Selena Gomez Takes a Stand Against the Beauty Myth, Amy Schumer joins in too. Good on you people!

Selena Gomez recently took a strong stance against the so-called beauty myth, after suffering some more body shaming from the media, something which unfortunately she is no stranger to by now. According to Selena, the beauty myth is 'an obsession with physical perfection that traps modern women in an endless cycle of helplessness, self consciousness and self-hatred'. I can't agree more, actually.

Amy Schumer also joined in, adding that we shouldn't strive to be another version of ourselves, and that we should love ourselves just how we are. Again, I couldn't agree more.

I actually feel like, with more and more voices like these, the beauty myth has already lessed in its grip on our collective imagination over say, the past ten years. So keep up the good work, people! Of course, we still have a long way to go, seeing that the media still likes to body shame, and that rates of anorexia and other eating disorders are still way too high. I guess the promotion of alternative beauty standards, and perhaps a relaxation in the strict binary view of gender, will be helpful in the road ahead.

Zedd and Maren Morris are unexpectedly good in The Middle. Does this mean Maren will be the next Taylor Swift?

Zedd the EDM DJ. Maren Morris the country singer. I would have imagined that these two would go together like custard and onions. In fact, I would never have imagined them working on a song together. And if I was told they would work together, I would have imagined something really, really weird.

Which means that I was quite pleasantly surprised by their latest hit, The Middle. Maren's vocals was very suitable for the song. On the other hand, the song showcased Maren's great vocal strength, perhaps even better than her own country hits have been able to do so, to date. Perhaps Maren should try to do more than just country music in the future. Perhaps she may even be the next Taylor Swift.

The TaraElla song I would choose to go with The Middle is Your Love Makes The World Beautiful. Well, not the version I recorded and released in 2014, but I can imagine the combination of Zedd and Maren Morris doing a cover of it, and making it sound really spectacular. If only I could get them interested in doing such a cover. But if you agree with me here, perhaps you can help suggest that they consider doing this cover?

That 'Times Up' Tattoo, and Questioning the Feminism of Emma Watson again

Emma Watson, who recently displayed a 'Times Up' temporary tattoo on her arm at the Oscars, was the talk of the town among some of my feminist friends. And not just because the Times was missing an apostrophy. (By the way, both Times Up and Time's Up have been used to refer to the movement, so Emma isn't quite wrong here.)

More interesting was the question of why Emma chose to use a tattoo to express her support for the movement, when other celebrities at the event were content with using pins. This predictably brought up the question of if Ms Watson just wanted to stand out, to grab attention. One of my friends even accused Emma of doing this whole feminist thing for her own publicity, which of course predictably caused fans of Ms Watson among us to list all her feminist achievements to date.

It really seems strange that Emma Watson is such a controversial figure in the feminist world, again and again, without her even saying anything particularly controversial. (By the way, I still have something more to say later about her Vanity Fair photo from last year, now that the dust has settled on that matter.) But which feminist isn't a 'controversial feminist' in 2018? It looks like being seen as controversial is probably the price one has to pay for being a feminist icon in this day and age.

Anyway, I think that Emma was just displaying her individuality. And unlike what some may think, a feminism without individuality would defeat the whole point about feminism, and would be a feminism not worth having. At least according to this liberal feminist.

So, the bottom line: I remain a fan of Emma Watson. We may not always agree, but I appreciate her individuality. Emma is indeed something special.

No Excuses is yet another familiar sounding track from Meghan Trainor. It's time she raised her game.

Meghan Trainor's latest single, No Excuses, is proving to be another major hit for her. As you would expect it to be - radio friendly, catchy, and all that.

It also sounds familiar. Overly familiar, to be honest. I mean, firstly it's just more of her usual style. It reminds me too much of No (2016), for example. Or Dear Future Husband (2014). I do like her style, but perhaps it's time she introduced a bit of variation. Secondly, it also sounds too much like the generic radio-friendly upbeat song, which means you get tired of it after a short while. She's been a musician for several years now, I really hope she can take her game to the next level, to be honest.

Don't get me wrong though, No Excuses is actually quite good. The TaraElla song I would choose to go with it is The Real World is Overrated. It has the same upbeat style, plus both songs manage to complain about something and yet sound happy about it. If only every time somebody whinged about something in real life, they could sound this happy.

With Heaven (from Fifty Shades Freed), Julia Michaels has proven that she is no One Hit Wonder.

Last year, Julia Michaels burst onto the scene with her debut single Issues. Well written both lyrically and musically, it quickly became popular. It also introduced us to Julia's superb vocals. However, her next two hits were, in my humble opinion, much less spectacular. I was ready to put Julia Michaels down for a one hit wonder, to be honest.

But the release of the Fifty Shades Freed movie earlier this year brought us yet another Julia Michaels song, Heaven. And this one was surprisingly good. I mean, it's far from my usual style, but even I can appreciate it. Her vocals were really suitable too. And while the song's version of heaven is definitely NOT my version of heaven, it sounds really good, especially if you ignore the lyrics (which I don't agree with, sorry).

As for the TaraElla song I would pick to go with Heaven, I guess I'll go for a strong contrast, picking The Princess's Spirit. I mean, Heaven sounds very dark, and The Princess's Spirit is pure light. Also, while Heaven may be some people's version of heaven, The Princess's Spirit is close to my version of heaven.

Was Katy Perry a bad friend? I don't think you can judge her this way, seriously.

Apparently, Katy Perry can't even remember the face and name of her friend. This apparently means she's a really bad friend, some are saying.

In a recent interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, one of Katy Perry's old friends was there on the show to give her a surprise. Before the friend came on, Kimmel asked Katy to identify her friend from a choice of six pictures - which Katy got right the second time. However, she also got the name of the friend wrong.

Well, to be fair, it's an old friend from years ago. So you'd have to forgive her, right?

You seriously don't expect celebrities to be perfect people, do you? Celebrities actually live in the real world too. I mean, nothing in the real world is ever perfect.

Medicine must be one of the best Kelly Clarkson songs ever. Seriously.

For me, A Moment Like This will always be the best Kelly Clarkson song. However, Medicine should come close, or at least not too far behind.

I mean, the songs sound very different: A Moment Like This was a slower ballad, and Medicine is very upbeat. But they are both passionate and emotional. And passion and emotion make for great songs. Medicine also has the more interesting lyrics: saying that a bad relationship is 'not my medicine' is surely quite a novel way of putting it. The question is, will this saying catch on in the wider world?

As for the TaraElla song I would pick to go with Medicine, it's a difficult choice, but Not That Kind Of Retro is the one that comes to mind. I mean, both have the 'not' factor: 'I'm not that kind of retro' vs 'you're not my medicine'. Both are novel sayings, as we don't (yet) hear both phrases being widely used in everyday life. Both are also upbeat songs.

I thought Jennifer Lawrence was Nice. But maybe I was Wrong.

I always thought that Jennifer Lawrence was one of the nicest people in the entertainment industry. But maybe I was fooled.

Her recent feud with reality TV star Lala Kent was, well, an unpleasant surprise. And it appears that J Law started it herself, by saying bad things about Lala on the Andy Cohen show.

Very disappointing indeed. Now I don't really know if J Law is really nice (except towards a few people), or just plain fake.

By the way, can't we all just get along? Can't there just be more, love, around us?