Sidetracks - June 29, 2017

[helloladies]

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share with each other. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag. For more links and commentary you can follow us on Twitter, Tumblr. You can also support us on Patreon.

Clare

1. Los Angeles’ Arena Cinelounge is screening The Babadook for Pride this month, with proceeds going towards "raising LGBT awareness" (I sure hope there’s a specific charity involvement).

2. Hey, remember when Barbie’s line expanded to include more diverse body types, features, and hair? It’s Ken’s turn, and Caity Weaver ventures to Mattel HQ to take a look. It’s daffily snarky, per Weaver’s usual MO, but I did really enjoy her conversation with one of the designers about how celebrating plus sized fashion has largely focused on women and not men colored their efforts to make a bigger Ken.

Jodie

3. Girls in Capes has Staff Openings.

4. Feministing explains recent Bill SB 5 which overturns an anti-discrimination ordenance in Missouri and allows employers to discriminate against employees based on their reproductive health choices.

5. I am very excited about Justina Ireland's upcoming book Dread Nation. Bustle has an interview with the author & a shot of that glorious cover everyone has been sharing around.

6. Fran Wilde made a list of recommended reading for people who enjoyed Wonder Woman. I've seen a lot of lists based on this idea and this is the most interesting one by far.

7. Serena Williams as Wonder Woman (caution advised if you're reading further down in the thread).

8. Did I mention Oprah's Wonder Woman cake yet?

9. Liz Bourke's review of Laura Lam's Shattered Minds made me run right out and pick up this book.

KJ

10. I appreciate this article on the firing of Phil Lord and Chris Miller several months into the filming of the upcoming Han Solo movie, and what it might portend for future Star Wars films (especially in light of directorial issues having also dogged the making of Rogue One). Despite the headline, I found the article more reassuring than not.

11. Here's a pretty great Twitter thread on the Amazonian costumes in Wonder Woman, and how it's clear that their design was based on actual historical armor, including Diana's. I'm reminded of this Tumblr post from a few years back, about Isabela from Dragon Age 2 and why her outfit actually does work as armor, given her fighting style. Sure, both costumes are also designed to be attractive and revealing, but the practical core is there, and not difficult to see.

12. From Variety: "As Wonder Woman Soars, Movies Starring Men Fail to Connect at Box Office". And yet no one ever proposes we stop making movies about men. Gee, I wonder why that might be?

Renay

13. This article in The Atlantic about scientists getting stopped by TSA because the weird stuff they carry around is a delight.

14. Girls create a solar powered tent for the homeless, and they learned things themselves with only the Internet and videos for help most of the time. I'm so fucking pumped by this article! One, they saw a social problem and they didn't have institutional power but they did have their own energy/power to help one on one via this project with a grant and two, young women (especially WOC) are going to change the world and I am READY FOR IT.

15. Dragons Are For White Kids With Money gave me a lot to think about. Great analysis.

16. Indeed, the Internet has somewhat moved on about being outraged by Nick Spencer as his faux-progressive bona fides melt away & Secret Empire continues, but I'm STILL SALTY about it. Captain America Is No Longer a Supervillain, He's a Monster is an article I liked (lots of spoilers), as well as Marvel Comics has given Captain America’s shield to real-life white nationalists by Sigrid Ellis.

17. In a similar vein, this article explores the economics of following Marvel comics. I have slowly culled my pull list to a few comics I love: Ms. Marvel, Moon Girl, Squirrel Girl, and Monstress; I like reading in floppy but it's not for me. It's for well-off people or people who can make their budget work around it and that is definitely not me right now.

18. I've read this article about a linguistic trend of late 90s and early 00s songs so many times. It's fascinating.

Book Acquisitions

Added TBR: Saga Vol. 8 by Fiona Staples & Brian K. Vaughan, We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest by Zeynep Tufekci, Turtles All The Way Down by John Green, The Tusk That Did the Damage by Tania James, No One Cares About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America by Ron Powers, The Man in the Tree by Sage Walker, Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America by Amy Ettinger, The History of Bees Maja Lunde, A Sovereign People: The Crises of the 1790s and the Birth of American Nationalism by Carol Berkin

Susan

19. SOUND THE ALARMS: there's a new Tortall book coming out! It is the mythical Numair backstory book that's been rumoured for like five years! I AM YELLING.

Comments

[stardreamer]

The Barbie article has a very interesting quote:

"In the past," says Michael Shore, "Ken was really viewed as more of an accessory in Barbie's world, to support the narrative of whatever was happening with the girls."

Hey, isn't that how women are treated in the rest of the world? Accessories to support the narrative of what's happening with the men? Perhaps that was part of the real value of Barbie to little girls, despite the unrealistic physical proportions -- that just this once, they had a play-form that centered women rather than men. So now, of course, the men want to horn in on it...

The linguistics article talks about the difference between chest voice and head voice as if it's really difficult to understand. If you sing at all, you're going to know exactly where that break-point is and how it works. When I took voice lessons, one of the things we worked on was how to transition smoothly across that break when singing a melodic line that crosses it. They want a definition? Here's a quick and easy one: chest voice is where you can belt; in head voice, you can't. (This is why I have trouble singing "White Rabbit" in karaoke; it starts out well down into my chest voice, but I just don't have the range to hit "feed your head" without breaking over into head voice, which means I can't go for the big finish.)