#media: articles

[videogamesincolor]

“I do think her work has informed the industry,” Mark Chen, a lecturer at the University of Washington Bothell, said. “I mean, part of the reason we keep hearing about harassment or sexism in the industry I think is because of her efforts and others like her who (forcibly) made space for others to follow.” Her work also continues to be referred to in academia, where it influences students who may go on to develop games. Tropes vs. Women in Video Games is a staple on digital media and video game class syllabuses. Marc Santos, an associate professor of English at the University of Northern Colorado, used Feminist Frequency in an undergraduate English class that’s focused on research writing on video games. Santos said he uses Sarkeesian’s work on Feminist Frequency because it stands up to this day, but also as a way to show students how to research and present analysis and criticism. In a recent project, students used videos like “Lingerie Is Not Body Armor” and “Strategic Butt Coverings,” which analyze the male gaze in video games, as a basis of analysis of clothing in the first 100 role-playing games that pop up on Steam. “I think there’s a lot of students — both men and women — who sort of realize that the portrayal of women, and all marginalized groups, in video games is bad. But Sarkeesian’s work helps focus their attention,” Santos said. “She provides a lens through which it becomes almost impossible to deny or ignore the extent of the problem.” Tropes vs. Women in Video Games continued until the end of 2017, and through years of abuse and harassment that one could simply call hell. The harassment Sarkeesian and her team experienced is unconscionable and included dangerous levels of violence, like bomb threats made at events Sarkeesian was attending. Sarkeesian’s first work predated the period of time now called Gamergate — a movement that is now considered a watershed moment in the rise of far-right extremism, a channeling of decades’ worth of bigotry and hatred embedded into systems, platforms, and communities both online and off. When Tropes vs. Women in Video Games continued through Gamergate, that hatred was channeled toward her and others who advocated for better representation in games.

Around the time she started uploading videos critical of media like Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, I had my first come-to-Jesus moment with the gaming community and just how violently racist and misogynist it was in the Left 4 Dead [2] and Resident Evil 5 fanspace.

Nothing has changed about the L4D[2] and RE fanspace, or gaming, in that regard (they just moved to Reddit). But when she started uploading videos critical of gaming culture and the toxicity of that space, I was grateful to see the pushback, because it gave rise to other voices that occupied areas she either missed or weren't her focus.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Sarkeesian, Not Your Momma's Gamer, and I Need Diverse Games, were all a big part of why the dudebro-to-Ggate culture that was once so acceptable in gaming magazines and other gaming spaces, don't have mainstream games culture by the throat any longer, and why this blog exists.

#videogamesincolor #anita sarkeesian #feminist frequency #gaming culture #media: articles #sexism in gaming #online harassment

[haysianrose]

An Ode to the Áo Dài

The traditional Vietnamese garment, which translates to “long shirt,” has been reimagined as a modern heirloom, writes author Thao Thai.

[...]

When Kelly Marie Tran wore an áo dài designed by Thái Nguyễn to the Oscars in 2022, this moment created a magnificent stir, both among Americans and Vietnamese people of the diaspora who’d never seen our national garment represented on a red carpet. It was, in so many ways, a kind of permission to exist outside of the margins, to have our culture spotlit without explanation or apology.

Nguyễn remembers receiving a phone call from Tran, who asked if it was possible to create an áo dài in three days. He said, “[That call] woke me up.” After 16 hours of work, the team at Thái Nguyễn Atelier finished the áo dài hours before the award show. Nguyễn describes the way that American PR companies and buyers once told him that his name and identity were too ethnic; they didn’t think an áo dài would ever be a mainstream garment. “I’ve been yearning for that moment,” Nguyễn says, recalling the first time he saw Tran at the Oscars. “Afterward, a Vietnamese follower sent me a photo of her five-year-old daughter in an áo dài and said, ‘She can wear this now to a birthday party, instead of a Cinderella or Snow White gown.’” In fact, Nguyễn is co-writing Mai’s Ao Dai, a children’s book about a girl who discovers the beauty of áo dài, with Vietnamese American writer Monique Truong. Such representation is already changing the way younger generations are embracing the áo dài.

Full article.

#eastasiansonwesternscreen #kelly marie tran #ao dai #áo dài #southeast asia #vietnam #haysianrose posts #person: kelly marie tran #media: articles #era: 2023 #subject: representation #media: magazines

[gyunetwork]

[Magazine] The world of GOING SEVENTEEN

SEVENTEEN member VERNON loves the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once, and just like with Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) in that movie, there are endless versions of DINO, the K-pop group’s youngest member, across the multiverse. From GOING SEVENTEEN, the group’s variety show, alone, you’ll find Fe Turin (“WONWOO’s Diary”), Soon-eung (“Best Friends”), contractor LEE CHAN (“BAD CLUE II”) and Lee I Know (“I Know & Don’t Know”). With the addition of what is essentially a spin-off of the series, GOING BSS, there’s also Mr. Cha (“Comeback Time”).

Read the full article here!

#seventeen #svt #source: weverse #media: articles #230423

[blackwomeninstarwars]

“It’s not about what they wrote per se, but what they didn’t write. They wrote the Black character, but didn’t write the Black character with an audaciously Black consciousness of the time that also knew how to move and maneuver in various settings,” Danté Stewart, a Sci-fi scholar, Stranger Things expert, and culture critic told Jezebel in a phone interview. “The interior Black world is all but missing.” [...]“Vulnerability for Lucas is transactional and transformational. Transformational vulnerability is what catapults a coming-of-age story, but Lucas never gets that,” says Stewart. “Every other character, (even Billie) gets that, except Lucas and Erica.”

No, but it's always gonna get me that Billy, an explicitly anti-Black character, got an entire season arc about his woes, but Lucas (and Erica) remain less defined/explored than their white co-stars. (And they did the same thing with Kali Prasad, who they seem determined to exile to a single episode in s2). But to that extent, I guess that is painfully accurate of the era that is the 80s, and remains on-brand for Netflix.

#blackwomeninstarwars #media criticism #lucas sinclair #stranger things 4 #stranger things #off topic posts #media: articles

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

#due to the Great Data Decay academics write viciously argumentative articles on which episodes aired in what order #at conferences professors have known to engage in physically violent altercations whilst debating the air date number of household viewers #90% of the couch gags have been lost and there is a billion dollar trade in counterfeit “lost copies” #serious note: i'll be honest i always assumed it was english imperialism that made shakespeare so inescapable in the 19th/20th cent #like his writing should have become obscure at the same level of his contemporaries #but british imperialists needed an ENGLISH LANGUAGE (and BRITISH) writer to venerate #and shakespeare wrote so many damn things that there was a humongous body of work just sitting there waiting to be culturally exploited... #i know it didn't happen like this but i imagine a English Parliament House Committee Member For The Education Of The Masses or something #cartoonishly stumbling over a dusty cobwebbed crate labelled the Complete Works of Shakespeare #and going 'Eureka! this shall make excellent propoganda for fabricating a national identity in a time of great social unrest. #it will be a cornerstone of our elitist educational institutions for centuries to come! long live our decaying empire!' #'what good fortune that this used to be accessible and entertaining to mainstream illiterate audience members... #..but now we can strip that away and make it a difficult & alienating foundation of a Classical Education! just like the latin language :)' #anyway maybe there's no such thing as the 'greatest writer of x language' in ANY language? #maybe there are just different styles and yes levels of expertise and skill but also a high degree of subjectivity #and variance in the way that we as individuals and members of different cultures/time periods experience any work of media #and that's okay! and should be acknowledged!!! and allow us to give ourselves permission to broaden our horizons #and explore the stories of marginalized/underappreciated creators #instead of worshiping the List of Top 10 Best (aka Most Famous) Whatevers Of All Time/A Certain Time Period #anyways things are famous for a reason and that reason has little to do with innate “value” #and much more to do with how it plays into the interests of powerful institutions motivated to influence our shared cultural narratives #so i'm not saying 'stop teaching shakespeare'. but like...maybe classrooms should stop using it as busy work that (by accident or designs) #happens to alienate a large number of students who could otherwise be engaging critically with works that feel more relevant to their world #(by merit of not being 4 centuries old or lacking necessary historical context or requiring untaught translation skills) #and yeah...MAYBE our educational institutions could spend less time/money on shakespeare critical analysis and more on... #...any of thousands of underfunded areas of literary research i literally (pun!) don't know where to begin #oh and p.s. the modern publishing world is in shambles and it would be neat if schoolwork could include modern works? #beautiful complicated socially relevant works of literature are published every year. it's not just the 'classics' that have value #and actually modern publications are probably an easier way for students to learn the basics. since lesson plans don't have to include the #important historical/cultural context many teens need for 20+ year old media (which is older than their entire lived experience fyi)

[probablyasocialecologist]

Fifty per cent of web users are running ad blockers. Zero per cent of app users are running ad blockers, because adding a blocker to an app requires that you first remove its encryption, and that’s a felony. (Jay Freeman, the American businessman and engineer, calls this “felony contempt of business-model”.) So when someone in a boardroom says, “Let’s make our ads 20 per cent more obnoxious and get a 2 per cent revenue increase,” no one objects that this might prompt users to google, “How do I block ads?” After all, the answer is, you can’t. Indeed, it’s more likely that someone in that boardroom will say, “Let’s make our ads 100 per cent more obnoxious and get a 10 per cent revenue increase.” (This is why every company wants you to install an app instead of using its website.) There’s no reason that gig workers who are facing algorithmic wage discrimination couldn’t install a counter-app that co-ordinated among all the Uber drivers to reject all jobs unless they reach a certain pay threshold. No reason except felony contempt of business model, the threat that the toolsmiths who built that counter-app would go broke or land in prison, for violating DMCA 1201, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, trademark, copyright, patent, contract, trade secrecy, nondisclosure and noncompete or, in other words, “IP law”. IP isn’t just short for intellectual property. It’s a euphemism for “a law that lets me reach beyond the walls of my company and control the conduct of my critics, competitors and customers”. And “app” is just a euphemism for “a web page wrapped in enough IP to make it a felony to mod it, to protect the labour, consumer and privacy rights of its user”.

#Enshittification #big data #internet #social media #a long article but a good un

[ghoulbats]

well….it finally happened

#rip rt #the good times were certainly good <3 #rt #roosterteeth #rooster teeth #honestly this is how i’m finding out it was officialy rooster teeth and not one word #if anyone doesn’t read the article but reads my tags (??) it looks like only the podcasts are carrying on for the time being #they’re shopping around rwby and shows like that and the roost which is the podcast side of things but otherwise #also apparently there’ll be a stream on the rt site tomorrow talking about it if anyone is interested #idk this sucks #be good to the people who were still there they deserve it #warner media on the other hand…..rot <3

[akajustmerry]

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ Can’t Escape Its Own White Gaze by Merryana Salem / Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023). Dir. Martin Scorsese

#killers of the flower moon #martin scorsese #lily gladstone #indigenous #media representation #writing #read the full article if you can guys my editors are looking for any excuse to claim i am not good at my job rn #/

[eastasiansonwesternscreen]

Everything Everywhere All at Once Passes Return of the King as Most-Awarded Movie Ever

Everything Everywhere All at Once can add another historic win to its list.

According to IGN’s calculations, the multiversal hit is now the most-awarded film ever with 158 accolades to date from major critics organizations and awards bodies. This spot was previously held by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which earned 101 major awards by IGN’s math. (via IGN)

#everything everywhere all at once #michelle yeoh #daniel kwan #ke huy quan #stephanie hsu #james hong #representation in media #media representation #film #news #article

[cairoscene]

a day on gotham twitter

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#batman #social media au #twitter au #bruce wayne #i made this instead of writing #if i happened to make up your username or something similar i'm sorry #i promise it was not intentional #unreality #in case anyone thinks this is a real huffpost article it's not #ITS ALL FAKE DON'T SUE ME

[prokopetz]

Some of y'all will call Joseph Campbell a little bitch, then turn around and act like TV Tropes has cracked a universal code underlying all human expression.

#media #tropes #media analysis #media criticism #media literacy #swearing #'analysing' media by decomposing it into checklists of tv tropes articles is just the campbellian monomyth for recovering superwholock fans

[videogamesincolor]

So EA gave an ultimatum to Visceral Games: If Dead Space 3 didn't sell 5 million copies, the franchise wouldn't continue. [...] EA dug Dead Space's grave and made Visceral Games bury the franchise, only for them to be shut down and buried by EA a few years later. EA sullied the franchise and the game studio suffered the consequences, and I have no interest in rewarding EA for selling me the same game that they killed.

#visceral games #dead space #dead space remake #media manipulation #videogamesincolor #superjump magazine #ea games #media: articles

[haysianrose]

EXCLUSIVE: The eve of his potential historic night at the Emmys, Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae looks to have found his first major American studio role following that breakout in a property more popular then the Netflix global phenomenon.

Sources tell Deadline that Lee has landed the male lead in the new Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte from Lucasfilm. Amandla Steinberg is set for the other lead role, with Deadline also recently breaking the news that Jodie Turner-Smith also is joining cast. Leslye Headland tapped as the series director, writer, exec producer and showrunner. Headland has been very hands-on with Lucasfilm execs including President Kathleen Kennedy in putting together a diverse, A-list ensemble, and with Steinberg, Turner-Smith and now Lee, it looks to be headed in that direction.

#star wars #the acolyte #lee jung jae #lee jung-jae #swpoc #haysianrose posts #asians in star wars #person: lee jung-jae #series: the acolyte #media: articles #era: 2022

[browniesnivy]

Morioh reacts to Josuke coming out.

Bonus:

#Just finished rewatching Jojo Part 4 :) I’ll try to be normal. #It’s just one of my favorite pieces of media ever!! Eats up every other part no questions asked LOL #Been cracking up over this Onion article since forever so I couldn’t stop thinking about making this #Under the read more: But who will continue the Joestar bloodline now!? #jojo’s bizarre adventure #diamond is unbreakable #jojo part 4 #josuke higashikata #okuyasu nijimura #koichi hirose #jotaro kujo #kishibe rohan #kira yoshikage #shigekiyo yangu #mikitaka hazekura #tonio trussardi #yuya fungami #terunosuke miyamoto #joseph joestar #yukako yamagishi

[kittyit]

post-entertainment society

#social media #behavioral addiction #attention economy #mental health #surveillance industry #not a perfect article but I love these fishes

[eosofspades]

i was looking up trigger warnings for a book i was thinking of checking out and i found an article about how terrible the book is, and the article, written in the style of a bookblr review, literally says the words, "if you're going to write an unreliable narrator, you can't just have them lie."

i am BEGGING you guys to THINK about the things you're reading just a little bit

#writing #mine #the media illiteracy RADIATING off this article is ASTOUNDING