Noah Berlatsky

"The look on Miley's face during Nicki Minaj's savage, expletive-laden rant says it all," Salon tweeted the day after the VMAs. Less than 140 characters, but still enough to link a black woman to a longstanding racial slur.

Writing can be hard and uncomfortable and precarious—but it's hard and uncomfortable and precarious in the way that any job can be.

Rather than seeing Beyoncé's sexual performance as linked to destruction, we can consider whether eroticism might be an alternative to violence.

It's hard to deny the appeal of the masculine ideal, especially when embodied in Jude Law. And yet, it's also a depressing vision.

Maddie & Tae's new hit both indicates and subverts country's long history of sexism.

Let's not ignore the fact that the original James Bonds wasn't just white. He was a white supremacist.

Hating sex workers—and treating them as things—can get you money.

So, if there are so many ways to sing this song, and if it's meant different things at different points, why complain about Beyoncé's version?

It's not the gender that's the problem: It's the oppression.

The founder of the brilliant fyeahblackrockmusic Tumblr talks racial politics, Kelis, and . . . the Doobie Brothers?