Tag Archives: Medium

Weekend Reading List: Atwood, Buffy, Carrie, Disney

Hey kids, it’s been a while! Lots to catch up on:

 

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Weekend Reading List: Seduction, surrealism, and so much love

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Weekend Reading List: Slytherins, snubs, and social justice

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  • First up, the serious issues: is IT from A Wrinkle in Time feminist? [The Toast]
  • Also from the Toast is “reasons why I am totally fine and not freaked out to be a Slytherin” which rings particularly true for me because the new Pottermore sorting put me in Slytherin which is obviously complete nonsense because I am nothing if not a Ravenclaw. So I deleted the account, remade it, and used my old results.
  • Besides the fact that they got a weird amount of plot details wrong, this piece from the Decider on how The Guild revolutionized web series is worth checking out.
  • Instagram user queenofluna incorporates her hijab into some pretty great DC and Disney cosplay.
  • Here’s a handy list that brings together some popular works of male-authored fiction, and gives an alternative written by a woman instead. [Medium]
  • Puritan horror film The Witch is getting some great press, and I fully intend on watching it as soon as possible:
  • In honour of #oscarssowhite, Autostraddle has a spectacularly well researched history of acting Oscars being awarded to actors of colour. As you can imagine, it’s a pretty short list.
  • Jenny Beavan won the Oscar for costume design for her work on Mad Max: Fury Road, and a bunch of dudes very visibly did not clap for her. Feminist Current talks about beauty standards, the role of women, and why Beavan’s treatment was unacceptable.
  • And the Oscars prompted people to brush off some older writing, so let’s revisit Bitch‘s take on the ecofeminism of Mad Max, and Pacific Standard‘s opinion on the importance of seeing families of colour in Sanjay’s Super Team.
  • I’ve always been fascinated by how speculative and science fiction intersect with social justice movements (I mean I only started a blog about it), and recently I came across two very important pieces of writing:
    • For Harriet has a wonderful article on Black History Month, the Afro/Black experience in North America (particularly Canada), and the long-standing importance of Afrofuturism and Black science fiction in imagining alternative futures.
    • Jacobin published a very thorough piece on science fiction’s sometimes rocky relationship with neoliberal thought, collective action, labour politics, and a future outside of capitalist economies.
  • Okay okay and finally look at this podcast description: “Unapologetically Indigenous, unabashedly female & unblinkingly nerdy, Otipêyimisiw-Iskwêwak Kihci-Kîsikohk (Métis in Space), Molly and Chelsea drink a bottle of (red) wine and, from a tipsy, decolonial perspective, review a sci-fi movie or television episode featuring Indigenous peoples, tropes and themes.” That sounds amazing right? Go listen to Métis in Space!

 

 

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Monthly Reading List Part I!

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Unfridged has been on hiatus for a while now, so to get us back into the swing of things, here’s what you may have missed in this first part of 2015:

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Weekend Reading List: Frank N. Furter lipstick and libraries of the future

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  • In the wake of #GamerGate, dozens (hundreds?) of people involved in the gaming industry have signed an open letter to the gaming community, embracing diversity and asking for members to put a stop to discrimination when they see it. [Medium]
  • MAC is launching a Rocky Horror-themed makeup collection, if that’s the sort of thing you’re into. (It is absolutely the sort of thing I’m into.) [Bustle]
  • Jezebel visited BronyCon, and discussed a few interesting things other conventions might want to pay attention to, particularly the diversity of attendees and dealing with their different comfort levels.
  • A woman allegedly got fired from her comic store job for complaining about a storage room called the “rape room.” I can’t even with this bullshit. Stop. [Bleeding Cool]
  •  Jenny Trout, also known as paranormal romance writer Jennifer Armintrout, recapped the first one and a half seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on her blog, paying particular attention to some reoccurring problems, including “Xander is a textbook Nice Guy” and “Sex is the real villain of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer universe.” She brings all the wit I remember from her epic takedown of 50 Shades of Grey.
  • The Mary Sue has an intense piece on why it can sometimes take until adulthood to fully embrace nerdy interests (hint: it is sexism). It’s a topic I will definitely be revisiting myself, and it’s worth a look.
  • Researchers at Ohio State University used Second Life to see if less racial diversity in MMOs correlates to players choosing whiter-looking avatars for themselves. Unsurprisingly, it does. [The Mary Sue]
  • Margaret Atwood’s just been named the first contributor to the Future Library project, so we won’t be able to read what she’s working on until our consciousnesses have been uploaded into mechanical bodies, living on forever. [The Guardian]
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Weekend Reading List: Spiderman, Star Wars, and Simone de Beauvoir

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  • 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

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Weekend Reading List: Ghibli girls and warrior women

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Weekend Reading List: Trans* representation and troubles with tribbles

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  • 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.
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Weekend Reading List: Sylvan elves and sisterly love

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Weekend Reading List: Witches and women in tech

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  • Happy belated Ada Lovelace Day! Over at Maisonneuve, my friend Shannon Palus reflects on the first programmer in her life, her mother.
  • Women in Tech has been a bit of a hot button issue these past few weeks (and, well, months really) and an aspect of the debate that I find completely fascinating is how women already working in tech, particularly powerfully-placed women, respond to criticisms of their industry. “‘Fuck You, I Got Mine’: Women in Tech for the Patriarchy” is a really good, almost manifesto-like starting off point to understanding how women apologists are complicit in the rampant discrimination of the tech industry. [Medium]
  • Along the same lines, Amanda Marcotte creates a template for every woman-penned defence of misogyny ever written, based on that terrible, terrible Sarah Lacy article, and it is flawless. [Slate]
  • Medium also has a list of things to say to people who really liked that terrible, terrible Sarah Lacy article.
  • I’m pretty much guaranteed to love anything Becky Chambers writes, and her piece on Tor, about astronauts and science/science fiction symbiosis, is no exception.
  • Scientific American blogger Dr. Danielle Lee was treated in an incredibly unprofessional way, blogged about it, then had her response taken down without warning and without a clear reason. Here’s a breakdown of the whole situation. #standingwithdnlee [Jezebel]
  • Around this time last year, I wrote an article about creepshots and screen caps and their role in internet misogyny (it’s unfortunately not online, but you can read an excerpt if you’re interested). After weeks of research, I thought I’d seen the worst of it, but Jezebel’s outline of the Chan girl phenomenon, and its long-lasting effects on one girl who participated, has rekindled all the sadness that I remember feeling.
  • io9 explores the worst mystical pregnancies in science fiction and fantasy, and once you see all these examples listed one after another, you start realizing how pervasive and ridiculous the trope is. Don’t know what the mystical pregnancy is? No worries, there’s a Feminist Frequency video at the end that explains it all.
  • New York Comic Con had a Women of Marvel panel, and it sounds like the Q&A was pretty great. [Bleeding Cool]
  • Star Trek might be coming back to television! MAKE IT SO! And the BBC is making a miniseries based on Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell! All the exciting TV news! [The Mary Sue]
  • Would you like a totally queer, incredibly in-depth love horoscope? Of course you would. [Autostraddle]
  • Halloween is just around the bend, and what better way to get excited than by reading all about historical women who were accused of being witches (or did similarly badass things)? History Witch is on it.
  • Oh, and if you want more Bee and PuppyCat episodes, there’s a Kickstarter for that.
  • What if there’s a good reason those horrible Wartune ads say “male gamers only”? [The Toast]

Top image from Kate Beaton’s amazing Hark! A Vagrant.

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