Stalking For Love is a popular media trope where invasive stalker-like behavior is presented as an endearing or harmless part of romantic courtship. The hero will often go to extraordinary lengths to coerce, trick or otherwise manipulate his way into a woman’s life. SUPPORT THIS PROJECT If you’d like to see more long-form video essays […]
At their core George Lucas’s six Star Wars films are coming of age stories about boys becoming men. Both Luke and Anakin Skywalker are guided and shaped by the principles of the Jedi Order but buried within Jedi teachings we find some troubling and deeply unhealthy ideas about masculinity. SUPPORT THIS PROJECT This video essay […]
I was recently interviewed about this project by author and USC Cinema Arts professor Henry Jenkins. The following was originally published on Jenkins’s website Confessions of an Aca-Fan in three parts. I’m crossposting the whole interview here. 1) “Buffy vs. Edward” helped to establish your reputation as a remix video producer. In some ways, […]
The Big Bang Theory provides a perfect lens through which to deconstruct a popular media trope I like to call the Adorkable Misogynist. Adorkable Misogynists are male characters whose geeky version of masculinity is framed as comically pathetic yet still endearing. Their status as nerdy “nice guys” then lets them off the hook for a […]
As a cultural critic, I watch a ridiculous number of movies, always on the lookout for more positive Hollywood representations of masculinity. I usually walk out of the theater disappointed but occasionally the stars align and I find myself pleasantly surprised. That’s how I felt after seeing Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. Newt […]
