Showing posts with label social commentary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social commentary. Show all posts
THE IMPORTANCE OF KORRASAMI IN CHILDREN’S MEDIA
With the finale of The Legend of Korra having officially aired, we can now see the ripples its aftermath has created throughout the media. When protagonist Korra and her close female friend Asami Sato ended the show by walking into the literal spiritual sunset together, the implications of romance were hard to deny, so much so they’ve been discussed, dissected, praised, and critiqued by media and fans alike.
The show has had a rough time being handled by the stumbling hands of Nickelodeon. Due to the immense popularity of its predecessor Avatar: The Last Airbender, Nickelodeon greenlighted the show. This was in spite of some reservations that Bryan Konietzko revealed to NPR the network had in backing a show with a female lead. However, since it’s inception The Legend of Korra has faced many troubles, including clumsy Twitter handling—in a humorously embarrassing moment, the official Nick Twitter retweeted a fan made edit promoting it as an in show piece—to the network pulling it from TV all together.
The reason why the show was pulled? Content. Executives felt that the show—after the first season’s finale included two characters dying on screen—was too dark for its Saturday morning timeslot. So they pulled The Legend of Korra from it’s original Saturday morning TV timeslot and moved the show to Friday nights. Unfortunately, the time switch didn’t hold much effect and the network pulled the show completely off television, only to show the final two seasons online instead, which, coincidentally or not, only gave the creators affectionately called “Bryke”—a name coined by the fandom and derived from combining Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante Dimartino’s names—and their team more free reign.
It’s been argued by some fans that the third and fourth seasons of Korra are the best of the show’s run. With many feeling frustrated by the pacing and lack of character development in the first two seasons—not to mention the forced and at times jarring love triangle that was between Korra, Mako, and Asami—the third season focused instead on plot, characters, and began the foundation for Korra and Asami’s growing friendship. The show also closed the romantic subplots both women had with Mako after season two.
This foundation grew a prominent fanbase that garnered the attention of both the creators and Korra’s voice actor Janet Varney. However, fans were very reluctant to hold much hope that the two could actually become “canon” within the context of the show. Given that American television still struggles with the inclusion of queer sexualities in adult content, including diversity in children or family based content is even more of a pipe dream.
Yet, that’s exactly what happened. The finale aired with such strong implications that Korra and Asami’s friendship had finally grown into more, treading into romantic waters, that high profile sites such as Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, A. V. Club, and Forbes have all commented and supported the romantic relationship between the two women. Furthermore, both creators haveofficially confirmed “Korrasami’s” legitimacy on their personal Tumblrs.
With the in-show evidence, along with the confirmation from the creators, a greater discussion is brewing about queer characters within the medium of children based cartoons. I was lucky enough to be given the chance to further discuss not only the romantic relationship between Korra and Asami, but also the inclusion of queer characters and diverse sexualities in children’s media with some fantastic fellow writers here at Woman Write About Comics.
I had the lucky opportunity to talk feminism in horror with some lovely ladies at Women Write About Comics! I love horror movies, from the truly horrific, to the thought provoking, to the ridiculous slasher flicks. I’ve been a big fan of the horror genre since I first read R.L. Steins Fear Street series as a young preteen. However the genre isn’t always the most welcoming when it comes to women. A subject me and my fellow writers for WWAC discuss in detail in this piece.
Excerpt:
Finding feminist ideology in the horror film genre can feel like searching for meaning in a Pauly Shore film. It can seem a futile effort considering the most popular horror tropes are particularly unflattering toward the female characters: the final virginal survivor, “ugly duckling” killer, the commonality of sexual assault as plot device, etc. Then there are the endless debates about whether a film passes the Bechdel test if the conversation between two named female characters centers around the killer who might be a man. But feminists like horror films, too! And some of the men and women who create them like feminism. The WWAC staff sat around our virtual campfire to discuss our favorite feminist leaning horror flicks.
Read full article on WWAC!
Michael Bay does it again… see why Transformers 4 is a steaming pile of terrible, and how other action movies can avoid falling into the same trap.
When geek culture started to truly flourish with the increasing profitability of superhero movies, supernaturally based TV shows, and renewed interest in the science fiction and fantasy genres, new fans started pouring in. The effect of social media is a large community of fans — or fandom. Keeping in contact, planning events, having meet-and-greets, and developing friendships has become a staple of online fandoms. Sharing theories on the latest episode of Sleepy Hollow, debates on the original Star Trek series vs. the reboot, speculation on upcoming Marvel movies, gushing over the newest Flash trailer, and complaining about the wait between Sherlock series, are parts of belonging to the geek community. Not everyone likes the same shows, movies, books, or comics, but everyone can belong to a fandom within the larger community.
At least, this is the core of what a community should be.Read full article at FeministWire!
There are very few bisexual characters in mainstream media. The few we have are either severely marginalized to the background, offensive stereotypes, or are outright ignored as bisexual characters at all. NBC has a chance now, with their upcoming show Constantine, to expand that list with their title character.
The official trailer for NBC’s upcoming TV show Constantine has been released, sending fans into a tizzy. Reactions have ranged on the mostly positive side, with a few exceptions. You can’t please everyone after all. However expectations are high for the upcoming TV show that appears to stay true to the original comic.Read the full article on TheYoungFolks!
Anyone else sick of dark, gritty superheroes who are kind of jerks? I sure am, which is why Captain America is such a breath of fresh air. So why do some people want to change him? He's perfectly imperfect in all his goodness already.
Recently Vulture writer Abraham Riesman wrote a piece outlining why Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, would be more interesting if he was, excuse the language, a prick. He later goes on to wax poetically about how Ultimate Captain America is a much more interesting version of the star spangled hero, compared to the dry good guy of Marvel’s main 616 comic universe.
As if we don’t have enough angst ridden anti-heroes on the loose in our media.
There's been a long standing--and unfortunate--tradition of men making women feel uncomfortable in their--or what they believe is theirs--spaces. Around May there was some controversy surrounding the cover of Teen Titans, DC's popular teen-centric comic. The cover featured a teenage Wondergirl with breasts strangely shaped like cantaloupes. Wondergirl isn't the first adolescent young girl to be sexualized in comics, and she won't be the last. But the fact that we all know this is troubling to say the least, which is exactly what Comic Book Resources writer Janelle Asselin pointed out in her critique of the title. In my piece I examine the aftermath of Asselin's own commentary and the sexism female geeks face in the comic book world.
For female geeks everywhere, we all know it can be hard to find a place within the community. The last few weeks have been particularly difficult for lady geeks. A recent article by Comic Book Resources guest writer Janelle Asselin critiquing the newly released cover of the upcoming Teen Titans issue one sent clashing waves of support and contempt throughout the online geek community. While the article was a logical and balanced critique, others, including DC artist Brett Booth, felt otherwise.Read the full article at PaperDroids!
Some of these shows have finished out their fall seasons, which means it's the best time to catch up before the cold catches up with us again. Read my article Five Shows You Should Be Watching on PaperDroids!
Read my article Five Shows You Should Be Watching on PaperDroids!
There’s still a distinct lack of ladies being their own heroes and driving the plot on screen. All too often women are either being reduced to singular love interests, being used to further a man’s story, or dying for a man’s pain. However, there is some hope to be had. Here are 5 recent shows on television that embrace women in all their diversity.
Read my article Five Shows You Should Be Watching on PaperDroids!
There’s been a long prevalent myth that movies with women as leads don’t do well at the Box Office. Studios are often reluctant to produce and fund movies with female leads unless the movie falls under the genre of romance. What studios don’t comprehend is that by making this assumption they are, in fact, closing out a huge market of potential profit.
Part of the problem is that since there are so few movies starring female leads, when one does badly, it makes it appear as if audiences simply won’t see a movie with a female lead. However history has also showed that movies marketed specifically to women have done very well.
If romance is the obvious go-to genre for women, then take a look at some of the highest grossing romance movies of all time. Oscar winning movie Ghost, starring Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze, grossed about two hundred seventeen million. Julia Robert’s now classic Pretty Woman grossed around one hundred seventy-eight million. More recent movies such as, The Notebook garnered a total of one hundred fifteen million worldwide. The Vow, which also starred Rachel McAdams, grossed a total of one hundred ninety-six million worldwide.
So what does this mean? That women will pay, but only to see romance movies? Not at all. If the success and prevalence of the romance genre has proven anything, it’s that women are a valuable market to target when making and selling movies.
DC and Warner Bros set the internet ablaze when DC when they announced Gal Gadot (Fast and Furious) had snagged the role of Wonder Woman in the upcoming Batman/Superman movie back in early December.
While fans are excited (if wary) to finally see the Amazonian Princess on the big screen for the first time ever, the decision to include Wonder Woman in a movie with a Batman/Superman title card begs the question: where is Wonder Woman’s own movie?
So we have our question, now where’s our answer? Let’s begin with the first reason why there has yet to be no Wonder Woman solo movie to date.