Sidetracks - February 22, 2018

[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. Disney animator Glen Keane will be directing the upcoming Over the Moon, an animated feature about a girl who becomes an astronaut to meet the Moon Goddess Chang’e.

2. Jill Lepore’s stunning piece on Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, motherhood, and slavery is one of the best things I’ve read in a while; it left me breathless.

3. The Webcomics Review reflects on the evolution of webcomics from the early aughts on, which brought my childhood screaming back.

4. Richard Lawson’s reflections on Adam Rippon and the bittersweetness of being a queer adult recognizing something that you could have used desperately as a child hits deep for me; I was so sheltered and isolated as a child that I didn’t even get what drips and drabs of mainstream wlw content was out there. It’s a bittersweetness that recognizes both what you were robbed of and what, gloriously, the kids of today have.

5. And another hit back to my childhood—Irina Dumitrescu, who grew up in Romania in the early eighties, on having been a picky eater and raising a picky eater. I often conceptualize childrearing as a battle royale of agency—one must, of course, make sure the child doesn’t set herself on fire, but you must also make sure she can make her own choices confidently and feel like a person, and I think that’s one of the tallest orders in the world. Dumitrescu narrows this down brilliantly to the issue of picky eaters: do you let a child’s whims count themselves out of family traditions, or do you force a child to eat something, teaching them that their desires regarding what physically goes into their body are meaningless?

6. Linda Besner at Real Life examines the role of deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes footage, in a way that explains exactly why the extensive documentaries on The Lord of the Rings only drew me further into the story.

Jodie

7. So, Black Panther is out and it is GLORIOUS. There are already a ton of smart posts and threads out there about it. loudlysilent collects some of the posts created by black writers in one handy tweet.

8. I particularly like this thread from sclawr about Killmonger, his treatment of black women, and how Nakia was right. Lots of spoilers here.

9. A historical post pointing out that the film's female warrior force, the Dora Milaje, are partly based on a real life, African, all women army called the Dahomey Amazons.

10. Btw, have you heard that Tessa Thompson will be starring in a film about Doris Payne; a real life jewel thief?

11. The 2017 Nebula Finalist list is GREAT!

12. Hilarious historical humour thread about Joan of Arc.

KJ

13. Long-form web publishing platform Medium has changed its TOS to prohibit the purposeful spreading of disinformation. As a result, a whole lot of white supremacist writers have been banned. Good work, Medium. Twitter, YouTube, Facebook: your move.

14. Ignore the misleading title of this excellent article, which asks why, based on the Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel films, directors seem unwilling to set a superhero movie with a female lead in the present day.

15. Sketch comedy team Tiny Muscles presents a parody of "Cell Block Tango" about the perils of mansplaining. Includes the original piece (from the musical Chicago) for anyone unfamiliar.

16. Anyone who has watched any ice dancing from the 2018 Olympics will be unsurprised to learn that there are Virtue/Moir tinhats (people who believe that the Canadian team of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are dating in real life, despite their repeated claims to the contrary). Alyssa Bereznak looks at the conspiracy theories along with the evidence and comes to her own conclusions.

17. I enjoyed this a completely scientific and therefore irrefutable comparison of Poe Dameron and Han Solo.

Comments

[susanhatedliterature.net]

Great article on Frankenstein, and loved that thread on Killmonger

Thanks for the links, I always enjoy them even if I don't always comment.