Trailer Tuesdays: Fun Home

Fun Home is a new musical based on the book of the same name. The book, described by author Alison Bechdel as “a family tragicomic”, is a graphic memoir of the author’s young life, particularly her relationship with her father. Their relationship is complicated by the fact that he was a closeted homosexual and she is unsure of what her true feelings are for him and what his true feelings were towards her and the rest of their family.

“My dad and I both grew up in the same small Pennsylvania town, and he was gay and I was gay, and he killed himself and I became a lesbian cartoonist.”

I read Bechdel’s memoir on a whim when I was working at my college’s bookstore because it looked interesting, and while I wouldn’t say I was enthralled, I did find it to be more than worth my time. The author sorts through her memories and tries to understand who her father was. While reading, the thought “This would make a great musical” never once entered my mind, but here we are, with the musical running off-Broadway and getting pretty good buzz.

As always, I’m interested in musicals, and if they’re based on something with which I’m already familiar, I’m even more inclined to check them out. Just because I wouldn’t put this particular one at the top of my list for books I’d like to see as musicals doesn’t mean I won’t like it, so I was interested when I saw that this was happening. When I saw that Michael Cerveris would be playing the father, I was even more encouraged because I will never forget the very real terror I felt watching his Sweeney Todd, and believe that he can bring complex characters to life with stunning clarity.

Based on the preview, I really like the look of the musical. The costumes and sets have a quality to them that seems somehow real yet imaginative at the same time. The design isn’t too conceptual, but it also resists being mundane or straightforward. It reminds me of the illustrations in the memoir, which are by no means fanciful, but do more than simply create literal depictions of events or places.

The music doesn’t do a whole lot for me, but I don’t dislike it. With such a short selection in the trailer, I will reserve judgment on that aspect until I can see/hear more, though. I like it more each time I listen to it, so I can imagine I’ll like it more when heard in full.

I’m very much interested in seeing where this musical goes. Its run has been extended at the Public Theater, and with such good reviews, it’s very likely that the show will continue on. It may not make the jump to Broadway, where stakes are higher and success stories for quirky, unique musicals are few and far between, but it can’t be ruled out just yet. Hopefully I can see this show or at least get a cast recording if/when one is made.

Fanfiction Fridays: The Serendipity Gospels

Howdy, readers! How would you like an adventure story for today? A story full of intrigue and political plots? A story that’s almost as confusing as the canon it comes from? Then grab a seat and get ready to hear about the most intense Homestuck fanfic I’ve ever read.

The art comes with the story: score!

Authors urbanAnchorite and schellibie’s (of ‘Promstuck’ fame) epic happens in a universe where the trolls never meet the human kids, and SGRUB is never played. They grow up as normal—though they still know each other—and move on to their respective jobs as dictated by their hemocaste. The Serendipity Gospels takes a step back from the more rancorous of the group twelve and follows after legislatcerator-in-training, Terezi Pyrope, alongside her assigned charge, Gamzee Makara. Upon the Executor, the ship where both their castes will be taught their place in Alternian society, the separation of church and law appear to be finite, though intertwined deeper than one would immediately assume from a religious institution that is run by juggalos who are stereotypically always high. Although the subjuggalators, the ‘warriors’ of the church, have more power, their murderous rampages are kept under strict supervision by the ever-watching eyes of the legislacerators.  To no one’s surprise, Terezi excels at her position; in contrast with that is everyone’s lack of surprise at how awfully Gamzee fails at his. The problem they must address is that if Gamzee fails his final exams, so to speak, so does Terezi: both a corporate death and an actual death may be waiting for them should this happen.

Why Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Isn’t That Great… When It Should Be

Like loads of other fans of Marvel superheroes, I was initially pretty excited when they announced the Cinematic Universe’s spin-off TV show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Even the pilot looked pretty promising—you’ve got Agent Coulson, a fan-favorite character, putting together a crack team of misfits with a particular set of skills to save the world. It felt very Avengers-y, at least in theory. S.H.I.E.L.D. has all the elements of what makes a great geek-friendly show. It should be a runaway success, with a huge, ready-made fandom. True, it’s the number one show on ABC for the male 18–49 demographic on ABC and pulling in around 7 million viewers a week (about average). But it seems like there are just as many people watching because they think it’s good as there are people who wish it were good. Average viewers seem to like it well enough, but geeky viewers aren’t as impressed. Why?

Spoilers abound below the cut.

Thor: The Dark World Review

This review is a little later than I wanted it to be. I held off writing it so I could watch the movie at least twice. Normally, my opinion of what I like and don’t like in a film tends to change drastically after seeing it numerous times, and looking back, I can say with almost 100% certainty that I greatly disagree with many things in the posts I wrote about The Avengers and Man of Steel. So I figured it wouldn’t be fair to do the same for Thor: The Dark World. That said, I might as well not have bothered with multiple viewings, because my opinion of this movie has not changed in the slightest since the opening night. Of course, since I’ve willingly subjected myself to it multiple times, you can probably already guess that I liked it.

Spoilers be ahead.

Web Crush Wednesdays: The Princess

Since the days of 8 Bit Theater, webcomics have been a continuously evolving medium. What used to be a tidal wave of comics created from repurposed game pixels has finally leveled out into something more conducive to tackling more serious issues. One such comic that I’ve been following for a long while is The Princess, drawn and written by Christine Smith.

The Princess follows the story of Sarah, a young girl in Everytown USA, who lives with her mother and gets into hijinks with her friends. Through the eyes and mouths of babes, Smith tackles many difficult issues including the effects of divorce on kids, abusive parents, and bullying. Of course, the hot topic of the entire comic is Sarah, who is transgender.

What sets this comic apart from others which also discuss transgender issues is how young Sarah is. For older readers enjoying the comic, it presents the idea that you don’t have to be older to realize how your life should be lived, and that it’s okay for a child to be transgender. For the younger audience—although I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how many of those there are—it offers reassurance that yes, this is okay. What they may be feeling is perfectly normal. Though it’s important to have media with this message for an older audience, presenting this message of acceptance and understanding in a manner that’s accessible to readers of all ages is invaluable.

With the aforementioned dealing with serious issues, I would be remiss to ignore the deep family and societal issues concerning our transgendered protagonist. For one, Sarah is bullied by a pair of kids who hate her for her differences—one of whom picks on her because he can’t understand his feelings for her (but this luckily isn’t presented in the typical ‘boys will be boys’ mindset). Aside from this, her mother also doesn’t exactly approve of Sarah living her life as Sarah. Her mother wants Sarah to be happy, but the fact is that she just doesn’t understand where her daughter is coming from most of the time. Initially she doesn’t accept it at all, but she does make the change and the effort to acceptance. But acceptance comes with an overprotective streak which causes a deeper rift between her and Sarah’s father.

Outside of Sarah, The Princess also offers a diverse cast of varying sexualities and nationalities. Sarah’s father is a proud gay man who wants his daughter to be able to live as openly as he can. Sarah’s first crush is an older transgender boy named Mars, who has an Indian girlfriend. Her best friend Erma, who protects Sarah with her words and her fists, is asexual. And in the more recent arcs, Sarah has a new crush and maybe-boyfriend, Jules, a young African-American. Literally every character is interesting and diverse, which is just how life is. Though Sarah faces a lot of hardships in her life, she has a bunch of people who love her and accept her for who she is, and that’s such an important message. This message, combined with a cute art style and excellent writing, well, there’s no way I couldn’t recommend it. Give it a read, if you have the chance!

Trailer Tuesdays: X-Men: Days of Future Past

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! X-Men!

I am insanely excited for this movie. Seriously, even though I have been very hard on almost all the X-Men movies and I will probably be very hard on this one, that doesn’t mean I’m not excited.

Oh, My Pop Culture Excelsior: Where Are The Religious Superheroes, Marvel?

Oh, Marvel. I’m only mean to you because I know you could be so much better.

Marvel’s comic book universe is at a peak of diversity right now. Characters of color, queer characters, characters with disabilities, and characters from other marginalized groups are gaining roles of prominence in the 616 Universe.

What makes that diversity supremely frustrating, however, is that barely a whit of it is reflected in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Marvel’s movies remain a relic of the white-bread, sausagefest past of their comic books, and a lack of religious characters is just one strike of many.

Trailer Tuesdays: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

It’s getting closer to that time for another Captain America movie. To start off, this trailer looks to have everything that we would want in a comic book movie—and by that I mean violence, explosions, and what looks to be the Helicarrier crashing into the ocean. It survived The Avengers, but it doesn’t look to be surviving this one.

Two years after the events of The Avengers, Steve Rogers resides peacefully in Washington, D.C., struggling to adapt to contemporary society. However, after a S.H.I.E.L.D. compatriot is assailed, Steve becomes entangled in a mystery that may endanger the globe. Together with Natasha Romanoff, Captain America attempts to uncover the growing machination while fending off hired hit men. When the entire scheme is discovered, Captain America and the Black Widow must recruit the aid of the Falcon and soon encounter an unanticipated and powerful adversary—the Winter Soldier.

Spoilers after the jump.

Sexualized Saturdays: Sexism Against Men and Male Stereotypes

When I get a break and can sit down and actually enjoy myself on Tumblr, I often find myself getting angry at many of the things that are posted and reblogged in my fandoms. There are many things that piss me off, but recently it’s been the extreme gender roles and sexism against certain male characters. That’s right—the feminist is going to talk about sexism against men.

I have always believed that sexism affects men as much as women, but in very different ways. Men, just like women, are forced into gender roles and societal expectations that they don’t necessarily want. When teaching feminist theology to my college students, I tried to point out to the men (because I always felt no one else was) that they should be just as insulted by sexism and gender roles as the women. After classes, many of my male students approached me to say that they were angry about the gender roles men were placed into. They felt they had to always be tough—not necessarily physically strong, but that they always had to act macho and unaffected by everything. They felt threatened and uncomfortable by ideas that claimed men couldn’t be loving or nurturing as fathers; that they shouldn’t say anything about it if they felt (or were) sick. They felt pressured to avoid asking for help or working toward peaceful compromises, but rather, felt that they must always be the aggressive loner who does his own thing. These are all roles that greatly influence men’s lives today.

So what does this have to do with fandoms? Well, masculine gender roles often results in stereotyped male characters like Dean Winchester, Batman, Derek Hale, and Wolverine, whom fandoms love and think are awesome. Now, granted, many of the characters I just listed have a lot of depth. Dean, for example, really grows and develops as a character (at least in the first five seasons), so it’s not that I think these characters are necessarily negative stereotypes. What bothers me is how fandom reacts to other male characters that don’t fit the typical male stereotype.

For this post I’m going to talk about the three male characters I see picked on the most by fans: Sam Winchester, Superman, and Scott McCall. I always said these three characters need to sit down and get a drink together because it really makes no sense that the fandom hates them as much as they seem to. Of course, none of this means that the entire fandom hates a certain character, but that enough people hate a character that the rest of the fandom starts to notice it and see it as a problem. (I really should point out that characters like Superman, Sam Winchester, and Scott McCall are also male stereotypes of a different sort, but that is a post for another time.) For now, let’s look at why these characters are so hated.

Red Hood and the Outlaws’s Starfire

A while back, Red Hood and the Outlaws, a title in DC’s New 52, became the source of much outrage, and we here at LGG&F weren’t the biggest fans of it either, if only because of the character Starfire and her blatantly misogynistic portrayal.

Starfire was never really that big of a character in the DC Universe before, except for in Teen Titans, but her portrayal in the reboot has upset a lot of people nonetheless. The New 52 initially seemed to have revamped her character from a sexually liberated, loving superhero, who fought with righteous anger and the power of her emotions, into a vapid sex doll who suffered a severe case of amnesia—to the extent that she couldn’t remember who Dick Grayson, the love of her life, was. She was no longer sexually liberated or her own person. She was nothing more than a woman who stood around posing sexily in spine-breaking positions for heterosexual men.

Case in point.

Her portrayal in the first issue was so sexist and misogynistic that it turned me off the entire series, and I had no desire to continue it. That was, until very recently, when I saw this picture:

Like, wow, she has clothes on. That’s a little odd for her, as she’s one of the few female characters whose personality actually does allow for the more-revealing outfits. But more importantly, she’s actually doing something. And she looks awesome. As such, I decided to give the series another try, went out to my local comic shop, bought Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 2: The Starfire (Red Hood and the Outlaws #8–14), and read it all in one sitting.

I was blown away, and I think I may have fallen in love with Starfire’s character. Spoilers after the jump.