Culture War Correspondence: 4th Wave Feminism

GORDON: Ladies and gentlemen, last week, I kinda volunteered a discussion topic which Kat has graciously decided to roll with. Today, we’re going to be talking about feminism- where we stand now, and with an increasing number of people claiming that feminism’s work is done- what we’d like to see next on the agenda.

KAT: So perhaps we should start be establishing what the first three waves of feminism have accomplished.

You are probably all familiar with the fact that the first wave fought for (and won) the right for the vote.

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Shame Day: Avicii and “Wake Me Up”

Sometime last month a friend of mine on Facebook posted the following status:

“So wake me up when it’s all over, when I’m wiser when I’m older. ~ Avicci”

As a person who only really catches up on pop music when he’s sitting in a car listening to the radio, I went to YouTube to check out what this was all about. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was a song that I could listen to 10 to 15 times an hour for days:

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2 Broke Girls, S3E8 “And the ‘It” Hole”: A TV Review

ithole

If there is anything that 2 Broke Girls excels in doing it’s creating outlandish characters. Whether it’s Dennis Endicott III, the self-proclaimed Thrift Shop Scout and Brooklyn’s Crazy Kitsch Genius [“And the Window of Opportunity”], Cronut Craig the black market baked goods dealer [“And the Cronuts”], or the simply-named Catherine, who had altogether too many cats [“And the Kitty Kitty Spank Spank”], these are individuals who stick with you in how truly zany they are.

This episode the girls’ travels to the latest restaurant, Harlow and Daughters, whose likely Mumford-and-Sons-inspired title aside is the setting for two brand new eccentrics. There’s Brian-Brian, the gay waiter in fashionably[?] old-timey garb and, one of my all-time favourites thus far, York the drinks waiter. It’s just York. “York as in York.” Continue reading

My Personal Fears About Dota 2‘s Art Plagiarism Made Real

My first contact with anything Blizzard Entertainment-related was when a kid much older than I found a copy of WarCraft II: Tides of War on our aging PC in the Philippines. I found the fantasy story gripping, but as a child who drew far more than he wrote [a ratio clearly flipped on its head nowadays] it was the visuals that really grabbed me.

A few years later, on my family’s return to Canada, seeing WarCraft III in Best Buy fliers made my eyes widen in awe. These were many of the same races and units I was familiar with, but updated graphically. I spent many of my precious minutes on the internet perusing the game’s website just gawking at the units and buildings before I finally grabbed a copy of my own.

When World of WarCraft was announced I made plans to play it with my friends, though those were ultimately stymied by the subscription fee as well as my family’s move to Thailand. That didn’t stop me from absorbing as much about the game as I could, though. This was a world I was deeply familiar with but expanded to a greater scope than I could ever imagine. Continue reading

Extended Adolescence, 20s, and Purpose

A couple days ago, I came across Primer, an online magazine declaring itself “A guy’s post-college guide to growing up.” At first glance, it appears to share a lot of similarities with another publication I reviewed, The Art of Manliness, and while I’d like (and intend) to do a full-on compare/contrast piece, I’ve still got some research to do. As of yet, though, the primary distinction between Primer and Art of  Manliness is that the former appears to be a lot more validating of the millennial generation, who are more commonly accused of laziness, selfishness, and naivety.

And let the debate rage on…

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The Importance of Ms. Marvel as Immigrant Literature

I can think of no better way to introduce this subject than with Stephen Colbert’s reaction to the news:

<this is where I would embed the video, if Comedy Central, Yahoo Video, and WordPress would just get along already>

Before I continue I want to point out that the original Captain Marvel was a Kree alien who actually went by the name “Mar-Vell”, and when taking that into account Darlene Rodriguez’s pronunciation actually has a fair amount of validity.

With that out of the way, let’s take a more in-depth look at the young Kamala Khan.

Easily one of the most fascinating aspects about this new character, at least from a writer’s perspective, is how she came into existence. It all began when Marvel editor Sana Amanat, who grew up as a Muslim, began recounting stories of her childhood with fellow editor Steve Wacker. The two moved forward from there, “[noting] the dearth of female superhero series and, even more so, of comics with cultural specificity.” Continue reading