Tag Archives: feminism

Supercontext: Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, Season 1

Thank you to our Co-producer patron Kevin Wetter for selecting this week’s topic!

This 2009 TV show, helmed by Joss Whedon, was meant to be a thematic exploration of identity and sexuality but many have argued about its problematic story. Was that because of corporate interference or Whedon’s own issues with feminist representation?

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Supercontext: The White Album, by Joan Didion


This 1979 collection of essays attempts to reveal the 1960s and California as stories without narratives. We discuss how Didion’s work was branded because of her gender, class, and lack of politics, despite her insistence that writing was only an attempt to make sense out of chaos.

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Supercontext: The Maxx


This 1996 comic-book-based-cartoon aired on MTV in 10-minute bursts of weirdness. We discuss its themes of tragedy and trauma, together with how it represents feminism, while still objectifying the female body.

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Supercontext: Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin


This book attempts to redefine the novel by combining narrative with an imagined anthropological record. We discuss Le Guin’s background and mission, as well as larger questions about cultural misappropriation and utopianism.

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Additional Resources:

    • Le Guin, Urusula K. “On the Frontier,” in The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination, edited by Le Guin. Boston: Shambhala Press, 2004.

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Supercontext: The Handmaid’s Tale, Season 1

A white wimple atop a folded red robe. Title:

This dystopian television series presents a horrifying, totalitarian society that forces women to bear children as slaves. We discuss its streaming based production and reception, and then turn to multiple articles on representation, politics, religion and intersectionality to try to provide a perspective the two of us might not normally find.

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Supercontext: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris


We look into the story behind-the-scenes of this surprisingly profound comic: from Ferris’ struggle with West Nile virus, to the book’s seizure en route through the Panama Canal. In addition, we discuss Ferris’ theme of “personal monster dilemmas” and how the process of creating this was like melting valuable dross from gold.

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Supercontext: Girl In A Band, by Kim Gordon


This memoir by a music icon was expected to be a tell-all about scandal and betrayal. But we discuss how it’s actually about defense mechanisms that give the illusion of cool confidence.

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Supercontext: The Deuce, Season One


David Simon and George Pelecanos’ show makes us uncomfortable about sex work. But it’s to better understand capitalism. We discuss their exploration of community, corruption and the production of both this show and the labor that inspired it.

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Supercontext: Frozen


After viewing the blockbuster Disney princess film Frozen with actual little kids, we look at all the cooks in this corporate cartoon kitchen. With this many people involved, how did they pull it off? And is this cartoon whitewashed? Too feminist? Not feminist enough? How is this fairy tale defining gender and ethnicity for an entire generation?

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Supercontext: Gone Girl


What does Gillian Flynn and David Fincher’s adaptation of her novel Gone Girl say about the state of marriage, feminism and modernity? Are you a cool girl?

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