On HU
Featured Archive Post: Russ Maheras on Gene Simmons and comic book andom.
I review Alan Wolfe’s book Political Evil.
U2, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Dylan: who’s the most overrated musician ever.
Michael Arthur interviews Tommy Bruce about documenting furry as art and obsession.
Chris Gavaler on assembling a modern novel course list vs. assembling a superhero team.
We started our Bloom County roundtable:
Bert Stabler on Bloom County as the last great realist comic strip.
Me on how Bloom County is better than Calvin and Hobbes.
Kailyn Kent on Opus as plush toy and Opus as icon.
Utilitarians Everywhere
I wrote the Afterword for The Big Feminist But anthology, which is going to be available shortly.
At the Atlantic:
— I interviewed Melissa Gira Grant about sex work as work and her new book Playing the Whore
—I wrote about the stupidity of the racist backlash against Michael B. Jordan being cast as Johnny Storm. This appears to be the most popular thing I’ve ever written by a lot.
— I wrote about 3 days to Kill, which thinks dad’s raising kids is funny. Because Hollywood sucks.
At Splice Today:
— I wrote about how issues don’t matter in politics, and how Obama is kind of despicable.
—I wrote about my wife being harassed on the train, reverse racism, and segregation in Chicago.
—I wrote about pure music and Akkord erasing the earth.
At Salon I did a music list for President’s Day. (Even a song for James Buchanan.)
Other Links
Melissa Gira Grant on targeting sex workers at the superbowl.
Great piece by Tina Vasquez on feminism’s history of failing trans women.
A student at Duke talks about being stigmatized for working in the porn industry.
Was there any discussion of your train harassment article on Splice Today? It looks like the site allows readers to post comments, but I couldn’t find a thread about the article.
Splice’s comment system doesn’t work all that well, is the truth. There was a long thread about it on facebook.
I’m sorry your wife went through that, Noah. One hostile racist is never surprising, but the fact that no one stood up for her is shocking and a little foreboding. I thought better of us (Americans, I mean).
On a lighter, but tangentially related topic, I’ve said before that there’s inherently white about most of our white superheroes. If the iconic heroes are going to remain relevant to a changing audience or reach out to a broader one, some of these heroes should get more than a costume change and an origin update when they’re rebooted. I’m still waiting for the east Asian female Hal Jordan. On the other hand, I enjoyed the first issue of the new Ms. Marvel. If the publishers are able to create great new characters and willing to promote them, I’m all for that, too.
I omitted a word. Above should say “nothing inherently white.” I hate it when I make myself a target for Freudians.