I’m tearing up at a Nike commercial. There are girls in the commercial, from middle to high school, all wearing soccer uniforms. It cuts from team to team, with the US Women’s National Team’s training interspersed. The US Team just won the World Cup, the third time for the nation and the first for this…
The White Privilege, White Audacity, and White Priorities of STRANGE FRUIT #1
Strange Fruit #1 J.G. Jones and Mark Waid (Authors), J.G. Jones (Artist), Deron Bennett (Letterer) BOOM! Studios (July 2015) (This review contains some spoilers) Writing about Strange Fruit #1 has been a long time coming. It has been on my very-reluctant radar since it was announced on February 20th — Dwayne McDuffie’s birthday. For readers who are unaware, Dwayne McDuffie…
Books That Shaped Me: A Wrinkle in Time
Funny thing, it was the Babysitters Club that got me reading A Wrinkle in Time. I was a voracious reader, and when my mom bought a milk crate full of old Babysitters Club books for me at a garage sale, I dove right in. One of the Babysitter Club books featured Claudia Kishi picking out…
Books That Shaped Me: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
When you’re a little girl in the quiet suburbs of Philadelphia, adventure and the open sea aren’t exactly easy to find. Even if I didn’t dream about raising anchors and feeling the wind blow salty water into my hair, I dreamt about freedom and independence. It was an old library copy of Avi’s The True…
How I Burst Through My Insecurity Barrier Using My Kids as a Shield [GIF]
When I first stepped into my local comic book store, it wasn’t about me. Well, it was, but it wasn’t. I’d wanted to explore any comic book store since the first X-Men movie released, but I didn’t think I belonged. It wasn’t just an issue of being a “fake geek girl,” but even more along…
Barbie, Or How I Learned to Tell Stories
Welcome to WWAC Game Section’s summer Barbie series. These months are often the time that children are free from commitments, away from their friends, and ready to let their imaginations take over. For many of us that meant playing with Barbies, and over the next few weeks you’ll see the many different ways Barbies affected…
Fail Better: Cosplay Virgin – Neuroticism May Cause Cosplay Abstinence
I’m a bit of a closet introvert. In my own little element, I thrive — I’m enthusiastic, informative, and energetic. I like to discuss, debate, share, and absorb knowledge on all geekdom. Outside of that box, I am polite smiles and pleasantries, but still reserved and, secretly, mildly uncomfortable. While I can brazenly claim aloud…
Every Little Girl Flies: Captain Marvel and the Mother/Daughter Bond
Have you ever seen a little girl run so fast she falls down? There’s an instant, a fraction of a second before the world catches hold of her again… A moment when she’s outrun every doubt and fear she’s ever had about herself and she flies. In that moment, every little girl flies. (Captain Marvel…
#LoveWins: Past, Present, and Future for Queer Couples in Comics
On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled by a vote of 5-4 that the American Constitution guarantees the right for same-sex couples to get married. Twitter went up in rainbow splashes of celebration in the #LoveWins tag and a myriad of ignorant tweets — the tweets from disgruntled folks saying they were going to move to…
WWAC Warriors: Standing Eight
In the course of eight days before beginning this article, I had six separate pep talks from five different people about my upcoming second fight. A week and a half before I was scheduled to get back in the ring, I asked my kru (my coach; see previous previous posts 1 and 2) to take…
Kingpin over Catwoman: Organised Crime vs Spontaneous Theft
Over a year ago Batman volume 2 #28 came out and introduced us to Selina Kyle as the new Kingpin of Gotham. She declared that Catwoman was dead–and I instantly disliked the new direction. I was expecting DC to introduce a new creative team and outlook. Writer Ann Nocenti’s run was widely disparaged (though I…
Feminists in Clothes: The Literature of Clothes and Gender Presentation
My heels are bleeding in my stupid new boots. People always tell you when it comes to real leather, that they’ll be so comfortable once you’ve broken them in. I’m starting to think it’s just a scam to try to pass off the higher price tag. I got these Doc Martens a couple weeks ago…
