An interview with Steven Universe‘s Rebecca Sugar! She talks about music, kind humour, and her brother Steven. [The Mary Sue]
Palestinian Harry Potter fan Mia Oudeh wrote an open letter to JK Rowling about the author’s recent support of Israel, where she expresses her disappointment and compares Palestinian struggle to the battle of Hogwarts.
Every Halloween this needs to be said: Don’t wear racist ass costumes. Look, CollegeHumor even has a handy flowchart for you.
Hey Kotaku reviewed Sex Criminals! I’ll admit to not reading the whole thing (spoilers), but I’m on board with anyone talking about Sex Criminals.
Buzzfeed is withdrawing from the South by Southwest Interactive festival due to the decision to cancel to panels on harassment in gaming, giving the following statement:“We will feel compelled to withdraw … if the conference can’t find a way to do what those other targets of harassment do every day — to carry on important conversations in the face of harassment.” [New York Magazine]
First up, the Mary Sue on why asking “is this feminist” is rather beside the point.
Black Widow was never supposed to resemble Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They both have vastly different origins and motivations, but the Avenger’s recent Age of Ultron story arc, in which she wants to run away and “be monsters” with the Hulk, both needlessly conflates two of Joss Whedon’s best known female heroes and betrays Romanoff’s character development thus far. [The Mary Sue]
And now it’s all Furiosa all the time! Here’s a beautiful essay on Mad Max, women fighters, and compulsory femininity that also touches on archaeology, Kate Beaton, The Faerie Queene, and Tamora Pierce. So the good stuff. [Hazlitt]
The accompanying comic, Furiosa #1, was highly anticipated, but unfortunately fell very short of the mark. It’s wildly offensive, graphically depicts rape, and undoes everything that made the movie revolutionary for its genre, as this Shakesville article clearly and thoroughly shows.
And then comic co-creator Mark Sexton responded to this criticism… poorly, saying that if the Wives (who are, let’s remember, kept in captivity as broodmares) hadn’t been assaulted in the pages of the comic, they would have seemed like spoiled children who didn’t know how good their lives were. I’m not really able to respond coherently. [The Mary Sue]
It’s important to aim for greater racial diversity in films (and especially important not to dismiss those who advocate for it) and we shouldn’t forget about the three actresses of colour present Mad Max, and how their roles interact with the history of colonialism in the Pacific region. [Jeanne the Fangirl]
Bitch Magazinespotlights some Sundance short films, and a couple seem particularly interesting, among them Kibwe Tavares’s Jonah, the story of two men who capture a mammoth fish on camera, and Julia Pott’s The Event, in which she animates chilling poetry by Tom Chivers.
unfridged 