On a recent episode of The Bachelor, the ABC dating reality show that ends its 20th season Monday night, contestant Caila Quinn brings Ben Higgins home to meet her interracial family.

“Have you ever met Filipinos before?” Quinn’s mother asks, leading Higgins into a dining room where the table is filled with traditional Filipino food.

“I don’t know,” he replies. “No. I don’t think so.”

As they sit around the adobo and pancit, Quinn’s father talks to Higgins, white man to white man. What comes with dating Quinn, the father says, “is a very special Philippine community.” Quinn grimaces.

“I had no idea what I was getting into when I married Caila’s mother,” the father says. But being married to a Filipina, he assures Higgins, has been “the most fun” and “magical.”

This scene can be read as an attempt by The Bachelor franchise to dispel criticisms (and the memory of a 2012 lawsuit) concerning its whitewashed casts. It shows how these attempts can be clunky at best, offensive and creepy at worst.

Quinn’s run also demonstrates how, as this rose-strewn, fantasy-fueled romance machine tries to include more people of color, diversification looks like biracial Asian-American — often known as “hapa” — women.

Among the 19 women who have won the “final rose” since The Bachelor premiered in 2002, two — Tessa Horst and Catherine Giudici — have been biracial Asian-white. All other winners, aside from Mary Delgado in 2004 who was Cuban-American, appear to have been white. As these handy graphics by writer and video artist Karen X. Cheng show, in the previous seven years, the only women of color who lasted into the final few weeks were of mixed-race Asian-white background.

Other women of color on The Bachelor tend to follow a familiar pattern: They may face hostility and racial anxieties from other contestants, then disappear from the screen early in the season. The latest example is Jubilee Sharpe, this season’s black military veteran who fielded microaggressions from other contestants and suffered tension with the two biracial African-American and white women. On the show, these conflicts were coded with euphemisms: Sharpe was “layered” and “complicated” and “different.” Sharpe stuck around longer than most black women, but was still eliminated within the first half of the season.

Now, ABC executives have hinted that the next woman to lead the spinoff show The Bachelorette will be — for the first time — a woman of color. Who is the rumored lucky lady? Caila Quinn, whose father tried and failed to sell Higgins on the advantages of Filipina wives this season. Anointing her as the first bachelorette of color would be a safe, predictable choice for the franchise. Producers could hold Quinn up as proof the shows are changing, while continuing to reflect and reinforce racial stereotypes.

To understand why only a narrow group of women of color — biracial Asian-white women — survive in this world is to delve into romantic tropes, the stuff The Bachelor is made of.

“As objects of beauty, these women are benefiting from two helpful stereotypes about female desirability,” said Ann Morning, associate professor of sociology at New York University. One is whiteness as the persisting standard of beauty. The other is Asian women as sexualized, exotic and submissive.

Taken alone, the first stereotype can be detrimental. “Today, being white is often perceived as a kind of boring, colorless identity,” Morning said. But that stereotype about whiteness can work to balance negative stereotypes about Asian women.

Lily Anne Welty Tamai, curator of history at the Japanese American National Museum (and a friend of mine), explained where these stereotypes about Asian women come from. The trope of Puccini’s 1904 Madama Butterfly paved the way for American incarnations of a tragic love story between an American soldier and Asian woman in the mid-20th century, when American soldiers brought home war stories — and sometimes brides — from Asia, where women were often part of the conquest. Popular narratives included the 1957 film Sayonara and the 1989 musical Miss Saigon. (“I guess they just never got around to making the Korea version,” Tamai said.)

These stories cemented in the American consciousness the idea of the Asian woman as the foreign sex toy: the geisha, the china doll, the “me love you long time” sex worker.

“Asian-American women today still experience the wrath of those legacies every day,” said Joanne Rondilla, a lecturer of Asian Pacific American Studies at Arizona State University. Rondilla pointed to the “Creepy White Guys” Tumblr that collected offensive messages sent to Asian-American women via online dating platforms. In a similar vein, last year Mia Matsumiya created an Instagram account to post the thousand-plus “messages from creeps, weirdos & fetishists” she’s received over the past decade. My personal favorite calling out of these dating dynamics is comedian Kristina Wong’s incredible I’m Asian American and… episode in which she collects “reparations for yellow fever” on dates with white men.

On The Bachelor, producers exercised these stereotypes about Asian-American women the last time they cast a single-race Asian-American woman. In 2010, contestant Channy Choch was introduced to viewers and bachelor Jake Pavelka with her inviting him in Cambodian to have sex with her. Later, she laughingly spoke to the camera about how Pavelka “needs a little bit of Cambodian fever.”

“All her moments on screen highlight her Cambodian heritage and her sexual desires — usually both at once, drawing a link between these,” Rachel Dubrofsky told me by email. Dubrofsky, associate professor of communication at the University of South Florida, wrote a book analyzing The Bachelor franchise, and found that women of color win the prize of a proposal only when their “racial difference is treated as not only unimportant, but as nonexistent.”

What’s exciting on Tinder, the show communicates, becomes unacceptable when matrimony is involved. “If this show was called The Hookup, and contestants were having one-night stands, we’d see more racially diverse pools of people,” Morning said.

Mixed-race Asian-white women become the perfect vehicles for diversity on this show because they are “white enough to present to the family,” as Morning said, while still being exotic enough to fill a quota. Morning suggested they also get a boost from the model minority myth and the recent idea that being multiracial is “cool.”

Until this season’s Quinn family dinner scene, the ethnic identities of hapa women have been largely unremarked upon onscreen. Instead, only a vague, alluring, comfortable kind of distinction might be mentioned. “She was different,” bachelor Juan Pablo Galavis said of contestant Sharleen Joynt, a Chinese-Canadian opera singer from season 18. “She was elegant, and I was, like, surprised. She was so classy. And she’s sexy.”

Outside the final media product presented by makers of the show, more explicit exotification can happen. In 2007, bachelor Andy Baldwin chose Tessa Horst as his final pick. Throughout the season, Horst’s Chinese-white background is never mentioned and, as Dubrofsky noted, “is only briefly apparent during the hometown date where her [Asian] mom appears. … Her mom, however, barely speaks, and is mostly seen in the background.”

Only after the season had ended did we glimpse how Horst’s race might have played into her relationship with Baldwin. At a press conference in Waikiki, Baldwin said of his choice, “I always say the mutts are the most exotic and beautiful.”

This is the kind of comment mixed-race Asian-American women contend with outside the sanitized space of The Bachelor. “We’re exotified for being mixed,” said Athena Mari Asklipiadis, a board member at Multiracial Americans of Southern California. “If a man has an Asian fetish, he’ll play that up in what he sees in me.” She said fetishization also can come from Asian-American men who see her whiteness as exotic.

If Caila Quinn is cast as the first bachelorette of color, producers will probably continue to omit thornier realities. Her casting could represent some form of progress, though, if producers continue to highlight her Filipina heritage, however awkwardly. Portraying an Asian-American woman as the ultimate marriage material — and not as a sexualized joke — could signal a step toward better humanizing people of color in this space. But it also could be just another spin on the “model minority” myth.

And there’s the question of how diverse her suitors would be. A bachelorette of color presents a dilemma for producers: either an interracial romance — still controversial to some viewers — or a relationship in which neither person is white (who will the white audience relate to?).

Myra Washington, assistant professor of communication at the University of New Mexico, predicted an increase in black contestants if Quinn becomes the bachelorette. “Not Wesley Snipes black, because this is still TV,” she said. She guessed there would be more mixed-race African-Americans, brown-skinned men, Latinos. But colonial legacies and systems of power die hard. “I think she’ll ultimately end up with a white dude,” she said.

Akemi Johnson is a writer whose work has appeared in The Nation, The Journal and The Asian American Literary Review.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Imagine Sex and the City, but instead of New York City, the action takes place in Accra, Ghana.

This remix is called An African City, a Ghanaian series that debuted on YouTube two years ago. The girlfriends are five fashionable African women raised abroad who have returned home to continue high-powered careers, look for love and have sex. Lots of sex.

The very first episode opens with passengers deplaning at Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport at dusk. Among them is the show’s main character, Nana Yaa, who’s returning to “the continent” after growing up in New York since age 7.

Dressed in a white tank top, dark denim jeans and a perfectly tailored black jacket perched atop her shoulders, Nana Yaa strides over to the customs agent. But before she has time to take her passport from her designer handbag, he tells her she’s in the wrong line.

“The line for the non-Ghanaians is at the other side,” he says.

She pushes her passport through the opening in the bulletproof glass with that “I told you so” cock of the head and declares in broken Twi, a local language, “I am Ghanaian.”

Christabel Nsiah-Buadi is a journalist and writer living in Los Angeles who identifies as a British-born Ghanaian. She has watched An African City and says that airport scene drew her right in.

“I cracked up because that’s exactly what happened to me,” Nsiah-Buadi says. “You identify as Ghanaian and someone who you know you look like is saying to you, ‘No, no, no, you don’t belong in this line, you belong in that line.’ ”

Nsiah-Buadi explains that these kinds of assumptions, based on how you’re dressed or the language you speak, can immediately shatter the romantic illusion of coming back “home.”

The show’s creator, Nicole Amarteifio, who was born in Ghana and raised in New York, says she wrote An African City for women just like Nsiah-Buadi: Africans who came of age abroad, in the U.S. or Britain.

“I felt that they couldn’t really relate to Nollywood,” says Amarteifio, referring to West Africa’s film capital, located in Nigeria. “But there was a lot about Hollywood they could relate to, so that gap between Nollywood and Hollywood, I was trying to fill it for that audience.”

Amarteifio says she hoped to tell a story about Africa that had nothing to do with war, poverty and famine. She wanted to capture the present: a moment when young professionals, like herself, are coming back to start businesses, work for NGOs or as executives for international companies. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis and a master’s from Georgetown, and came back to Ghana as a social media strategist for the World Bank.

She says the way to tell that story — her story — came to her while lounging on her couch in Accra, watching an episode of Sex and the City. “What would the show be like set in Accra?” she wondered. “That would be the way to fight the single story,” she says.

An African City‘s “Carrie Bradshaw” is Nana Yaa, a journalist with her own radio show. And, like Bradshaw, Nana Yaa acts as narrator, cluing us into her love drama and that of her best girlfriends: Ngozi, Makena, Sade and Zainab.

These women and the men they date are Africa’s 1 percent. They’re highly educated and come from families with connections. Nana Yaa’s father is the minister of energy in Ghana, and Sade’s dad is the pastor of a megachurch in Nigeria. The ladies dress fabulously and are always perfectly coiffed and accessorized.

“They’re very privileged young women,” says Nsiah-Buadi, the LA-based fan of the show. “On that level, that’s not realistic, to me anyway. Maybe to someone else, but that’s not the life that I live.”

Nsiah-Buadi says the characters’s bourgie ways can irritate her at times, like when they talk down to waiters and manicurists, or blame their missing bras on “the help.”

Nsiah-Buadi chatted about the show recently with her friend and fellow Ghanaian Essie Blankson-Turner, an entrepreneur living in Los Angeles. Blankson-Turner says overall, the show’s good outweighs the bad. “I like seeing Ghanaian women on the screen, I like the fact that our stories are being told, and I like the fact that I can relate to it in some aspect,” she says.

“I love the fact that they’re gorgeous,” says Nsiah-Buadi.

“Yes!” replies Blankson-Turner.

“I love the fact that they get to wear the most amazing clothes,” adds Nsiah-Buadi.

“All the time!” returns Blankson-Turner, laughing.

“I’m literally, like, I want that lipstick, I want those earrings. I mean, even that — how often do we get to do that?” says Nsiah-Buadi.

And both women add: When do you ever get to see African women talk about sex so openly and see them enjoy it on screen? They told me that’s just not acceptable, broadly speaking, in the larger conservative — and predominantly Christian — Ghanaian culture, where you know better than to talk about such things publicly.

Instead, Sade (the sexually liberated, Samantha Jones-esque character in An African City) lets it all hang out. In one scene, the girls are lounging poolside, counseling their friend Makena on the best way to ask her boyfriend to use a condom. Sade whips out a stack to show she’s always prepared.

“Trojans, Durex, Fiesta, Rockdoms — pick your poison, baby!” she says to Makena, who asks if Sade really uses all of those condoms. “Indeed,” Sade replies matter-of-factly. “Take as many as you want, but leave the Rockdoms for me. I’m seeing Kwame later tonight.”

Sade is played by actress Nana Mensah, whose parents immigrated from Ghana to America’s East Coast, where she was raised. Mensah says she loves it when other first-generation women come up to her and say they identify with the show. And she adds that she’s heard positive responses to her character, Sade, from both contemporaries and women her mom’s age.

“Somebody even said, ‘Can Sade do a spinoff?’ ” laughs Mensah. “Yeah … that sounds like a lot of work.”

A spinoff is not in An African City‘s future. But the show that started as a free Web series on YouTube, backed by $75,000 out of creator Amarteifio’s World Bank-job savings, is now a money-making venture. You can buy an online subscription for Season 2, and the show’s got licensing deals with networks in Africa.

Mensah hopes that in future seasons her character, Sade, will stop obsessing over the married men she’s bedding and start using that degree from Harvard Business School. “Get your own man, Sade, come on!” she says. “I’m feeling a little bit ready to let that go. I’d like to focus on more of Sade’s work life, maybe?”

Nicole Amarteifio says she’s not sure what’s next for her characters, but she knows one thing won’t be changing: She’s not going to take any of the steam out of the scenes.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

A year and two days ago, Mariah Carey’s car karaoke segment with James Cordon aired and changed the late night game. And it wouldn’t have been possible without her, according to Cordon, who recently told Entertainment Weekly, “The person that was hardest to convince to do Carpool was basically everyone before Mariah Carey said yes. No one would do it.”

Since then, everyone who’s anyone on the music scene has ridden shotgun and sung along to their own songs and other classics, most notably Adele, who killed Nicki Minaj’s verse from Kanye’s “Monster.” So how could Jennifer Lopez possibly come close to topping that? Prank texting Leo Dicaprio…AND GETTING A RESPONSE! That’s how. She also passionately sings in Spanish and teaches Cordon how to music video pose. Watch and try not to smile:

Anyone who reads this blog with any regularity or has spent more than four minutes with me knows that I love Gilmore Girls to an unhealthy degree. The kind of love that inspired me to travel nearly two thousand miles to witness the cast reunion at the ATX festival, the kind of passion that led me to craft a shrinky-dink necklace of Lorelai and Rory’s faces, rank the top 10 episodes, make a pilgrimage to the set in LA, and empathically declare what should and shouldn’t happen in the revival. So that primal scream you heard an hour ago was me reacting to Entertainment Weekly unveiling the first official photos from said revival. It’s my duty to overanalyze them. Let me find my magnifying glass.

Found it! Let’s give these pics a look.

Aww! Our girls haven’t changed one bit! They still love coffee and each other. And I’m assuming they still do all their scenes without actual coffee in their cups, much like in this photo.

Now we’re talking! Real coffee! Did Lorelai reupholster the lumpy living room couch? Emily is going to hate this even more than the last one.

OMG. Chez Gilmore got a fresh coat of paint! Maybe Kirk created a house painting business for a day before moving on to yet another profession? Would Luke Danes deign (see what I did there?) to live in a robin’s egg-colored house? Does this mean they never really got back together?!?

PHEW!!! Look at that sexual hand-holding! In the words of Beyonce, god is real. Luke’s wardrobe is unchanged, as we knew it would be. Lorelai seems more stylish. Maybe she’s finally raking in enough cash money from the Dragonfly to chuck the bedazzled-butt sweats and spring for more cute, flirty print dresses. Good things happen to good people. She deserves all the nice things in the world because she raised Rory all on her own (thanks for nothing, Christopher!) and is such a loyal friend and…*voice cracks* *cries quietly for a long time while Googling pictures of Lauren Graham*

Okay, there is a lot to unpack here.

1. Get it, Miss Patty! Love the hair.

2. Hi, Babette! I hope Maury still plays piano for you and carries you around.

3. Stars Hollow is staging a musical because it was only a matter of time. Is it beach themed or did Lorelai and Rory move to Venice Beach to hang out with Jess’ deadbeat dad?

4. Look! One of Lane’s twins! He’s holding a beach chair, so I guess the beach theme is real. OR! All the disappointments in Lane’s life (her mentally abusive mother, her absent father, her layabout baby daddy, Dave Rygalski just leaving for The OC in the midst of their hot and heavy love affair, the fact that she only had sex once and hated it and got knocked up in the process, the fact that her “best friend” only hangs out with her when she has something to complain about, etc. etc. etc.) catch up with her, sending her into a deep spiral that leaves her unable to care for both twins so she gives one to Rory and he joins her and Lorelai in their move to Venice Beach.

What? I have a vivid imagination and stranger things have happened on this show (*cough*Luke’s secret daughter*cough*).

What. A. Boss. Still suffers zero fools. Still lives in the same mansion, if that staircase is any indication. In light of the passing of Edward Herrmann, we know Emily will be single and mingling. I hope the D.A.R. holds a Bachelorette-themed event, where Emily judges and scorns 20 eligible men, only to keep the final rose for herself. I’d also be open to her running for the Senate and eviscerating crooked politicos. Oh, who am I kidding, she could literally just sit in that chair for all four mini-movies and I would be like yaaaassss.

So Rory didn’t morph into Christiane Amanpour, like she had hoped, but teaching or guest lecturing at her high school alma mater, Chilton, works too. Based on the irregular handwriting on the chalkboard (which is odd because we all know Rory’s handwriting is immaculate), she’s schooling these kids on Jane Eyre. Here’s hoping she finds a way to incorporate an anecdote about how, one time, this really hot guy stole her book and wrote in the margins and charmed her into dumping her nice, but kind of dumb and super controlling boyfriend for a whirlwind year of dating that left her with a fractured wrist and a broken heart.

That’s when Jess will show up really frantic, like he did at her dorm that one time, and profess his love again, but, unlike last time, Rory is down and they reclaim their title as the hottest couple in modern history. Make it so, Amy Sherman-Palladino! Also, I hope Paris poisoned the headmaster and has assumed his position at Chilton. And I hope that Madeline and Louise are the Sex-Ed teachers.

Alright, this magnifying glass is starting to hurt my eye so that’s all for now. There’s unfortunately no official word on when we’ll get to actually watch Gilmore Girls: Seasons, but that just leaves us with plenty of time to trade predictions in the comments below! Have at it!

On a recent trip back East to visit my family, I made them buy a huge recycling bin and educated them on the importance of not throwing styrofoam containers out of the car window on the highway (no, really) and instead treating our planet with respect. Sure, living in San Francisco for nearly ten years has definitely turned me into more of a hippie than I was upon arrival (I chant in yoga and have been known to keep browning banana skins and other organic detritus in my bag until I can deposit them in my compost bin at home), but the foundation of my Mother Earth-loving self was not born here, but in front of Nickelodeon in the early ’90s.

That’s where I met Z.Z. Ziff of Salute Your Shorts, a short-lived show about various trouble-making teens and their obnoxious counselor “Ug” at a summer camp called Camp Anawanna. There was the ginger bully and his dim sidekick, the All-American boy, the geek, the prima donna, the sporty girl, a Rilo Kiley member, and, last but certainly not least, the animal-loving, tree-hugging environmentalist. While the other kids were giving into greed or jealousy or whatever other silly thing middle schoolers are into, Z.Z., with her Earth earrings and naive idealism was always the voice of reason.

And never moreso than in the season one finale, “Environmental Party,” in which she attempts to educate her peers about the irreparable damage humans are doing to our fragile planet. At first, she goes the enraged activist route, shutting off the power and water to send a message to her blow-drying, long-shower-taking room mates. She also turns their room into a recycling center. This does not go over well and she is asked: “Are you out of your granola-munching, whole-wheat, tie-dyed save-the-planet mind?!” Um, rude!

Z.Z.’s second approach is better: a catchy song about environmentalism! Sample lyric: “If we don’t change the way we live, we’ll be covered in PUKE AND ROTTING GARBAGE! IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!!!” Despite being the best thing ever written (sorry, Marcel Proust), the kids think she’s insane and end up food-fighting and moshing ’cause why the hell not?

Eventually, with the help of a Greek trash collector so stereotypical that his last name is Spanakopita and he randomly exclaims Opa! for no reason (Tourette’s?), Z.Z. gets through to her friends by informing them that they can actually make money from recycling! Being Americans, they respond well to this and, after some soul-searching, come to realize that Z.Z. is not crazy just because she cares about something.

So, in honor of Earth Day, consider shedding your litter bug ways and being more like Z.Z. Ziff. If you happen to write an enraged compost-related song, please send it to me so it can keep “Puke and Rotting Garbage” company on my Love Me Some Gaia playlist. Oh, and you can watch this entire life-defining episode here!

This story was originally published in 2013.

Another year, another grand spectacle at the Eurovision Song Contest.

At Saturday’s Grand Final in Stockholm, Sweden, there were pyrotechnics and glitter. There were power ballads. There were light-up dresses and costumes that rendered performers immobile. There were Cypriot rockers performing in smoke-filled cages, and British boy bands. There were capes. (Unfortunately, there were no holograms of wolves – Belarus was eliminated in the Semi-Final.)

The annual contest pits more than 40 countries against each other, as the Two-Way has reported in this handy primer. It draws tens of millions more viewers than the Super Bowl.

If you missed the live event yesterday, you can catch it on demand here via its U.S. broadcaster, Logo.

Ukraine’s Jamala was the unexpected winner with her haunting song “1944,” which recounts the mass deportation of Crimean Tatars under Stalin’s orders during World War II.

To say this song is serious is an understatement. In fact, this is how it opens: “When strangers are coming / They come to your house / They kill you all, and say ‘we’re not guilty.’ … You think you are gods, but everyone dies.'”

Politics are never far from the glittery surface at Eurovision – indeed, The Guardian says it was “seen by many as the most politicised version of the competition to date.” Many have interpreted “1944” as a thinly-veiled anti-Russian anthem, considering Russia’s annexation of Crimea two years ago. As we reported, Jamala, who is Tatar, maintains the song is “personal.”

However, speaking to the Guardian after her win, she says it has current relevance:

“Of course it’s about 2014 as well. These two years have added so much sadness to my life. Imagine – you’re a creative person, a singer, but you can’t go home for two years. You see your grandfather on Skype, who is 90 years old and ill, but you can’t visit him. What am I supposed to do: just sing nice songs and forget about it? Of course I can’t do that.”

After her win, she told reporters that “I was sure that, if you sing about truth, it can really touch people. And I was right.” She added that she dedicated the performance to her great-grandmother and said she prepared for the performance by listening to the soundtrack of Schindler’s List.

Russian officials have complained about the song, the Telegraph reports, but “the Geneva-based organisers decided the song was not in breach of the competition’s rules against political speech.”

Russia is probably particularly unhappy with the result considering it was their entry that was heavily favored to win. Sergey Lazarev deployed particularly strong visuals (Wings! Glaciers! Lightning! Space!) in his performance of “You Are The Only One:”

Russia ended up in third, and Australia took the second-place spot.

Reporter Andrew Jones was in the arena in Stockholm and describes the suspense to The Two-Way:

“There was lots of tension in the reveal. It’s a new format, which meant that it wasn’t clear until the very last result was read. So people were hunched forward in their seats staring at the results screen, unsure of what was going to happen.”

He adds that Australia had actually been in the top spot with only the votes of industry professionals counted, “and people were genuinely surprised when they lost their lead when the tele-voting was factored in.”

Here’s Australia’s entry, Dami Im’s soaring ballad “Sound of Silence,” which was the critic’s favorite:

Wondering why Australia is a part of the European contest? As we reported: “it’s basically because the Land Down Under is obsessed with the contest — and has been for a long time — so the [European Broadcasting Union] gave them an honorary membership of sorts.”

Eurovision also confronted the weighty topic of the refugee crisis with a dance highlighting their plight. The performance (which aired during the U.S. broadcast between a Justin Timberlake interview and a spoof rendition of a perfect Eurovision act) shows the dancers apparently going through traumatic events before they are eventually presented with water to wash their ash-covered faces. They are then embraced by audience members and disappear in the crowd.

Mans Zelmerlow, this year’s co-presenter and last year’s winner, says: “It is more necessary than ever before that we unite and join together, and that is literally what we do in Eurovision, where most of the countries in Europe meet together. …We obviously want to touch upon [the crisis]: anything else would be to bury your head in the sand,” The Guardian reported.

The winning act gets to host the next year’s competition – so that means next year’s event will take place in Kiev.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

After three months of fierce competition, RuPaul finally crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar Monday night in a pre-taped reunion special. Every year, some complain about how unmoved the winner appears to be, upon hearing the news of her victory. There’s a reason for that.

For the past five seasons, the producers of RuPaul’s Drag Race film three separate outcomes to avoid spoilers. (Rumor has it that we have the loose-lipped Season 3 winner Raja to thank for this new arrangement.) So now the queens find out who the true winner is by watching the episode, just like us!

With that in mind, the televised crowning ceremony seems less vital. No matter how good of an actor one is, it’s impossible for a queen to accurately project how they will feel and act upon winning until it actually happens.

Thankfully, the kind people at Logo taped the final three queens watching the finale last night. Check out their reactions:

Top Three Queens Watch The Finale Live – Video Clip from RuPaul’s Drag Race | S8, E10 | LOGOTV.com

Bob, Kim Chi and Naomi’s first reaction when they find out who is crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar.

Kanye goes on another rant. We’ve read and heard that statement hundreds of times, but today that statement is greeted by a few surprising new words: Kanye goes on another rant on a fluffy, feel-good daytime talk show where nothing edgy is ever supposed to happen.

On the agenda this time around: how he probably shouldn’t have asked Mark Zuckerberg for money on a social platform that wasn’t Facebook, the challenge of selling bone density machines, the power of multi-disciplinary artists, the power of dope sh*t, #OscarsSoWhite, shoes, synesthesia, Picasso being dead, Steve Jobs being dead, Walt Disney being dead, why being likable is not important, how working with Pay Less could stop bullying, why we did Michael Jackson wrong, and more.

Watch Kanye do what he does best and then gingerly cap things off with a “I’m sorry, daytime television. I’m sorry for the realness” :

And if you want more Yeezy, watch him refuse to play a dumb game by exclaiming “Balls, balls, balls!”

Outside her rabid fan base, Tina Fey is best known for her flawless impersonation of vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, don’tchaknow. But binge-watch enough Netflix and/or C-SPAN Benghazi hearings — perhaps under the influence of pinot noir — and you’ll notice additional Tina Fey-ian political connections.

If 30 Rock is the Hillary Clinton of Tina Fey sitcoms — corporate, liberal, still struggling with race–then Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is the Bernie Sanders — populist, radical, and, well…still struggling with race.

30 Rock centers squarely around White Feminist™ Liz Lemon, who spends her days navigating a cynical, male-dominated world and routinely resolving the bizarre, petty problems of her coworkers, much like what Hillary had to do in her years as Senator and Secretary of State.

30 Rock is the adopted New Yorker, who knows how to work the system and maybe just moved to the Empire State to snag a high-profile gig in television…or a Senate seat. While 30 Rock rarely ventures outside the confines of its titular office, Kimmy Schmidt romps around New York City, elbow to elbow with the people, trading in authenticity and quirk like a certain wispy-haired septuagenarian.

Class divisions are a frequent punchline on both 30 Rock and Kimmy Schmidt. Three of 30 Rock’s major characters — Jack, Tracy, and Jenna— have transcended their economically humble origins to the (frequently mocked) life of one-percenters. Despite rapid social mobility in their personal lives, these three are doing little to radically overhaul the systems that benefit them and shut out others, similar to a certain presidential candidate whose net worth is over $30 million.

While 30 Rock’s characters were primarily upwardly mobile, as of season two, Kimmy Schmidt’s core crew remains broke. Kimmy and her roommate Titus bounce between typical New York gigs: Uber driver, baby-sitter, Santa’s helper, dinner theater werewolf. Kimmy and Titus’ similarly working-class landlady, Lillian, ferociously defends her neighborhood against impending gentrification. In the new season of Kimmy Schmidt, Lillian becomes aggravated when her neighbors mistake her for a kindly old lady, instead of the hell-raiser she is. She chains herself to bulldozers, intimidates invading hipsters, and bludgeons unsuspecting SUVs. Take note of these tactics in the event of the revolution Susan Sarandon speaks of.

As conscious as both Kimmy Schmidt and Bernie Sanders are around class struggles, race is more loaded. On the campaign trail, both Sanders and Clinton have often stumbled in addressing their policies and histories around racial justice.

30 Rock and Kimmy Schmidt frequently flail when attempting provocative plot lines around race. On 30 Rock, Tracy often encapsulated every possible stereotype of a black, heterosexual man (though he was slyly undercut by erudite posse, Grizz and Dot-Com). The show also delved into blackface…multiple times. On the latest season of Kimmy Schmidt, Titus takes on the persona of a geisha for a one-man show; Kimmy’s good-at-math GED class paramour, Dong Nguyen, feels like a passive cliché at times; and Jacqueline’s (played by the inescapably white Jane Krasowski) continued attempts to reconnect with her Native American heritage fall flat.

Whether in the next season or on the campaign trail, Tina, Hillary (plus Bill), and Bernie all have the opportunity to shine when it comes to racial issues. Rather than belittling activists, Sanders and Clinton can take a lesson from Fey’s comedy, in which the funniest plot lines always “punch up.” In season one of Kimmy Schmidt, for instance, Titus realizes that his fellow New Yorkers treat him better in his werewolf costume than as a Black man.

Comedians and politicians alike must name and mock the absurdity of racism, from the writers’ room in 30 Rockefeller Plaza to a fried-Twinkie-saturated rural Iowan campaign stop. Though Tina Fey’s shows occasionally fumble, both 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt are far better alternatives to the garbage fire that is The Apprentice.

Hey, can I borrow $4.15 million? I left my trust fund in a past lifetime. You see, I need the cash because the 1883 Victorian that served as the exterior for the Full House home is up for sale. It’s a piece of television history (and my childhood) and I kind of need to live in it.

…

I’m going to take your silence as a hard pass on lending me millions so I’ll settle for taking a photo tour:

There she is! A fresh new coat of paint and a tree that’s really grown since the first season of Full House. Way to reach for the stars, tree!

SFGate says, “The home’s off-white exterior that appeared in ‘Full House’ has been painted a dark purple and the famous red door is gone, but anyone would probably agree the richer paint color looks far more elegant.” Nope. Anyone would probably not agree. #JusticefortheRedDoor!

Okay, fine, the doors are “elegant.” Nostalgia has a tendency to get me riled up.

Wow. This is definitely…a look. Potato sack chic.

A little stuffy for Netflix and Chill, but it’ll do.

No butt shall be left chairless! Also, what exactly is going on in that painting? Umbilical cord drama?

Ohhh, okay, this is where the Netflix and Chill goes down. Got it.

Hanging framed paintings in front of books is an interesting choice.

Huge sink means you can wait even longer to wash your dishes. Oh, who am I kidding, that’s what the dishwasher or maid is for. And I spy with my little eye a fully-stocked wine cellar. Let the generous pours wash over us all!

Put your shoes on while sitting on this love seat at the foot of the bed…

…or put your shoes on while sitting in front of the bedroom fireplace. Up to you. Being filthy rich is all about meaningless, endless options.

Woah! Mallard-obsessed Bunny from Sex and the City strikes again!

If I’m handing over $4.15 million, the least the former owner could do is leave the tension rod behind for my dirty shower curtain. Geez.

Every mansion needs a useless room no one wants to hang out in.

Ahh, a little slice of Versailles, minus all the riff raff.

A perfect place to erect a statue of yourself or your accountant.

And this ends our journey through this pop culture landmark. Again, lend me some money or buy this pad yourself and let me be your Kato Kaelin. Either way.

Escaping child stardom with your sanity,  self-worth and sense of reality intact is — as Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Corey Feldman could tell you — nothing short of a triumph.  It’s probably not a coincidence that the former child actors who seem the most well-adjusted in adulthood are just that: former actors.

Case in point? Danica McKellar, the ultimate girl next door, who stole America’s tender, pubescent hearts as Winnie Cooper in The Wonder Years from 1988 to 1993. McKellar, now 41, has authored four books for kids and teens about math — with a special focus on convincing young women, who are still sorely underrepresented in math- and science-related careers, that math is cool.

In the video below, the latest in NOVA’s “Secret Lives of Scientists” series, McKellar explains how being good at math helped the former child star reinvent herself once she got to college, and in so doing provided an invaluable source of self-esteem.

To most, of course, she will always continue to be Winnie Cooper. As a certified Wonder Years expert myself, I can tell you that this is partly because the role of Winnie Cooper was really quite well-drawn for a teenage love interest; both the writing and McKellar’s performance hold up nicely more than 20 years after the show went off the air. (The whole series is on Netflix; the first four seasons are goddamn perfect; go watch “The Accident,” season 4 episode 20, and come back and tell me if it doesn’t make you cry I dare you.)

But hey: self-esteem based on advanced calculus skills is pretty cool too. Maybe women really can have it all.

Last summer, a second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars was announced. I immediately put together a list of the queens that needed to be involved and then waited. And waited. Interviewed Season 8 winner, Bob the Drag Queen. And waited some more.

11 long months later, we’re finally getting our first glimpse of the cast! Six of the 10 queens I requested last July are accounted for, so there’s a 31% chance RuPaul read my piece and thought Cogent points! (He must have been skimming though cause he missed the whole this-will-be-nothing-without-Willam bit.) Half of the All Stars 2 girls are from Season 5, which is odd, but (almost) all of them are great so (almost) no complaints here.

Word on the street (i.e. gay Reddit) is that there will be no teams this time around, which was a major criticism of the first All Stars. Also unlike the last time around, there aren’t any obvious filler queens (*cough*Mimi Imfurst*cough*). The competition, which starts airing on August 25, 2016, is sure to bring all the death drops, filthy reads, fireworks and everything else we’ve come to expect. But who is poised to snatch the crown and who doesn’t have a shot in hell? Using a very unscientific, very subjective point system, I’m going to try and figure it out!

Tatianna

(Season 2, 4th place)

Strength:

Always says ‘Thank you.’ (+1 point)

She’s the only queen from the first three seasons so she’s clearly learned something from her idol Britney Spears about staying power. (+2 points)

Isn’t afraid to tell loud, obnoxious queens singing Beyonce’s “Halo” to shut up. Reality TV producers are known to rig shows to keep girls who aren’t afraid of a little confrontation. (+2 points)

Drag Race judges love when a queen takes their critiques, applies them without attitude and grows from them. Judging by the look above, Tati has evolved a lot over the past six years. (+3 points)

Weakness:

Her personality is a bit understated (early seasons weren’t so amped) so she might struggle to stand out amongst these big personalities. (-5 points)

Phi Phi O’Hara

(Season 4, third place)

Strength:

The internet loves her recent cosplay reinvention. (+3 points)

She has stepped up her image by moving away from pageantry to artsy glamour. (+3 points)

She has a problem with everyone and brings the drama, which is the life blood of all reality TV shows. (+5 points)

Weakness:

Her stank, evil, bitter personality. (I wanna say -2098, but – 3 points, I guess).

Katya

(Season 7, fifth place)

Strength: 

Her kooky sense of humor. (+4 points)

Her ability to jump into the splits. (+2 points)

Her Miss Congeniality title. (+4 points)

The fact that so many people thought she was robbed that RuPaul pretended to crown her at the finale for laughs. (+5 points)

Weakness: 

All Stars 2 was taped right after Katya’s season so, while some of the other queens have had years to augment their personas, Katya hasn’t had the time to reflect, find new inspiration and grow. (-3 points)

Her sometimes tragic sense of style. (-1 points)

Her anxiety and nerves really got the best of her during her first lap. That could hurt her again, if she hasn’t developed a coping mechanism yet. (-2 points)

Alaska

(Season 5, second place)

Strength:

She’s a catchphrase machine. (+3 points)

She’s a weirdo (in the best way). (+1 point)

She’s water-out-your-nose hilarious. (+3 points)

She lost in what felt like a photo finish. (+2 points)

She’s one of the most beloved queens to come out of the show. (+5 points)

She always thinks outside the box and surprises the judges. (+4 points)

Weakness: N/A

Coco Montrese

(Season 5, fifth place)

Strength:

Her rivalry with Alyssa. That’s the only reason she’s here. She knows it. I know it. You know it. Let’s all know it together. (+1 point)

Weakness:

RuPaul and the judges love a queen who stuns visually, as well as on a comedic level. The only funny thing about Coco is when she cakes on orange make-up. (-4 points).

Adore Delano

(Season 6, second place)

Strength:

Her singing voice. (+2 points)

Her irreverent sense of humor. (+2 points)

Her popularity outside of the show. (+2 points)

Her runner-up status. (+1 points)

Her shameless Libra-ness. (+1 point)

Weakness:

Her “hog body” struggles. (-2 points)

Her often lazy drag looks. (-4 points)

Alyssa Edwards

(Season 6, sixth place)

Strength:

Her tongue pops. (+1 point)

Her ability to turn gibberish into catchphrase gold (i.e. “Squirpin’ like a chirpin’ like a bird”). (+4 points)

Her dancing prowess (splits, kicks, and twists, oh my!). (+3 points)

Her overblown personality (so overblown that Violet Chatchki impersonated her for the Snatch Game, which is usually reserved for high-profile celebrities). (+3 points)

Her overwhelming success post-Drag Race. (+4 points)

Her ability to make delicious television without being polarizing. (+2 points)

Weakness:

Her blindness to her own flaws (back rolls?!). (-5 points)

Detox

(Season 5, fourth place)

Strength:

Usually creates looks that the judges haven’t seen before. (+3 points)

Inspired the black-and-white challenge from Season 8. (+2 points)

Founding member of drag group DWV of “Boy Is A Bottom” fame. (+1 points)

Weakness:

Tendency to clique up, instead of keeping the focus on herself. (-3 points)

Roxxxy Andrews

(Season 5, third place)

Strength:

Her makeup skills. (+4 points)

Her reveal-in-case-of-emergency hideaway wigs. (+2 points)

Weakness:

Whatever she’s wearing above. (-1 points)

Her bullying tendencies. (-5 points)

Ginger Minj

(Season 7, second place)

Strength:

Great at improv, which usually plays a part in every challenge. (+5 points)

Polished looks. (+3 points)

Makes RuPaul laugh. (+4 points)

Weakness:

Forgets that there’s a difference between reading someone and being a jerk. (-2 points)

Is committed to an older style of drag, while the judges like to reward queens who push the envelope. (-3 points)

Like Katya, hasn’t had time after her season to grow. (-3 points)

So what do all these arbitrary numbers predict will happen?

10th place: Coco Montrese

9th place: Roxxxy Matthews

8th place: Adore Delano

7th place: Tatianna

6th place: Detox

5th place: Ginger Minj

4th place: Phi Phi

3rd place: Katya

2nd place: Alyssa Edwards

ALL STAR WINNER: Alaska!

But math isn’t really my thing so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. We’ll find out on August 25! See y’all then!

On the morning of December 14, 2012, I was getting ready to head off to my job as a kindergarten art aide when I first heard the news of the Sandy Hook tragedy. I cried all the way to school, as I listened to the reports roll in about the teachers sacrificing themselves, the scared young students, and the commentary on living in a world where even innocent children are targets.

Since the principal asked us not to discuss the news, I kept wondering how I would manage to keep it together in the midst of this horrible day. Just outside the classroom, I took a deep breath, wiped my mascara off my cheeks, and remembered the “Just keep swimming” scene from Finding Nemo:

And, you know what? It worked. My students made lovely glitter snowflakes that day.

Sadly, Sandy Hook isn’t the last time it’s been necessary to overcome a tragedy. When faced with news of last week’s Orlando shooting, at first I was at a loss, but then I remembered my Finding Nemo moment. And I realized that there were far more pop culture touchstones that have given me hope in times of tragedy. Here are a few ways I renew my faith in humanity during hard times:

FICTION

Christy by Catherine Marshall, on the other hand, is a sentimental favorite I’ve read so many times I’ve practically memorized it. The semi-true story of a young, naïve society girl who teaches and falls in love with a remote Appalachian community is sure to inspire the most cynical among us about the power of caring and dedication to others.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is not just a favorite of mine but also my undergraduate university’s president. He often quoted some of the final lines from the book: “My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?” This collection of six nested stories really drives home the point that every single life matters.

The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells was the first “adult” book I read as a child. And the story of four lifelong friends — the ya-yas — who support their member’s daughter as she discovers how to love and forgive, is one that has resonated with me and millions of other readers.

POETRY

Sure, you’re thinking to yourself, all I need is a good Shel Silverstein or Dr. Seuss poem. But, thanks to my MFA program, I’d actually suggest reading more widely.

“Horses at Midnight Without a Moon” by Jack Gilbert is a recent find. There’s just something about that final sentence that fills me with unwavering optimism – “Our spirit persists like a man struggling / through the frozen valley / who suddenly smells flowers / and realizes the snow is melting / out of sight on top of the mountain, / knows that spring has begun.”

Nora Ephron’s “What I Won’t Miss” and the accompanying piece “What I Will Miss” are powerful but simple list essays likely written after her diagnosis of leukemia.

FILM

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington – Say what you will about the preachy nature of Frank Capra films, but with a nod to last week’s filibuster, isn’t it inspiring to see a Congressman standing up for what’s right?

Legally Blonde – No one should ever underestimate Elle Woods. She’s a good role model for how to recover from personal tragedy with poise…and a whole lot of pink.

My best friend is a Gone with the Wind fan, so I often recall Scarlett O’Hara returning to Tara and vowing to get Rhett back and start her life anew. “After all, tomorrow is another day.” Gets me every time!

The LEGO Movie — As the song goes, “Everything is awesome when you’re part of a team.” It’s heartening to remember we’re all in this together.

TELEVISION

Northern Exposure’s “Cicely” tells the story of the quirky town’s founding. The episode won so many awards, partly because of this emphasis: “One person can have a profound effect on another. And two people…well, two people can work miracles. They can change a whole town. They can change the world.”

M*A*S*H’s “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen” was the final episode and represented the end of the Korean War. While it was a sad farewell, there was also so much love and friendship shared between the characters in what were some of the worst of times. The feelings were best summed up by Colonel Potter: “Well, I can’t call what we went through fun. But I’m sure glad we went through it together.”

In Ed‘s “Youth Bandits”, where the main characters reunite to celebrate the life of an old high school friend, the song they sing sums up the theme of this show — sometimes, returning home reminds us to keep exploring for what we truly want out of our one life.

MUSICALS

To find an inspiring song, all you need to do is attend the nearest graduation. Apart from the empowering songs du jour you’ll find there, the one song I keep in my playlists to make me feel better is Ben Harper’s (with the Blind Boys of Alabama) “There Will Be A Light.”

Musicals are also great resources for songs that can lift even the heaviest of hearts. Here are three favorites:

If you can’t fulfill the tall order of “Forgiveness” from Jane Eyre,

…there’s always the more realistic vision of the world from Spamalot’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”…

…or the inspirational crowd-stopper, “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” from The Sound of Music.

What bits of pop culture help you during hard times? Share in the comments!

This morning, those of us who believe in a woman’s right to choose have something to celebrate: the Supreme Court has struck down abortion restrictions in Texas. But victory has become an unfamiliar sensation, as of late. At the end of March, Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, a bill so extreme even some pro-life lawmakers opposed it. Around the same time, Donald Trump suggested (and then recanted) that women who receive abortions should be subject “to some kind of punishment.” The last few years have seen the curtailing of abortion rights across the US, from Tennessee to Texas, North Dakota, and most recently Oklahoma.

I’ve watched these explosive conversations and laws unfold across the country with horror, as women’s bodies are used and abused by the political process. Missing from many of these political conversations are women’s voices and missing from the media landscape, from television to film, are representations of women who choose to have abortions, whatever their reasons may be.

When TV shows attempt to stay neutral on the issue of abortion, in order to avoid offending an imagined conservative audience, they in fact take an anti-choice stance. Plot lines in which abortion is not considered as a reasonable option reinforce the spectacle and stigma around the procedure. That’s why it’s so important when shows like Scandal offer diverse representations of reproductive choices, helping to normalize the scope of possibilities available to women.

Abortion’s absence in entertainment television is nothing new. Broadly‘s Briana Fasone writes that, “until the 1960s, abortion, which was illegal in 44 states in nearly all situations that didn’t threaten the life of the mother, was absent as a plot line in television.” Fasone details this early history of abortion on TV, which included news reports, a controversial episode of The Defenders, and a Walter Cronkite special. Moreover, pregnancy itself has often been invisible on network television. For decades, women’s pregnant bodies have been largely hidden behind drapey clothes (see: Lucille Ball), tight camera framing, and even the occasional giant popcorn bowl. (I’m looking at you, Scandal.)

Even more obscure are storylines that engage and carry through with abortion in primetime network programming — the most expensive and conservative landscape in television — especially when the procedure involves a main character. Here, Scandal made history in its mid-season winter finale, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” showcasing its central character choosing, without fanfare, to have an abortion. Olivia (Kerry Washington) wasn’t the first character to make this choice on television, but she is one of a very select few.

In the early 1960s, an abortion plot on The Defenders, which supported the rights of women to choose, caused an uproar at CBS. The show lost sponsors. Affiliates in many major markets refused to air the episode. Then, in 1972, there was the Bea Arthur sitcom Maude.

In 1972 — in line with the shifting tide signaled by the Roe v. Wade decision (1973) — Bea Arthur’s character Maude had an abortion. Although she was not the first character to have an abortion on TV (shout out to soap operas!), she was the first character to do so in primetime television. Over 30 years later, Maude remains mostly alone in the history of primetime abortions, Dr. Christina Yang (Sandra Oh) on Grey’s Anatomy and Becky (Madison Burges) on Friday Night Lights are two exceptions. (Within this select group, most women on TV who have abortions are, according to KQED’s own Lisa Aliferis, “younger, whiter, wealthier and less likely to be raising children than the average American woman who has an abortion.”)

Often when TV does depict abortion, it’s a big and controversial deal. For instance, when Becky has an abortion on Friday Night Lights, the whole town becomes hysterical. Becky’s decision even results in Tami Taylor (Connie Britton) being forced by the town to step down from her job as school principal.

While accidental pregnancies are a regular plot twist on network TV, it’s far more common for characters to go ahead and have the baby. This trope wraps sex into the productivity of the nuclear family (television’s bread and butter). You might recognize this plot line from Friends (Ross and Rachel have Emma) or, more recently, The Mindy Project.

Just last year, Mindy Kaling said that her sitcom wouldn’t depict abortion because it is too serious (see Obvious Child for a great counter-argument about how to talk about abortion with humor and warmth). Thus, when Mindy got pregnant during the sitcom’s third season, she kept the baby, like many female characters before her. The show did not give her space to consider any other decision.

Then in November 2015, Olivia Pope had an abortion in a primetime show watched by millions of dedicated fans. Of Olivia’s abortion, Lenika Cruz wrote in The Atlantic, “the camera didn’t ogle, but it didn’t shy away from Olivia’s wide-eyed gaze either. The message? This is normal. This is acceptable. This is Olivia’s choice, and hers alone.” The audacity, she concludes, wasn’t the abortion itself, but that it wasn’t made into a spectacle.

Olivia’s decision to resist patriarchal control over her body also has a broader meaning, given that her boyfriend is the President of the United States: in making her decision without him, she also denies the government any role or say in what she does with her body. Her choice, quite literally, argues that government has no place interfering in women’s bodies and our right to choose our own destiny, for ourselves and any potential children. If anything, taking this a step further, it also argues that government ought to protect this right and stop prohibiting safe access to care, something recent abortion laws have certainly not done.

In one portion, the new Indiana law reads, “information submitted with respect to the disposition of a miscarried or aborted fetus that may be used to identify the parent or parents of a miscarried fetus or a pregnant who had an abortion.” There are several other typos in the bill, so this phrasing may be an accident. Even so, the implications are chilling: that a pregnant woman is no longer an autonomous being — no longer a woman, even — but simply a vessel for childbirth. It is a typo that feels too closely in line with the times, in which abortion and even miscarriages are stigmatized and criminalized. Donald Trump’s assertion that a woman who gets an abortion ought to be punished sounds outlandish. But, it is not so far afield from what we’ve already seen happen across the United States.

The erasure of abortion on primetime TV, and television’s tendency to treat it as a spectacle when it does happen, is part and parcel of this violence towards women, which denies us both the choice and ability to decide what we do with our own bodies. This erasure reaffirms the idea that abortions are not normal, modeling once again that they are outside the scope of polite or appropriate TV content.

By depriving imaginary women the opportunity to make active decisions about their own bodies, so too does television limit the ways in which we imagine ourselves and the choices available to us. We deserve to see a real range of reproductive choices represented — much like Olivia Pope’s — in order to normalize women’s right to decide what happens to our own bodies.

After 20 seasons, The Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise is a well-oiled machine. Each season comes with a few guarantees: no person of color will make it to the final four; the promos for future episodes will be unfairly misleading; and there will be a villain.

On the current season of The Bachelorette, that person was Chad Johnson, a 28-year-old luxury real estate agent from Tulsa. Jacked on protein powder and the literal piles of meat made available during cocktail parties, Chad was incapable of controlling his temper in front of the cameras.

On their very first “date,” he called JoJo Fletcher, the woman he was supposed to be impressing, “naggy.” Then, when Evan Bass, a wispy erectile dysfunction specialist, decided to roast Chad during a competition, Chad responded by grabbing Evan’s shirt and pulling it so hard that it ripped. After that, he punched a door. But Evan wasn’t the only one he had beef with: “I’m going to cut everyone here’s legs off and arms off and there’s going to be torsos and I’m going to throw them in the pool and I’m going to f*ck up this entire damn thing.”

Eventually, ABC brought security into the house, a guy with a mere fraction of Johnson’s muscle mass. Whenever JoJo or anyone else confronted Chad for his troubling behavior, Johnson would use some bizarre circular logic to reason that he only made violent threats because the guys just wouldn’t stop picking on him and, well, what else is he supposed to do besides threaten them with physical violence?

And after all that, JoJo still kept him around for another episode.

“He was probably a dream character for the producers,” says Dr. Melissa Camacho, an associate professor of mass media at San Francisco State University. But the behavior of people like Chad doesn’t worry her as much as the audience’s tolerance level. “To me, the larger question is why the audience would find this acceptable.”

Chad is just one bully in a long line of reality show bullies. They’re the characters that the audience loves to hate, even if they’re physically and verbally abusive. This apparent inability to see the abuse as anything more than entertainment deeply concerns Camacho. “Are we suggesting that these types of violent episodes on a reality show are things that we’re not supposed to take seriously as audiences because it’s just a reality show? At what point do we say that this is violence?”

It was certainly violence when Stephen Williams slapped Irene McGee on The Real World: Seattle in 1998. When McGee decided to leave the show early, she called Stephen a homosexual on her way out. Stephen, who at the time was outwardly homophobic and deeply closeted, freaked out, pulled open the door of her car, and smacked her in the face.

Camacho points out that MTV has a no-violence policy on its shows and removes contestants who cross that line. In this case, viewers actually got to see producers take action on camera. Still, they gave the roommates the option of letting Stephen stay in the house, which they did — as long as he took anger management classes.  

MTV used to be quick to act, but these days, it seems like the network picks and chooses which stars it removes from its most popular shows. On the Jersey Shore, Sammi and J-Woww traded blows in season two but both stayed cast members for four more seasons. And on Teen Mom, Amber Portwood faced domestic violence charges for attacking her fiance (in front of their child) only after the footage aired. She eventually went to prison (for unrelated charges). As of 2016, she’s still on the show. 

For Camacho, one of her most memorable reality show moments came from the second season of Top Chef. After a night of drinking, four of the contestants, including Cliff Crooks, decided to shave their heads and the head of Marcel Vigneron, who was asleep at the time. Cliff is shown on camera trying to hold Marcel down. “Everyone knew that it wasn’t meant to be a quote unquote violent event,” Camacho says. “But they were like: You put your hands on somebody. That’s assault.” Crooks was disqualified from the show, on camera.

Unfortunately, not all programs are so discerning, and some — like The Bachelorette — may actually capitalize on such behavior. One of the scariest hostilities in reality history happened on the usually innocuous Amazing Race. The CBS adventure series was thrown for a loop when they cast Jonathan Baker and Victoria Fuller in its sixth season. The couple bickered from the start, but it wasn’t until a few episodes in that the full extent of Jonathan’s temper was revealed. After losing a footrace, he shoved Victoria, blaming her for their second-place finish. In another episode, Jonathan raised his hand as though to hit his wife, but stopped himself just in time.

Jonathan and Victoria remained on The Amazing Race until they lost. Afterward, Jonathan went on the defensive: “We went in being the villains. We went in playing it over the top, and CBS kind of helped it along with their storyline.” Other networks decided to capitalize on them too; a few years later, the couple were invited onto the reality star edition of Fear Factor, and they lived up to their hype. Ever the sore losers, Victoria pushed Jonny Fairplay of Survivor infamy. Never one to be upstaged, Jonathan then attacked host Joe Rogan after they traded insults. Jonathan claims that Rogan and Fairplay had taunted his wife, and he was merely defending her. (Jonathan and Victoria are now divorced.)

Fans of The Bachelorette may have wondered if producers were perhaps forcing JoJo to string Chad along for the juicy plot line. Fortunately, the speculation was short-lived, as JoJo finally dumped him after a two-on-one date in episode four. Of course, the network still let his exit bleed into episode five, filming his return to the house for one last manufactured confrontation, probably because they thought maybe this time he’d blow, and partly so they could milk one more episode’s worth of ratings out of him. He didn’t snap, even when Evan asked him to replace his torn shirt, and Chad finally left.

Later that night, Johnson was a guest on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. And later this summer, viewers will get even more Chad on the alcohol-soaked spinoff Bachelor in Paradise, where he’ll rejoin Evan Bass and more of the men who felt unsafe around Johnson and whose limbs he threatened to tear off. 

Maybe nothing will happen. Or maybe Chad will actually act on some of his threats. Either way, millions of people will be watching. Sometimes, it’s easier to stomach a guy like Chad than the grim reality we see on the news.

“I think people are so saturated with information about violence in all its forms,” Camacho says, “that, when it comes to entertainment media, people just don’t want to have that kind of conversation.”

Every Thanksgiving, I watch “A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving,” my fourth favorite Gilmore Girls episode of all time, and give thanks that such a clever, feel-good, autumn-tinted dream of a show exists. This year, the tradition will be a little different because Netflix just announced that it will drop all four 90-minute episodes of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life on November 25, 2016, the day after Thanksgiving.

But that bit of news isn’t all that Netflix has in store for us today. They also unveiled the very first look at the new revival series. And it’s as though no time has passed since the show went off the air in 2007. As always, Lorelai and Rory sit in the kitchen we know so well, surrounded by mountains of Pop Tarts, discussing pop culture.

This time, three main quandaries are up for discussion:

1. Would Amy Schumer like Lorelai?
2. Would John Oliver find Lorelai hot?
3. Is there such a thing as a plant that only blooms every decade and smells like dead fish?

Find out the answers to these questions in the first Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life trailer:

The trailer hasn’t even been out for an hour and Amy Schumer has already set the record straight on her alleged love of water sports and whether she would love Lorelai:

Right answer, Amy!

No word yet from John Oliver or the corpse flower.

If you don’t know what to do with all the Gilmore Girls love coursing through your veins right now, consider binge watching the best episodes of the show:

Gilmore Girls On Netflix: 10 Best Episodes to Binge Watch

Or read all about how I travelled almost 2,000 miles to see the cast reunite at last year’s ATX Festival:

Gilmore Girls: Everything You Missed at the ATX Festival Reunion

Or join me in overanalyzing the first photos from the revival:

Gilmore Girls: Let’s Overanalyze the First Official Photos from the Netflix Revival

Or check out my list of revival hopes and dreams:

Gilmore Girls: What the Rumored New Season or Movie Should & Shouldn’t Do

Miss Cleo, perhaps the most famous late-night TV infomercial psychic in our grand American tradition of late-night TV infomercial psychics, died yesterday, July 26, in Palm Beach, Florida. She was 53 years old, and the cause was cancer, according to a statement from her attorney.

For the unfortunate few who never had the pleasure of flipping through channels on some odd Sunday at 2am in the late ’90s and suddenly finding yourself bathed in the psychedelic glow of her candlelight and lilting, sonorous voice — fake Jamaican accent and all — you’re just going to have to find someone else to answer your love life conundrums. But will they do it with Tarot cards and tough, motherly affection, all for the low price of $4.99 per minute?

For those interested in the official story of the life and times of Miss Cleo (real name: Youree Dell Harris, birthplace: Los Angeles, federal investigation and lawsuit story: here), go ahead and read the New York Times obituary.

If, however, you just want to revel in the fact that a person who communes with spirits beyond our comprehension can never really die, you might enjoy replicating the Miss Cleo experience by using this handy soundboard courtesy of soundboard supercenter Realm of Darkness.

Questioning whether you should go on that weekend trip with the married man? “Don’t do it, alright? It would be a bad move.” Wondering how you could have just been so callously laid off at work? “Things happen for a reason, don’t you agree?”

If nothing else, seeing the formula for a Miss Cleo experience laid out in visual form underscores the essence of what made viewers actually call in night after night, year after year: Mystically guided or not, she really did have an answer for everything. RIP, Miss Cleo. We look forward to hitting your no-nonsense spirit up for advice until time eternal.

A few other highlights from her career, including a turn shilling for French Toast Crunch and a classic Chappelle’s Show skit, below. 

[Warning: Spoilers ahead!]

I assume that like most streaming TV fiends, you’ve devoured the entire season of Stranger Things, Netflix’s addictive new Winona Ryder-starring thriller that craftily references the big sci-fi, horror, teen romance, and paranormal movies of the ‘80s.

I’m also going to assume that, like most of Twitter and all of my heart, you hate the Steve Harrington character. Because we’ve always hated ‘80s Steve-holes.

As the souffle-haired, BMW 733i-driving, Nancy-charming asshole who possesses a Trump-sized empathy streak for sensitive weirdos, Steve was supposed to follow the ‘80s arc of dying a miserable death — or at least not getting the girl in the end while cuddled up next to her in a f*cking reindeer sweater at Christmastime. Earning the heart of the smart female protagonist is a resolution that for years has been reserved for the sensitive guy bullied by the high school elite, not the smug preppy dude with a backyard pool. (Not to mention a guy who, as one astute Twitter commenter noted, is coiffed to look like “all of Crowded House combined in one face.”)

We wanted the phlegm-flower monster to serve Steve a bloody eel sandwich so Nancy could cuddle with Jonathan. Steve’s demise is our expected reward after watching him heartily pressure Nancy to appease so many early-in-the-Stranger Things-season boners and then go on to break Jonathan’s camera.

So why does Steve escape death while the internet-beloved Barb gets stuffed into an Upside Down coffin? The simple answer is the actor who plays Steve helped the character get a pass.

In an interview with Variety, Stranger Things showrunners the Duffer Brothers said Steve, who in the original pilot is “the biggest douchebag on the planet,” wasn’t supposed to be Nancy’s snuggle buddy in the end.

“A lot of credit goes to Joe Keery [who plays Steve], because he was much more likable and charming than we originally had envisioned,” said Ross Duffer. “Joe was so good we started to fall in love with the idea that he has an arc himself.” Nancy helped make Steve a slightly better person by the end. Dammit.

Matt Duffer added that in the typical movie world trajectory, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) would end up with the “nicer kinder gentler” guy Jonathan (Charlie Heaton). “But it felt almost more real to us that she would wind up back with Steve,” he said, “this heartthrob who she’s had a crush on for a long time. It’s surprising, but it felt more honest.”

If you run the Stranger Things tape backwards you can — almost — see how Steve could come out on top. After all, he erases the Nancy slut-shaming graffiti (that he helped write!) and he fights the bad monster. He worked hard to change, and Jonathan was being a creeper by taking those photos of Nancy stripping in the first place, so maybe Jonathan deserved to lose those photo privileges. But ‘80s movie history has hardwired Stranger Things fans to loathe Steve nonetheless.

Why can’t we forgive Steve just because he hit the monster with a nail bat? Because there’ve been too many Steve-holes before him. Our movie history —and an election cycle with another bratty, souffle-haired bully — has taught us that elitist dickwads rarely become good guys by the end.

As proof of this bias, I hereby give you a brief history of the ‘80s high school jerks who paved the way for our hatred of Stranger Things’ Steve.

Steff in Pretty in Pink

In the ‘80s, James Spader was the classic affluent douchebag fans loved to hate (and perhaps secretly crush out on). It all started with his breakout role as Steff in Pretty in Pink — a movie where he calls Molly Ringwald’s artsy Andie a bitch, a mutant, trash, and “low-grade ass.” Steff is the perfect foil to blinky-eyed Blane (Andrew McCarthy), whose dick is caught in the typical ‘80s class divide (see also: Spader in Tuff Turf) between what’s expected of him and what he really wants. Unlike Steve in Stranger Things, Steff never redeems himself — he gets tackled by Andie’s BFF Duckie in the end.

Steff paved the way for Spader to graduate from high school prick to college-aged (but definitely not in college) drug dealer prick, Rip, in Less Than Zero. Side note: Is it just me or did Spader seem to spend the ‘80s only acting in movies with either McCarthy or with Robert Downey Jr.?)

All of William Zabka’s characters in the ‘80s asshole trilogy

Along with James Spader, William Zabka was the other recognizable blonde ‘80s asshole. He’s perhaps best remembered for playing Johnny in the Karate Kid series (Karate Kid II was brilliantly parodied, starring Zabka and most of the original cast, in this music video by the band No More Kings). But Zabka was a dick in Just One of the Guys too. He was righteously ridiculed in that one for being a table-tipper with a “small weenie,” among other things, before he aged into playing a college frat boy in Back to School. In real life? Good dude! Last year he came out against being an actual high school jerk during a talk he gave for Anti-Bullying Day, in which he pointed to the fact that mean kids often come from broken homes.

Chet in Weird Science

As the real “buttwad” in Weird Science, older brother Chet (Bill Paxton) acted like the ultimate bro towards his younger brother Wyatt (IIan Michael-Smith) and his nerd pal Gary (Anthony Michael Hall). So it was very rewarding to watch the boys’ covergirl science experiment Lisa (Kelly LeBrock) turn Chet into a farting turd monster and hear Chet beg to get his human form (and dignity) back. (In comparison, Stranger Things’ Steve never had to beg for anything in his life — except sex!)

Roy Stalin in Better Off Dead

Given the choice between the captain of the high school ski team and a regular dude who sticks Q-tips up his nose, who’s gonna be the ‘80s villain? The leader of a rich person’s sport, of course — a dichotomy that played out in real life for the director of this movie. Better Off Dead writer and director Savage Steve Holland said his film, which starred John Cusack, was based on his own heartbreak. Holland’s old girlfriend apparently also left him for the ski team captain. Holland recreated his romantic rival in Roy Stalin, a classic prick who, it turns out, was also a classic prick in real life during the casting process! Mental Floss reported that actor Aaron Dozier insulted Holland on the set, sealing the deal that he’d be the perfect asshole for the part.

Biff in Back to the Future

Eighties antagonists often got monosyllabic names that you could spit out in a single breath: Steff. Chet. Roy. (Steve!). Add to this list Biff, a name that sounds like something a jock would grunt out while lifting weights. Biff is the beefy bro from the Back to the Future series who makes Marty McFly feel like a “butthead” no matter which decade the two are contained within. If Thomas F. Wilson’s character seemed constructed after a certain Republican presidential candidate by Back to the Future II, well, the man who wrote the movie, Bob Gale, told the Daily Beast last fall that Biff was indeed modeled after Donald Trump.

Archie in The Chocolate War

Boxes of chocolates may seem like a silly instigator for a class war, but in this great 1988 drama, they’re the symbol of the intense pressure a small group of assholes can put on teen introverts to toe the status quo. Archie leads the secret society dick clique at a Catholic school where hawking chocolate boxes for a fundraiser is serious business. New kid Jerry’s disinterest in showing school spirit lands him in a world of hurt. Side note: Like Stranger Things, The Chocolate War gets bonus points for a killer ‘80s soundtrack, one that here includes Yaz, Kate Bush, and Peter Gabriel.

Hardy Jenns in Some Kind of Wonderful

Although Keith Nelson (Eric Stoltz) and Hardy Jenns (Craig Sheffer) share a Steve-hole ‘do in Some Kind of Wonderful, don’t be fooled by the feathering when discerning who’s the good guy here. Hardy is the rich one, so he’s obviously also gonna be the jerk. When Keith falls for Hardy’s ex Amanda, Hardy’s revenge plot involves kicking Keith’s butt at a house party — until some cool punk dudes help put a stop to that one. This love triangle starring Lea Thompson as Amanda and Mary Stuart Masterson as the teenage rocker Watts was less about overcoming bullies, though, and more about loving the drummer girl over the fluff chick.

Some Kind of Wonderful was one of many ‘80s movies setting the tone that the coveted guy/girl would fall for the underdog girl/guy in the end — which is why we totally expected Stranger Things’ Nancy to get with Jonathan at the end. But then, Stranger Things is about both cleverly riffing on ‘80s cliches and subverting them at unexpected moments. We’ll also hopefully have a whole new season of the show ahead of us — during which time we can all root for Steve to finally meet the dismal fate the earlier Spader-Zapka generation of golden assholes would have him deserve.

This week, Hillary Clinton officially became the first woman to be nominated for the Presidency by a major party. This is a big deal to most Americans today. But what of the women back in 1776? What would they think of this historic moment?

Colonial women Abatha Whitmore and Josephine Hindley inhabited the bodies of Broad City stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer to express their delight that a woman was able to break that glass ceiling in the year 1816:

“Well, butter my bonnet! That is incredible! I’m going to celebrate by making a meal for my husband and then cleaning it up immediately.”

“You hear that, Ben Franklin? Women are on top! And not just your French whores!”

Stephen Colbert clarifies that it actually takes 240 years, not 40.

“What the butter is wrong with you people?!?! Why did it take so long? It’s right there in the Declaration of Independence: All men are created... Oh.”

Disappointing, to say the least, but nothing mercury shots and twerking to the harpsichord can’t fix:

Bette Davis vs. Joan Crawford, a.k.a. the Old-Hollywood feud that makes Mariah Carey vs. Jennifer Lopez look like child’s play, is coming to a TV (or — let’s be real — a laptop screen) near you on March 5, 2017. Last summer, Ryan Murphy announced that Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange would play Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Now we know what that looks like, with the release of the first official photos.

Behold!

Considering recent casting atrocities, such as Lifetime’s Britney Spears biopic or the Full House TV movie, this is pretty good!

If these photos don’t excite you, these teaser trailers will:

I know I’ll be watching!

If you aren’t well-versed in the acrimonious relationship between Bette and Joan, read up:

Bette Davis v. Joan Crawford: The Hateful History Behind Old Hollywood’s Nastiest Feud

The Old Hollywood rivalry that makes Mariah vs. Jennifer Lopez look like child’s play.