This week’s Previously On is a tale of men with power with some heartwarming Olympic news, more allegations against Neil Gaiman, and something whose results have yet to be determined.
The algorithm has been flooding my feed with the astounding achievements of Simone Biles and the US women’s gymnastics team, Katie Ledecky and the US women’s swim team, Ilona Maher and the US women’s rugby team, and Mr. Pommel Horse. Mr. Pommel Horse, AKA Stephen Nedoroscik, helped clinch the US men’s gymnastics team first medal since 2008 with his singular specialty: the pommel horse. But more than that, he has become a nerd icon due to the fact that he is an electrical engineering major who plays with a Rubix cube to relax and wears thick, black-rimmed glasses due to concurrent eye conditions. This led an X user to make the observation:
Clark Kent while sitting on the sidelines – Superman on the pommel horse
And finally, Colin Kaepernick raised $4 million for Lumi, an AI platform intended to make comics more accessible. In theory the idea for Lumi feels promising: removing barriers to publishing and merchandising! creative control! removing gatekeepers! democratizing storytelling! But, this is just more tech industry marketing that co-opts the language of equity to line the pockets of tech billionaires and media execs. Kelly Turnbull took to X to share a Facebook post from Khary Randolph stating that Randolph, along with many other artists, have expressed their reservations to Kaepernick about an AI-based platform for comic creation. I appreciate what Kaepernick has done with his influence, but tech billionaires and execs will readily use the language of “innovation” and “revolutionizing” to make themselves richer by not paying creators for their work. Ironically, this reminds me of classic superhero stories and tropes where our idealistic hero creates revolutionary inventions that those with power abuse again and again and again.
