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Category: pop culture

11 March, 201710 March, 2017

Buffy at 20

A coffin.
Posted in pop culture by s.e. smith

After twenty years, Buffy the Vampire Slayer retains its iconic cult status, and says a lot about creating enduring art.

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5 March, 201712 January, 2017

What is age-appropriate fiction, really?

A parent reading a Dr. Seuss book to a child.
Posted in pop culture by s.e. smith

Debates over ‘age appropriate’ literature tend to talk down to children, underestimate young readers, and put value judgements on creative work.

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26 February, 201711 January, 2017

Stop hiding behind ‘quality’ to avoid conversations about diversity

A very old manuscript, letterpressed, with dramatic gothic lettering.
Posted in pop culture, social justice by s.e. smith

The ‘quality’ arguments surrounding diverse books are bogus red herrings designed to cover up for systematic representational problems.

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11 February, 201726 December, 2016

On Donald Trump and the pop politics of suffering

A cosplayer walks down a set of stairs.
Posted in pop culture by s.e. smith

The myth that suffering induces creativity endures, and it’s back with a vengeance for 2017.

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4 February, 201721 December, 2016

What to expect when you’re expecting a dystopia

Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta.
Posted in pop culture by s.e. smith

On post-apocalyptic media, dystopia, and why we don’t spend enough time examining the liminal space between society and collapse — the protodystopia.

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28 January, 201714 December, 2016

On gender essentialism and magic in western canon

A silhouette of a witch on a broomstick crossing the moon.
Posted in gender, pop culture by s.e. smith

In western canon, magic falls out along very familiar lines, and they are deeply gender essentialist in nature. Who does magic, why, and how is often dictated by perceived gender.

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22 January, 201730 November, 2016

On rereading Marion Zimmer Bradley

A rock rising from a misty sea.
Posted in pop culture, social justice by s.e. smith

While rereading classic fantasy texts to explore the subject of gender essentialism in fantasy, I had to take on the Marion Zimmer Bradley problem.

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21 January, 201730 November, 2016

Pop culture in the time of Trump

Donald Trump at an event.
Posted in politics, pop culture by s.e. smith

In the Trump era, how will we express our anxieties through pop culture?

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15 January, 201729 November, 2016

Now we REALLY need diversity in literature

A person seated under a bookshelf arranged in a rainbow of colours.
Posted in pop culture by s.e. smith

The only way to fight an administration determined to eradicate difference is to aggressively celebrate it.

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24 December, 20162 November, 2016

Stranger Things, Good Girls, and failures of pop culture nostalgia

The kids of Stranger Things peering into a screen.
Posted in pop culture by s.e. smith

Stranger Things was nostalgia incarnate, and it worked. Another made-for-streaming show, Good Girls Revolt, was a disaster. What happened?

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