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- I've noticed that Tumblr is really white. If I were talking about its userbase, that would be okay, because of course sociologically speaking social networking sites grow via extant social networks. To put it another way, it's quite possible that only the really-really-white social network is present there thus far. (The fact that it seems to be all young anglo and francophone and Spanish-speaking hipsters supports this.) Anyway, that's one thing, but the problem is that, in its full-time reproduction of pop culture imagery, the userbase tends to whitewash pop culture even further. To take an example, images of successful young actresses and fashion models are everywhere on Tumblr, yet black fashion models are severely underrepresented, even those who are far more famous and successful than many of the white (or mixed-race or latina but styled as white) models whose images proliferate. There's a blog called "fuckyeahvsmodels" which posts a wide variety of pictures of Victoria's Secret models, but almost none of Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell, two of VS's most famous models of all time (not to mention the younger black supermodels who have walked for them in recent seasons).

+ Has inspired me to search the internet for more images of said black models and actresses starting with the ones whose absence I immediately noticed (after the success of "Telephone", Tumblr's been inundated with a fresh stream of images of Lady Gaga, who's been on tour in Australia and caught in candids most days and in on-stage snapshots most nights; but while the image stills of Beyoncé from the video are being reproduced enthusiastically, it hasn't led to a huge wave of other pictures of Beyoncé, who is one of the most successful women in American entertainment today, and whom there are plenty of images of. This is fairly contrary to the way Tumblr typically works, where buzz about current movies and tv shows drastically affects the level of picspam about people). Anyway, the plus side is that I've discovered tons more gorgeous models and my "girls" image directory is bursting at the seams.

"Sophie", brand new from Vans. I NEED THESE WHY AREN'T THEY ON MY UK SHOE SITES YET

When I was about 5-7 or so (1988-1990), there was a brief resurgence of the saddle shoe and they were easily obtainable from your average American shop. I went through several pairs in a row. One of the Barbie lines I was really into was Barbie and the Sensations, a poodle-skirt era all-girl Barbie rock band, and I actually bought with my saved allowance all three of these dolls (I usually only wanted the black, latina, or Asian one: I didn't like blonde dolls because I couldn't identify with blonde heroines) - principally because they came in sparkly letter jackets and little Barbie saddle shoes.

I've been thinking about my sense of style as a small child lately. A shoe post focusing on my shoe wardrobe from age 5-7 or so, when I first reached shoe consciousness and started choosing my own, is probably on its way soon. My conclusion is that I could probably get by today with adult versions of that shoe wardrobe and nothing else, if I had to...

St Trinian's picspam II: The Belles of St Trinian's (part 2, Lily Cole, Paloma Faith, Juno Temple)

Continued from last week!



an actress picspam featuring the stars of St Trinian's (clockwise from TL):

Juno Temple, Paloma Faith, Lena Headey, Talulah Riley, Mischa Barton, Gemma Arterton, Caterina Murino, Lily Cole, & Tamsin Egerton (in the center)

Part 2: Supermodel Lily Cole, Singer/Scene Queen Paloma Faith & Actresses Juno Temple and Tamsin Egerton
with minute guest appearances from Amara Karan, Antonia Bernath, and Kathryn Drysdale, who seem to have some sort of inexplicable aversion to being photographed! (Seriously, you can find more pictures of me on the internet I bet. Under my real name!)

Supermodel Lily Cole has been in the public eye since she was a wee teenie, but it was only after St Trinian's that she started having an acting career as well. A couple of these images are stills from Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus. Paloma Faith is a burlesque performer, musician, and generally awesome alternative model-type person, so there are many pictures of her as well.

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