Native Appropriations

The Mary Sue asks what Star Trek even means as a franchise in its current, depoliticized state, and what it would take to make the show groundbreaking again.
The Toast on Ghostbusters 2016, science fictional diversity, and how only a certain type of women is seeing notable advances.
I’m also really into how the Toast has been riffing on the tired “is it feminist?” question, now asking “is It! (the Living Colossus) feminist?”
Native Appropriation’s Adrienne Keene is getting a lot of coverage for her critique of JK Rowling’s North American magic, as the CBC continues to report.
Autostraddle just celebrated their seventh birthday (happy birthday!) and is doing it with these really great retrospective pieces. Here’s the top seven lesbian, bisexual, and queer tv shows of the last seven years, but you should go poke around the site. They’ve got lots of good stuff, like lists of all the queer women on television who have died, and who have lived happily ever after (predictably, a much shorter list).
“Queer Indigenous rapper Dio Ganhdih shared extraterrestrial video for ‘Pussy Vortex‘” [The Fader]
The Xena reboot will feature an openly gay warrior princess! [Out magazine]
“The witchy feminism of modern music videos.” Beyoncé, and Azealia Banks, and FKA twigs, oh my! [Bitch]
There’s going to be a new Feminist Frequency show! It’ll be called Ordinary Women: Daring to Defy History and it’s funding right now!
The town of Vardø, Norway, unveiled a monument in memory of the 91 people killed for witchcraft. [The Daily Beast]
Want to see a caricature that combines Donald Trump and Attack on Titan? You’re welcome. [Otaku USA]
Writer Mey Rude is the one responsible for Autostraddle’s great witchy content, and here she is on Bitch‘s podcast talking about sorcery, cultural appropriation, and the best witches in pop culture.

Tagged Adrienne Keene, Anita Sarkeesian, Attack on Titan, Autostraddle, Azealia Banks, Beyoncé, Bitch, Bitch Media, CBC, Dio Ganhdih, Donald Trump, Feminist Frequency, FKA twigs, Ghostbusters, Harry Potter, It! The Living Colossus, JK Rowling, Mey Rude, Native Appropriations, Ordinary Women, OtakuUSA, Out magazine, Star Trek, The Daily Beast, The Fader, The Mary Sue, The Toast, Vardø, Xena, Xena Warrior Princess

Mar 11 2016

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Weekend Reading List

WEEKEND READING LIST: Witches, whitewashing, International Women’s Day

janelle-monae-electric-lady-deluxe-cover

Oh look the Hollywood remake of Ghost in the Shell cast an actual Asian actor. Still whitewashed as all get out though. Still mad about it. [Angry Asian Man]
The new all-lady Ghostbusters remake has been contentious right from the start, and while a lot of the criticism amounts to garden variety manchildren blubbering about cooties, Racialicious has some very valid concerns about Leslie Jones’s character, who is the only woman of colour, and the only Ghostbuster without a scientific background.
A musical ode to the clitoris that you didn’t know you wanted, but now must see. [Refinery29]
The New York Public Library, an institution that clearly knows what the people want, has a companion reading and resource list for the film The Witch.
“Witch, queen, mom: fairytale lessons for surviving borderline parents.” [The Establishment]
Bitch has a great roundup of magical girl zines, and I’m not just saying that because I stumbled across the first one on the list, Queer Sailor Moon Fan Fiction Saved My Life, while in a doctor’s office waiting room (but also I kind of am).
Nola and the Clones is an independent Irish film about a young homeless sex worker. All the men Nola encounters bear a striking resemblance, and it’s that sort of magic realism that lends itself well to a movie that looks truly unique (and is available in its entirety online).
Janelle Monáe will be co-starring in a movie about the women behind the American space program! Omg omg omg! [io9]
“International Women’s Day: why women can thrive in sci-fi.” [BBC]
I really wanted to give JK Rowling the benefit of the doubt when it came to her interpretation of North American magic, but as Adrienne Keene of Native Appropriations lays out thoroughly, she really missed the mark. The Mary Sue, quoting Keene, is similarly unimpressed.

Tagged Adrienne Keene, Angry Asian Man, Bitch, Ghost in the Shell, Ghostbusters, Harry Potter, io9, Janelle Monáe, JK Rowling, NASA, Native Appropriations, Nola and the Clones, Queer Sailor Moon Fan Fiction Saved My Life, Racialicious, Refinery29, the Establishment, The Mary Sue, The New York Public Library, The Witch

Oct 25 2015

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Weekend Reading List

Weekend Reading List: Ghosts, ghouls, and gays

I hadn’t visited Adrienne Keene’s Native Appropriations in a while, so I was really pleased to stumble upon her letter to JK Rowling, where she expresses concern about the upcoming American wizarding school and the inclusion of indigenous magics.
13 homoerotic horror films! [Out]
Bitch also delves into the queerness of horror films, going over some of the heavy hitters like Rebecca and The Haunting, and also the long, long list of lesbian-tinged vampire flicks.
“The feminist power of female ghosts.” [Bitch]
Jezebel’s Kitchenette section does these great illustrated cocktail recipes, and the two most recent are the Dark Incantation and the Graveyard Tryst.
Over at Quirk, I put together some book recommendations for Jem and her Holograms, you know, to read while they’re on their outrageous tour.
“Learning the controls: how Nintendo helped me live with Asperger’s Syndrome.” [The Toast]
Also from the Toast, a wonderful piece on Star Trek, academic sexual harassment, the Hugo Awards, entitlement, and space babes.
Relevant to your interests: 11 witch costumes that skip the pointy hat. [Autostraddle]

Tagged Adrienne Keene, Autostraddle, Bitch, Bitch magazine, Bitch Media, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Hugo Award, Jem and the Holograms, Jezebel, JK Rowling, Kitchenette, Native Appropriations, Nintendo, Out, Quirk Books, Star Trek, The Toast

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

Sep 20 2013

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Weekend Reading List

Weekend Reading List: Final Girls and Wonder Women

Anyexcuseformorezoe

Vulture talks to Gina Torres about her work, being the tallest person in the room, and the campaign to have her play Wonder Woman (which I am totally on board with, because Gina Torres is already the Wonder Woman of my heart).
Discover reports that men who present themselves as less stereotypically masculine have lower rates of heart disease. It’s not a perfect article, but it’s always great to have more reasons to talk about how rigidly we still define gender and how much value we still attribute to hypermasculinity.
This really wonderful discussion on queerness in the Black community and the stigma of loving trans* women features Orange is the New Black‘s Laverne Cox as an added bonus. [Colorlines]
US servicewomen were asked what they thought about their portrayal in video games, and their answers are fantastic. They pull no punches and draw some interesting parallels between women fighting misogyny in the military, and women fighting misogyny in gaming. [The Jace Hall Show]
We may get a horror drama in which Jamie Lee Curtis recruits a bunch of “final girls” from horror movies, bringing them together to “channel the stress and scars of their experience for some greater good.” Just let that bit of awesome sink in for a moment. [Deadline]
The 6th World is a short film that follows Tazbah Redhouse, a Navajo astronaut on her way to colonize Mars. The short, by director Nanobah Becker, is a really cool blending of science fiction and Navajo origin stories, with some environmental overtones thrown in. You can watch it here.
According to Native Appropriations, the Canadian iTunes app store has begun censoring a racial slur—even though it’s the name of a certain American football team—setting a pretty great precedent.
And à propos of absolutely nothing, someone used pictures of James Franco as covers for classic books, and I love it. [BookRiot]

Top image by drawing-bored.tumblr.com/

Tagged Apple, Colorlines, Deadline, Discover, Final Girls, Firefly, Gina Torres, hypermasculinity, iTunes, Jace Hall Show, James Franco, Jamie Lee Curtis, Laverne Cox, Nanobah Becker, Native Appropriations, Orange is the New Black, Suits, The 6th World, Vulture, Wonder Woman, Zoe Washburn

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feminism and fantasy, science fiction and sexism

Tag Archives: Native Appropriations

Weekend Reading List: Ordinary women and overblown wingnuts

WEEKEND READING LIST: Witches, whitewashing, International Women’s Day

Weekend Reading List: Ghosts, ghouls, and gays

Weekend Reading List: Costumes, Classics, Queerbaiting

Weekend Reading List: Final Girls and Wonder Women