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http://geekbabyclothes.com/best-baby-toothbrushes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=best-baby-toothbrushes

Keep your baby’s teeth and gums fresh and clean while instilling lifelong habits with our list of the best baby toothbrushes!

From a baby’s first tooth to a mouth full of toddler teeth, it’s important to keep their teeth healthy from the very beginning. It’s also imperative to get those brushing habits built early, for a lifetime of good teeth. With all the options out there, it may be hard to know what all the differences are and which are the best. Well, we’re here to help! A top concern is, of course, safety. So, you’ll be happy to know that all the toothbrushes listed below are BPA-free and safe for your little ones.

Before we continue, why not check out our list of the best baby toys for 0 to 6 months, or if your little one is older, try our list of the best baby toys for 6 to 12 months!

All set? Great, time to get brushing!

Infant Toothbrushes

Infant brushes are known for their little extra perks, whether it be soft bristles, anti-choke guard, or even a teether on the opposite end. When it comes to future brushing habits, it’s crucial to make sure you get the most out of these early stages. For more info about what to expect, go here.

Baby Finger Toothbrushes

Baby finger toothbrushes are the go-to for the best baby toothbrushes. It’s hard to know exactly what’s going on in there when trying to brush an infant’s mouth. However, finger toothbrushes are safe and effective and let you know exactly where and what you’re brushing.

V-Shaped and U-Shaped Baby Toothbrushes

Beyond standard shaped toothbrushes, a few different kinds have emerged in the market. The V-shaped brushes help ensure that the top and the sides of the teeth get just as much attention. Further, the U-shaped design uses the same concept but with brushing both the top and bottom at the same time.

Toothbrush Sets

What’s better than buying a well-rounded toothbrush? Buying toothbrushes in sets, either to accommodate the baby’s growing mouth and newly emerging teeth or to have enough in a pack to be able to lose one or two without stressing. That’s where these come in.

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https://blackgirlnerds.com/cult-classics-alfred-hitchcocks-psycho-is-the-quintessential-slasher-flick/

When you think of quintessential slasher films, Psycho is definitely at the top of the list. 

Alfred Hitchcock is most notably known as one of the greatest suspense directors of all time. After all, he is dubbed the master of suspense. The story of a deeply disturbed man with an Oedipus complex laced with matricide, jealousy, and murder is depicted in the 1960 Hitchcock horror classic Psycho. Psycho is beyond a cult classic. At the time, it defined the genre of horror and introduced tropes such as the Final Girl. It was also unheard of then to kill the main character midway through the movie.

Janet Leigh played Marion Crane, a woman who becomes a victim of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Leigh was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, so the iconic shower scene where Crane is brutally stabbed to death by Norman Bates shocked audiences at the time. To give modern-day context, it’s the equivalent of when Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) was stabbed to death in the 1996 Wes Craven film Scream. The fact that Drew Barrymore, who was the biggest star in the ensemble cast, died within the first 12 minutes stunned everyone. The 2022 film Scream 5, the movie pays homage to the renowned shower scene.

The shower scene in Psycho is one of the most famous scenes in all of cinema. The scene alone took 78 camera setups and 52 edits made for the sequence. It’s also the first time we see a film with a flushing toilet ,which is quite fascinating. Marion Crane, who was assigned by her boss to take $40,000 in cash to the bank, instead takes it upon herself to take the money and run. 

When she leaves town, after an evening of driving, she makes a stop at Bates Motel. That evening, she writes down some figures on a piece of paper, shreds them up, and flushes them down the toilet. Screenwriter Joseph Stefano wanted to see a toilet on screen and see it flush to display realism. Hitchcock told him he had to “make it so” through his writing. Stefano wrote the scene in the script to make this happen.

Before Marion’s ill-fated trip to Bates Motel, which ultimately becomes her final destination, she’s in her vehicle on the run with $40,000 in her purse. Initially, this scene was shot with Leigh driving with just the ambient sound of the motor running, but later both music and voiceovers were added. This adds an extra layer to Marion Crane’s character development. Whether it was intentional or not, there is some brilliant storytelling happening here as the audience is exposed to the psyche of Marion’s mind. 

Hitchcock provides an impactful examination of a character on the run. She smiles as she creates the narrative in her own mind of how others are reacting to her absence. We, the viewer, hear her thoughts. The reflexive consciousness on display is fascinating to watch as we also hear the piercing violin strings pulsate in the background. 

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Bernard Herrmann’s evocative score. The score alone is a supporting character in the film. It makes various appearances throughout suspenseful moments in the story — most notably the shower scene. Those high-pitched, ear-piercing violin strings will forever be associated with fear and catastrophe. One of the recipes of a great horror film is a noteworthy musical score. If you can create a sound that causes the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up and gives you goosebumps, then you are golden. Jordan Peele achieved this perfectly with music composer Michael Abels for Get Out. 

Hitchcock is not only the master of suspense but also the master of seamless camera movements. In the scene shortly after Crane’s grisly murder, the camera pans over her body to show blood mixed with water flowing down the shower drain. As the camera pushes into a close-up of the drainage, a fade-in of an extreme close-up of Crane’s eye is revealed. The camera pushes out to reveal her lifeless body on the bathroom floor. Without a cut, the camera pans over to the nightstand in the other room where money is hidden in a rolled-up newspaper. This is a signature artistic style of Hitchcock. His 1948 film Rope was filmed entirely in one cinematic shot. 

In moments where we would least suspect there would be tension, Hitchcock creates anxiety and suspense to further raise our blood pressure. When Bates hides Crane’s corpse inside the trunk of her own car and pushes it into a muddy lake, there is a brief moment when the vehicle doesn’t fully submerge. Norman Bates, throughout the movie, nibbles on candy corn. When the vehicle stops sinking, Bates’ chewing intensifies and he covers his mouth. The vehicle then slowly submerges fully under the muddy waters. Oddly enough, we as the audience, breathe a sigh of relief along with Bates himself. 

Anthony Perkins truly gives Psycho all of its charisma. As Norman Bates, he depicts the reclusive motel owner as a boyish simpleton who is loyal to his mother. Perkins’ use of stuttering was so organic and realistic. In fact, it was Perkins’ idea that Bates should stammer whenever he got nervous and that he should chew candy corn. 

There are a handful of scenes that are frightening to watch. The shower scene, the scene where private detective Arbogast is killed, the scene when we see the skeletal corpse of The Mother, or the shot of Norman Bates breaking the fourth wall and looking ominously into the camera. However, for me, it’s the very last scene.

I’ve seen Psycho more times than I can count. Every single time the last shot at the end, when Marion’s car is being pulled out of the muddy lake and Herrmann’s sinister score cuts in, I get goosebumps. Because we know what’s in the car and still feel disturbed about the events surrounding Marion Crane’s tragic death. 

Psycho helps me remember what top-notch horror filmmaking looks like. And although there have been sequels, parodies, and a weird Gus Van Sant 1998 reboot that did a shot-for-shot version of the 1960 film, nothing compares to what Hitchcock created. From the crafty editing to the clever dialogue, it’s a film that stays with you. 

Psycho is available for streaming on Tubi and Peacock TV.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/cult-classics-no-slapstick-just-humor-and-pathos-in-men-in-black/

Say what you will about Will Smith, but you can’t deny that the man is really damn charming. 

I mean, I’m talking “leading man” charming. “Can never play the bad guy” charming. “Commit battery and still be considered the hero” charming. 

Don’t worry, that will be the first and last reference to that whole thing in this article (maybe). We have some great commentary here if you want to revisit that thing that happened, what was it? Two years ago? It feels like two years.

Anyway. You should watch Men in Black. Now. If you’ve been struggling with liking Will Smith recently, this film will remind you why we’ve loved him for over three decades, minus a week or two.

If you need proof of Smith’s endless charisma and magnetic personality, imagine the world where David Schwimmer had played Agent Jay. Sure, the film would’ve been fine, and legions of Friends fans would likely have made it a box office hit. But I don’t know that we’d want to revisit it even five years after its release. All due respect to Schwimmer, but, in that alternate timeline, Men in Black would’ve had the staying power of our universe’s Men in Black II.

Thankfully, we get this film instead, where Smith and co-star Tommy Lee Jones have excellent chemistry as a duo, quiet star power on their own, and comedic timing so perfect that I laughed out loud often.

On its surface, Men in Black is a sci-fi/comedy about an uptight governmental agency tasked with keeping the existence of aliens among us a secret. Beneath that, however, is a story about regret and the changing faces of government and law enforcement.

When it comes to acting and mood, director Barry Sonnenfeld and screenwriter Ed Solomon know that every moment doesn’t need a laugh. They know that to root for these characters, we must actually know who they are. For example, take the scene where Agent Kay shoots Jeebs (Tony Shalhoub). 

When Kay first pulls a gun on Jeebs, Jay still believes Kay is a federal agent with a scoop about Jeebs’ illegal arms dealing. Jay even plays Good Cop to Kay’s Bad Cop while the latter menaces Jeebs in an interrogation. Yet, when Kay counts to three and seemingly blows Jeebs’ head off, Jay drops the act and attempts to arrest his fellow law enforcement officer. 

Now, imagine this scene played another way. Imagine, instead of caring about the apparent murder he’s just witnessed, Jay just says “Damn” in a humorous, Smithian way. Or he jokes that Jeebs should’ve listened to him when he said Kay was crazy. Or he does any of the other myriad tired tropes we’ve seen in a billion previous scripts. 

It might be funny, but it’d make our co-lead and audience surrogate seem like a sociopath. Kay knows Jeebs’ head will reform in a moment, but Jay doesn’t. Instead of easy jokes, we get Jay’s characterization as a cop who’s committed to justice, even when those breaking the law are seemingly on his side of the so-called thin blue line. 

Later, when the scene ends with Jay impotently threatening to come back and talk to Jeebs about Jeebs’ collection of stolen goods, the laugh is earned because we know he’s not an idiot or an oblivious jerk; he’s an average person attempting to maintain a sense of normalcy in the face of the extraordinary. 

Speaking of Jones’ portrayal of Kay, I know no actor ever wants to be typecast, but please, Hollywood, don’t ever let Jones play anything except the straight man in any comedy duo. I know he has fun hamming it up every now and again, but he knows exactly how to handle being a laid-back foil for his more exuberant co-stars. 

Importantly, he never plays these characters as humorless or heartless, but as people with dry wit and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it vulnerability. As far as humor goes, check out the scene where Jay says “I don’t want nobody calling me ‘son’ or ‘kid’ or ‘sport.’” Kay fires back, “Cool. Whatever you say, slick,” then continues his spiel. How do you describe that scene as anything other than perfect comic timing from both leads? You can’t. Only a liar or someone amid of a delusion could.

Elsewhere, Jones evokes all of our pity for him in a sequence where he uses satellite imagery to look in on a former lover and think about what could’ve been. When Smith’s Jay catches him in the act and jokes that it’s better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all, an exasperated Kay rubs his brow, holds his tongue, then simply says, “Try it,” before walking away. When Jones’ character later ends up with this woman, it doesn’t feel like an overly-sentimental ending but more like a well-deserved character arc.

Of course, the film has its problems and lapses of logic.

It’s surely been joked about before, but, seriously, are we to accept that there can only be 26 agents in the English-speaking Men in Black divisions? Because they apparently only use single-letter designators without numerical qualifiers. 

Then there’s the idea that the MiB must be covert at all times, yet they will do things like shooting a UFO down over Shea Stadium or zip through the Midtown Tunnel in a rocket car. There’s the question of whether the Bug (Vincent D’Onofrio) also took Edgar’s vocal cords along with his skin because he could only speak inside the suit. And, even then, his actual head was tucked somewhere deep down in Edgar’s torso, so how was he seeing or hearing anything that was going on? 

Tommy Lee Jones allegedly told writer Ed Solomon that the screenplay had to either be a comedy or a science-fiction. He clearly didn’t know that the mind behind Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure can make sci-fi/comedy hybrids so spectacular and funny that we largely eschew such nagging questions.

In the end, the film quietly becomes about the changing face of government and law enforcement. Yes, we can have a conversation about police abolition and the efficacy of putting marginalized peoples in charge of institutions founded on white supremacy. 

But, as an allegory, this 1997 film makes the argument that the times are changing, and soon men of color and (white) women would take the places previously held by old white men. And it does this without ever mentioning a word about it. While this was probably not the intended nor primary message (I’m not sure Schwimmer’s casting would have quite gotten that point across), it’s still an interesting theme one can discover within the film.

Men in Black is just damn fun. The cast is perfect, Rick Baker’s alien effects are chef’s kiss, and the movie’s runtime makes sure the film doesn’t overstay its welcome. 

If you’re still feeling some type of way about Will Smith and his infamous slap, investigate why this incident has you so pressed, boil some tea, then put on this movie.

If his performance in this still doesn’t win you back, you’re either dumb, dead inside, or Chris Rock.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/the-vampire-diaries-a-missed-opportunity-of-bonnie-bennett/

As a teenage girl in the early 2010s, I was the prime target audience for the teen vampire romance mania. I loved everything Twilight, devoured the Vampire Academy books, and secretly watched True Blood when I’m sure I wasn’t supposed to. So, when The Vampire Diaries premiered, you know I was a loyal weekly watcher — especially because of the promise that teenage witch Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham) held for me. 

I thought: finally, a Black girl in the main cast of a supernatural romance series! Before the show premiered, I wondered which guy Bonnie would get and how exciting her adventures would be. Unfortunately, I, along with everyone else, realized soon enough how disappointing Bonnie’s storylines and those of the other characters of color were.

The Vampire Diaries or TVD continued the tradition of TV shows and movies tokenizing their Black and minority characters. TVD is one in a long line of shows that are notorious for the way they treat their minorities as one-dimensional, as jokes, or as scapegoats, or for just plain killing them off when the writers no longer know what to use them for, with them doing Bonnie Bennett the dirtiest. 

TVD ran from 2009 to 2017 on the CW. The CW has made a name for itself in the teen drama genre providing us with such pop-culture classics as Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl, and One Tree Hill. TVD‘s neglect of their Black characters speaks to a larger problem with how the CW represented minorities as a whole in the early 2000s and 2010s.

TVD opens with 17-year old Elena (Nina Dobrev) on the first day of school, dealing with the grief of losing her parents in a car crash the year before. In true 2010s vampire romance fashion, new student and 100+-year-old vampire Stefen (Paul Wesley) falls for her gloomy and morbid disposition. So begins the 8-year-long story of love, danger, and vampires in the town of Mystic Falls. In similar 2010s fashion, among the main cast there is only one person of color: Bonnie Bennett.

The Missed Opportunity of Bonnie Bennett

TVD had a large cast of main characters, within which was the core girl group that consisted of Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline (Candice King). Bonnie’s relationship with these girls was one of the high points of the entire show. However, it was made clear from the first few episodes which two branches of this three-person friend group would be favored by the story.

The first thing I noticed about Bonnie’s character that made it clear that she was not favored by the writers compared to the rest of the cast was just how often she disappeared from the story entirely. Most often, the reason for her absence is brushed off with a brief line about her visiting family we’ve never seen or heard about. One would think that this was due to the actor having scheduling issues or other obligations conflicting with filming, but no. She comes in and out of the plot as needed because the writers just didn’t know what to do with her. 

Bonnie is a powerful witch, you might even say overpowered too quickly, and is used primarily as a scapegoat whenever the writers back themselves into a corner. If a problem or villain cannot be defeated within the logic of the episode, here comes Bonnie, back from her mysterious extended family retreat to save the day with powers we didn’t know she had and never saw developed. 

Not only were her powers muddled and poorly thought through, but her personal life was as well. One could argue that a major part of the appeal of TVD is to live vicariously through the girls who are dating these hot Halloween monsters. And, I’m not going to lie, that was a big draw for me at 14.

In that vein, Elana has three love interests and Caroline has a total of six, all of which are main characters with their own full storylines apart from their involvement with the girls. On the other hand, Bonnie gets five love interests over the series, most of which are introduced solely as being a boyfriend for Bonnie. One of them is even her stepbrother! These guys would always get inexplicably killed off soon after they were introduced. Bonnie gets left with underdeveloped characters who die episodes after we meet them. 

We could have had many more interesting storylines with Bonnie’s training as a young witch, her turmoil about going against her nature in helping or fighting the vampires of the town, and her dealing with actually intriguing relationship drama. Instead, her character was a huge wasted opportunity. 

At Least They Tried…Right?

To continue with the theme of Bonnie being neglected by the TVD team, the actor who played her, Kat Graham, has even said in a vlog for Vogue that she asked if her character could wear her hair naturally, but the idea was shot down by producers. This is the reason for the seemingly endless amount of busted wigs Bonnie wears. To add insult to injury, her costar Nina Dobrev got hair extensions and good wig installations whenever she was tasked with playing Elana’s evil doppelganger, Katherine. So why couldn’t Bonnie have gotten the same treatment? 

On top of all of this, the majority of the show is set in Virginia in the fictional town of Mystic Falls — a town that has historically deep ties to the Confederacy and regularly throws Antebellum parties and balls.

All of the Black characters are either related (see again Bonnie dating her step-brother!), witches, or slaves (called “handmaidens” and “footmen” to make their presence in the flashbacks more palatable). 

I’m not saying that TVD is high art that deeply fleshes out its other main characters with nuance and thoughtfulness. It’s the CW. But, the characters of color, Bonnie in particular, are treated as one-dimensional, whereas her white counterparts are paid much more attention.

The hardest part is that most of Bonnie’s storylines are the most compelling in the series. In later seasons her personality shines through more, and I wish she would have gotten the attention she deserved.