The New Deadpool Movie Might Be More Inclusive Than You Think

Deadpool is going to be in a movie and it sounds like it’s actually going to be good! No, seriously; this is not an April Fool’s joke.

pic via The Mary Sue

I am a huge fan of Deadpool. I love the way he breaks the fourth wall, I love that he is a character that pokes fun at comic books while still being a part of the Marvel Universe (basically he’s not just a straight up parody), and I love that Deadpool is actually a really complex character. Deadpool is pansexual, which means if his character is portrayed correctly we will have a pansexual character as the lead in a movie. Furthermore, Deadpool is a disabled character with a severe physical disfigurement and major PTSD. Yeah, though many of Deadpool’s comics are wacky and hilarious, he has a lot more depth than many people give him credit for. So let’s talk about this and how, if done well, Deadpool could make for a really fantastic movie, not just by comic book movie standards but by intersectional feminist standards.

Trigger warning for mentions of sexual abuse after the cut.

Trailer Tuesdays: Legend of Korra Book 3

So after much waiting, we have finally got our hands on a peek at The Legend of Korra’s Book 3: Change. It’s full of brief snippets of awesome imagery that by no means reveal even an inkling of what the plot of the season will be. This isn’t helped by the fact that the trailer is entirely dialogue-free; it’s hard to guess what will happen when all you have is a stirring instrumental accompaniment.

But hell, I’m okay with that, because I’m finally genuinely excited to see more of Korra’s story.

In Brightest Day: Characters Are Never Born With Disabilities

Last time I discussed how often characters with disabilities are cured of their disability. Today I will discuss a similar problem: the lack of characters born with disabilities. I first noticed this problem when watching Season 3A of Teen Wolf. Deucalion became one of my favorite characters when he first showed up as a badass blind villain. I loved him. But then I saw the flashback episode of Teen Wolf, “Visionary”. I was shocked to discover that Deucalion was only blind because Gerard had stabbed his eyes out. I was disappointed because I had been imagining Deucalion as being blind from birth, and while I have many other problems with how Deucalion’s character was handled, you’d think not being born blind wouldn’t be such a big deal. But this minor point nagged at me, and I started thinking about characters with disabilities. I realized that almost all of them have some traumatic event happen to them that leads to them being disabled.

Professor X, Oracle, Bobby Singer, Daredevil, Hiccup, Bran Stark, Jaime Lannister, and many more characters all become disabled after some tragic event and/or an occasionally heroic event. And while having characters who become disabled is important representation, especially for people who have become disabled themselves, having so few characters who are born with disabilities is a major problem. It also says something about how our society views people with disabilities.

In Brightest Day: Characters Don’t Get to Stay Disabled

If you have seen “Breezy,” the most recent episode of Adventure Time, then you will know that something really awful happened. That’s right—Finn grew his arm back. Just grew it back. And maybe I would be less annoyed if 1) I didn’t expect better of Adventure Time, and 2) this wasn’t symptomatic of a bigger problem. “Curing” disabled characters is one of those things that happens a lot in genre fiction and it sends an awful message.

Magical Mondays: The Mundane and the Magical in Welcome to Night Vale

A small desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and the mundane is more awe-inspiring and wonderful than the magical horrors we see every day. Welcome to Night Vale.

Welcome back, viewers. It’s time for another Magical Mondays, and today I will be discussing how the magical surrealist nature of Welcome to Night Vale’s storytelling actually makes the mundane things that we experience every day seem more magical.

Sleepy Hollow: “The Vessel” Review

Sleepy Hollow is finally back from hiatus, and tonight we got the penultimate episode of season one. After a few disappointing episodes and a long wait, I wasn’t particularly excited for this episode, but someone out there has been listening to my prayers. Non-spoilery review: this was a really good episode.

Spoilery review after the jump.

Sleepy Hollow: “Sanctuary” Review

This week’s episode features a missing billionaire, a haunted house, and a cameo by Amandla Stenberg. Spoilers after the jump!

Fanfiction: Not Necessarily a Voice for Minorities

Reading your fanfic!

Let me start this post by saying that I LOVE fanfiction. Yes, the caps are necessary, because that’s how much I love fanfiction. I can safely say that most of my free time I’m either on Tumblr or reading some sort of fanfiction.

But recently I have been very frustrated with fanfic. After writing about both the lack of lesbian couples in pop culture and about queering straight characters in fanfiction I’ve started to realize something. Fanfiction, which has so often been hailed as a way that authors and readers could write/read about characters of varied genders, races, sexualities, and physical and mental abilities, is not actually an epitome of acceptance and diversity. In fact, in many ways fanfiction has the same sexist, racist, and homophobic issues that the mainstream media has.

Teen Wolf Season 3A: This Might Hurt.

[Warning for Spoilers]

Lady Saika: Well, Lady Geek Girl has dragged me into this fandom as well, and I have to say: the season three tagline was a bit of an understatement. “Might” hurt? My ass.

But now we’re on hiatus (does the Teen Wolf fandom have a silly word for hiatuses like Supernatural‘s ‘hellatus’ and Hannibal‘s ‘he-ate-us’? Howlatus?) until January, and we can sit back, lick our wounds, and collect our thoughts about the first twelve episodes of season three.

Lady Geek Girl: Now, Madame Ace and I have delved into Teen Wolf before. We discussed both seasons one and two, as well as feminism in Teen Wolf and race issues in Teen Wolf. I have praised Teen Wolf before, because, while not perfect, it is a very feminist show. This season I had high hopes for the show to continue with its usual feminist themes. And while we still have many strong female characters and feminist themes, the ladies certainly took a hit this season.

In Brightest Day: Ariel

For those readers who follow In Brightest Day regularly, you know I’ve been on a Disney kick of late. I have so far looked at Belle’s Stockholm Syndrome and Simba’s mental breakdown after the death of Mufasa. Both posts reviewed strong, if not obvious, concepts surrounding the characters.

However, I’m going to admit something for the first time. Normally, I can figure out all the problems with a specific character, but this one character is so messed up that she seems to have a laundry list of problems. I don’t think I scratched the surface with her.

In short, The Little Mermaid’s Ariel is one messed-up mermaid.