FranChescaleigh's blog

High School Hottie, featured in the 2012 MTV Winter Comedy...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:17:00 -0500

High School Hottie, featured in the 2012 MTV Winter Comedy Showcase (via chescaleigh)

This is a parody of the wildly popular “Top Girl” iPhone game. If you’ve never heard of it, brace yourself, cause it’s pretty bad. “Top Girl” (and it’s sister game “Social Girl”) is one of the top free iPhone games, luring girls in with this wonderful game description:

Do gigs, shop, dress, go clubbing and flirt with HOT guys! Create FABULOUS outfits and have fun with your new boyfriend. Get a fantastic job as a fashion model and make tons of money. Flirt with boys and snag a boyfriend that gives you presents when you give him kisses!

Wow! That’s exactly the type of game I want my future daughter playing. One that stresses how important it is to look pretty and land a man to succeed. Awesome.

Tuxedo nails

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:13:21 -0500

Tuxedo nails

Photo

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:56:05 -0500

NY Social Media Week: Black Women, Health & Hair, presented...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:17:00 -0500

NY Social Media Week: Black Women, Health & Hair, presented by Beautiful Athlete • Thursday, February 16th 6-8pm @ Pump One

The conversation on black women, their hair and health has been a huge topic of discussion as black women’s health seemingly heads toward a decline. This panel will be a discussion to dispel the myth that black women do not workout and will aim to encourage those that do not exercise, due to their hairstyle concerns. In addition to the discussion, we will also intro the bi-monthly health and hair twitter chat (#blkhealthnhair).

Moderated by Tina Shoulders of Beautiful Athlete, the panel will include Niema Jordan, Health Editor, Essence Magazine, Franchsca Ramsey of Chescalocs and Francheska Medina of Hey Fran Hey as well as writer and salon owner Diane Dacosta

Click here to RSVP

Big hair, don’t care #locs #naturalhair (Taken with...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:51:00 -0500

Big hair, don’t care #locs #naturalhair (Taken with instagram)

nautilus inspired updo via chescalocs

sasheer: Check out the portraits I got taken by the amazing...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:54:00 -0500

sasheer:

Check out the portraits I got taken by the amazing Robyn Von Swank!

Please take a look at my gorgeous friend Sasheer. I can’t even deal.

photo by Leslie Hassler, www.lesliehassler.com Just got my...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:00:43 -0500

photo by Leslie Hassler, www.lesliehassler.com

Just got my head shots back aaaand I want to print every one of them. So help me decide! Which 2 are your favorites?

a sneak peek from my shoot with celebrity photographer Leslie...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:34:00 -0500

a sneak peek from my shoot with celebrity photographer Leslie Hassler

Storm Super Hero Therapy Session (via Barely Political) I love...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:51:19 -0500

Storm Super Hero Therapy Session (via Barely Political)

I love how this came out!

khaligula: just-smith: nerdydyke: thecomfortoffireflies: ches...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:34:47 -0500

khaligula:

just-smith:

nerdydyke:

thecomfortoffireflies:

chescaleigh:

No Mo’ “No Homo” (via chescaleigh)

seriously though, can we make “no necro” a thing?

I am partial to “no klepto”, but ok.

Wow… the “no pedo” one.

I’d like to see some examples which aren’t considered a bad thing. Comparing ‘homo’ to ‘pedo’ and ‘klepto’ is still letting it be seen as a negative thing, meaning that people are justified in avoiding the connotations. These versions almost seem reasonable. A more obvious comparison would be me, when complimenting a female friend, saying ‘no hetero’ to assure her that I only meant the affection as a platonic thing. That’s the way ‘no homo’ is used, and can be used, without homophobia.

You’re not getting it. The rhetorical essence of this video is presenting how ridiculous it would be to denote that you don’t suffer psychosexual disorders or manias (“bad things”) whenever you do something with which there is nothing wrong such as borrowing a dress or missing a dead person. This is a lot more rhetorically charged than doing it with “OK things” such as “no hetero” because the audience doesn’t want the innocuous things that it does to be seen as deviance. “No hetero” would not only be identifiable with a smaller demographic, homosexuals, but would nullify its subversive value: The video’s underpinning message that you don’t have to say you’re not gay for certain behaviours that should be socially accepted and seen without homosexual connotations. “No hetero” is as conventionally understandable as “no homo.” It isn’t seen as ridiculous for lesbians to denote their lack of heterosexuality. It would have shat on the entire point of the video.

She was criticizing the generalized homophobia that the term carries: It’s silly to have to point out that you’re not a homosexual for doing certain things which should be socially agreeable (i.e. telling someone in the same-sex that they are attractive).

Do I agree with the message of this video? No. I think both “no hetero” and “no homo” have their uses. Mixed signals are a real thing that should be avoided and they can through the help of those terms. That, however, doesn’t make your interpretation of the video less faulty. To criticize that it only mentioned bad things is to miss what she’s trying to say.

We might not see eye to eye on the “usefulness” of the phrase, but K explains the point of my video quite perfectly.

Loc Hairstyle Tutorial: Urban Bush Babe Bun (via...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:14:06 -0500

Loc Hairstyle Tutorial: Urban Bush Babe Bun (via Chescalocs)

Here’s the long over due tutorial for the the Urban Bush Babes inspired bun that I wore on Anderson last week.

husssel: So, I was reading through my comments the other day...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:19:00 -0500

husssel:

So, I was reading through my comments the other day when I came across one that really disturbed me…This girl is really pretty. NO HOMO. I know what you’re thinking “It’s 2012 who still says that”. I thought the same thing too. But for those of you who don’t know. No Homo is a qualifier that is used to assure your present company that you are not in fact a homosexual. Because this phrase makes my skin crawl. I decided to make up a few qualifiers of my own and with your help I hope that I can make these really popular in 2012. - Chescaleigh

SO. AWESOME.

No Mo’ “No Homo” (via chescaleigh) seriously...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:28:00 -0500

No Mo’ “No Homo” (via chescaleigh)

seriously though, can we make “no necro” a thing?

doing “the ruby” at the Glamour offices Today was...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:17:15 -0500

doing “the ruby” at the Glamour offices

Today was probably the most fun interview I’ve ever been a part of, along side my hilarious girlfriends, Beth: actress, comedian and host of NY’s weekly variety show, “Big F’in deal”, Mikala: actress, comedian and “gaymus” star/creator of the viral hit series, “Disappointing gay best friend” and Anjuli: actress, model, dancer, choreographer and blogger extraordinaire. I’m officially spoiled. I never want to do an interview by myself again.

ps. I also ran into Sara Zucker in the hallway which totally made my day. We’ve been online friends for years, so it was great to finally meet her, even though it was only in passing. And yes, she’s just as adorable in person. Seriously.

Anderson Web Exclusive: Erica Hill, Tabatha Coffey and...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:49:00 -0500

Anderson Web Exclusive: Erica Hill, Tabatha Coffey and Franchesca Ramsey Talk Headlines (via andersoncooper.com)

I went back to the Anderson show last week to talk headlines with Erica Hill and Tabatha from Tabatha’s take over on Bravo.

my response to the "blacklash"

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:41:00 -0500

The following is a comment left on my most recent post, along with my reply. I hope this clears things up and that people can see where I’m coming from, how this whole mess happened and more importantly accept my apology.

Filomena:
I’m sad this ended so disappointingly, because I think you’re smart, hilarious (beautiful, sry to be so shallow, bb) and I really loved yr vid. While I liked that guy’s response a LOT, his was just one of many, and it’s weird that you don’t see how problematic it was to set him above everyone else. You have to understand that it’s a world of frustrating to see white people lauded for saying the same stuff we’ve been saying and ignored for— it’s more frustrating when fellow PoC’s perpetuate the idea of the white knight who takes up our cause and makes us palatable to the rest of the white people.

Shit black girls do to other black girls, dismiss them while favoring the one decent white dude who agrees with them…hopefully not from some sort of self-hate, but to give their arguments clout.

hey Filomena, thanks for your comment and for explaining where you and so many other commenters are coming from in such a respectful way. One of the main issues I’ve had since this whole thing took place is that many of the reblogs were really harsh and filled with insults and profanity. Because of that it was really difficult for me to glean the message without being turned off completely. This has been really tough for me because I’m really trying my best to be understanding and respectful without being passive aggressive or rude, but it seems I’m failing at every turn. That’s one of the pitfalls of communicating online. Truthfully, I just wasn’t prepared for hundreds of nasty emails and thousands of nasty comments. So while I thought I was tough enough to handle negative remarks, in reality, I’m human and I still have a lot to learn and a lot of growing up to do. With that being said, I hope this turns out right lol

Yes, I’ve gotten lots of video responses (meaning videos posted via YouTube’s video response comment system), but most of them are parodies and not actual vlogs about the video. The few vlogs I’ve received have been negative and not from POC. The 2 video responses I received from black women, I commented on and thanked them for but didn’t post them on my blog because they were really long. One was 13 minutes and I believe the other was 15. One of the videos included clips from my video which kinda bothered me, but I didn’t press it because I appreciated her feedback. The other video rambled for awhile before addressing the topic. So my intention wasn’t to discredit their responses or suggest that their voice wasn’t important, I just didn’t post either of them because I like videos that are short and concise. When I said “his was the best” I didn’t mean because he’s white, I meant because he addressed the topic quickly and in a way that people could relate to and understand.

As of right now, I don’t have any vlog video responses in my inbox from POC, and to my knowledge I haven’t received email links to vlogs about the video. But as of right now I have around 200 unread emails, so there might be some in there. After doing a search on YouTube I see that a lot of people have posted their own vlogs, but unless they’re posted as responses on my video I’m not sent a link to them directly, which is why I haven’t seen them. Futuretalk’s video was posted on my Facebook wall by one of my viewers and that’s how I ended up watching it. To my knowledge I haven’t had any other responses posted on my Facebook or sent directly to me so I haven’t seen them. I don’t have anyone helping me sift through messages so it’s possible that some have been posted and have been caught as spam or have gotten passed over because of the multitude of posts.

So you’re right. In retrospect, seeing that many POC have posted vlogs about the video, it appears as if I’m saying their videos don’t matter and that this one does because he’s white. That was never my intention and I sincerely apologize to anyone that made a video response and felt I was discrediting their voice by posting this one over theirs. In reality, I haven’t seen many of those videos because they weren’t posted as video responses (using YouTube’s video response box) or sent to me via email or Facebook. I want to encourage anyone that’s posted videos about “Shit White Girls Say…to Black Girls” to email them to me or post on my Facebook so I can see them and continue the discussion. Thanks again for sharing how you felt, I have a better understanding after reading your comment and hope that people have a better understanding after reading my reply.

“Shit White Girls Say…to Black Girls” is not...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:38:00 -0500

“Shit White Girls Say…to Black Girls” is not racist (via Futuretalkvideos)

Honestly, it’s still mind blowing to me that this type of video has to be made in order to explain the meaning behind “Shit White Girls say…” but this guy did a better job of breaking it down than I could ever hope to. While this video response is getting lots of praise (as it should) there are still naysayers who insist that the very fact that a white guy is getting props for explaining the real definition of racism and white privilege (something black people have been complaining about for decades) is a cruel twist of irony.

While I agree that the message has been stated many times over, one of my Facebook fans said it best, “If it takes a white man to translate the reality of our societal racism to white people, so be it. He presented the facts it in such a neutral concise way, the truth simple can’t be denied.”

EDITED TO ADD: It’s come to my attention that some people on Tumblr are getting perturbed by this post and video, suggesting that we don’t need the “white stamp of approval” to make the message clear. Sorry, I think that’s stupid. This shouldn’t be an “us vs. them” situation. The fact is that some people will refuse to digest the original message simply because it’s coming from a person of color. It’s unfortunate, but true. Call me an idiot if you’d like, but I don’t see how supporting someone (regardless of race) who’s goal is to educate others deserves a side eye. I sincerely believe this guy has the best of intentions and I appreciate his assessment of the video. While I’ve seen many video responses, his is honestly the best so far and it’s truthfulness (in my opinion) has nothing to do with his race.

Time for a dressing room mirror shot like a true professional

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:14:36 -0500

Time for a dressing room mirror shot like a true professional

Shit White Girls Say…to Black Girls TWO holler

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:53:01 -0500

Shit White Girls Say…to Black Girls TWO

holler

Here’s an even better clip from tomorrow’s Anderson...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:32:15 -0500

Here’s an even better clip from tomorrow’s Anderson episode :)