes known as “Zaniacs”) spread the word, her reputation grew so large that three major publishers pursued her with book contracts. Concerned about demands to tamp down her writing, she initially self-published her work, selling more than 100,000 copies of her first novel, Addicted, in 2001. But finally she cast her lot with Simon & Schuster, and the rest is mainstream publishing history. She has had 14 New York Times bestsellers, in addition to writing and producing a hit Cinemax series, Zane’s Sex Chronicles, and maintaining a hugely popular website, planetzane.com, which features conversations for the “grown and sexy.”
Zane’s steamy first novel, Addicted, which stars Zoe Reynard, a successful married businesswoman who is juggling three lovers, has just been republished. And her beyond-X-rated anthology of other writers, Z-Rated: Chocolate Flava, will be published in August. We caught up with the prolific author by phone on her vacation in North Carolina, gearing up for a book tour that will begin later this month.
TIME: No unpublished writer ever turns down a book contract. Why did you?
ZANE: I had a feeling that if I did this, it was going to be big. Something just told me, and it would eventually end up altering my life. And I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted.
How did you find out that you had a talent for writing erotica?
It’s so funny—I never set out to write erotica…both of my parents are retired educators, so reading was very strong in our house. … I always had a very vivid imagination. All of my teachers always told me that I was going to grow up to be a writer, but I never really believed it, or paid that much attention to it.
Then suddenly, when I was living here in Kannapolis, North Carolina, I got bored enough to start playing around with writing. I wrote one short story, and at the time I was, believe it or not, I was my father’s research assistant for Duke Divinity School. [Her father, a minister, was a well-known religious scholar.] I would be doing my work, and then I discovered AOL, and started hanging out in chat rooms. So I wrote a story, and in the chat room, I came up with the name Zane. I wasn’t going to say my real name, so that’s sort of how Zane was born. It was never about being a writing name.
Anyway, I wrote this one short story called “First Night.” I didn’t know it was erotic; I just wrote a romantic story. And I sent it out to four or five people I had met in the chat room. They sent it out to a bunch of other people, and the next thing you know, I started getting emails from all these people, like “That’s the hottest thing I’ve ever read!”; “Have you written anything else?”; “I want to be on your mailing list.” Honestly, I thought it was all funny. I put a couple other stories up, and within three weeks, I had 8,000 hits by word-of-mouth alone, before AOL took it down because of the content!
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After you successfully published your own work, you started hearing again from New York City publishers.
Publishers started contacting me, and saying, “You’re one of the best writers we’ve ever read, and we’ll offer you a deal today, but we need to tone you down.”
What did your parents think at this point?
They had no idea I was doing any of this. My parents didn’t know for about five years.
Were you astonished by what happened to Fifty Shades of Grey?
I wouldn’t say that I was astonished by it. I think that it was very good marketing: being on the right shows, and getting the right media outlets. I’m very happy for the author. But clearly it’s not the first time erotica has gone mainstream. Even if you take me out of the equation, Sex in the City is a multi-billion-dollar brand.
You got there earlier, theme-wise—why did the author get so much attention for the book?
Well, I’ve never been on the Today Show. (Laughs.) I’ve had three documentaries done about me. I’ve had my picture hanging up in galleries—my picture just left the Smithsonian [it was part of an exhibit called The Black List, which featured celebrities of color.] Swiss Public Television did a documentary about me years ago called Zane, Queen of Erotica. Honestly, I don’t know.
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I’ve heard a lot of romance and woman’s fiction writers say that they don’t get enough acknowledgment for what they do. Is that what’s going on? It sounds like you’ve gotten a lot of acknowledgment, too, but is there some you haven’t gotten?
Of course, it would be nice to get it, because I’ve worked very hard for 15 years. I’m very happy with what I’ve accomplished. It honestly was never my purpose to be famous, which is why I don’t write under my real name. I enjoy what I do.
Do you feel you have a lot in common with other African-American writers — a sense of being part of a group?
I am African-American, but I don’t write books specifically for African Americans… I just write stories. Honestly, for a lot of African American writers, we don’t get the exposure, in different chain stores for example. Those of us who have consistently been New York Times bestsellers, when our new books come out, they’re not at the end of the stand with James Patterson and John Grisham and Stephen King, all of whom at one point or another I have beaten on the New York Times list. The same thing goes for Terry McMillan, Eric Jerome Dickey. You go in an airport store, it’s very hard to see our books. I feel like, in a way, it has hindered me, simply because I’m not getting as much exposure as Caucasian authors are getting. It is what it is. I’m very happy with what I’ve done. And I do have a big crossover audience, I do know that…. When I do book signings, it isn’t just black people who come. I mean, I have white men come to my signings and say I’m their favorite author.
Do you think people underestimate how much women like erotica?
I think that it’s still very much a taboo subject, particularly in this country. One thing I am happy about is that people will be, hopefully, with Fifty Shades of Grey, be more accepting of the fact that women can appreciate erotica. I will say that my stuff is a lot steamier! (Laughs.)
(MORE: Brontë Bondage: Classic Literature Gets 50 Shades of Grey Treatment)
Are people surprised that the steamy books are coming from a woman and not a man?
Yes, there are still people who think I’m a man. There was actually a man masquerading as me at book-signings and at book clubs! He even did a book signing in Jamaica.
Have critics or censors ever given you a hard time because of all of the sex?
I honestly don’t listen to the criticisms. I knew going in that I was going to have my critics. For me, I’m just doing what I must do, what I’m passionate about. I use sex as a segue to deal with a lot of deeper issues. I don’t feel like I am a sex writer or even an erotica writer. I would describe myself as a very detailed writer who does not tone down her sex scenes.
Anything sexual you won’t write about?
There are definite things I wouldn’t write about or publish: pedophilia, bestiality. The obvious stuff.
I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you: have you lived out these fantasies?
Some of them. (Laughs.)
NPR Article: More Single Gay & Heterosexual Men Are Deciding To Start Their Own Families.
B.J. Holt always wanted to be a dad. As he approached 40, with no life partner in sight, he felt a version of the ticking biological clock.
“The ‘having the children thing’ started to overwhelm the desire to have the relationship first,” Holt says. “They sort of switched on me.”
So Holt decided to go it alone. A few years ago, he used an egg donor and a surrogate to create a family of his own.
First came Christina, now 4, a strawberry-blond bundle of energy who loves to stage ballet performances in the living room of their New York City apartment.
Little brother Payson is 2, and dissolves into giggles when daddy swings him up to his shoulder for a bounce.
Challenging Stereotypes
When Holt decided to have kids, he didn’t know any other single dad by choice. But family and friends were ecstatic and supportive.
As for strangers, Holt has gotten used to their assumptions about his family. He laughs as he recalls driving through a toll booth on a recent weekend.
If a guy gets called because his kid is sick and he has to leave, it’s like, ‘Where’s your wife?’
– Brian Tessier, founder of a hotline for prospective single fathers
“There I was, in the car with my two kids in the backseat,” he says, “and I was fumbling for the money. And [the woman in the tollbooth] said, ‘Take your time, take your time. Daddy’s without the mom today!’ ” Holt says he just smiled and drove on.
Holt is gay. Steve Majors, communications director for the same-sex advocacy group Family Equality Council, says many young gay men once believed living openly gay meant not having children.
“Either you were in a heterosexual relationship and having children, or you were gay,” Majors says. “You couldn’t have both.”
But with the rise of same-sex marriage, gay men have pioneered the use of reproductive technology to have children. Majors says single gay men now email him or show up at parenting seminars, wanting to learn more about starting a family.
At the same time, gender roles for straight men are evolving. With more stay-at-home dads, and fathers generally spending more time caring for kids, advocates say men are realizing they don’t necessarily need a wife to be a parent.
Brian Tessier recently started 411-4-DAD, a hotline for prospective single fathers. “I think we probably right now are up to about 30 calls a month,” he says.
Tessier adopted two boys through foster care. He’s gay, but he says half the calls he gets are from straight men. Many believe they can’t legally adopt on their own, he says.
Tessier assures them that’s not true, though they may well face stigma and suspicion.
“I think that it’s a bias on the part of the agencies and the system itself that questions men’s ability and their intentions of why they would want to be a single father,” he says.
Tessier also sees lingering sexism in the workplace.
“If a mom is in a meeting and all of a sudden she gets called because her kid is sick, nobody raises an eyebrow,” he says. “But if a guy gets called because his kid is sick and he has to leave, it’s kind of like, ‘Where’s your wife?’ ”
‘I Will Always Be There To Love Them’
The Williams Institute, a think-tank on same-sex issues at the University of California, Los Angeles, finds there were more than one million never-married men — both gay and straight — raising children in 2010.
Gary Gates, a demographer with the institute, says that’s three times more than two decades ago. The census doesn’t ask how many of those men are raising children alone versus with an unmarried partner, or if they are single fathers by choice, but adoption and surrogacy agencies say they are seeing more such dads — and not just in the U.S.
Avi Brecher, an Israeli, has traveled the globe to create a family. Speaking one evening via Skype, he was holding 3-month-old Ariel, born this spring to a surrogate in Minnesota. Daniel, 6, adopted from Guatemala, was at his side.
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Making Babies: 21st Century Families
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Brecher says his dream from his mid-20s was “to have a family with three children and a dog.” He was married briefly, but it didn’t work out. He’d still love to find a wife, he says, but as a pediatrician, he’s confident he can raise his kids well on his own.
Still, he makes sure the children spend time with women, including his mother and a nurse who baby-sits them.
“If it’s female friends of mine,” Brecher says, “I let them hold Ariel so she can feel the touch of a female, which I believe is different from a male.”
Back in New York, B.J. Holt keeps a photo of a smiling, pregnant woman on a table right by the front door. She’s the surrogate who carried both of his kids. He calls her their “special friend,” and she has already visited twice. Holt says he knows his kids will eventually have questions about their family.
“Even though I’m going to have a struggle of getting them to understand why we don’t have a mommy in our picture, they will always know that I’m there to care for them,” he says. “I will always be there to love them. And that’s all that ultimately matters.”
National Enquirer Article: Sleazy Matt Lauer Gets Ann Curry Fired & Could Have A Love Child With His Mistress!!!
The rumors that just won’t go away –MATT LAUER is caught up in an incredible shocking love child scandal!
On the heels of the “Today” host signing a fabulous $25 million-a-year contract with NBC, insiders at competing networks ignited nasty and unbelievable rumors that the 54-year-old married newsman fathered a child with his news anchor Natalie Morales.
“I heard that Matt had an extramarital affair with gorgeous Natalie, and he’s the father of one of her kids,” a rival network insider told The ENQUIRER. “Everyone’s buzzing that the boy looks just like him.”
Another industry source said: “The Matt Lauer love child scandal is the worst kept secret among the network morning shows.
“Everyone’s talking about it – even at NBC. He’s trying to get Ann Curry dumped as his co-anchor, and those loyal to her are also talking it up.
“Matt has enemies inside and outside the show’s Studio 1A, and if he’s got this giant skeleton in his closet, there are many who want to see it come out.”
These incredible rumors about Matt are swirling just as the morning show wars have heated up to a fever pitch. “Today’s” lost its lead over ABC’s “Good Morning America”, and CBS has relaunched its morning show with Gayle King as co-host, to stellar reviews.
But affable Matt is still keeping the “Today” show on top, while his enemies are busy trying to sink him with crazy stories.
The ENQUIRER discovered they have plenty of ammunition.
We revealed that Matt’s roller-coaster marriage suffered a near-fatal blow in 2006 when his wife Annette – pregnant with the couple’s third child – filed for divorce before withdrawing the legal papers a month later.
The divorce filing came while the unbelievable rumors were surfacing that Matt had gotten involved with Morales during the “Today” show’s coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.
“They got very close and became extremely fond of one another,” a source told The ENQUIRER. “They saw each other when they returned to the U.S.”
Two years later, the rumors again began flying when Morales announced she was 12 weeks pregnant by husband Joe Rhodes.
“There was unbelievable talk that Matt could be the father of her baby!” revealed another show source.
Incredibly, when we gave Rhodes the opportunity to shoot down allegations that his wife was involved with Matt, he did not deny them to The ENQUIRER.
And Annette’s fears about Matt’s roving eye are well-grounded. Sources told The ENQUIRER that the balding broadcaster carried on with Jessica Thorman, a married Florida woman, until just months before his 1998 wedding to Annette.
Jessica’s husband Zoltan Molnar accused Lauer of wrecking their marriage, stating: “He’s not the goody-goody nice guy he looks like on TV!”
Published reports claim that Lauer is anxious to replace his “Today” show co-host Ann Curry, who assumed the position after Meredith Vieira left last year.
Sources say he wants a bigger personality beside him in the all-out ratings war that’s seen his former TV partner Katie Couric recently sit in on “GMA” to boost its ratings with NBC tapping charismatic Sarah Palin to join Lauer as a guest co-host.
“The morning show competition has never been hotter and Matt is the reigning king,” said the rival network source. “Everyone wants to see him get knocked off his pedestal and that’s why these outrageous baby daddy rumors have resurfaced.”
Morales, 39, remains part of the “Today” show team, reporting the news. She recently told an interviewer that she still manages to cook dinner every night for her investment banker husband Joe and their sons – Josh, 8, and Luke, 3.
Meanwhile, Lauer just bought 40 acres to build a horse farm down the road from his and Annette’s $15 million mansion in the Hamptons.
Said the network source: “I think he’s trying to keep Annette happy after years of causing her misery.”
Good News: Second Season Premiere Of The Awkward Black Girl Web Series!!!
Last year, a young black woman Issa Rae decided to create her own web series called Awkward Black Girl due to the paucity of entertainment geared towards black women. The show is a hit on You Tube! Issa and her friends worked together, got on Kickstarter and raised the funds for the web series. In fact, Issa Rae has received a lot of mainstream media attention from CNN, New York Magazine, and other publications. Issa also had discussions with television networks interested in her series. Issa Rae wants to maintain control over her show and give the audience the entertainment that is lacking on mainstream television.
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