Category: Race and Class

Comics Literature Movies and Film Podcasts Race and Class Sex and Gender Television

e128. 9 Popular Culture Pet Peeves We Hate and Why

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September 21, 2020
7 Replies

Pop Culture is a double edges sword. The more we love a certain type of media, the more of it we absorb. But the more we absorb, the more we notice some of the tropes that are frequently repeated. And the more we notice those tropes, the more likely we are to eventually get annoyed…

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e127. Dungeons & Diversity

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September 14, 2020
8 Replies

In our contemporary moment pop culture is controlled by two forces. A focus on so-called “geek culture” and a push for more inclusive diversity across media forms. While there is certainly a long way to go, in many cases, leaps and bounds of progress have been made in the last several years, with greater attention…

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Call for Comments: Revising Race in Dungeons and Dragons

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August 18, 2020
13 Replies

Dark elves aka drow From Katya: Wizards of the Coast recently announced (by recently I mean mid-June. It’s been a YEAR y’all) ways that they’re attempting to address the game’s racist characterizations of, well, in-game races. In their announcement, they acknowledge the widespread critique of their rules surrounding races, particularly the ways that stereo-typically dark-skinned…

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e123. Culture, Context, Protest, and Memefication

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August 17, 2020
9 Replies

Have you ever gotten into an argument with someone on the Internet and they tried to prove their point by forwarding some meme that was a quote of a famous person for historical figure that seemed to vaguely relate to their point in the most perfunctory possible way? When this happened, did you think to…

Movies and Film Podcasts Race and Class Sex and Gender Television

e122. twentysomethingteen

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August 10, 2020
13 Replies

There are a lot of television shows and movies about teenagers, both comedies and dramas.There always have been. And yet, actual teenagers on television are extremely rare. Teens are typically played by twenty-something actors (or older). This is especially the case when it comes to teenagers in shows with a heavy sexual or romantic components…

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Call For Comments: Erasing Cultural Activism in 50 Easy Years

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August 7, 2020
5 Replies

From Mav: I ran across an interesting meme on conservative (MAGA) social media the other day. It was a picture of Jimi Hendrix playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the original Woodstock that was being used to complain about athletes kneeling in protest during the national anthem. The text of the meme is what really got…

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e118. #activism

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July 13, 2020
9 Replies

We live in very interesting times. The world around us is changing every day… and with the internet if feels like it’s changing ever rapidly. With everything from #COVID-19 to #BlackLivesMatter to #MeToo to #DefundThePolice to #Resist to #LoveIsLove, the social media sites have given every one of us the ability to advocate for what…

Movies and Film Podcasts Race and Class Sex and Gender Television Violence

e117. Post-Release Censorship and the Disney Vault

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July 6, 2020
8 Replies

There was a weird story that broke a few weeks ago when people discovered that episodes of the 2012 teen sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place had “censored” the cleavage of the mother on one episode by placing a blur over the actress’s chest on the Disney+ streaming service. After some investigation, it turned out that…

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Call for Comments: Performing the Minimum and Virtual Protesting

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June 30, 2020
4 Replies

From Katya: This episode is more than a bit overdue but it’s especially pervading online culture right now: online activism. The internet has unquestionably opened up historic new options for sharing information, fund raising, and promoting causes and events. But for smart phones and the internet, most of us would not know the names of…

Movies and Film Podcasts Race and Class Television Violence

e116. Copaganda, Cartoons, and You

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June 29, 2020
15 Replies

One of the most interesting side effects of the recent #BlackLivesMatter protests sparked off by the George Floyd murder has been the #DefundPolice movement gaining national attention. Obviously that’s a big complicated issue that goes beyond shouting hashtags online (or probably should). Some jurisdictions are beginning to take the call seriously, but in the meantime…