Hi there! Welcome to Pop Culture Squad!
It has occurred to me that I might not leave enough of a personal footprint here on PCS. It also occurred to me that I’ve never sat down with you, Dear Reader, and told you what I and this site are all about.
So in a bit, I’m going to rattle off a bunch of hashtags, slogans and sayings that summarize the core operating beliefs here at PCS. Continue reading “Don’t Let’s Start #004: Overdue Introductions”
Contributor Bob Harrison posed the question in his first column here at Pop Culture Squad. Not what is the oldest comic in your collection, but rather what comic have you held onto the longest. I immediately knew my answer, and that it was 3 comics I had bought at the same time when I was in 3rd grade.
Now I don’t remember the actual date (I was 8 years old) but it was a snow day during the 1983/84 school year. Being raised by a single mother, snow days often meant I went to work with her when I was too young to stay home all day alone. At some point that day I walked from my mom’s office to the newstand around the corner and bought myself some books off the spinner rack. Zyn’s News & Cigars is still in the same spot on Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich Connecticut today.
I was a voracious reader even then and a rather precocious child. I say that not to toot my own horn, it’s a thing I heard adults say about me and it often didn’t seem like they meant it as a compliment; I say it because the books I bought were not exactly the Archies that society seemingly wanted me, a little girl, to be reading.
As I look back at the 3 books that are the subject of this column I see so much of the foundation of my fandom laid out in these issues. Wonder Woman. Black Canary. The Huntress. Deadshot. Alfred Pennyworth. Doctor Strange. Continue reading “Don’t Let’s Start #003: The Comic I’ve Had The Longest”
Jonathan Friedland, who has served as the streaming giant’s chief communications officer for the past six years, is out at the company after “insensitive” remarks he made to his team. Sources say that Friedland used the N-word in a meeting with other Netflix staffers, some of whom later reported the incident. Source: Hollywood Reporter
It’s time to talk about the N-word again. I’m going to take what some may see as an extreme stance.
Here it is: we have to stop using racial slurs, hell we should stop using any slurs to describe other people.
Seriously, White People, we need to stop using racial epiphets. White people in particular need to remove the N-word from usage. Now I’m not calling anyone who has ever uttered the word while white a racist; that’s hyperbole. And I’m not talking to racists, let’s put the “out” racists to the side; using the word should automatically be a sign of a garbage person.
This is about trying to be better humans.
We white folks need to be better allies and that starts with our language.
Continue reading “Don’t Let’s Start #002: Tarantino Privilege Has To End”
When Chloe Dykstra’s harrowing tale of abuse at the hands of her celebrigeek ex-boyfriend hit the interwebs this morning, I braced myself for the inevitable cries of “if it’s true” and “due process” and found myself yet again wondering why it is so hard for some people to just believe women when they come forward with their stories of abuse. And, sadly, I was spot-on to brace for backlash; though happily, it was not as much as I’d expected. Or maybe I didn’t dig deep enough into the comment threads.
Now every case is different, it can be easier to believe someone is an abuser if you aren’t invested in that person. So what happens when the self-crowned King of the Nerds is outed as a monster? I’m guessing he loses his beloved spotlight, loses most of his famous “friends” and retreats to his Scrooge McDuck moneyvault to do some laps with his model-socialite wife. Depending on how this shakes out, we could be hearing about his staging a comeback in no time; maybe he’ll let Louis C.K. test those waters first.
Continue reading “Don’t Let’s Start #001: #BelieveWomen”
