8 July 2015 - 17 July 2015
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Links
General Fandom
A Punch Line, A White Supremacist Contortion: Jimmy Johnson (blog) - "This article examines U.S. public awareness of mass incarceration of Black people through the stories told on police procedural television programs."
topic:racism, topic:television
Fat Phobia and Overcoming Fat Stereotypes in YA Lit: Kelly Jensen (blog) - "One of the biggest pet peeves of mine in YA lit and in our society more broadly is how poorly fat people - and I use "fat people" not as a pejorative phrase but as a description of a physical state of being - are rendered, treated, and discussed. More specifically, characters in YA tend to be depicted as oafish, as villains, or, most commonly and most problematically, as characters who have to overcome their weight in order to be seen as worthwhile or able to achieve their dreams, whatever they may be."
topic:fiction, topic:bodyimage
Top 5 Marvel Vs DC Arguments DISPROVED - Why We Should End The Feud: The Insightful Panda (blog) - "Whereas Marvel and DC are certainly not the first franchises to have warring Fan-Factions, they’ve certainly caused the most feuds lately. While Star Trek and Star Wars are finding Star Unity with J.J. Abrams, Marvel and DC seem to be drifting further and further apart, which makes no sense!"
fandom:marvelcomics, fandom:mcu, fandom:dccomics, fandom:dccu, topic:fandom
Communities: Weight of History: Renay (journal) - "Instead, by focusing on older work, what I've rediscovered is the subtle pressure to read books by men that I keep having to crawl out from under. It's ruined my excitement for the entire process. Fair or not, it's also colored my experience of new material that I want to read (especially by women), because I feel guilty not reading new books by men that are coming out to acclaim and predictions of brilliance and game-changing ideas before they even hit shelves. Then I feel guilty for feeling guilty? It's such a strange set of emotions. I'm not really sure how to verbalize it, which means for the last three months I've been puzzling over how I engage with books rather than reading books, which is dire."
topic:sciencefiction, topic:history, topic:canon
The Weight of History: Nina Allan (blog) - "Is there such a thing as ‘the science fiction canon’ and if there is, who gets to say what’s in it? How much of it, if any, do you need to be familiar with before you can legitimately call yourself a fan of SF?"
topic:sciencefiction, topic:history, topic:canon
Dissecting the Asian Drama: Gender Boundaries, Perception, and Performance in You’re Beautiful and Hana Kimi (Part 1): Angel Cruz (blog) - "The popularity of these dramas speak to a modern female audience that is powerfully engaged (perhaps more so than their TV counterparts) with the gender biases that are portrayed on TV. These dramas continue to find success in a region that sometimes lives up to its stereotypically conservative reputation when it comes to the role of women in society. They have also gained a notable female audience outside Asia-not an easy feat to accomplish."
topic:gender, topic:sexism
Aniwords - Is Rating Shows Meaningless?: Isaac Akers (blog) - "Finally-and maybe most importantly-compressing an anime (that is, a multi-faceted work of art) into a single digit as a representation of its quality is a disservice to the show itself and an ultimately meaningless action because it can't possibly actually serve as a complete, functional way of understanding a show."
topic:criticism
Hollywood, It’s Time to Retire the ‘Loveable Misogynist’ Movie Hero: Lindsay Ellis (blog) - "It seems like with tentpoles and franchise properties that aren’t aimed at children, the lovable misogynist is a handy stock character if you want your protagonist to be flawed but relatable. After all, if the Hollywood bro-club presumes the audience doesn’t respect women, why the hell should your protagonist?"
topic:history, topic:misogyny, topic:movies
Gakkou Gurashi and Escapism Through Moe: The Kidd (blog) - "Its hard to describe in words but the best moe anime for me is the one that magically makes me nostalgic for a simpler usually high school life. A high school life that I really never had in all fairness, I mean I certainly didn’t go to an all girl high school in Japan for example and I was never part of any musical club."
fandom:anime, topic:tropes
When Up Is Down: There’s Nothing Mainstream About Mainstream Comics: Nadia Bauman (blog) - "Only now, in 2015, mainstream comics do not exist.
We automatically use this word for Marvel and DC, and it seems just fine at the first glance: their titles are sold in every comics store, and there’s hardly a person on Earth who has never heard about Batman or Spider-Man. The Big Two are resourceful corporations with millions of readers, vast sales, and wide distribution, that’s right. But all of this satisfies only part of the definition of mainstream. There’s one more essential attribute to make something mainstream, one that’s missing: openness and accessibility for newcomers."
fandom:comics, fandom:marvelcomics, fandom:dccomics
A Fragile Masculinity: Genderswapping Male Characters: Alyssa Franke (blog) - "Recasting major characters of beloved franchises is always tricky. Even when creative teams attempt to recreate the original character as closely as possible, there will inevitably be complaints that the new actor could never be as good as the original. But when creators attempt to radically change the character by, say, changing their gender or race, then shit really hits the fan."
topic:gender, topic:genderswap
Let’s Hear It for the Boy! Masculinity and the Monomyth: Morgan Faust (blog) - "Notably, in those top ten movies we have (often in the form of a sequel, triquel, and I don’t even know where to begin counting the X-Men movies) the story of a scrawny, nerdy, outcast boy who goes on a journey and becomes the hero he was meant to be. This story is known to its friends as the monomyth."
topic:herosjourney, topic:masculinity
On Spoilers: Memory (blog) - "The internet is full of spoilers, so you’ve got to expect you’ll come across them at some point or another."
topic:spoilers
Meta Monday: Original fiction/fanfiction (I ship it): dhampyresa (DW) - "And/or the difference between writing fanfic and original fic?
The biggest difference between the two, imo, is that for original fic, you're alone. It's just you and your blank page."
topic:writing, topic:fanfic, topic:fiction
Is this Feminist? Is this not Feminist?:real-life-dipper-pines (tumblr) - "Whether or not a thing can be labeled under feminist so it’s okay to enjoy it is no longer the best way to have discussions on the progressiveness or racism/ableism/sexism/classism/etc of a piece of media."
topic:feminism, topic:canon
Specific Fandom
Agents Of Shield
Would It Be Right To Outlaw Terregenis: various authors (forum) - "If you know Marvel comics or watched the last season of Agents of SHIELD, then you know about the Inhumans. Thousands of years ago, the Kree came to Earth and experimented on humans in an attempt to create super-soldiers. It worked too well, and their experiment was abandoned. But the descendants of their experimental subjects lived on, and when exposed to the "Terrigen Mists" developed incredible powers and often radical physical changes. "
fandom:agentsofshield
American Crime
Negotiated Identities and Gray Oppositions in Ridley’s ‘American Crime’: Sean Weaver (blog) - "This isn’t a show aimed at entertaining. It is a show that relies on provoking the viewer into moving past that cushy comfort zone of self-identification, and questioning the very foundations that control our daily lives: social justice, race, and gender."
fandom:americancrime
Angel
Misogyny Demons and Wesley’s Tortured Masculinity in Joss Whedon’s ‘Angel’: Stephanie Brown (blog) - "While such topics are generally treated with nuance and complexity in the Whedonverse, "Billy" ditches the usual complexity in favor of portraying the show’s good guys, namely Wesley, channeling their base (and as the episode seems to argue, natural), violent instincts. Not only do the episode’s final scenes resemble The Shining, with Wesley trying to kill Fred (a character he has had unrequited feelings for) with an ax, they also seems to take a dark pleasure in "allowing" him to act out in such a violently misogynistic way."
fandom:angel
Avatar: the Last Airbender
How ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Demonstrates a More Inclusive Masculinity: Aaron Radney (blog) - "As a coming of age story I felt the young men in the show-Aang, Sokka, and Zuko-all demonstrated the struggle young men face journeying into manhood with Uncle Iroh providing a vision of what the end of that road might look like. All of them, even those that have more traditional male expressions than the others, end up rejecting more toxic expressions of masculinity."
fandom:atla
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Oh, My Pop Culture Religion: Do Robots & Androids Have Souls?: Lady Geek Girl (blog) - "The question then can be asked, from a religious perspective, do Ultron and Vision have souls, or are they just objects?"
fandom:mcu, topic:religion, topic:robots
Batman
Ep. 60: "The Demon’s Quest, Part 1": The Arkham Sessions (podcast) - "But why does Ra’s take Batman on this quest? Are Robin and Talia really in danger? Is Batman a worthy adversary for Ra’s al Ghul? And can Talia really fall in love with someone after spending only a couple hours with them? Find out in this week’s episode of The Arkham Sessions!"
fandom:dcanimated
Ask Chris #248: The Zero Effect: Chris Sims (blog) - "Friend, you are not kidding about Mr. Freeze. As much as heroes and villains change over the years, and as much as they have to change to stay relevant as hundreds of creators work on their ongoing stories, I honestly don’t know if there’s any bad guy who made a change that dramatic, both in terms of theme and quality."
fandom:dccomics, fandom:dcanimated, topic:villains
Better Call Saul
Moving Away From the Anti-Hero: What It Means to Be a Man in ‘Better Call Saul’: Becky Kukla (blog) - "Emphasis on the supposedly, because although Breaking Bad might be more universally loved, the first season of Better Call Saul alone sparks the debate that the spin-off series might be more adept at handling the complicated issue of masculinity on screen."
fandom:bettercallsaul
Black Widow
The Canon of Canon: fuckyeahblackwidow (Tumblr) - "Natasha was Marvel’s first female lead and Marvel’s first female leader, and women were writing into letter’s columns in 1971 to say how much they appreciated her, because female fans are not newborn unicorns. So why is it so easy to collapse entire decades into a simple history of misogyny?"
fandom:marvelcomics, topic:femalecharacter
Breaking Bad
The Three Questions That Divide ‘Breaking Bad’ Fans and What They Tell Us About Masculinity: Katherine Murray (blog) - "Breaking Bad is one of those well-written, well-acted shows that somehow inspires people to scream at each other in CAPSLOCK. The debate about Walter White and his wife and their drug-trade boils down to your answers to three deceptively simple questions that act as a rorschach test on masculinity in American culture."
fandom:breakingbad
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Buffy Season Two: beccaelizabeth (DW) - "I'm now up to Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.
That's a real low point for Xander, even compared to Hyena time."
fandom:btvs
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Now Season 3: beccaelizabeth (DW) - "I'm up to Beauty and the Beasts.
Once again straight up domestic violence, once again I feel the need to sit down and turn it into words until I am less creeped out."
fandom:btvs
Cleaner Day and Buffy: beccaelizabeth (DW) - "If the actual idea is that someone loving him can save him then I have to disagree a lot. We fix and mess up ourselves. Someone loving him won't work until he's sorted himself out to, like, let them."
fandom:btvs
Buffy Season Three Up To Consequences: beccaelizabeth (DW) - "Faith gets to go through stuff so Buffy won't quite have to.
Back when Buffy hit Ted I was unsatisfied with how the story went sideways so Buffy didn't have to face up to it. But the topic would be returned to with another Slayer, Faith. And she gets no such save."
fandom:btvs
My Name Is William H. Pratt Millionaire:rahirah (DW) - "So what it is with fic writers constantly making Spike independently wealthy, with secret Swiss bank accounts and real estate investments and stuff"
fandom:btvs
By the Sword
Valdemar Reread: By the Sword: Companions: Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:valdemar
Captain America
Untitled: linzeestyle (tumblr) - "But there’s value in analyzing patterns. And within the MCU, Whedon has made a very clear point of erasing Bucky from his narrative. There’s a problem with this, simply from the perspective of creating a cohesive, ongoing universe - both in the MCU, and in the 616 Universe, post-resurrection/reboot Steve Rogers is defined by the tragedy of Bucky Barnes’ death. "
fandom:mcu, fandom:marvelcomics
Untitled:buckyforcap (tumblr) - "I want Bucky to be okay with who he is as a person, which is not an easy road. He needs to deal with a lot of trauma and self-examination to heal what has been done to him, and the things he’s been made to do, etc."
fandom:mcu
Untitled buckyforcap: (tumblr) - "If you don’t prove to me within the story that Bucky has no control of his faculties or capacity to be rational, then I absolutely won’t assume he doesn’t have a right to choose for himself how his recovery should go, just because he’s been through hell. "
fandom:mcu
Chronicles of Narnia
Narnia: There Was A Reward Offered: Ana Mardoll (blog) - Deconstruction of the next to last chapter of The Silver Chair.
fandom:chroniclesofnarnia, topic:deconstruction
Untitled: ink-splotch (Tumblr) - "How about we talk about what might have happened if Narnia hadn’t deserted Susan?"
fandom:chroniclesofnarnia
Untitled: ink-splotch (Tumblr) - "Let’s talk about being the eldest son. Susan was more sensible than him, Lucy braver, and Edmund more clever. Peter had never been able to see what he gave to this family."
fandom:chroniclesofnarnia
Conan the Barbarian
The Frightening Heroics of Conan the Barbarian: Evan Saathoff (blog) - "But Milius’ Conan is not a nice or friendly figure. He’s a brutal, blunt and remorseless expression of alpha male ideals sent on a quest of personal vengeance that just happens to take out someone even more evil."
fandom:conanthebarbarian
Cosmere
Words of Radiance Reread: Chapter 46: Alice Arneson (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the chapter in question.
fandom:cosmere
DC Comics
Manic DC Dream Girl: The DC Super Hero Girls Site Has Launched and We Have Questions: Amber Love (blog) - "Many fans and geek blogs have already discussed DC’s latest vocal commitment to diversity. When they first announced DC Super Hero Girls, there were problems with how they phrased their press release. That’s a pattern, it seems: "Here’s diversity! Now watch us continue to disenfranchise minority characters!" That’s how it feels when DC speaks these days. Yet fans like me are constantly hopeful with each new thing that they’ll finally get it right."
fandom:dccomics, topic:femalecharacter
Dexter
Female Masculinity and Gender Neutrality in ‘Dexter’: Cameron Airen (blog) - "Our dominant culture tends to subscribe to the notion that "masculinity" belongs to males and that "femininity" belongs to females. This makes it hard to recognize masculinity in females, thus a lot of female masculinity in film and TV goes unrecognized. The show Dexter challenges gender norms and stereotypes."
fandom:dexter
Dragon Star Trilogy
Reading Melanie Rawn’s Dragon Star Trilogy: An Introduction: Judith Tarr (blog) - "This is a read rather than a reread; I’m coming to it for the first time. I’ll be moving faster, taking in more with each post, and thinking more about the big picture."
fandom:dragonstartrilogy
Dragonlance
The Dragonlance Reread: Dragons of Autumn Twilight Part 2, Chapters 5 and 6: Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the chapters in question.
fandom:dragonlance
Empire Trilogy
Rereading the Empire Trilogy: Mistress of the Empire, Part 18: Tansy Rayner Roberts (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:empiretrilogy
Entourage
’Entourage’: Masculinity and Male Privilege in Hollywood: Rachel Wortherley (blog) - "Ellin’s estimation is correct. Entourage is not a portrayal of the male fantasy. Instead, it reinforces the harsh reality that being a male, especially in Hollywood, equals power."
fandom:entourage
Ex Machina
Seed & Spark: On ‘Ex Machina,’ Artificial Intelligence of Color, and How to Become a (White) Woman: Zhuojie Chen (blog) - "The bulk of the film focuses on the interplay between these three characters and attempts to bring up issues of gender and sexuality - specifically, performative (white) femininity. In this entry, however, I’d like to focus on Garland’s complete misfire with the character of Kyoko."
fandom:exmachina, topic:racism
Game of Thrones
Season 5: The Shields That Guard the Realms of Men: Stefan (blog) - "The cohesiveness splinters a bit in the two novels constituting the second act of the saga, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, to the point where multiple narrative arcs are pursued at the same time. The same is true for the TV series. And as with the books, the inherent beauty, depth and themes (or the lack thereof) need some examining to be appreciated. In the following, I will have a look at the different arcs in the season and try to submit them to a coherent analysis."
fandom:gameofthrones
A Brief Treatise on the Rules of Thrones 2.08: The Prince of Winterfell: Philip Sandifer (blog) - "Everything about "The Prince of Winterfell" must be understood in terms of the fact that the final two episodes of this season are earmarked for a single-location battle episode and a more traditionally conceived finale, with the latter, as per the pattern established in the first season, being as concerned with reeling from the consequences of major events as it is in major events actually taking place."
fandom:gameothrones
Getting Medieval on George R.R. Martin: Michael Livingston (blog) - "Combined, the works are now a cultural touchstone, one that is branded-both by its own advertising and by the media and mainstream popular culture-as a "medieval" series. So the question I’m asked more than any other these days is this:
How medieval is Game of Thrones?"
fandom:gameofthrones, topic:history
Masculinity in ‘Game of Thrones’: More Than Fairytale Tropes: Jess Sanders (blog) - "Much like a fairytale, there are plenty of recognisable male tropes: warriors, lotharios, noble heroes. Game of Thrones is a story of rich and powerful patriarchs raising sons to be rightful heirs and trading their daughters in political power-plays. Boys are judged on their ability to swing a sword or work a trade, criticised for showing weakness, and taught to grow up hard and cold. Doesn’t sound unfamiliar, does it? Masculinity is praised in Westerosi society, as it is in our own."
fandom:gameofthrones
Go Set a Watchman
A racist Atticus Finch isn’t the hero we wanted - but he’s the one we need: Anne Theriault (blog) - "The truth is that Atticus does not need to view black people as equal in order to want to help them. In fact, there's very little in Mockingbird to prove that Atticus would support the coming Civil Rights movement."
fandom:gosetawatchman, warning:spoilers, topic:racism
Scholars Have Been Pointing Out Atticus Finch’s Racism for Years: Laura Marsh (journal) - "Yet scholars who have written on race and the legal system in To Kill A Mockingbird are less surprised. "If you read the book from a racial justice perspective," Katie Rose Guest Pryal, a novelist and former law professor, commented, "it wouldn’t surprise you that this is who Atticus is.""
fandom:gosetawatchman, fandom:tokillamockingbird, warning:spoilers, topic:racism
H.P. Lovecraft
The Dreamlands on Five Dollars a Day Plus Your Immortal Soul: "The White Ship": Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the story in question.
fandom:lovecraft
Hannibal
Hannibal Review 3.06 "Dolce": Phil Nobile Jr (blog) - "By playing in the pre-Red Dragon era of Thomas Harris’ Lecterverse, Hannibal has for a couple of years been able to carve out its (and its title character’s) own identity, giving us a fresh new take on an icon that was etched into the pop culture consciousness 24 years ago."
fandom:hannibal, warning:spoilers
"’This is my design’: Transgression and Possession by Hannibal’s Cannibals": plain-flavored-english (blog) - "Instead of titillating us with tales of gore, Hannibal’s Hannibal dismembers and prepares each corpse in front of our eyes, holding the finished plate under our noses as though to say, ‘There, doesn’t that look good?’ Lecter’s pleasure is no longer a sign of incomprehensible monstrosity; it has become our pleasure as well."
fandom:hannibal
Biting the Hand That Feeds: Hannibal, Rihanna, and Sexual Harrassment: Kate Polak (blog) - "Lecter’s self-possessed mien in Hannibal stands in stark contrast to Hopkins’ portrayal, and while the audience knows he is the "bad guy," the show operates less on the shock value of the murders under investigation or Lecter’s own gastronomical vagaries, and more on how power and knowledge must be-as Michel Foucault insisted-thought together."
fandom:hannibal
Harry Potter
The Harry Potter Reread: The Order of the Phoenix, Chapters 23 and 24: Emily Asher-Perrin (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the chapters in question.
fandom:harrypotter
Hogwarts: a Founding: wellingtongoose (LJ) - "What the founders really set up was four different apprenticeship schemes with four different trade masters within in the same fortified town called Hogwarts."
fandom:harrypotter
House of Cards (US)
The Conflicting Masculinities of Frank and Claire in ‘House of Cards’: Tilly Grove (blog) - "Though this is clearly untrue, the perception ensures that women are only able to succeed and be taken seriously in politics if they adopt masculine traits and disown feminine ones. They are placed under intense scrutiny by their rivals and the public to ensure that they do not revert back, and criticism will be invariably gendered."
fandom:houseofcards
Humans
’Humans’ Thinks About Gender, Power, and Technology: Colleen Martell (blog) - "The question at the heart of this U.K.-U.S. hybrid miniseries is, what does it mean to be human? Through the show’s emphasis on intimate, domestic life, this becomes a decidedly gendered question."
fandom:humans, warning:spoilers
The Hurt Locker
Bigelow’s Boys: Martial Masculinity in ‘The Hurt Locker’: Rachael Johnson (blog) - "The Hurt Locker not only represents a revival of Bigelow’s interest in men in the military but also exemplifies her abiding fascination with those who seek to shatter the limits of human experience by dancing with death."
fandom:thehurtlocker
Inheritance Cycle
Magical Mondays: That Time in The Inheritance Cycle when Elves Didn’t Steal Babies: MadameAce (blog) - "Like other fantasy narratives, the mechanics in The Inheritance Cycle are based on numerous myths, fairytales, and folklores. But one of the many problems with The Inheritance Cycle, however, is that it has no restraint. It doesn’t know which myths to use and which ones not to. It also doesn’t help that, once again, the story relies on telling and not showing."
fandom:inheritancecycle
Inside Out
The Psychology of Inside Out: A Beautiful Lesson in Emotional Intelligence: Andrea (blog) - "Disney Pixar’s Inside Out is a film that shows us how an ordinary event in life can take us through a remarkable emotional journey within ourselves. Frankly, Inside Out may be more effective in teaching the concept of Emotional Intelligence better than any psychology text."
fandom:insideout, warning:spoilers
Thinking Too Hard About Inside Out: Lady Saika (blog) - "In the end, kids get the message that it’s not just okay, it’s sometimes necessary to be sad, and that’s certainly a good message to send. More implicitly, it teaches viewers that even if you think someone else is useless or their talents aren’t worthwhile, it’s possible that you just haven’t given them the right opportunity to shine."
fandom:insideout, warning:spoilers
James Bond
Bond Girl: Re-Watching and Re-Evaluating Octopussy: Zina Hutton (blog) - "Octopussy is a weird mix of goofy attempts at humor (all the clown costumes and that Tarzan thing) and a serious plot with intrigue and deaths galore. That shouldn’t work well together as it does, but aside from a few lingering issues with white-washing and racism, Octopussy is a really wonderful film."
fandom:jamesbond
Jaws
I Think We Need a Bigger Metaphor: Men and Masculinity in ‘Jaws’: Julia Patt (blog) - Discussion and analysis of the male characters in Jaws.
fandom:jaws
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Now all of England lay cupped in his black palm: sovay (LJ) - " The seventh episode should have been a seventh and an eighth. The novel's complex denouement is just slightly too much material to fit comfortably inside an hour, even at the breakneck pace at which events hurtle along; as a result, the last episode is where I noticed and cared the most about the divergences from the source material. There are a few that really leapt out at me."
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell, topic:adaptations, warning:spoilers
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Episode 5: Arabella: Philip Sandifer (blog) - "This is a precision-engineered piece of television. It starts impossibly big and careens at unrelenting speed towards an equally grandiose conclusion."
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell, warning:spoilers
Jurassic Park
Meta Mercenaries: Jurassic World Fucking Hates You: Losercityboss (blog) - "Jurassic World is a terrible movie that communicates a clear, open contempt for the material and the audience from the writer/director."
fandom:jurassicpark
Legend of Zelda
Linearity in Skyward Sword: Mark Olson (blog) - "When it comes to critiques of Skyward Sword on the internet, one word gets thrown around a lot: linear. Now, whether linearity is in and of itself a good or bad thing is a debate for another time; instead, I would like to look at what linearity truly is and how it’s been implemented in the context of Zelda games."
fandom:legendofzelda
Mad Max
follow me all the days: metaphortunate (DW) - "And it's also clear that while the movie supports the Vuvalini in their casual murder; it also supports the Wives in their mercy, in their humanity, in their goal to be above all that."
fandom:madmax
meta: redshoesnblueskies (Tumblr) - List of links to MM:FR related meta on Tumblr. Most linked articles are by redshoesnblueskies, but some are by other authors, and a few other Tumblrs are listed at the bottom as being rich in MM:FR meta posts.
fandom:madmax
A War Rig Of One’s Own: A Very Long Post On Fury Road’s Feminism: wellntruly (Tumblr) - "Fury Road stands for an old form of movie-making, where action and the movement of real human bodies in front of a camera is what tells the story - a tradition that arguably reached its most glorious, shiny & chrome heights with my love Buster Keaton in the age of silent comedies. But Fury Road, it takes this old classic form and its old mythic hero Mad Max, and with them tells a story that’s socially progressive in content as well as form, and humanist down to its bones."
fandom:madmax
Untitled: lierdumoa (Tumblr) - "Mad Max: Fury Road is a story about sexists, told by non-sexists."
fandom:madmax
Off the Fury Road and Without a Map: Masculine Portrayal in the New ‘Mad Max’: Zoe Chevat (blog) - "Wrapped in a hypermasculine Trojan Horse of violence and war custom is a heady lesson about the dangers of ceding to those expectations, and about the road away from them and toward something like redemption. Here is a film where women are shown to be men’s combatative equals. Even more so, it is a film where the only way the men can escape their own oppression is to join up with, and occasionally defer to, these women."
fandom:madmax
Mad Max (1979) Thoughts: yuugo (DW) - "Multiple people told me to skip this movie, to not bother with it at all and move straight on to Road Warror. I'm glad that I didn't! It was interesting. As far as I can tell, part of whether or not one will enjoy this film depends on whether they know what they're getting into, and what their expectations are."
fandom:madmax
Disability In The Dystopian Future of Mad Max Fury Road: Kat Overland (blog) - "Fury Road‘s apocalypse comes in the form of radiation, spoiling the soil and poisoning the population. It’s an equal opportunity threat: radiation and the harsh environment can sicken all classes of people: from the Citadel’s leader, Immortan Joe, to the tumor-laden War Boys, to The Wretched, the lowliest members of the Citadel’s population who are shown to have disfigured faces, tumors, and missing limbs."
fandom:madmax
Untitled:givemeunicorns (tumblr) - "Okay so one of my favorite things about Fury Road was this recurring idea of older women protecting younger women"
fandom:madmax
Mad Men
’Mad Men’: Masculinity and the Don Draper Image: Caroline Madden (blog) - "But the seemingly infallible wall and perfect image that surrounds Don slowly diminishes as the series goes on. And we learn that it is just that: an image."
fandom:madmen
Magic Mike
Magic Mike XXL: Marina (DW) - "In brief: this is a movie with a meandering plot, a lot of unncessary dialogue that should have been edited out of the script, and almost no stakes at any point for any of the characters.
"
fandom:magicmike
Maiden Rose
Klaus And Knighthood: undomielregina (tumblr) - "I’ve been sure for a long time that the scene where Klaus kneels to Taki in chapter 20 after the drapery scene is all about fealty and his vows as a knight rather than about their intimate relationship, but I’ve never been sure why I feel that way. "
fandom:maidenrose
More Maiden Rose Thoughts:undomielregina (tumblr) - "As far as I’ve been able to gather based on reading the nonfictional sources available, age and rank form a complicated kind of balancing act in who is "supposed" to top in wakashudo. (Which, while a dying cultural practice in the Meiji, was still sufficiently extant that we see bishounen coined as the term wakashu becomes obsolete"
fandom:maidenrose
What Is Up With Klaus?: undomielregina (tumblr) - "For someone who expresses his emotions so openly, Klaus proves surprisingly difficult to get a clear handle on. Part of this is because it becomes clear as the story progresses that his mental state in the beginning is atypical, which is obviously impossible to notice on first read, and that initial impression colors all other events because of the non-chronological nature of the canon."
fandom:maidenrose
Mr. Robot
’Mr. Robot’ and the Trouble with the White Knight: Shay Revolver (blog) - "The problem with loving good storytelling and being aware of the varying forms of patriarchy or misogyny in some stories is that once you’ve had a chance to digest a piece of media, you find yourself questioning all the little things that you find problematic and sometimes you can’t tell if it’s just you over analyzing or if there really is a problem there."
fandom:mrrobot
Naruto
The Courage to Cry: Men and Boys’ Emotions in ‘Naruto’: Jackson Adler (blog) - "For these reasons, I am proud of Kishimoto Masashi, the man who created the Naruto manga series, for creating male characters who unabashedly cry, and who are emotionally supported by their peers when they express their emotions in this way."
fandom:naruto
Orange Is the New Black
What ‘Orange Is the New Black’ gets wrong about rape: xoJane (blog) - "Orange Is the New Black truly disappoints me, though, in an area where I think it should excel: discussion of sexual assault."
fandom:orangeisthenewblack, warning:rape
Ore Monogatari
My Love(ish) Story: Anime, Aces, and Suna-min Rolls: Dee Hogan (blog) - "Suna isn’t unfeeling, oblivious, immature, bitter, smug, or (near as we can tell) traumatized by something from his past. OreMono never tries to make the case that there’s something "wrong" with him. He’s just a nice, quiet kid who happens to be uninterested in pursuing a relationship of his own."
fandom:oremonogatari, topic:sexuality
Orphan Black
Feminism in ‘Orphan Black’: Maria Ramos (blog) - "Show creators Graeme Manson and John Fawcett are earning praise for breaking decades of television stereotypes that resulted in most female characters either taking a backseat role or displaying a single, overriding personality trait (i.e., the ditzy blonde, the butch female, the submissive housewife). As the feminism in Orphan Black earns praise, however, there’s been some criticism of the show’s underdeveloped male characters-a glaring contradiction that may be intentional."
fandom:orphanblack
Outlander
’Outlander’ and A Modern Man: Alize Emme (blog) - "But what makes Outlander modern is also what makes it rare: Masculinity as told for the female gaze."
fandom:outlander, warning:rape
The Complex Masculinity of Outlander’s Jamie Fraser: Carly Lane (blog) - "His role in the series, however - first as Claire Randall’s love interest, then as her hastily wedded husband - is anything but predictable, and it’s in looking at his story in the first book (and first season, respectively) that we realize just how multifaceted this masculine hero truly is."
fandom:outlander
Queer As Folk(US)
Masculinity and the Queer Male: There’s Nowt So ‘Queer as Folk’: Rowan Ellis (blog) - "Queer as Folk is overwhelmingly about men, but they are men living in a subculture with different "traditional qualities." Queens, Bears, Straight-Acting, Leathers… any number of ideals of what it is to be a certain type of man in a certain type of tradition."
fandom:queerasfolk
Saga
Book Club: Saga, Week 2: Overthinking It (podcast) - Discussion of Saga, chapters 4-6.
fandom:saga
Sense8
Sex on Sense8: fozmeadows (Tumblr) - "okay but can we talk about how it’s not a coincidence that the sex Lito/Hernando and Nomi/Amanita are having in E6 of Sense8 is what drives the big group sex scene, and how it’s ALSO not a coincidence that the sensates shown participating along with them are Will and Wolfgang, the two straight white guys?"
fandom:sense8
Some Sense8 Headcanons: averydistinctivestyle (Tumblr) - What it says in the title, including discussion of levels of control/connectedness, sexuality, and the Whispers.
fandom:sense8, warning:spoilers
A Song of Ice and Fire
Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Arya VIII, ACOK: Steven Attewell (blog) - Detailed analysis of the chapter.
fandom:asoiaf
Top Characters #5 Davos Seaworth: geoffmarsh (blog) - "While his circumstances and missions change, he stays steadfast to his core description: Loyal, Honest, Realistic, and Self-Aware. That core makes him the steadfast anchor for us as well as for Stannis Baratheon, and for me, that steadfastness makes him one of my top 5 characters and the character I care about the most."
fandom:asoiaf
A Read of Ice and Fire: A Dance with Dragons, Part 28: Leigh Butler (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:asoiaf
A Read of Ice and Fire: A Dance with Dragons, Part 29: Leigh Butler (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:asoiaf
Star Wars
Killing Your Darlings: The Life and Death of Ahsoka Tano: B.J. Priester (blog) - "In other words, although one decision must be whether to kill the character, that choice cannot be separated from the why and how portrayed in the story."
fandom:starwars
Untitled:Cadesama (tumblr) - "Padme knows what the dark side and sith is, she just doesn’t understand it form a theological perspective. Like, if it isn’t a well-known concept by lay people, it at least doesn’t seem to be a secret and she was queen when a Sith Lord killed a Jedi in her house, that would have to merit just a bit of an explanation (they use an evil version of the force, it causes suffering) and then she spends a war against the sith hanging out with Jedi"
fandom:starwars
The "Official" Story Of The Skywalkers:kalob17 (tumblr) - "This is what I think the Galactically Accepted Story is regarding the Skywalkers, what most people think happened in-universe, after the Empire collapsed and they had access to some actual information about the fall of the Republic."
fandom:starwars
Untitled: cadesama (tumblr) - "No one who is not a Jedi explicitly believes in the version of theology they have. There are other holy people and there are other Force sensitives, but the Jedi themselves, while seemingly the clerical branch of a religion, have no adherents other than themselves. It’s not even clear how much Padme believes!"
fandom:starwars
Inside The Star Wars Generation Gap: Why We Still Care About Mara Jade: Dunc (blog) - "I can also say that Mara is a huge reason I got into the fandom in the first place. And Mara was a large part of the reason I kept reading, which is why I stayed in fandom. "
fandom:starwars
Steven Universe
It’s OK to Have Flaws (Except for You): Steven Universe and Fandom: Vrai Kaiser (blog) - "If you’ve any involvement with the internet-side reactions to the show, you might guess that it’s the last one I’m most interested in talking about today. The latest run of episodes unloaded some very heavy information about the cast, some of it troubling and all of it believable."
fandom:stevenuniverse
Superman
Why is it so hard to get Superman right in movies?: Joshua Rivera (blog) - "That was Morrison's epiphany: The most powerful man alive wouldn't be tortured but instead would be the friendliest, most relaxed person you ever saw."
fandom:dccu, fandom:dccomics, topic:adaptations
Tolkien
The Unquiet Voice of Saruman: Jeff LaSala (blog) - "See, Saruman’s rise and fall is a tale of pride and mercy. If, like the dwarves, you delve too deep, deeper than the late Christopher Lee’s undeniably awesome portrayal of of the character in Peter Jackson’s films, deeper even than The Lord of the Rings and its Appendices, you find there are storied veins of insight-mythic ore, if not refined gems-in Tolkien’s other works about the character that make him all the more compelling."
fandom:jrrtolkien
Barrel-rides and She-elves: Audience and "Anticipation" in Peter Jackson’ Hobbit Trilogy: Janet Croft (scholarly paper) - Scholarly analysis of the movies and comparison to the book.
fandom:jrrtolkien, topic:adaptations
The Loremasters of Feanor: Historical Bias in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Transformative Works: Dawn Walls-Thumma (video) - "Given that, I think it is safe to continue to treat the Quenta Silmarillion as a document of Elven origin written with its original in-universe narrators in mind. Chief of those narrators and the subject of my study is Pengolodh. We actually know quite a bit about Pengolodh, and he is an interesting choice of narrators for the bulk of the history about the First Age. The essay Quendi and Eldar (HoMe XI) gives us quite a bit of his background."
fandom:jrrtolkien
History & Technique: Sourcing the Arms, Armor and Fighting Techniques of Middle-earth: Rebecca Glass and Kat Fanning (video) - "Tolkien’s universe is filled with example of special arms and armor that possess special importance, from Frodo’s mithril shirt to Anduril and Glamdring. But what is the historical basis for these examples of arms and armor? How did they impact the fighting techniques of the time? What sources do we have that describe the way people fought in the late Middle Ages?"
Note: scroll down the page. The video is a ways down.
fandom:jrrtolkien
Character Popularity In Fan Fiction: Dawn Felagund (tumblr) - "The paper makes the case that the historical bias present in The Silmarillion is a motivating force behind the creation of Silmarillion-based fan fiction. Or, put more plainly: fan writers prefer to write about characters who are treated badly (in excess of what they perhaps deserve) by the in-universe historians, loremasters, and narrators behind The Silmarillion."
fandom:jrrtolkien
True Detective
True Detective Review: "Down Will Come": Scott Wampler and Phil Nobile Jr (blog) - Discussion and commentary on the episode.
fandom:truedetective, warning:spoilers
VEEP
Man Up: How ‘VEEP’ Emphasizes the Value of Masculinity in Politics: Shannon Miller (blog) - "Efficiency, aplomb, aggressiveness, and general competence are regularly encouraged with a simple call to "man up." In addition, femininity and boyhood are used as favorable taunts to either attack someone’s confidence or goad them in a more advantageous, perhaps much more effective direction."
fandom:veep
Wheel of Time
The Wheel of Time Reread Redux: The Great Hunt, Part 8: Leigh Butler (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:wheeloftime
X-Men
The Psychology of Inspirational Women: X-Men’s Jean Grey: Dr Janina Scarlet (blog) - "A number of people have been asking me if Jean/Phoenix are manifestations of Dissociative Identity Disorder (previously, Multiple Personalities Disorder)."
fandom:x-men, fandom:marvelcomics, topic:femalecharacter, topic:psychology
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Links
General Fandom
A Punch Line, A White Supremacist Contortion: Jimmy Johnson (blog) - "This article examines U.S. public awareness of mass incarceration of Black people through the stories told on police procedural television programs."
topic:racism, topic:television
Fat Phobia and Overcoming Fat Stereotypes in YA Lit: Kelly Jensen (blog) - "One of the biggest pet peeves of mine in YA lit and in our society more broadly is how poorly fat people - and I use "fat people" not as a pejorative phrase but as a description of a physical state of being - are rendered, treated, and discussed. More specifically, characters in YA tend to be depicted as oafish, as villains, or, most commonly and most problematically, as characters who have to overcome their weight in order to be seen as worthwhile or able to achieve their dreams, whatever they may be."
topic:fiction, topic:bodyimage
Top 5 Marvel Vs DC Arguments DISPROVED - Why We Should End The Feud: The Insightful Panda (blog) - "Whereas Marvel and DC are certainly not the first franchises to have warring Fan-Factions, they’ve certainly caused the most feuds lately. While Star Trek and Star Wars are finding Star Unity with J.J. Abrams, Marvel and DC seem to be drifting further and further apart, which makes no sense!"
fandom:marvelcomics, fandom:mcu, fandom:dccomics, fandom:dccu, topic:fandom
Communities: Weight of History: Renay (journal) - "Instead, by focusing on older work, what I've rediscovered is the subtle pressure to read books by men that I keep having to crawl out from under. It's ruined my excitement for the entire process. Fair or not, it's also colored my experience of new material that I want to read (especially by women), because I feel guilty not reading new books by men that are coming out to acclaim and predictions of brilliance and game-changing ideas before they even hit shelves. Then I feel guilty for feeling guilty? It's such a strange set of emotions. I'm not really sure how to verbalize it, which means for the last three months I've been puzzling over how I engage with books rather than reading books, which is dire."
topic:sciencefiction, topic:history, topic:canon
The Weight of History: Nina Allan (blog) - "Is there such a thing as ‘the science fiction canon’ and if there is, who gets to say what’s in it? How much of it, if any, do you need to be familiar with before you can legitimately call yourself a fan of SF?"
topic:sciencefiction, topic:history, topic:canon
Dissecting the Asian Drama: Gender Boundaries, Perception, and Performance in You’re Beautiful and Hana Kimi (Part 1): Angel Cruz (blog) - "The popularity of these dramas speak to a modern female audience that is powerfully engaged (perhaps more so than their TV counterparts) with the gender biases that are portrayed on TV. These dramas continue to find success in a region that sometimes lives up to its stereotypically conservative reputation when it comes to the role of women in society. They have also gained a notable female audience outside Asia-not an easy feat to accomplish."
topic:gender, topic:sexism
Aniwords - Is Rating Shows Meaningless?: Isaac Akers (blog) - "Finally-and maybe most importantly-compressing an anime (that is, a multi-faceted work of art) into a single digit as a representation of its quality is a disservice to the show itself and an ultimately meaningless action because it can't possibly actually serve as a complete, functional way of understanding a show."
topic:criticism
Hollywood, It’s Time to Retire the ‘Loveable Misogynist’ Movie Hero: Lindsay Ellis (blog) - "It seems like with tentpoles and franchise properties that aren’t aimed at children, the lovable misogynist is a handy stock character if you want your protagonist to be flawed but relatable. After all, if the Hollywood bro-club presumes the audience doesn’t respect women, why the hell should your protagonist?"
topic:history, topic:misogyny, topic:movies
Gakkou Gurashi and Escapism Through Moe: The Kidd (blog) - "Its hard to describe in words but the best moe anime for me is the one that magically makes me nostalgic for a simpler usually high school life. A high school life that I really never had in all fairness, I mean I certainly didn’t go to an all girl high school in Japan for example and I was never part of any musical club."
fandom:anime, topic:tropes
When Up Is Down: There’s Nothing Mainstream About Mainstream Comics: Nadia Bauman (blog) - "Only now, in 2015, mainstream comics do not exist.
We automatically use this word for Marvel and DC, and it seems just fine at the first glance: their titles are sold in every comics store, and there’s hardly a person on Earth who has never heard about Batman or Spider-Man. The Big Two are resourceful corporations with millions of readers, vast sales, and wide distribution, that’s right. But all of this satisfies only part of the definition of mainstream. There’s one more essential attribute to make something mainstream, one that’s missing: openness and accessibility for newcomers."
fandom:comics, fandom:marvelcomics, fandom:dccomics
A Fragile Masculinity: Genderswapping Male Characters: Alyssa Franke (blog) - "Recasting major characters of beloved franchises is always tricky. Even when creative teams attempt to recreate the original character as closely as possible, there will inevitably be complaints that the new actor could never be as good as the original. But when creators attempt to radically change the character by, say, changing their gender or race, then shit really hits the fan."
topic:gender, topic:genderswap
Let’s Hear It for the Boy! Masculinity and the Monomyth: Morgan Faust (blog) - "Notably, in those top ten movies we have (often in the form of a sequel, triquel, and I don’t even know where to begin counting the X-Men movies) the story of a scrawny, nerdy, outcast boy who goes on a journey and becomes the hero he was meant to be. This story is known to its friends as the monomyth."
topic:herosjourney, topic:masculinity
On Spoilers: Memory (blog) - "The internet is full of spoilers, so you’ve got to expect you’ll come across them at some point or another."
topic:spoilers
Meta Monday: Original fiction/fanfiction (I ship it): dhampyresa (DW) - "And/or the difference between writing fanfic and original fic?
The biggest difference between the two, imo, is that for original fic, you're alone. It's just you and your blank page."
topic:writing, topic:fanfic, topic:fiction
Is this Feminist? Is this not Feminist?:real-life-dipper-pines (tumblr) - "Whether or not a thing can be labeled under feminist so it’s okay to enjoy it is no longer the best way to have discussions on the progressiveness or racism/ableism/sexism/classism/etc of a piece of media."
topic:feminism, topic:canon
Specific Fandom
Agents Of Shield
Would It Be Right To Outlaw Terregenis: various authors (forum) - "If you know Marvel comics or watched the last season of Agents of SHIELD, then you know about the Inhumans. Thousands of years ago, the Kree came to Earth and experimented on humans in an attempt to create super-soldiers. It worked too well, and their experiment was abandoned. But the descendants of their experimental subjects lived on, and when exposed to the "Terrigen Mists" developed incredible powers and often radical physical changes. "
fandom:agentsofshield
American Crime
Negotiated Identities and Gray Oppositions in Ridley’s ‘American Crime’: Sean Weaver (blog) - "This isn’t a show aimed at entertaining. It is a show that relies on provoking the viewer into moving past that cushy comfort zone of self-identification, and questioning the very foundations that control our daily lives: social justice, race, and gender."
fandom:americancrime
Angel
Misogyny Demons and Wesley’s Tortured Masculinity in Joss Whedon’s ‘Angel’: Stephanie Brown (blog) - "While such topics are generally treated with nuance and complexity in the Whedonverse, "Billy" ditches the usual complexity in favor of portraying the show’s good guys, namely Wesley, channeling their base (and as the episode seems to argue, natural), violent instincts. Not only do the episode’s final scenes resemble The Shining, with Wesley trying to kill Fred (a character he has had unrequited feelings for) with an ax, they also seems to take a dark pleasure in "allowing" him to act out in such a violently misogynistic way."
fandom:angel
Avatar: the Last Airbender
How ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Demonstrates a More Inclusive Masculinity: Aaron Radney (blog) - "As a coming of age story I felt the young men in the show-Aang, Sokka, and Zuko-all demonstrated the struggle young men face journeying into manhood with Uncle Iroh providing a vision of what the end of that road might look like. All of them, even those that have more traditional male expressions than the others, end up rejecting more toxic expressions of masculinity."
fandom:atla
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Oh, My Pop Culture Religion: Do Robots & Androids Have Souls?: Lady Geek Girl (blog) - "The question then can be asked, from a religious perspective, do Ultron and Vision have souls, or are they just objects?"
fandom:mcu, topic:religion, topic:robots
Batman
Ep. 60: "The Demon’s Quest, Part 1": The Arkham Sessions (podcast) - "But why does Ra’s take Batman on this quest? Are Robin and Talia really in danger? Is Batman a worthy adversary for Ra’s al Ghul? And can Talia really fall in love with someone after spending only a couple hours with them? Find out in this week’s episode of The Arkham Sessions!"
fandom:dcanimated
Ask Chris #248: The Zero Effect: Chris Sims (blog) - "Friend, you are not kidding about Mr. Freeze. As much as heroes and villains change over the years, and as much as they have to change to stay relevant as hundreds of creators work on their ongoing stories, I honestly don’t know if there’s any bad guy who made a change that dramatic, both in terms of theme and quality."
fandom:dccomics, fandom:dcanimated, topic:villains
Better Call Saul
Moving Away From the Anti-Hero: What It Means to Be a Man in ‘Better Call Saul’: Becky Kukla (blog) - "Emphasis on the supposedly, because although Breaking Bad might be more universally loved, the first season of Better Call Saul alone sparks the debate that the spin-off series might be more adept at handling the complicated issue of masculinity on screen."
fandom:bettercallsaul
Black Widow
The Canon of Canon: fuckyeahblackwidow (Tumblr) - "Natasha was Marvel’s first female lead and Marvel’s first female leader, and women were writing into letter’s columns in 1971 to say how much they appreciated her, because female fans are not newborn unicorns. So why is it so easy to collapse entire decades into a simple history of misogyny?"
fandom:marvelcomics, topic:femalecharacter
Breaking Bad
The Three Questions That Divide ‘Breaking Bad’ Fans and What They Tell Us About Masculinity: Katherine Murray (blog) - "Breaking Bad is one of those well-written, well-acted shows that somehow inspires people to scream at each other in CAPSLOCK. The debate about Walter White and his wife and their drug-trade boils down to your answers to three deceptively simple questions that act as a rorschach test on masculinity in American culture."
fandom:breakingbad
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Buffy Season Two: beccaelizabeth (DW) - "I'm now up to Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.
That's a real low point for Xander, even compared to Hyena time."
fandom:btvs
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Now Season 3: beccaelizabeth (DW) - "I'm up to Beauty and the Beasts.
Once again straight up domestic violence, once again I feel the need to sit down and turn it into words until I am less creeped out."
fandom:btvs
Cleaner Day and Buffy: beccaelizabeth (DW) - "If the actual idea is that someone loving him can save him then I have to disagree a lot. We fix and mess up ourselves. Someone loving him won't work until he's sorted himself out to, like, let them."
fandom:btvs
Buffy Season Three Up To Consequences: beccaelizabeth (DW) - "Faith gets to go through stuff so Buffy won't quite have to.
Back when Buffy hit Ted I was unsatisfied with how the story went sideways so Buffy didn't have to face up to it. But the topic would be returned to with another Slayer, Faith. And she gets no such save."
fandom:btvs
My Name Is William H. Pratt Millionaire:rahirah (DW) - "So what it is with fic writers constantly making Spike independently wealthy, with secret Swiss bank accounts and real estate investments and stuff"
fandom:btvs
By the Sword
Valdemar Reread: By the Sword: Companions: Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:valdemar
Captain America
Untitled: linzeestyle (tumblr) - "But there’s value in analyzing patterns. And within the MCU, Whedon has made a very clear point of erasing Bucky from his narrative. There’s a problem with this, simply from the perspective of creating a cohesive, ongoing universe - both in the MCU, and in the 616 Universe, post-resurrection/reboot Steve Rogers is defined by the tragedy of Bucky Barnes’ death. "
fandom:mcu, fandom:marvelcomics
Untitled:buckyforcap (tumblr) - "I want Bucky to be okay with who he is as a person, which is not an easy road. He needs to deal with a lot of trauma and self-examination to heal what has been done to him, and the things he’s been made to do, etc."
fandom:mcu
Untitled buckyforcap: (tumblr) - "If you don’t prove to me within the story that Bucky has no control of his faculties or capacity to be rational, then I absolutely won’t assume he doesn’t have a right to choose for himself how his recovery should go, just because he’s been through hell. "
fandom:mcu
Chronicles of Narnia
Narnia: There Was A Reward Offered: Ana Mardoll (blog) - Deconstruction of the next to last chapter of The Silver Chair.
fandom:chroniclesofnarnia, topic:deconstruction
Untitled: ink-splotch (Tumblr) - "How about we talk about what might have happened if Narnia hadn’t deserted Susan?"
fandom:chroniclesofnarnia
Untitled: ink-splotch (Tumblr) - "Let’s talk about being the eldest son. Susan was more sensible than him, Lucy braver, and Edmund more clever. Peter had never been able to see what he gave to this family."
fandom:chroniclesofnarnia
Conan the Barbarian
The Frightening Heroics of Conan the Barbarian: Evan Saathoff (blog) - "But Milius’ Conan is not a nice or friendly figure. He’s a brutal, blunt and remorseless expression of alpha male ideals sent on a quest of personal vengeance that just happens to take out someone even more evil."
fandom:conanthebarbarian
Cosmere
Words of Radiance Reread: Chapter 46: Alice Arneson (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the chapter in question.
fandom:cosmere
DC Comics
Manic DC Dream Girl: The DC Super Hero Girls Site Has Launched and We Have Questions: Amber Love (blog) - "Many fans and geek blogs have already discussed DC’s latest vocal commitment to diversity. When they first announced DC Super Hero Girls, there were problems with how they phrased their press release. That’s a pattern, it seems: "Here’s diversity! Now watch us continue to disenfranchise minority characters!" That’s how it feels when DC speaks these days. Yet fans like me are constantly hopeful with each new thing that they’ll finally get it right."
fandom:dccomics, topic:femalecharacter
Dexter
Female Masculinity and Gender Neutrality in ‘Dexter’: Cameron Airen (blog) - "Our dominant culture tends to subscribe to the notion that "masculinity" belongs to males and that "femininity" belongs to females. This makes it hard to recognize masculinity in females, thus a lot of female masculinity in film and TV goes unrecognized. The show Dexter challenges gender norms and stereotypes."
fandom:dexter
Dragon Star Trilogy
Reading Melanie Rawn’s Dragon Star Trilogy: An Introduction: Judith Tarr (blog) - "This is a read rather than a reread; I’m coming to it for the first time. I’ll be moving faster, taking in more with each post, and thinking more about the big picture."
fandom:dragonstartrilogy
Dragonlance
The Dragonlance Reread: Dragons of Autumn Twilight Part 2, Chapters 5 and 6: Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the chapters in question.
fandom:dragonlance
Empire Trilogy
Rereading the Empire Trilogy: Mistress of the Empire, Part 18: Tansy Rayner Roberts (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:empiretrilogy
Entourage
’Entourage’: Masculinity and Male Privilege in Hollywood: Rachel Wortherley (blog) - "Ellin’s estimation is correct. Entourage is not a portrayal of the male fantasy. Instead, it reinforces the harsh reality that being a male, especially in Hollywood, equals power."
fandom:entourage
Ex Machina
Seed & Spark: On ‘Ex Machina,’ Artificial Intelligence of Color, and How to Become a (White) Woman: Zhuojie Chen (blog) - "The bulk of the film focuses on the interplay between these three characters and attempts to bring up issues of gender and sexuality - specifically, performative (white) femininity. In this entry, however, I’d like to focus on Garland’s complete misfire with the character of Kyoko."
fandom:exmachina, topic:racism
Game of Thrones
Season 5: The Shields That Guard the Realms of Men: Stefan (blog) - "The cohesiveness splinters a bit in the two novels constituting the second act of the saga, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, to the point where multiple narrative arcs are pursued at the same time. The same is true for the TV series. And as with the books, the inherent beauty, depth and themes (or the lack thereof) need some examining to be appreciated. In the following, I will have a look at the different arcs in the season and try to submit them to a coherent analysis."
fandom:gameofthrones
A Brief Treatise on the Rules of Thrones 2.08: The Prince of Winterfell: Philip Sandifer (blog) - "Everything about "The Prince of Winterfell" must be understood in terms of the fact that the final two episodes of this season are earmarked for a single-location battle episode and a more traditionally conceived finale, with the latter, as per the pattern established in the first season, being as concerned with reeling from the consequences of major events as it is in major events actually taking place."
fandom:gameothrones
Getting Medieval on George R.R. Martin: Michael Livingston (blog) - "Combined, the works are now a cultural touchstone, one that is branded-both by its own advertising and by the media and mainstream popular culture-as a "medieval" series. So the question I’m asked more than any other these days is this:
How medieval is Game of Thrones?"
fandom:gameofthrones, topic:history
Masculinity in ‘Game of Thrones’: More Than Fairytale Tropes: Jess Sanders (blog) - "Much like a fairytale, there are plenty of recognisable male tropes: warriors, lotharios, noble heroes. Game of Thrones is a story of rich and powerful patriarchs raising sons to be rightful heirs and trading their daughters in political power-plays. Boys are judged on their ability to swing a sword or work a trade, criticised for showing weakness, and taught to grow up hard and cold. Doesn’t sound unfamiliar, does it? Masculinity is praised in Westerosi society, as it is in our own."
fandom:gameofthrones
Go Set a Watchman
A racist Atticus Finch isn’t the hero we wanted - but he’s the one we need: Anne Theriault (blog) - "The truth is that Atticus does not need to view black people as equal in order to want to help them. In fact, there's very little in Mockingbird to prove that Atticus would support the coming Civil Rights movement."
fandom:gosetawatchman, warning:spoilers, topic:racism
Scholars Have Been Pointing Out Atticus Finch’s Racism for Years: Laura Marsh (journal) - "Yet scholars who have written on race and the legal system in To Kill A Mockingbird are less surprised. "If you read the book from a racial justice perspective," Katie Rose Guest Pryal, a novelist and former law professor, commented, "it wouldn’t surprise you that this is who Atticus is.""
fandom:gosetawatchman, fandom:tokillamockingbird, warning:spoilers, topic:racism
H.P. Lovecraft
The Dreamlands on Five Dollars a Day Plus Your Immortal Soul: "The White Ship": Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the story in question.
fandom:lovecraft
Hannibal
Hannibal Review 3.06 "Dolce": Phil Nobile Jr (blog) - "By playing in the pre-Red Dragon era of Thomas Harris’ Lecterverse, Hannibal has for a couple of years been able to carve out its (and its title character’s) own identity, giving us a fresh new take on an icon that was etched into the pop culture consciousness 24 years ago."
fandom:hannibal, warning:spoilers
"’This is my design’: Transgression and Possession by Hannibal’s Cannibals": plain-flavored-english (blog) - "Instead of titillating us with tales of gore, Hannibal’s Hannibal dismembers and prepares each corpse in front of our eyes, holding the finished plate under our noses as though to say, ‘There, doesn’t that look good?’ Lecter’s pleasure is no longer a sign of incomprehensible monstrosity; it has become our pleasure as well."
fandom:hannibal
Biting the Hand That Feeds: Hannibal, Rihanna, and Sexual Harrassment: Kate Polak (blog) - "Lecter’s self-possessed mien in Hannibal stands in stark contrast to Hopkins’ portrayal, and while the audience knows he is the "bad guy," the show operates less on the shock value of the murders under investigation or Lecter’s own gastronomical vagaries, and more on how power and knowledge must be-as Michel Foucault insisted-thought together."
fandom:hannibal
Harry Potter
The Harry Potter Reread: The Order of the Phoenix, Chapters 23 and 24: Emily Asher-Perrin (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the chapters in question.
fandom:harrypotter
Hogwarts: a Founding: wellingtongoose (LJ) - "What the founders really set up was four different apprenticeship schemes with four different trade masters within in the same fortified town called Hogwarts."
fandom:harrypotter
House of Cards (US)
The Conflicting Masculinities of Frank and Claire in ‘House of Cards’: Tilly Grove (blog) - "Though this is clearly untrue, the perception ensures that women are only able to succeed and be taken seriously in politics if they adopt masculine traits and disown feminine ones. They are placed under intense scrutiny by their rivals and the public to ensure that they do not revert back, and criticism will be invariably gendered."
fandom:houseofcards
Humans
’Humans’ Thinks About Gender, Power, and Technology: Colleen Martell (blog) - "The question at the heart of this U.K.-U.S. hybrid miniseries is, what does it mean to be human? Through the show’s emphasis on intimate, domestic life, this becomes a decidedly gendered question."
fandom:humans, warning:spoilers
The Hurt Locker
Bigelow’s Boys: Martial Masculinity in ‘The Hurt Locker’: Rachael Johnson (blog) - "The Hurt Locker not only represents a revival of Bigelow’s interest in men in the military but also exemplifies her abiding fascination with those who seek to shatter the limits of human experience by dancing with death."
fandom:thehurtlocker
Inheritance Cycle
Magical Mondays: That Time in The Inheritance Cycle when Elves Didn’t Steal Babies: MadameAce (blog) - "Like other fantasy narratives, the mechanics in The Inheritance Cycle are based on numerous myths, fairytales, and folklores. But one of the many problems with The Inheritance Cycle, however, is that it has no restraint. It doesn’t know which myths to use and which ones not to. It also doesn’t help that, once again, the story relies on telling and not showing."
fandom:inheritancecycle
Inside Out
The Psychology of Inside Out: A Beautiful Lesson in Emotional Intelligence: Andrea (blog) - "Disney Pixar’s Inside Out is a film that shows us how an ordinary event in life can take us through a remarkable emotional journey within ourselves. Frankly, Inside Out may be more effective in teaching the concept of Emotional Intelligence better than any psychology text."
fandom:insideout, warning:spoilers
Thinking Too Hard About Inside Out: Lady Saika (blog) - "In the end, kids get the message that it’s not just okay, it’s sometimes necessary to be sad, and that’s certainly a good message to send. More implicitly, it teaches viewers that even if you think someone else is useless or their talents aren’t worthwhile, it’s possible that you just haven’t given them the right opportunity to shine."
fandom:insideout, warning:spoilers
James Bond
Bond Girl: Re-Watching and Re-Evaluating Octopussy: Zina Hutton (blog) - "Octopussy is a weird mix of goofy attempts at humor (all the clown costumes and that Tarzan thing) and a serious plot with intrigue and deaths galore. That shouldn’t work well together as it does, but aside from a few lingering issues with white-washing and racism, Octopussy is a really wonderful film."
fandom:jamesbond
Jaws
I Think We Need a Bigger Metaphor: Men and Masculinity in ‘Jaws’: Julia Patt (blog) - Discussion and analysis of the male characters in Jaws.
fandom:jaws
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Now all of England lay cupped in his black palm: sovay (LJ) - " The seventh episode should have been a seventh and an eighth. The novel's complex denouement is just slightly too much material to fit comfortably inside an hour, even at the breakneck pace at which events hurtle along; as a result, the last episode is where I noticed and cared the most about the divergences from the source material. There are a few that really leapt out at me."
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell, topic:adaptations, warning:spoilers
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Episode 5: Arabella: Philip Sandifer (blog) - "This is a precision-engineered piece of television. It starts impossibly big and careens at unrelenting speed towards an equally grandiose conclusion."
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell, warning:spoilers
Jurassic Park
Meta Mercenaries: Jurassic World Fucking Hates You: Losercityboss (blog) - "Jurassic World is a terrible movie that communicates a clear, open contempt for the material and the audience from the writer/director."
fandom:jurassicpark
Legend of Zelda
Linearity in Skyward Sword: Mark Olson (blog) - "When it comes to critiques of Skyward Sword on the internet, one word gets thrown around a lot: linear. Now, whether linearity is in and of itself a good or bad thing is a debate for another time; instead, I would like to look at what linearity truly is and how it’s been implemented in the context of Zelda games."
fandom:legendofzelda
Mad Max
follow me all the days: metaphortunate (DW) - "And it's also clear that while the movie supports the Vuvalini in their casual murder; it also supports the Wives in their mercy, in their humanity, in their goal to be above all that."
fandom:madmax
meta: redshoesnblueskies (Tumblr) - List of links to MM:FR related meta on Tumblr. Most linked articles are by redshoesnblueskies, but some are by other authors, and a few other Tumblrs are listed at the bottom as being rich in MM:FR meta posts.
fandom:madmax
A War Rig Of One’s Own: A Very Long Post On Fury Road’s Feminism: wellntruly (Tumblr) - "Fury Road stands for an old form of movie-making, where action and the movement of real human bodies in front of a camera is what tells the story - a tradition that arguably reached its most glorious, shiny & chrome heights with my love Buster Keaton in the age of silent comedies. But Fury Road, it takes this old classic form and its old mythic hero Mad Max, and with them tells a story that’s socially progressive in content as well as form, and humanist down to its bones."
fandom:madmax
Untitled: lierdumoa (Tumblr) - "Mad Max: Fury Road is a story about sexists, told by non-sexists."
fandom:madmax
Off the Fury Road and Without a Map: Masculine Portrayal in the New ‘Mad Max’: Zoe Chevat (blog) - "Wrapped in a hypermasculine Trojan Horse of violence and war custom is a heady lesson about the dangers of ceding to those expectations, and about the road away from them and toward something like redemption. Here is a film where women are shown to be men’s combatative equals. Even more so, it is a film where the only way the men can escape their own oppression is to join up with, and occasionally defer to, these women."
fandom:madmax
Mad Max (1979) Thoughts: yuugo (DW) - "Multiple people told me to skip this movie, to not bother with it at all and move straight on to Road Warror. I'm glad that I didn't! It was interesting. As far as I can tell, part of whether or not one will enjoy this film depends on whether they know what they're getting into, and what their expectations are."
fandom:madmax
Disability In The Dystopian Future of Mad Max Fury Road: Kat Overland (blog) - "Fury Road‘s apocalypse comes in the form of radiation, spoiling the soil and poisoning the population. It’s an equal opportunity threat: radiation and the harsh environment can sicken all classes of people: from the Citadel’s leader, Immortan Joe, to the tumor-laden War Boys, to The Wretched, the lowliest members of the Citadel’s population who are shown to have disfigured faces, tumors, and missing limbs."
fandom:madmax
Untitled:givemeunicorns (tumblr) - "Okay so one of my favorite things about Fury Road was this recurring idea of older women protecting younger women"
fandom:madmax
Mad Men
’Mad Men’: Masculinity and the Don Draper Image: Caroline Madden (blog) - "But the seemingly infallible wall and perfect image that surrounds Don slowly diminishes as the series goes on. And we learn that it is just that: an image."
fandom:madmen
Magic Mike
Magic Mike XXL: Marina (DW) - "In brief: this is a movie with a meandering plot, a lot of unncessary dialogue that should have been edited out of the script, and almost no stakes at any point for any of the characters.
"
fandom:magicmike
Maiden Rose
Klaus And Knighthood: undomielregina (tumblr) - "I’ve been sure for a long time that the scene where Klaus kneels to Taki in chapter 20 after the drapery scene is all about fealty and his vows as a knight rather than about their intimate relationship, but I’ve never been sure why I feel that way. "
fandom:maidenrose
More Maiden Rose Thoughts:undomielregina (tumblr) - "As far as I’ve been able to gather based on reading the nonfictional sources available, age and rank form a complicated kind of balancing act in who is "supposed" to top in wakashudo. (Which, while a dying cultural practice in the Meiji, was still sufficiently extant that we see bishounen coined as the term wakashu becomes obsolete"
fandom:maidenrose
What Is Up With Klaus?: undomielregina (tumblr) - "For someone who expresses his emotions so openly, Klaus proves surprisingly difficult to get a clear handle on. Part of this is because it becomes clear as the story progresses that his mental state in the beginning is atypical, which is obviously impossible to notice on first read, and that initial impression colors all other events because of the non-chronological nature of the canon."
fandom:maidenrose
Mr. Robot
’Mr. Robot’ and the Trouble with the White Knight: Shay Revolver (blog) - "The problem with loving good storytelling and being aware of the varying forms of patriarchy or misogyny in some stories is that once you’ve had a chance to digest a piece of media, you find yourself questioning all the little things that you find problematic and sometimes you can’t tell if it’s just you over analyzing or if there really is a problem there."
fandom:mrrobot
Naruto
The Courage to Cry: Men and Boys’ Emotions in ‘Naruto’: Jackson Adler (blog) - "For these reasons, I am proud of Kishimoto Masashi, the man who created the Naruto manga series, for creating male characters who unabashedly cry, and who are emotionally supported by their peers when they express their emotions in this way."
fandom:naruto
Orange Is the New Black
What ‘Orange Is the New Black’ gets wrong about rape: xoJane (blog) - "Orange Is the New Black truly disappoints me, though, in an area where I think it should excel: discussion of sexual assault."
fandom:orangeisthenewblack, warning:rape
Ore Monogatari
My Love(ish) Story: Anime, Aces, and Suna-min Rolls: Dee Hogan (blog) - "Suna isn’t unfeeling, oblivious, immature, bitter, smug, or (near as we can tell) traumatized by something from his past. OreMono never tries to make the case that there’s something "wrong" with him. He’s just a nice, quiet kid who happens to be uninterested in pursuing a relationship of his own."
fandom:oremonogatari, topic:sexuality
Orphan Black
Feminism in ‘Orphan Black’: Maria Ramos (blog) - "Show creators Graeme Manson and John Fawcett are earning praise for breaking decades of television stereotypes that resulted in most female characters either taking a backseat role or displaying a single, overriding personality trait (i.e., the ditzy blonde, the butch female, the submissive housewife). As the feminism in Orphan Black earns praise, however, there’s been some criticism of the show’s underdeveloped male characters-a glaring contradiction that may be intentional."
fandom:orphanblack
Outlander
’Outlander’ and A Modern Man: Alize Emme (blog) - "But what makes Outlander modern is also what makes it rare: Masculinity as told for the female gaze."
fandom:outlander, warning:rape
The Complex Masculinity of Outlander’s Jamie Fraser: Carly Lane (blog) - "His role in the series, however - first as Claire Randall’s love interest, then as her hastily wedded husband - is anything but predictable, and it’s in looking at his story in the first book (and first season, respectively) that we realize just how multifaceted this masculine hero truly is."
fandom:outlander
Queer As Folk(US)
Masculinity and the Queer Male: There’s Nowt So ‘Queer as Folk’: Rowan Ellis (blog) - "Queer as Folk is overwhelmingly about men, but they are men living in a subculture with different "traditional qualities." Queens, Bears, Straight-Acting, Leathers… any number of ideals of what it is to be a certain type of man in a certain type of tradition."
fandom:queerasfolk
Saga
Book Club: Saga, Week 2: Overthinking It (podcast) - Discussion of Saga, chapters 4-6.
fandom:saga
Sense8
Sex on Sense8: fozmeadows (Tumblr) - "okay but can we talk about how it’s not a coincidence that the sex Lito/Hernando and Nomi/Amanita are having in E6 of Sense8 is what drives the big group sex scene, and how it’s ALSO not a coincidence that the sensates shown participating along with them are Will and Wolfgang, the two straight white guys?"
fandom:sense8
Some Sense8 Headcanons: averydistinctivestyle (Tumblr) - What it says in the title, including discussion of levels of control/connectedness, sexuality, and the Whispers.
fandom:sense8, warning:spoilers
A Song of Ice and Fire
Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Arya VIII, ACOK: Steven Attewell (blog) - Detailed analysis of the chapter.
fandom:asoiaf
Top Characters #5 Davos Seaworth: geoffmarsh (blog) - "While his circumstances and missions change, he stays steadfast to his core description: Loyal, Honest, Realistic, and Self-Aware. That core makes him the steadfast anchor for us as well as for Stannis Baratheon, and for me, that steadfastness makes him one of my top 5 characters and the character I care about the most."
fandom:asoiaf
A Read of Ice and Fire: A Dance with Dragons, Part 28: Leigh Butler (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:asoiaf
A Read of Ice and Fire: A Dance with Dragons, Part 29: Leigh Butler (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:asoiaf
Star Wars
Killing Your Darlings: The Life and Death of Ahsoka Tano: B.J. Priester (blog) - "In other words, although one decision must be whether to kill the character, that choice cannot be separated from the why and how portrayed in the story."
fandom:starwars
Untitled:Cadesama (tumblr) - "Padme knows what the dark side and sith is, she just doesn’t understand it form a theological perspective. Like, if it isn’t a well-known concept by lay people, it at least doesn’t seem to be a secret and she was queen when a Sith Lord killed a Jedi in her house, that would have to merit just a bit of an explanation (they use an evil version of the force, it causes suffering) and then she spends a war against the sith hanging out with Jedi"
fandom:starwars
The "Official" Story Of The Skywalkers:kalob17 (tumblr) - "This is what I think the Galactically Accepted Story is regarding the Skywalkers, what most people think happened in-universe, after the Empire collapsed and they had access to some actual information about the fall of the Republic."
fandom:starwars
Untitled: cadesama (tumblr) - "No one who is not a Jedi explicitly believes in the version of theology they have. There are other holy people and there are other Force sensitives, but the Jedi themselves, while seemingly the clerical branch of a religion, have no adherents other than themselves. It’s not even clear how much Padme believes!"
fandom:starwars
Inside The Star Wars Generation Gap: Why We Still Care About Mara Jade: Dunc (blog) - "I can also say that Mara is a huge reason I got into the fandom in the first place. And Mara was a large part of the reason I kept reading, which is why I stayed in fandom. "
fandom:starwars
Steven Universe
It’s OK to Have Flaws (Except for You): Steven Universe and Fandom: Vrai Kaiser (blog) - "If you’ve any involvement with the internet-side reactions to the show, you might guess that it’s the last one I’m most interested in talking about today. The latest run of episodes unloaded some very heavy information about the cast, some of it troubling and all of it believable."
fandom:stevenuniverse
Superman
Why is it so hard to get Superman right in movies?: Joshua Rivera (blog) - "That was Morrison's epiphany: The most powerful man alive wouldn't be tortured but instead would be the friendliest, most relaxed person you ever saw."
fandom:dccu, fandom:dccomics, topic:adaptations
Tolkien
The Unquiet Voice of Saruman: Jeff LaSala (blog) - "See, Saruman’s rise and fall is a tale of pride and mercy. If, like the dwarves, you delve too deep, deeper than the late Christopher Lee’s undeniably awesome portrayal of of the character in Peter Jackson’s films, deeper even than The Lord of the Rings and its Appendices, you find there are storied veins of insight-mythic ore, if not refined gems-in Tolkien’s other works about the character that make him all the more compelling."
fandom:jrrtolkien
Barrel-rides and She-elves: Audience and "Anticipation" in Peter Jackson’ Hobbit Trilogy: Janet Croft (scholarly paper) - Scholarly analysis of the movies and comparison to the book.
fandom:jrrtolkien, topic:adaptations
The Loremasters of Feanor: Historical Bias in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Transformative Works: Dawn Walls-Thumma (video) - "Given that, I think it is safe to continue to treat the Quenta Silmarillion as a document of Elven origin written with its original in-universe narrators in mind. Chief of those narrators and the subject of my study is Pengolodh. We actually know quite a bit about Pengolodh, and he is an interesting choice of narrators for the bulk of the history about the First Age. The essay Quendi and Eldar (HoMe XI) gives us quite a bit of his background."
fandom:jrrtolkien
History & Technique: Sourcing the Arms, Armor and Fighting Techniques of Middle-earth: Rebecca Glass and Kat Fanning (video) - "Tolkien’s universe is filled with example of special arms and armor that possess special importance, from Frodo’s mithril shirt to Anduril and Glamdring. But what is the historical basis for these examples of arms and armor? How did they impact the fighting techniques of the time? What sources do we have that describe the way people fought in the late Middle Ages?"
Note: scroll down the page. The video is a ways down.
fandom:jrrtolkien
Character Popularity In Fan Fiction: Dawn Felagund (tumblr) - "The paper makes the case that the historical bias present in The Silmarillion is a motivating force behind the creation of Silmarillion-based fan fiction. Or, put more plainly: fan writers prefer to write about characters who are treated badly (in excess of what they perhaps deserve) by the in-universe historians, loremasters, and narrators behind The Silmarillion."
fandom:jrrtolkien
True Detective
True Detective Review: "Down Will Come": Scott Wampler and Phil Nobile Jr (blog) - Discussion and commentary on the episode.
fandom:truedetective, warning:spoilers
VEEP
Man Up: How ‘VEEP’ Emphasizes the Value of Masculinity in Politics: Shannon Miller (blog) - "Efficiency, aplomb, aggressiveness, and general competence are regularly encouraged with a simple call to "man up." In addition, femininity and boyhood are used as favorable taunts to either attack someone’s confidence or goad them in a more advantageous, perhaps much more effective direction."
fandom:veep
Wheel of Time
The Wheel of Time Reread Redux: The Great Hunt, Part 8: Leigh Butler (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:wheeloftime
X-Men
The Psychology of Inspirational Women: X-Men’s Jean Grey: Dr Janina Scarlet (blog) - "A number of people have been asking me if Jean/Phoenix are manifestations of Dissociative Identity Disorder (previously, Multiple Personalities Disorder)."
fandom:x-men, fandom:marvelcomics, topic:femalecharacter, topic:psychology