The Cultural Gutter

geek chic with mad technique

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." -- Oscar Wilde

“‘We Have Always Fought’: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative”

“It’s easier to tell the same stories everyone else does. There’s no particular shame in it. It’s just that it’s lazy, which is just about the worst possible thing a spec fic writer can be. Oh, and it’s not true.” Kameron Hurley writes about lazy writing, cannibal llamas, female soldiers, and women here. (Thanks, James!)

“Who Let The Girl In Here? Notes from the Star Trek: Into Darkness Premiere

Corrigan Vaughan writes an open letter to “Fans of Geek Things“: “I appreciate that you think I have a nice rack and that some of you even find my friends and I to be pretty. That’s very kind. I’m not, however, super in love with the fact that having a rack at all seems to [...]

Black Women in Heavy Metal

The Black Girl Nerds Podcast discusses Black girls and women in the Heavy Metal industry with author and journalist Laina Dawes and Ursula “She-Wolf” Parson from Hear Evil News.

Why Does Mars Need Women?

Diane Dooley writes about Mars’ need for women and ways to subvert it.

Jane Eyre is a Darker than People Think

“[T]he mainstreaming of Jane Eyre as a vanilla romance, or even as an exploration of a woman’s pure, uncompromising, and uncomplicated (and religious! and feminist!) integrity, says all kinds of things about our inability to speak honestly about violence and sex.” More on Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, consent, sex and submission, here. (via K.A. Laity)

BGN on Interracial Relationships

The Black Girl Nerds Podcast focuses on interracial relationships.  “The highest rated BGN podcast yet is about guess what?  Interracial Relationships.  We actually received more calls from men on this topic then women which speaks volumes to men’s thoughts on the hot button issue.”

“Tits or GTFO”

“We make an awful lot of assumptions about big-tittied people – assumptions like she’s somehow ‘asking for it’ or that her endowment in this arena means a lack of competence in others – and that is mean and unfair, and it is also just the world we live in, and some people with big tits [...]

Interview with Kim Gordon

“What the breach of generations shows is that there’s more than one way to be feminist.” Lizzie Goodman interviews musician and artist, Kim Gordon.

Interview with Kurt Busiek

In honor of Lois Lane’s first appearance 75 years ago, Kurt Busiek talks about Lois with DC Women Kicking Ass. “If you’re a ne’er-do-well, the last person you want trying to get the goods on you in Lois, because she just doesn’t quit.”

“Nerdiness and Whiteness”

The Black Girl Nerds Podcast ponders nerdiness and whiteness: “Does Being Nerdy Mean You ‘Act White?’”

“Goodbye for Now, Wonder Woman”

Girls Gone Geek‘s Erika Peterman on why she’s no longer reading Wonder Woman. “At this point, it’s crystal clear that Brian Azzarello is not going to write the Wonder Woman comic I want to read. There’s a big disconnect between Cliff Chiang’s show-stopping, vibrant presentation of the character and the narrative, in which Wonder Woman [...]

The Fashion of Frida Kahlo

Messy Nessy Chic has a gallery showcasing Frida Kahlo’s fashion and it’s relationship to her life and work. And you can see her dresses, corsets, headpieces, jewellery and other articles on display in Mexico City at the Museo Frida Kahlo until Nov. 22, 2013. (Thanks, K.A. Laity!)

Anime in 1987

“1987 was a remarkable year for manga adaptations. Not remarkable in volume—manga adaptations were nothing special in themselves—but for the commonalities that emerged. This year, we would find anime reaching for a measure of subtlety.” More at The Golden Ani-Versary of Anime.

“My So-Called ‘Post-Feminist’ Life In Arts and Letters”

“There’s a reason J.K. Rowling’s publishers demanded that she use initials instead of “Joanne”: it’s the same reason Mary Anne Evans used the pen name George Eliot; the same reason Robert Southey, then England’s poet laureate, wrote to Charlotte Brontë: ‘Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be.’” [...]

“Think The Walking Dead has a Woman Problem? Here’s the Source”

At The Village Voice, Simon Abrams writes about The Walking Dead and its female characters.

“First Person Perspective and The Untroubled Gaze”

Kaitlin Tremblay examines why she prefers first person perspective to third person perspective when gaming: “If female characters have typically existed only to be looked at, then removing them visually and collapsing them in gamer/character removes this gendered aspect of the gaze. There is no gendered complication between playing as Salvador or as Maya, but [...]

RIP, Annette Funicello

Actress and singer Annette Funicello has died. The New York Times has an obituary and The Los Angeles Times has an appreciation. NPR’s Fresh Air has reposted a 1994 interview with Funicello. Here she sings, “Pineapple Princess.”

RIP, Jane Henson

Muppet performer, designer and producer Jane Henson has died. Henson collaborated with Jim Henson to create The Muppets. The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times have obituaries. Here is a rare interview with Henson.

How Not To Write Smut

“I’d originally started writing a list of the mistakes made by poor smut writers, but I’ve decided that it would be more fun to write an absolute shit piece of erotica that illustrated, to an admittedly ridiculous degree, most of these errors.” Get your bad smut on here.

The Latest Whovian Feminist News

The Feminism of Dr. Who Tumblr rounds up the news: “First, it suddenly seemed to strike the media this week that Doctor Who is severely lacking in female writers….Second, the sequel for ‘The Bells of Saint John’ premiered this week.” Click through for a discussion of female writers in science fiction in general and a [...]

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  • Of Note Elsewhere

    “It’s easier to tell the same stories everyone else does. There’s no particular shame in it.

    It’s just that it’s lazy, which is just about the worst possible thing a spec fic writer can be.

    Oh, and it’s not true.”

    Kameron Hurley writes about lazy writing, cannibal llamas, female soldiers, and women here. (Thanks, James!)

    ~

    Patton Oswalt’s multi-franchise super-movie described in his Star Wars filibuster from Parks and Recreation, animated.

    ~

    Corrigan Vaughan writes an open letter to “Fans of Geek Things“: “I appreciate that you think I have a nice rack and that some of you even find my friends and I to be pretty. That’s very kind. I’m not, however, super in love with the fact that having a rack at all seems to preclude me from being considered a ‘real’ fan.”

    ~

    The Black Girl Nerds Podcast discusses Black girls and women in the Heavy Metal industry with author and journalist Laina Dawes and Ursula “She-Wolf” Parson from Hear Evil News.

    ~

    The Hollywood Reporter interviews director Takashi Miike about his new film, Shield of Straw: ” In Japan now, films are very safe. When I was young and went to old cinemas, they had a distinctive feel, an adult smell about them. As you got in your seat and the lights went down, there was a feeling of excitement: What if the film is scarier than I thought it’s going to be? You’re taken into that world. Nowadays, you can sit in the theater and know it’s going to be safe. That’s good for business, but not for filmmaking.”

    ~

    The Atlantic profiles Spectral Motion, creators of monsters, “effects, and other mechanical grotesqueries that have since become household nightmares, if not names.”

    ~

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