This is another one of those posts like my last couple based on random thoughts I’ve had while doing my current research. Right now, I’m reading Jeffrey A. Brown’s Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans. It’s a very interesting book. I’ve had it for a while and read part of it before but never read…
So, as sort of an addition to my last blog post (about racial representation in superhero comics)… I’ve been reading a book called Dangerous Curves, by Jeffrey Brown. Mostly it is about gender and fetishization of female characters in action stories (movies mostly, but also comics, TV and novels). In other words, the kind of…
One of the nice things about my academic research being focused on comic books is that it’s a lot easier to have random people respond to my thoughts (or spark them) than it would be if I were into something like medieval lit or something. When I asked people to give me ideas on gender…
I get that my worldview is pretty fucked up. I say some pretty out there things from time to time. Sometimes people agree with me. Sometimes they don’t. The nice thing about the internet is that, since people sort of naturally seek out content that appeals to them, it sometimes makes me seem like I’m…
Needed to take a break from my research for a bit and that’s the perfect time for an entry in Mav and Jameel’s Facebook Pictionary!!! 10 points to whoever can guess the answer before Jameel. Timer starts now!
So my cousin, Denna reshared this meme on Facebook last night and it’s been weighing on my mind ever since. It features pictures of Halle Berry, Janet Jaclson, J-Lo and Kim Kardashian in lingerie with captions showing that each has been married three times and then a picture of David and Tamela Mann posing in their…
(title of post suggested by my mother) I just got in a fight. More on that later…. I was a scrawny little kid growing up. Being a scrawny little kid means you get picked on from time to time. Being a scrawny little kid who is also smart makes this even worse. Being a nerdy scrawny…
Just about two years ago, I wrote a blog post about how I didn’t really like the idea of making Sam Wilson, the Falcon, into the new Captain America. I actually stand by that. My reasoning at the time (and now) wasn’t the typical geek reasoning which basically boils down to a fear of change…
I was perusing Facebook a little bit ago and my friend Dan mentioned that he’d recently bought the DVD of Cannonball Run, a great film classic if there ever was one (yes it is! Fuck you!) This got him talking a bit about Cannonball Run vs. Cannonball Run II and it made me ask if…
So this fall, I have been given the opportunity to teach a class of my own design at Duquesne University. I’m calling it “Sex, Violence and Comics,” and in a way, I guess I’ve basically been preparing for this all of my life. I mean, I like sex, I like comics, I like viole… umm…
Stephanie and I went to see Captain America: Civil War this weekend. I sort of knew that I wanted to write some kind of review of it before I went. I’ve been wanting to do more of that sort of thing. I’d also sort of made the decision a while back that I wanted to…
I love the Internet. I can no longer imagine living in a world where I don’t get to see the entire spectrum of sociopolitical thought on any given issue just by pulling up Facebook. I always find it fascinating when i see people say stuff like “if you [do/don’t] support issue X, just unfriend me…
So I have some thoughts about superdelegates… If you hadn’t noticed by now, I’m kind of an election junkie. I love politics. I find them fascinating. You remember how much you hated social studies in school and how your eyes glazed over when you got p that all the civics bullshit? Not me. I loved it.…
So, “Justice” has apparently… uh…. dawned… which is to say that Batman v. Superman came out today. Err… yay! Or something. I had done a pretty good job of avoiding spoilers moving up to its release (and I will be try to avoid giving them here) with the sole exception of the official trailers that…
You know, I’ve basically given up on trying to decide if these are easy or hard. To me this one feels almost trivial, but basically at this point, who the fuck knows. Anyway, it’s Mav & Jameel’s Facebook Pictionary #25! 10 points to whoever can guess the mystery clue before Jameel does. Timer continues until…