Wonder Woman News
Sean Kleefeld gave my Wonder Woman book a 9 out of 10 at Freaksugar and said various nice things about it.
Amazon says they’ll have copies of the book to ship on the 25th — so a way to use your Christmas money, if Wonder Woman, bondage, and/or feminism are things you would like to use your Christmas money for.
Also Kailyn Kent reviewed my book on Amazon and said she liked it. If you have gotten a copy and feel so moved, please consider reviewing the book on Amazon or Goodreads or B&N or wherever you do reviewing. Marketers and such tell me those things help.
On HU
Featured Archive Post: Matthew Brady on why Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern is the worst comics series ever.
Me on Batman and special guest villain: racism.
Me on Liberace and Dick Grayson in the flaming closet.Cathy G. Johnson on Mike Dawson’s “Overcompensating” and abuser logic.
Chris Gavaler on how genre is merging with literary fiction.
Michael Carson on why more war movies should be like Nightcrawler.
Brian Cremins on learning the classics from comics and Power Records.
Me on lit fic and why Ian McEwan’s The Innocent is a romance.
Utilitarians Everywhere
At the Atlantic I wrote:
—about Alaska’s new sex trafficking laws, which aren’t working.
— about Chicago’s history of torture.
At Pacific Standard I asked what is the point of academic book publishing.
For Ravishly.com:
—I talked about GQ covers and how men and women are both sexually objectified, but in different ways.
—I talked about Nicki Minaj’s Feelin’ Myself and why only female masturbation songs are sexy.
— I did a list of black women in rock.
At Splice Today:
—I write about Edward Baptist’s history of slavery and alternatives to white savior narratives.
—I argues that Jeb Bush is not a bad candidate.
— I contributed to the best music poll.
Other Links
Mike Dawson responded to Cathy G. Johnson’s post here about his comic.
Lisa Levy on the rise of the literary espionage novel.
I miss Tweet, and that year of R&B and hip-hop music. I never thought that song was about either lesbian sex or masturbation, but then again I was 13.
I liked your GQ objectification article, but ultimately I arrive at the conclusion of…trying to think of a nicer response than “So what?”
Truly, it’s an insightful article, but the statement of “Men are just as objectified as women, only in a different way” does little to move away from the fact that the way women are objectified is more harmful. I mean that Lana Del Rey cover when compared to the other GQ covers is abhorrent. There’s definitely a degree of sexualization, especially in super hero comics where men never don’t have six pack abs…but…that almost doesn’t mean anything. I mean it does, but it doesn’t matter. You know, patriarchy and all that.
Sorry, this is less a criticism of the article and more a frustration with how things are in our gender power dynamic.
Well…to me the “so-what” is that the argument the women are objectified and that’s the problem can slide into a blanket anti-sex argument, which can end up being used as a way to shame folks (often women) who enjoy sexual content, or who want to be sexualized and sexy sometimes.
I feel like thinking about it in terms of how people are sexualized, and possibilities for sexualizing people, can allow you to critique these things without seeing sex or sexuality itself as bad.
amazon just sent me a copy, apparently
Yay! They seem to be getting out; I’ve heard from a couple people who received them (I think from Rutgers) or who got notified that they’re on the way.
“Well…to me the “so-what” is that the argument the women are objectified and that’s the problem can slide into a blanket anti-sex argument, which can end up being used as a way to shame folks (often women) who enjoy sexual content, or who want to be sexualized and sexy sometimes. I feel like thinking about it in terms of how people are sexualized, and possibilities for sexualizing people, can allow you to critique these things without seeing sex or sexuality itself as bad.”
Okay, I’m with you there. It doesn’t have to be automatically negative. I s’pose I tend to see the argument of “men are sexualized too” as a refutation from people who don’t want to acknowledge the objectification of women in society to the degree in which it is harmful. My perception on sexualization and objectification has been colored in that way.
Yeah; I’ve seen that argument. I think it also helps to point out that in these images men are sexualized *for men*, primarily. And to note that differences in sexualization matter a lot.