Animorphs | unfridged

Weekend Reading List: Spiderman, Star Wars, and Simone de Beauvoir

Ever wondered about the science behind Animorphs? The Toast has got you covered.
In fact there’s a lot of good stuff from the Toast, including an investigation into the moral alignment of Jeeves and Wooster characters (obviously Jeeves is lawful good), and a piece that outlines exactly how Belle, with a little more strategy and fewer morals, could have made the ending of Beauty and the Beast much more profitable for herself.
We’ve been getting a lot of casting information about the new Disney Star Wars movie, and so far it looks like only one of the lead actors (aside from Carrie Fisher) will be a woman. io9 is, quite rightly, asking where all the women be at?
Seriously, though, there could be so many amazing lady Jedis and Siths, just look at all these suggestions. [Pajiba]
Since this is clearly a problem affecting more than just the Star Wars movie, SharcTank lists the five dumbest arguments against gender diversity.
As a palate cleanser, here are Disney character-inspired cocktails. [Cocktails by Cody]
When misandry lurks in the shadows, only one man can protect us: the defender of the defended, the voice of the voiceful, Not-All-Man! [Medium]
From May 1-3, people have been using #WeNeedDiverseBook in order to promote a greater diversity in children’s and YA literature. The Facebook page has additional information, and the Tumblr and Twitter feed are worth checking out too.
Vulture has a great interview with Brian Michael Bendis (who has spent the last decade and a half writing the Ultimate Spider-Man comics). He discusses Miles Morales, the ability for Spider-Man to represent a wide variety of people, and the lack of representation most comics fans have to deal with: “Sure, there are people who look like Captain America who read comics, but there are very few people in the world who look like Captain America.” True words.
What happens when famous philosophers try to play Dungeons & Dragons? Spoiler: Immanuel Kant ends up really, really frustrated. [Existential Comics]

Top image by Craig Drake

Weekend Reading List: STEM fields and self-promotion

HarrietTheIdol

First up is a piece that Becky Chambers wrote over at the Mary Sue about escapism, particularly in the form of video games, as a form of self-care. It’s something that’s very close to my heart, and a terrific read.
The Babysitter’s Club was a major part of my childhood (and together with Animorphs and Animal Ark completes the trifecta of kids’ series with a gazillion books that somehow were always present in your school library), and the Frisky has a roundup of the seven most scandalous moments in the series (spoiler: they’re not that scandalous).
On the subject of young adult literature, Buzzfeed has a list of great fashions from all your childhood books (if you were a late-nineties bookworm, that is). I still dress like Harriet the Spy, surprising no one.
Autostraddle has a great series on queer issues in STEM fields, and this instalment, about neurobiologist Ben Barres and his fight against sexism and heterosexism in academia, is a really great place to start.
Also about STEM fields, the New York Times has a really excellent, in depth article about the issues still plaguing women in physics. I cannot recommend it enough.
My Father’s Long, Long Legs is a Twine (text-based) game by Michael Lutz. It’s creepy and well-written, and doesn’t take long to play through. I’m a huge fan of the creativity that can stem from such basic game mechanics, and I don’t think it will be long before more Twine games get some mainstream play.
A trans* journalist was humiliated at Eurogamer Expo by a presenter hired for the event. Kotaku ran a story about it, but then she got a whole lot more hate. Can we please be better as a community?
Here’s a kitten brought back to life by a firefighter. [Most Watched Today]
And texts from a cat. [Sad and Useless]
How Many Earths? is a really cool interactive site that shows you how many potentially habitable, Earth-like planets there may be, based on the data gathered by the Kepler space telescope. [New Scientist]
These are genderbent couples from Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin, and they are glorious. [The Art of Doro]
“Confessions of a Snow Queen” is a beautiful piece (prefaced by a powerful poem) about the fetishization of white bodies in queer spaces, and the need to examine the white privilege present in dating. It’s a really thoughtful exploration of racial fetishes, and something everyone should think about. [Queer Libido]
And finally, I had a lot of fun at Montreal Comic Con, but I also wrote about the local artists and how they fit in (or don’t) to this huge, increasingly mainstream event. It’s over at Maisonneuve‘s website if that’s the sort of thing you’re interested in.

unfridged

feminism and fantasy, science fiction and sexism

Tag Archives: Animorphs

Weekend Reading List: Spiderman, Star Wars, and Simone de Beauvoir

Weekend Reading List: STEM fields and self-promotion