Category Archives: Popular (and unpopular) culture

Cultural Appropriation in Fantasy Writing: Learning to Laugh With Each Other

Within western fiction written by whites, there is always the problem of writing about other cultures. I don’t mean writing about people not of one’s own race, although that sort of diversity poses its own problems.* I mean, writing about … Continue reading

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture | 5 Comments

Dr. Who and Feminism's Failure To Get Shy Men Laid

Since I don’t have time to write a post today — or, rather, I don’t have time to write a post NOW, because I’ve just spent a bunch of time leaving comments on a thread at “Feminist Critics” — I … Continue reading

Posted in Anti-feminists and their pals, Popular (and unpopular) culture | 276 Comments

A Good Month for Nigerian (Igbo) Writers

Two Nigerian writers have garnered major prizes in literature within the past week.  Renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe won the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for fiction, which is awarded biannually for a body of work. If you are not … Continue reading

Posted in Media criticism, Popular (and unpopular) culture, Race, racism and related issues | 16 Comments

Bring Back Joss

My grandmother died on the weekend. I’m going to try and write something about her life at some point. In the meantime all I’ve got energy to write about is TV. They aired the season finale of Heroes* in NZ … Continue reading

Posted in Buffy, Whedon, etc., Feminism, sexism, etc, Popular (and unpopular) culture | 37 Comments

Sopranos — "Don't Stop"

(Spoilers are an inevitable part of life. And of this post.) I loathe the mob-drama genre. But I make two exceptions: Miller’s Crossing and The Sopranos. The smart opinions about The Sopranos’ final episode are split — some people hated … Continue reading

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture | 10 Comments

Another Racially Themed Party: Plantation Graduation

The students and faculty at Riverdale Christian Academy decided to have a plantation party for their graduation. Notice that the party was not to promote any kind of understanding of history; it was a graduation party with a “Southern plantation during … Continue reading

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture, Race, racism and related issues | 9 Comments

Some Thoughts on Khaled Hosseini, reading from A Thousand Splending Suns

I went to a reading by Khaled Hosseini last night, at the bay area Book Group Expo. Khaled read from a section of his new book A Thousand Splendid Suns, which someone described as being the history of Afghanistan viewed … Continue reading

Posted in Afghanistan, International issues, Popular (and unpopular) culture | 10 Comments

Aunt Jemima Petition

Ann is working to put a stop to Aunt Jemima (and the mammy image of black women in popular culture).  You can read her entire post on the history of Aunt Jemima here, and you can sign the petition here.

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture, Race, racism and related issues | 6 Comments

The Problem With Classical Music or What is Wrong With Our Middle Aged White Male Population?

Rachel’s Note: This is for all of those people who like to blame hip hop for everything. We have a problem in this country–classical music is corrupting our middle aged white male population. It has really gotten out of hand … Continue reading

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture | 39 Comments

The Characterless Female, as seen in Jonathan Letham's You Don't Love Me Yet and Lost

Last semester, I was privileged to take a fiction workshop with Marilynne Robinson, the author of Housekeeping and Gilead. In one of our later class sessions, we were looking at a beautiful story by one of my favorite writers in … Continue reading

Posted in Media criticism, Popular (and unpopular) culture | 10 Comments