It’s a week of controversy: Rachel Dolezal, the white woman who says she’s black, is back in the public eye thanks to a Netflix documentary, The Rachel Divide. What trauma led to her fraudulent ‘transracial’ identity? And why does Rachel refuse to back down? We called up gal-dem deputy editor and Guardian writer Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff to discuss the documentary - and whether or not Netflix were right to air it.
Also on today’s agenda: the glitzy annual Met Gala and it’s ‘Catholic’ theme, courtesy of Andrew Bolton’s ‘Heavenly Bodies’ exhibition. From Rihanna’s papal mitre to Lena Waithe’s politically charged rainbow cape, via Jared Leto dressed as Jesus (God complex, much?) the dress code might have been crassly interpreted and as camp as Christmas, but does that make it offensive? We run the full gamut of opinions.
Last thing - the Chuckle Brothers have not fallen out. We repeat: rumours of a feud are false.
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Links
The Rachel Divide review by Doreen St Felix for The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-rachel-divide-review-a-disturbing-portrait-of-dolezals-racial-fraudulence
The Rachel Divide on Netflix
https://www.netflix.com/title/80149821
Does Anyone Have The Right To Sex? By Amia Srinivasan, for The London Review of Books
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n06/amia-srinivasan/does-anyone-have-the-right-to-sex
Sean Penn interview, by Emma Brockes for The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/05/sean-penn-some-of-my-best-laughs-have-come-out-of-the-worst-reviews
You Think It, I’ll Say It, short stories by Curtis Sittenfeld
https://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Think-Ill-Say-Stories/dp/052552777X/ref=nodl_
Patrick Melrose, starts on Sunday on Sky Atlantic
How The Met Gala Guests Tackled “The Heavenly Bodies” Theme, by Osman Ahmed for Vogue.co.uk
http://www.vogue.co.uk/article/how-met-gala-guests-tackled-heavenly-bodies-them
Radio 4 Soul Music on God Only Knows
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b01jsk
Abi Morgan’s Desert Island Discs
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b01jsk
The Duchess of Cambridge’s Problematic Post-Partum Money Shot; & Is Millie Bobby Brown Too Young for Time’s 100 list?
Crediting your sources in the internet age & why we all love to hate Coachella
Loneliness in the young & why we should all be a bit more like Neville Southall
The Farcical Arc of The Weightloss Reality Star; And The Travesty That is the Ulster Rugby Rape Case
Feminism, #MeToo and Clapham's Sticky Carpets: The High Low Meets Oscar-Nominated Margot Robbie
Quincy Jones; SATC Feuds; & Author Laura Freeman on how reading cured her anorexia
Food snobbery; the Suffragettes & Kylie Jenner’s secret pregnancy
Women’s unconscious bias towards other women; and Kim Kardashian’s cultural appropriation
The UK’s New Minister for Loneliness; And Are We Children Until The Age of 25?
An Author Special With ‘Lullaby’ Novelist, Leila Slimani (& Some Thoughts On The Babe.Net Piece Gone Viral)
#TimesUp - Can The Red Carpet Be A Harbinger Of Social Change? And Toadmeister’s Titty-Tweets
Dry January & 'New Year, New Me'; And The Pregnancy Glow Myth
The Highs & Lows of 2017 - with Journalist & Author, Stu Heritage
The High Low Christmas Special
What 'Cat Person' Tells Us About Female Pleasure. Plus Which Social Media Platform Is The Most Dangerous?
On 'Women Spreading'; And The Start of Silly Season
Corporate Egg-Freezing - And Whether Taylor Swift Is A Billboard for Trumpian Values
A Special Episode with Iconic Editor Tina Brown - Creator of High Low Journalism & Our Podcast Patron Saint
The App That ‘Strips’ Women of Their Make-up; and Boris Johnson’s Comments on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
Arranged vs Forced Marriages & Kevin Spacey’s Netflix Exit
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