Kotaku | unfridged

Let’s start things off with a wonderful Medium piece about the history of ambiguously gendered characters in anime and manga, and how the North American versions of these stories are slowly catching up.
The Mary Sue interviews Teal Sherer, whose My Gimpy Life webseries was successfully funded and is getting a second season in February. She talks about the upcoming episodes, Hollywood, and being an actress with a disability. You can watch season one here.
This piece on Racialicious makes a solid case for an overrepresentation of people of colour in film, that we shouldn’t just be striving for better representation, but should be actively humanizing people of colour by seeing them in a variety of roles, everywhere and all the time.
Whether or not you’re generally a fan of the gchat interview, The Hairpin talking to game designer/trans* woman/badass Porpentine is worth the read.
Being trans*, genderqueer or an otherwise non-binary person can offer some interesting insights, as this piece, “It is Easier Now That I Look Like a Guy,” about the tech industry, shows. [Geek Feminism]
A developer was approached via Facebook by a games reporter, and the conversation very quickly became both harassment and deeply unprofessional. A screenshot of the exchange made the rounds a little while ago, and now Kotaku has interviewed her. She stays anonymous, but does explain the shock you feel when these things happen, and the sense of powerlessness they can leave you with.
“So here I was, at the ripe age of twenty-four, actually considering whether the vibrating insides of a tribble would be enough to get me off.” When you try to MacGyver a sex toy from childhood possessions, fun things happen. [The Toast]
Lana del Rey’s cover of “Once Upon a Dream” is beautiful, haunting, actually making me excited for the upcoming Maleficent.

Tagged anime, Geek Feminism, Kotaku, Lana del Rey, MacGyver, Maleficent, Medium, My Gimpy Life, Once Upon a Dream, Porpentine, Racialicious, Sleeping Beauty, Star Trek, Teal Shere, The Hairpin, The Mary Sue, The Toast, tribble

Jan 24 2014

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Weekend Reading List

Weekend Reading List: Baby bears and sailor senshis

NEPTUNEANDURANUS

Bitch Magazine spotlights 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.
“10 Marvel superheroes who probably have weird penises.” CollegeHumor, as usual, delivers.
There is a Sailor Moon reboot coming in July, and according to Autostraddle, unlike the last English dub, it won’t attempt to censor out the queerness of the original.
Tor uncovers this strange six-degrees web of time-traveling actors, and notes how their girlfriends are often left on the sidelines and never get to join in on the wibbly wobbly fun.
I haven’t finished played Terry Cavanagh’s Naya’s Quest yet, but so far it seems very charming.
There is nothing better than the patch notes from The Sims. [Kotaku]
Years ago, Newfoundland constable Suzanne Bourque was in a picture with a bear cub. Since then, things, as they so often do on Tumblr, spiralled a little out of control, and we have now ended up with an entire fandom dedicated to Miss Officer and Mr. Truffles. Thanks Tumblr, delightful as always. [The Mary Sue]
Please please go read The Border House’s “Diary of a Western Videogame Protagonist,” if only for the line “revenge is a dish best served scruffy.”
Evan Palmer illustrates J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Ainulindalë, and it is beautiful. And here are parts two to four.
Disney has announced their new film Moana, which will be set in the South Pacific, and people are already making fan art. [io9]

Tagged Autostraddle, Bitch magazine, CollegeHumor, Disney, Evan Palmer, io9, Jonah, JRR Tolkien, Julia Pott, Kibwe Tavares, Kotaku, Marvel, Miss Officer and Mr. Truffles, Moana, Naya's Quest, Sailor Moon, Sundance Film Festival, Suzanne Bourque, Terry Cavanagh, The Ainulindalë, The Borderhouse, The Even, The Mary Sue, The Sims, time travel, Tom Chivers, Tor, Tumblr

Jan 10 2014

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Weekend Reading List

Weekend Reading List: FemLove and fitting in

I don’t know how I wasn’t aware of The Toast’s Femslash Fridays, but now I am and I wouldn’t have it any other way. You want Buffy/Faith? On it. Kaylee/Inara? Done. Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy? You got it. Rory Gilmore/Paris Gellar? Sure thing. Sansa/Brienne? You’re welcome (and oh what a pair they make).
Disney princesses as World of Warcraft characters. I never thought I’d type the phrase “Snow White is my favourite,” but there you go. [Kotaku]
Disney princesses as college students. They are now much more relatable. Who knew I spent four years reenacting Sleeping Beauty? [College Humor]
Aromaleigh Mineral Cosmetics has a new line of eye shadow inspired by women in antiquity. Give it a look, if only to read the great descriptions of badass women we don’t hear nearly enough about.
The Guardian reviews Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story, by Peter Bagge, and makes me more excited about it than I already was.
We now know more about the sex life of Cretaceous flowers. [Geekosystem]
Tamagotchi app.
This one’s from a little while back, but Spock’s answer to a little biracial girl still warms the cold, jaded cockles of my heart. [Buzzfeed]
The 1992 documentary Black Sci-Fi might be lost, but there are some great clips still floating around, including interviews with Octavia Butler, Nichelle Nichols, and Mike Sargent. [Tor]
There’s actually a lot of good stuff on Tor this week, including articles expressing disappointment with the character of River Song, and explaining why Labyrinth is a classic.
These travel destinations are so absurdly beautiful they look otherworldly, science fictional even. [Buzzfeed]

Tagged A Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Aromaleigh Mineral Cosmetics, Batman, Black Sci-Fi, Buffy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buzzfeed, College Humor, Cretaceous, DC, Disney, Doctor Who, Faith, Femslash Fridays, Firefly, Geekosystem, Gilmore Girls, Harley Quinn, Inara, Kaylee, Kotaku, Labyrinth, Mike Sargent, Nichelle Nichols, Octavia Butler, Paris Gellar, Peter Bagge, Poison Ivy, River Song, Rory Gilmore, Sansa Brienne, Spock, Star Trek, tamagotchi, The Guardian, The Toast, Tor, Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger story, World of Warcraft

Nov 15 2013

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Weekend Reading List

Weekend Reading List: Female friendships and flying girls

Disney princesses with beards. It’s pretty self-explanatory. [Buzzfeed]
This isn’t strictly about SF/F, but everyone should watch this conversation between the legendary Melissa Harris Perry and bell hooks. They do talk about black women’s representation in film, though, so it’s not totally off topic. [Bitch]
Were you in Chicago yesterday? Did you go to the Star Wars Episode VII casting call? [Hollywood Reporter]
Kotaku’s got the inside scoop on the upcoming Warcraft movie, and the concept art looks amazing.
I’m a huge sucker for biomimicry design, and even though these cocktail accessories are admittedly kind of useless, they’re still pretty and I want them. [MIT Media Relations]
My friend E. K. Chan wrote some powerful, eerie fiction, and you should give it a look. [The McGill Daily]
The Frisky has a roundup of the best movies about female relationships. How many have you seen?
Over at Planet Quirk, I wrote a blog post about literary-themed origami in honour of Origami Day. Now there’s no excuse for making the same boring crane over and over again.
Want a Neil Gaiman-penned short film about a girl who can fly? Of course you do. [Project Imaginat10n]
I haven’t even begun to make a dent in the new issue of Ada, a journal of gender, new media, and technology, but its theme is “Science Fiction and the Feminist Present” and it starts with the Donna Haraway quote “the boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion.” So you know it’s going to be good.
“What Does it Mean that Most Children’s Books are Still About White Boys?” asks the Huffington Post. Nothing good, is the answer.
The Hairpin has a great interview with Hyperbole and a Half blogger Allie Brosh. She talks about her book, her depression, and her dogs.

Tagged Ada, Allie Brosh, bell hooks, biomimicry, Bitch, Buzzfeed, Chicago, Disney, Donna Haraway, E. K. Chan, Hollywood Reporter, Huffington Post, Hyperbole and a half, Kotaku, Melissa Harris Perry, MIT, Neil Gaiman, Origami Day, Planet Quirk, Project Imaginat10n, Science Fiction and The Feminist Present, Star Wars Episode VII, The Frisky, The Hairpin, The McGill Daily, World of Warcraft

Nov 01 2013

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Weekend Reading List

Weekend Reading List: Costumes, Classics, Queerbaiting

Wesley Morris’s piece on Grantland starts out as a review of 12 Years a Slave that slowly weaves itself into a discussion about slavery narratives and the need to refocus these stories on black experience, not white guilt.
In a ranking of twenty classic YA heroines, who comes out on top? The answer may surprise you. [Flavorwire]
The New York Times, despite a ludicrous headline, has a thoughtful read on the need for media representation for women computer scientists and hackers.
While we’re on the subject of hackers, this dude challenged hackers to infiltrate his life. I know that this is real-life stuff, but I kept getting very Oryx and Crake vibes. Maybe it was the lingo. [PandoDaily]
GEORGE TAKEI READS SULU/CHEKOV SLASH. GEORGE TAKEI READS SULU/CHEKOV SLASH. [Watch What Happens Live After Show]
Xiangjun Shi’s short film, “Why Do I Study Physics?” is beautiful, thoughtful, and well worth the 3:14 (get it?) it takes to watch.
The US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association is partnering with the kids show Octonauts in an effort to raise awareness about ocean exploration. How very Magic School Bus. [Salon]
OFFICIAL HALLOWEEN PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Please do not dress up in a racist costume. Just don’t. Use your imagination and find something else. There’s a whole lot of literature on the subject, but it’s worth revisiting this Native Appropriations piece.
Do you love Disney villains and musicals? Then “The Spell Block Tango” is definitely for you.
When I wrote about queer representation in the Star Trek universe a little while ago, it started a pretty great Facebook conversation about whether shows acknowledging queer shipping without going further was progressive or queerbaiting. Bitch magazine has a pretty good followup to the topic.
Kotaku uses a Twine game about consensual kink to take a look at torture in video games more generally.
Via Buzzfeed, Cosmo sex tips, as told by Gollum. Terrifying, slightly NSFW, flawless.

Top image: “Evil Flush,” by Jesús Alfonso Sánchez

Tagged 12 Years a Slave, Bitch, Buzzfeed, Cosmo, Disney, Flavorwire, George Takei, Gollum, Grantland, hacking, Hikaru Sulu, Jesús Alfonso Sánchez, kink, Kotaku, Magic School Bus, Native Appropriations, New York Times, NOAA, Octonauts, Oryx and Crake, Pavel Chekov, queerbaiting, Salon, Spell Block Tango, Star Trek, Twine, Wesley Morris, What Happens Live after show, Why Do I Study Physics, Xiangjun Shi, YA

Oct 04 2013

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Weekend Reading List

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.

Tagged Aladdin, Animal Ark, Animorphs, Autostraddle, Becky Chambers, Ben Barres, Buzzfeed, Cat, Eurogamer Expo, Harriet the Spy, How Many Earths?, Kepler telescope, Kotaku, Maisonneuve, Michael Lutz, Montreal comic con, Most Watched Today, My Father's Long Long Legs, New Scientist, New York Times, Queer Libido, Sad and Useless, Sleeping Beauty, STEM, The Babysitter's Club, The Frisky, The Little Mermaid, The Mary Sue, Twine

unfridged

feminism and fantasy, science fiction and sexism

Tag Archives: Kotaku

Weekend Reading List: Trans* representation and troubles with tribbles

Weekend Reading List: Baby bears and sailor senshis

Weekend Reading List: FemLove and fitting in

Weekend Reading List: Female friendships and flying girls

Weekend Reading List: Costumes, Classics, Queerbaiting

Weekend Reading List: STEM fields and self-promotion