Cintra Wilson (born 1967) is an American writer, performer and cultural critic. Dubbed "the

Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. From a conflicted and unhap ...

of the cyber age", she is best known for her commentary on popular culture which is often humorous and irreverent in tone. She contributed to the ''New York Times'' for its "Critical Shopper" series and is considered one of the 50 "most influential people working in New York fashion". Wilson is also a regular contributor to the ''

Hartford Advocate ''CTNow'' is a free weekly newspaper in central and southwestern Connecticut, published by the '' Hartford Courant''. The previous iteration of CTNow was New Mass. Media, a privately owned weekly newspaper company until 1999, when its owners, in ...

'' for her political column "The C Word". Her books include ''Fear and Clothing: Unbuckling American Style'', '' A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Re-examined as a Grotesque Crippling Disease'', '' Colors Insulting to Nature'', and '' Caligula for President: Better American Living Through Tyranny''. She wrote a bi-weekly column called ''The Dregulator,'' which critiqued the tabloid culture and was syndicated in a number of alternative weeklies. She was a frequent contributor to

Salon.com ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/ liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...

from 1994–2007.

Life and career

Wilson was born on October 9, 1967, in Butte County,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. She grew up initially in Chico, and later in Marin County,

, where she attended

Tamalpais High School Tamalpais High School (often abbreviated as Tam) is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises almost above Mill Valley. Tamalpais High Scho ...

. After dropping out of high school, Wilson went to

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...

. She was an avant-garde playwright in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

as well as a contributor to ''

Frisko Unilever plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Fast-moving consumer goods, consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cr ...

'' magazine and the '' San Francisco Examiner'', where she wrote a weekly advice column called "Cintra Wilson Feels Your Pain." Her first play, ''Juvee'', based on her experiences in juvenile hall, was produced when she was 20. She lived in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

for a time (where she was engaged to musician Kevin Gilbert at the time of his death), and now lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. She was a frequent contributor for

chronicling celebrity tabloid news and has provided frequent commentary on various award presentations, most notably the Oscars. She writes for the "Critical Shopper", a ''New York Times'' fashion column to which she frequently contributes and has been credited with bringing together "tremendous erudition and a singular approach to an otherwise disposable area of a newspaper". Wilson is also the creator and voice of '' Winter Steele'', which was a puppet

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

series on MTV's ''

Liquid Television ''Liquid Television'' was an animation showcase that appeared on MTV from 1991 to 1995. It has served as the launching point for several high-profile original cartoons, including ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' and '' Æon Flux''. The bulk of ''Liquid ...

'' in the early 1990s. Her column "The Dregulator" steadily evolved from a commentary on tabloid reportage to a purely political column called
The C Word
published by the ''Hartford Advocate'', ''The Fairfield County Weekly'' and the ''New Haven Advocate''. On December 6, 2010 Wilson wrote in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in "The C Word" entitled, "Julian Assange Isn't Doing Anything Worse Than What Our Government Is Doing". Wilson was featured in ''Salon'' in 2008 for her political commentary on the then Republican Party candidate for Vice President, Sarah Palin, describing Palin as the "centerfold spread, revealing the ugliest underside of Republican ambitions – their insanely zealous and cynical drive to win power by any means necessary, even at the cost of actual leadership." In her trademark satirical rhetoric, she went on to describe Palin as "the White House bunny – the most nauseating novelty confection of the evangelical mind-set since Southern "chastity balls," wherein teen girls pledge abstinence from premarital sex by ceremonially faux-marrying their own fathers." Conversely, in a "C Word" article entitled ''The Hot and the Dead'', Wilson had said of the Obama administration, “President Obama... is beginning to look merely ceremonial, like the Queen of England. Despite the fact that he relinquished none of the concentrated imperial superpowers and near-papal infallibility claimed for the Presidency by Cheney, Obama still doesn’t seem to have the right wooden stakes or zombie head-smashing shovels to actually implement any real reforms. He has been either unwilling or unable to sit on the lobbyists, who have been playing musical chairs and orgies of footsie around the public/private sectors since the Clinton era..."

Works

Books *'' A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Re-examined as a Grotesque Crippling Disease and Other Cultural Revelations'' (2000) *'' Colors Insulting to Nature'' (2004) *''Caligula for President: Better American Living Through Tyranny'' (2008) * ''Fear and Clothing: Unbuckling American Style'' (2015) Short Fiction * ''Red Spiral Notebook'' (1995) * ''The Abounding Gutter'' (2005) Animated Series *'' Winter Steele'' – for MTV's Liquid Television (1991–1993) Plays * ''Juvee'' (1988) * ''Dognite'' (1989) * ''The Bitzy La Fever's Kingdom of Passion Trilogy'' (1989) * ''Arbuckle'' (1990) * ''XXX Love Act'' (1992) * ''Alien Soul'' (1994) * ''Soul Hunt''

References

External links

* Official Website
Cintra Wilson
* Yabroff, Jennie (September 19, 2004).
Color Her Cintra
. ''San Francisco Chronicle'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Cintra 1967 births Living people Writers from California People from Butte County, California Tamalpais High School alumni 20th-century American writers 21st-century American writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American women writers People from Chico, California