On HU

Featured Archive Post: Travis Reynolds on comics gutters.

Kinukitty on bisexuality, reading yaoi, and the closet. (Part of our ongoing reposting of the Gay Utopia.)

I asked folks to list the best music of the year so far, a request that was for the most part met with indifference. Oh well; they can’t all be gems.

Ng Suat Tong on David B’s “Incidents in the Night” and the dream of books.

Osvaldo Oyola tells me why I should like the Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil more.

Kailyn Kent on service and Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel.

Michael A. Johnson on Bechdel’s Are You My Mother?, Almodavar’s All About My Mother, and weeping at comics.

Me on fantasy dragons and real romance in Laura Kinsale’s For My Lady’s Heart.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I wrote about:

— students who do sex work, and how they’re not all the same.

— Ms. Marvel and the tradition of superhero assimilation fantasies.

At the Dissolve I wrote about the vile misogynist pile of crap that is How To Be a Man.

At Salon I had a list of songs for the coming nuclear apocalypse.

At Splice Today:

— I argue that sexuality can sometimes be a choice.

— I sneered at Jonathan Chait for kicking his less fortunate colleagues.

The study guide I worked on for Rick Riordan’s Lost Hero is online at Shmoop.
 
Other Links

Ta-Nehisi Coates is skeptical of liberal outrage at Paul Ryan.

Alyssa Rosenberg kicks off her blog at the Washington Post with a statement of purpose re: writing about pop culture.

Tucker Stone lists the 25 best albums of 2013.

Standardized tests are an off-shoot of eugenics.

Julia Carrie Wong on journalists mining the twitter accounts of Women of Color.
 

News

We’re thinking of doing a J.M. DeMatteis roundtable, probably sometime in summer. Let me know if you want to participate, either in comments or by emailing me.

There’s also been some discussion of doing a Spielberg roundtable…people still interested in that?

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, since we’re doing DeMatteis in the summer, and just did Bloom County, maybe it would be a good thing to do a roundtable that’s not quite so darn white and male.

So…anyone have any ideas? I’d be interested in doing an Octavia Butler roundtable; I’ve been toying with the idea of reading more of her. A romance roundtable might be fun, though perhaps would need to narrow that down. Black cinema? Or comics and fashion was something I’d been thinking about too. Maybe we could do some brainstorming in comments?
&nbasp;
On HU

Featured Archive Post: Shaenon Garrity with an illustration of Wallace Stevens’ Emperor of Ice Cream.

Eric Berlatsky on Alan Moore/Kevin O’Neill’s Black Dossier, feminism, and utopia (part of our Gay Utopia reprint project.)

We had a long thread about underrated and overrated SF. (I said Asimov was overrated, Gwyneth Jones and John Christopher underrated.)

Kristian Williams on Daredevil: Love and War, Sin City, and Frank Miller as accidental feminist.

Samantha Meier on the pioneering women’s underground sex comic Tits & Clits.

Chris Gavaler on Oliver Cromwell as Superman.

Qiana Whitted thinks about non-fiction comics that use fantasy elements (for PPP).

I wrote about Young Avengers, and how laudably diverse doesn’t necessarily mean good.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I talked about:

— breast-feeding, drinking while pregnant, and how folks should just leave mothers alone already.

— Desktop Dungeons and how making non-sexist/non-racist art is hard work.

— the word “bossy,”feminism, and abusive assholes in power.

At Salon I had a list of songs that are almost Beatles covers.

At Splice Today:

— I argue that conservatism is a fandom. (Prompting this response from Jonathan Bernstein, one of my favorite bloggers.)

— I talk about the awesome gender-swapping manga Ranma 1/2, out in a new edition from Viz.

— I review the gallery show Teen Paranormal Romance, and talk about appropriating lesser humans.
 
Other Links

Melissa Gira Grant’s book Playing the Whore, about sex work and work, is now available. Y’all should buy it.

Sarah Boxer on Peter Bagge’s comic about Margaret Sanger.

Shaenon Garrity on Irish cow-battle web comics (yes, there are more than one.)

Amanda Hess on how Ezra Klein looks like the old boss.

Stoya on pseudonyms in porn and online.
 

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Me on whether you have a right to privacy.

We finished up our Bloom County Rountable with posts by:

—my 10 year old with Bloom Couty fan art

—the commentariat weighing in on the most underrated and overrated comics strips

—Shaenon Garrity on Bloom County and the Simpsons.

—Jason Thompson on reading Bloom County then and now.

—Jacob Canfield on what he learned from Bloom County.

Roy T. Cook on transforming into hypersexual superheroines.

Chris Gavaler on the Confederate superheroes of America.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

I was on HuffPost Live talking about Michael B. Jordan’s casting as Johnny Storm. Other guests ere Conseula Francis, Julian Chambliss, and W. Kamau Bell.

At Salon:

— I listed 18 songs about alien invasion

—I talked about the gender imbalance in literary reviews and what that has to do with romance novels.

—I argued that the Dead Poets Society is kind of fascist. As well as being a vomitous pile of bilge.

— I explained the one secret of writing success.

At Splice Today I wrote about:

—how kids should get to vote.

—the Duke freshman who works in porn and feminist arguments about empowerment.

—the Flying Lizards great New Wave pop novelty high art weirdness 1980 self-titled album.
 
Other Links

Alyssa Rosenberg on Lupita Nyong’o, beauty standards, and blackness.

I happened to read this post by Wendy Lyon on the Nordic model of prostitution and how there’s little evidence it reduces violence.

Russ Smith wishes the newspaper editorial would die already.

Richard Cooper on twitter feminism.
 

On HU

Featured Archive Post: creators who haunt their creations, from John Cleland to Yuichi Yokoyama.

A positive review of negative book reviews.

Schindler’s List, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and other nominations for the Worst Movie Ever.

Michael Carson on Tim O’Brien and how a true war story does have a moral.

Brannon Costello on Christopher Priest’s Black Panther vs. Jack Kirby’s Black Panther.

Samantha Meier on Trina Robbins and the beginning of feminist women’s underground comix.

Ng Suat Tong lists the Best Comics Criticism of 2013.

Michael A. Johnson on the medieveal danse macabre.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At Salon, I

— listed 30 great Beatles covers.

— wrote about writing all the time.

At the Atlantic I wrote about:

— how women don’t get to have friends in that awkward moment.

— how arguing about less or more violence in films is not especially helpful

At Splice Today I write about:

— not knowing who won the superbowl or who Phillip Seymour Hoffman is.

— how Miranda Lambert’s crappy nostalgia makes me nostalgic for Dolly Parton.

At the Dissolve I review the surprisingly not-awful Jean-Claude Van Damme comedy Welcome to the Jungle.

I have a poem/rant/story/thing about Utopia in this LJ issue of the Book of Imaginary Beasts.

I asked political scientist Jonathan Bernstein about whether voters ever pay attention to issues. (Short answer: not really.)
 
Other Links

David Brothers interviews Qiana Whitted over at the inkstuds podcast.

A short documentary on Edie Fake,

Zoe Zolbrod explains why it’s very unlikely that Dylan Farrow’s accusations are based on false memories.

Interesting piece on copyright law and revenge porn.

C.T. May on yoga and P.C.

Tressie McMillan Cottom on yoga and how black women don’t necessarily want to be white women.