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Civil rights activist Danielle Muscato recently posited an interesting hypothetical on Twitter: What would you (meaning women & non-binary) do if all men had a 9pm curfew? This is clearly a fantasy hypothetical, not the first stages of a planning meeting, so while there were some men in the replies snarking at the enforceability of such a curfew or its impact on the workforce, etc, etc, they’re easy to ignore. The much more interesting–and upsetting–conversation was in the women answering genuinely.

Ladies, a question for you:

“What would you do if all men had a 9pm curfew?”

Dudes: Read the replies and pay attention.#metoo #Kavanaugh #Cosby #feminism #maleprivilege #privilege

— Danielle Muscato (@DanielleMuscato) September 25, 2018

Oh my god. The mind reels. Go dancing? Take a walk? Open the front door without fear? https://t.co/v66MM38Btf

— Emily L. Hauser (@emilylhauser) September 30, 2018

I’d walk a city in peace. https://t.co/EhnQY2JI2T

— Sonja Yoerg (@SonjaYoerg) September 27, 2018

I’d sleep with ground floor windows open on a summer night https://t.co/HrkxYZlHzk

— Jane Burns (@jrburns) September 26, 2018

I’d run at night.

I 👏 would 👏 run 👏 so 👏 much 👏 at 👏 night 👏 https://t.co/ToE2odrFAq

— Kat(her)i(n)e Riley (@KatherineERiley) October 1, 2018

Imagine how different ALL of my life would have been. So much freedom! All the places I would enjoy on my own, and going for walks. Spontaneity to just go! I love the way the air feels on my skin when it’s warm at night, and I’d love to experience this without a chaperone. https://t.co/qPTuon9zGf

— Christina Eliason (@c_eliason) October 1, 2018

My whole life would have been different, and now my daughter’s life would be different. https://t.co/52YCx1K4AN

— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) September 26, 2018

This thread really resonates with me, and I expect with most women. You get used to a life where people have to offer to walk you home after dark, and that’s really sad. https://t.co/L6AMpSHmTj

— Laura Green (@LauraisaGreen) September 30, 2018

The heartbreaking thing about this thread is how mundane the answers are. Women largely just want the freedom to exist in the world, in public spaces, on their own streets and sometimes just in their own beds, without fear. Yes, of course men are victims of violence too, but if asked the same question–what they would do if they could be guaranteed an evening without that threat–I doubt their answers would be as simple as “take a walk.” That’s the difference.

You can read through more replies on Twitter.

• “Douchebag decree”: Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate questioning looked a lot like what women experience when they’re questioned about their own assault. But the narrative around him is distinctly different.” (via Bitch)
• Happy October! Here are 31 horror movies available on Amazon Prime. (via Den of Geek)
• Netflix released a trailer for their adaptation of the London musical Been So Long, starring Chewing Gum’s Michaela Cole, and it looks truly swoon-worthy. (via Vulture)
• Also in Netflix trailers, here’s one for Titans. (via ComicBook.com)
• Important: “We need to change how we talk about video game studios closing.” And that doesn’t just mean Telltale. (via Wired)
• Aziz Ansari is on tour, and his new set sounds … not great. (via Pajiba)

Rabbit, rabbit, Mary Suevians! What did you all see out there today?

(image: Rene Asmussen from Pexels)

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If you’ve been sleeping on alternative R&B songstress Mereba, it’s high time you woke up, and her latest single is more than enough to get your attention. Taking a quick pause from rocking stages across the country as the opening act on fellow starlet Snoh Aalegra’s FEELS tour, the Philly-based Ethiopian beauty is venturing back […]

The post Mereba’s New Single ‘Planet U’ Will Give You All The Feels appeared first on Essence.

The Captain Marvel trailer has barely been out for a month and already critics (mostly Scott Mendelson of Forbes, who famously called Black Panther a nightmare for studios) are saying it’s being set up to fail. Mendelson, in a piece aptly titled Captain Marvel Is Being Set Up To Fail, says that due to everything coming out in February and March, it might make sense to lower our box office expectations for the film, as Carol will be facing off against competition from other blockbusters at the time.

“However, just because Wonder Woman earned $821m and Black Panther earned $1.345b doesn’t mean that Captain Marvel is going to outgross Spider-Man: Homecoming ($881m) and Thor: Ragnarok ($854m),” Mendelson cautions, going on to say that the female lead isn’t exactly a selling point either. He writes:

“Here’s another key thing to remember: Wonder Woman didn’t succeed on the scale that it did specifically because audiences raced out to support female-led action movies. It succeeded because people really wanted to see a Wonder Woman movie. If audiences supported female-led action movies on principle, then the likes of Tomb Raider, Atomic Blonde, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and Ghost in the Shell would have much bigger grossers, especially in North America. The same thing with Black Panther relatively speaking. The success of that MCU epic didn’t magically turn John Boyega’s Pacific Rim: Uprising or even the fantastical A Wrinkle in Time into a hit.”

I don’t know, I was pretty much over the DCEU at that time, but I sure bought that opening day Wonder Woman ticket because I knew that if the film failed, the future of female-led superhero films would once more be called into question and female directors would be sidelined even more. Similarly, I bought Black Panther opening night tickets because the film looked brilliant and because a superhero film with a Black director and an all-Black cast matters immensely in cinematic history. Maybe for Mendelson, who can see himself in front of and behind the camera whenever he chooses, that isn’t a big deal. For others, it is.

Those other films he cites had middling reviews that didn’t lend themselves to drawing big crowds; Ghost In The Shell also flopped because it whitewashed the lead character and audiences have had enough of that. It’s also frustrating that Mendelson is trotting out examples to prove why audiences don’t show up for these films when something not led by a white man does well. Countless mediocre films about white men do badly, so where are the thinkpieces about how audiences just don’t care about watching films starring them any longer (cough Solo cough)?

Mendelsohn goes on to put his foot in his mouth some more by revealing that he actually genuinely does not know what he’s talking about when it comes to the character of Captain Marvel:

“Captain Marvel doesn’t have the same “solo not a white guy director with a media-friendly story” hook that Wonder Woman and Black Panther had. Captain Marvel isn’t anywhere near as popular as Wonder Woman or Harley Quinn. Especially after that cryptic first trailer, Captain Marvel may be the first MCU movie where, unless the fact that it’s a female superhero movie matters (which it should) the primary hook is that it’s another MCU movie.”

Were the Guardians of the Galaxy that popular before they made their live-action debut? I’m sorry, but when a film that involves a talking tree and a feisty raccoon can make millions and no one blinks an eye but when a female heroine gets a mysterious trailer and that’s somehow not enough of a hook, we’ve got a small problem here.

Captain Marvel’s big debut was teased at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, so we’re ready for her to show up. She’s an immensely popular character among Marvel fans, and has been for years. The trailer wasn’t terrible by any stretch of the imagination. Just because we didn’t get an outline of the entire plot in a minute and a half doesn’t mean that it does not have a hook. Plenty of women were moved by the trailer as well, especially by the closing montage of Carol rising to her feet and facing off her opponents. The hype train continues, and will continue until the very deliberate choice to release the film on International Women’s Day in 2019.

Mendelson comes so close to getting it when he says at the end of the piece that Captain Marvel can still be a winner without breaking records and that, “When you have enough of these, they stop having to prove a damn thing.” Which is absolutely true. It shouldn’t have to break records to matter. But here’s the thing. Between Carol Danvers and Diana Prince as the headliners of the female superhero crew, that’s two characters who have headlined superhero films, out of how many in the past ten years? Mendelson brings in Birds of Prey and the potential Black Widow movie which is great! But those are four titles total. We don’t have anywhere enough yet, and so each film’s release will include a moment where we all hold our breath and think “please, let this get good reviews and do well because otherwise things will get set back another five years.”

Does that hurt? Absolutely. But that’s the way Hollywood works.

Captain Marvel still has plenty to prove, especially since she’s going to be the star of the upcoming MCU’s Phases 4 and 5. Wonder Woman 1984 still has to prove that the first film’s success wasn’t a fluke. Birds of Prey is an all-female team up film— the stakes are pretty high for that as well. But in the eyes of Mendelson and critics like him, we shouldn’t expect them all to do serious business, since those of us who champion diverse films need to be reminded of the way Hollywood works whenever we get too excited about a movie.

(via Forbes; Image: Marvel)

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As I read my results, I found myself wanting to know more.