In the 21st century, when we think of masks, we think of superheroes. But the idea of superheroes as a concept is only about a century old. Masks have been around forever. They have a long history in theatre, professional wrestling and costume balls. Beyond that they have a cultural tradition that dates back to…
Tag: race
e74. Harry Potter and the Politics of Wizardry
At this point it’s pretty safe to say that the Harry Potter book series is one of the most defining pieces of literature in a generation. Love it or hate it (and if you actually hate it, what’s wrong with you?) you absolutely know what it is… especially if you’re a millennial. But like all…
e54. The Unbearable Whiteness of being Batman
Do you remember all of those great Batman supporting characters of color. You know… Batman’s black, latinx, asian and other ethnic sidekicks and villains like… errr… uh… you know… yeah… ummm…. It’s actually hard to come up with some, isn’t it? Well, there’s probably a reason for that. There are actually several, and have been…
Episode 20: Monster Mash
“The Monster” and “The Monster Hunter” may be among the oldest figures in popular culture. It is the most basic of stories. Some great evil is threatening the community. Someone go kill it! It is a theme that has played out in countless books, movies, tv shows, comics and video games. The monster is a…
Episode 19: Cosplayers of Color
It’s pretty well accepted in contemporary geek culture that “representation matters.” At least, it’s accepted by everyone except for the evil corners of the internet that we don’t really care about. And thankfully, because of this, recent years in geek culture have seen the addition of many diverse characters that have become cosplay favorites at…
Call for Comments: Your Black Friend Is Tired
June 5, 2020
From Mav: Well, it’s been a week. If you’re in America (or probably if you’ve simply bothered to watch the news at all anywhere else in the world), you know that in addition to the now standard “we shut down the world for a global pandemic,” we’ve also been dealing with “and then we went…