e301. Is Saltburn A Good Movie?

It’s no surprise that the US movie box office hit something of a slump last year. With few exceptions (ahem #Barbenheimer) most tried and true tentpole blockbusters underperformed (perhaps not as bad as most people claim, but that’s another issue). At the same time, in the last couple weeks we’ve had one of these weird…

Call For Comments: So How About That Harley Quinn?

From Mav: So I want to talk about Harley Quinn. Why? Because I think she has a very interesting and near unique (maybe along with Deadpool) place in current superhero fandom. I’ve had this ongoing conversation with Wayne about the difficulty in creating major new comic characters for the Big Two (Marvel and DC) in…

e268. Fasterer and Furiouserer

Two years ago, when Monica first joined the show, we celebrated the release of the ninth Fast & Furious movie by devoting a whole episode to discussing the the cultural appeal of the Fast franchise and explaining how it made an important cultural statement about the breakdown of the distinction of high and low culture.…

e236. Is The Rocky Horror Picture Show a Bad Movie?

If you’ve been following the show the last several weeks then you know we’ve started a series where we have been looking at some of our favorite controversial movies and trying to convince you of the value of them as great films. It’s also October, so we wanted to get some Halloween content in for…

e211. #PCAACA22: The Presentations

Regular listeners of our show will know that the last couple weeks we have devoted to #PCAACA22, the annual conference for the Pop Culture Association. Two weeks ago, we devoted the show to our planning workshop. Last week, you got to hear us meet with other conference attendees to talk about how it went at…

e118. #activism

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…

e63. Transcosplaphobia

Recently Mav witnessed something fascinating on the internet. Several men arguing on a message over whether or not it was appropriate to post transgender cosplay models and to talk about how sexy they were. This isn’t to say that they were concerned about whether or not it was appropriate to objectify women — that was…

Call for Comments: On the Secret Sex Lives of Puppets

From Mav: Clearly, the first thing that most of us think whenever we encounter a couple of children’s puppets is “hmm… which of these puppets are fucking each other?” It’s the obvious question, right? I mean, I didn’t think anyone care all that much about that… but the last couple of days have shown me…

Call For Comments: Sex, Gender and Video Games

From Mav: Way back on our third show, we talked about violence in video games. It was a fascinating show. Neither Wayne or I are experts, so that was the first time we called in both Katya and Abby to run the discussion. It was great. I learned a lot. Chief among the things I learned…

Episode 10: Sex, Gender & FanFic

To some the world of fan fiction is the ridiculous hobby of geeks. To others it is a massive repository of erotica and pornography. But to many, it is a safe haven for Othered communities that have been kept from the mainstream — a place where they can be given a chance to express and…