A feminist pop culture adventure Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:00:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.6 37601771 /2011/12/16/in-the-bleak-mid-links-ter/ /2011/12/16/in-the-bleak-mid-links-ter/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:00:50 +0000 http://www.badreputation.org.uk/?p=9060

Sita’s Ramayana: The Many Lives of a Text (Tara Books)

Cagney and Lacey reunited (and talking feminism in the Guardian)

A long essay on contemporary feminism from the London Review of Books, which we haven’t finished yet as we post it, and you might not agree with all or any of it (we’re not wildly convinced here at BR Towers) but worth a read, and worth discussing. (Make tea first.)

ComicsAlliance grabs Marvel staff, asks them about the lack of women. Gotta love ComicsAlliance. (Nil points to DC, who declined to comment.)

The Mary Sue reviews Breaking Dawn Part 1 with illustrations.

Awesome Women of Occupy Philly, by Kittens With Mittens. A nice response to the “hot chicks of Occupy” business.

Science toy company scraps gender segregation. Woo!

Lego, meanwhile, look a bit like they’re pandering to stereotyping in an effort to get more girls interested.

But Hamleys scraps those annoying gendered signs! Hurrah again!

And Doctor Nerdlove talks Nerds and Male Privilege.

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Sarah Dobbs over on Den of Geek takes a look back at Ghost World, ten years on. And some of us feel a bit old.

Fun, bouncy column looking at female characters and “female-positive” titles in comics: She Has No Head!

Our mate Libby over on children’s lit blog Treasury Islands finds a book aimed at four to eight year olds. It’s called “Maggie Goes On A Diet”. What really made us furrow the collective brow, though, was the cover illustration, which clearly anchors ‘making sure your appearance conforms’ and ‘looking good in a pink dress’ as the main motivators lil’ Maggie should have for said diet. Come on. Four to eight year olds. Seriously. And what the hell was wrong with MAGGIE SAVES THE ALBATROSS FROM EXTINCTION or MAGGIE’S FIRST FLYING LESSON, anyway? Diet, schmiet. When our ed was eight her main priority was “how to meet SuperTed”. Not “scrutinising the calorie count in the Angel Delight in case SuperTed has a frankly unsolicited opinion on that shit”.

Dad sews Wonder Woman costume for girl invited to a party where boys were asked to dress as superheroes while girls had to be princesses. BOOM! What an awesome dad.

Here’s a video from Indian publishing house Tara Books, who we’ve frothed over before – the artist behind Sita’s Ramayana “sings her scroll” – The Patua is a form of narrative graphic art, comprising a series of panels, stitched together to form a scroll. It belongs to a nomadic performance tradition when song-writer and artist went from home to home, showing pictures ad singing out their stories. Traditional stories and local news were part of their repertoire. Now contemporary artists also look to events reported in the mass media, especially drawn to news that is dramatic and emotionally charged. Very excited for the book to arrive in 2012…

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