It’s been a while since I’ve had a Weekend Reading List for you, but never fear: here’s a selection of stuff to keep you busy as you gear up for the new year:
- “Black Mirror‘s gay love story in ‘San Junipero’ is the best romance of 2016.” [Bustle]
- “‘San Junipero’ is a beautiful, haunting queer love story with mixed messages about disability.” [Autostraddle]
- Sailor Moon is now being used to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and STIs in Japan. [Nylon]
- Everyone’s been raving about Westworld (and rightly so), but the Mary Sue contends that though the show is pretty clearly modelled after video games, it takes after some not super great ones.
- Another huge event this year was the arrival of Netflix’s Luke Cage. And if you’re looking for a syllabus that includes books mentioned in the show, as well as works that deal with some of the issues raised, Black Nerd Problems has got you covered.
- “Humanity not included: DC’s Cyborg and the mechanization of the black body.” [The Middle Spaces]
- The New York Times chronicles the rise of afrofuturism.
- Afropunk is here to remind us that despite the sea of Hermiones, Sabrinas, and Maleficents, it would be a mistake to assume that witchcraft is white.
- On a similar note, you have to watch the video for Princess Nokia’s song “Brujas.”
- I’ve been missing Melissa Hunter since she had to stop her Adult Wednesday Addams series, so here’s another of her short films, titled “Dead Puppies.”
- GUTS has a great piece on reading Little Shop of Horrors as a trans story.
- New from Feminist Frequency’s Ordinary Women series: the amazing life of Ada Lovelace.
- I read everything that Anne Helen Petersen writes religiously, and this piece on The Witch, Puritanism, and the fear of teen girls’ sexuality is absolutely worth a look. [Buzzfeed]
- Fathers, a currently funding film by Leo Herrera, aims to explore what the world would look like if the AIDS crisis hadn’t wiped out an entire generation of gay men. [The Huffington Post]
- Rape and sexual assault used for shock value is becoming an increasingly common occurrence in film and television, and many producers are beginning to put their foot down. [Variety]
- “For women of colour, the price of fandom can be too high.” [The New Republic]
- “Swords, Satan, and sexuality: queer nuns of the past.” [Autostraddle]
- Actually, all sorts of great things have come out of Autostraddle recently: A discussion on how Steven Universe episode “Gem Harvest” tells kids that it’s alright to have hope, and news about Southwest of Salem, a documentary that explores the 1990s satanic panic investigation that led to four Latina lesbians being charged and convicted of sexual assault.
- Everyone is saying not to go see Passengers, including (but certainly not limited to) CBR.
- It’s almost impossible to talk about 2016 without discussing the monstrous failure that was the US presidential election, and the Mary Sue has some great advice on how Dumbledore’s Army can continue the fight.
- Lit Reactor has a list of 11 “nasty women” who are doing interesting things in horror/crime/weird fiction.
- “How women in games saved my life.” [The Mary Sue]
- And lastly, an old Unfridged blog post was included in the first issue of Scarlett North-Cavanaugh’s Zenith zine, along with some amazing writing and artwork! Check it out!
Image from “Brujas” music video, Princess Nokia
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