From Mav (with Matt Linton): We've talked a lot on our show about Laura Mulvey's theory of the "the male gaze". In short, the male gaze describes the tendency of narratives to position female characters primarily as objects of desire to be consumed by male protagonists and readers. It argues that regardless of the reader's personal sexual identity, the narrative often positions the reader to interact with the story as a straight male. Most importantly, it surmises a female character whose job is "to be looked at". Being attractive to the audience is her main role before anything else. We've talked about how people tend to misuse the term and the theory and we've talked about how the theory has been extended to other "gazes" in the decades since Mulvey...
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e160. Remembering Thought & Thinking About Memory
Do you remember the song that was playing when you had your first kiss, lost your virginity, or danced at your wedding? Do you know what movie that you crowded…
e158. Superhero Thought Experiments
Have you ever had one of those pointless internet arguments about the philosophical righteousness of Batman, Superman, Rorschach or Luke Skywalker? Or maybe you’ve spent hours arguing about how time…
Call for Comments: Thoughts on Falcon and Winter Soldier
From Mav: So, we’ve been watching Falcon and Winter Soldier, because of course we have. We weren’t sure if we were going to do a show on it. We’re not…
Call For Comments: Memory Triggers In The Digital Age
From Wayne: I think about memory a lot. I’ve always had a pretty good one, enough so that people comment on it. My ancient mother has lost a lot of…
Call For Comments: A Think Piece on Thought Experiments
From Mav: A few weeks ago, I started one of those conversations we’ve all been a part of on social media. I made a Facebook post where I postulated that…
e155. Introduction to Ergodic Texts and Reading
What does it mean to be an ergodic text? That’s a complicated question. For one thing, the very meaning of the word “text” can be variable to different people, but…
e154. Can We Cancel Cancel Culture Culture? (or can’t we?)
Every day another celebrity “is cancelled” for any number of problematic reasons. Typically, the celebrity responds by claiming they’ve done nothing wrong and blaming “cancel culture” gone wild. Over the…