Here’s a sample of the interview:
OT How does your feminism fit with your interest in Pop Culture?
AS My feminism is rooted in choice and value. The choice to make whatever decisions are best for me and to have those choices be seen as valuable. When things I relate to aren’t being reflected in the pop-culture landscape or are being reproduced in disrespectful ways, I take it personally and for me that is a feminist issue. It tells me that the world I live in doesn’t value my voice, my story, my being. Feminism allows for alternative narratives, for marginalized voices, for a world beyond the dominant power structure to exist. Pop culture is one of the most powerful venues for sharing that. We just need a a lot more girls and a lot less white people calling the shots.
OT Can you sit back and enjoy or do you find yourself always critiquing?
AS Oh jeez. That’s tough. In order to enjoy, you have to be comfortable with your complicity. You have to be able to say “Yeah, I’m dancing to “Blurred Lines” and it’s ok.” One of my primary areas of interest is adolescent identity and it’s constructions in pop culture, especially of girlhood. And you certainly aren’t going to get very far telling a 13 year old girl that she can’t watch Twilight or listen to Miley Cyrus. My goal – as an educator, as a performer, as a mentor – is to encourage people to think critically about the media they consume while also calling attention to the positive take-aways.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ourtown/2013/10/pop_your_culture_cherry.html
alicia swiz 