Episode 8: What We Know about Love Intro (00:00:35) During this, the month of St. Valentine's Day, we explore themes of love and lust in escapist media. *Obviously, it’s also Black History Month but your hosts are not really qualified to speak on that with any significant depth or meaning. We’ve never had to try to hunt for positive /compelling representation of ourselves or of our wish fulfilment fantasies. In the News (00:01:45) A brief chat about the use of Saga in a recent episode of The Big Bag Theory a.k.a. the nerd minstrel show. Related links: ● http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/bigbangtheoryjudgesvaughanstaplessa gabyitscover ● http://io9.gizmodo.com/reminderthebigbangtheoryisthegoddamnedworst17573094 32 Super Bowl commercial hype and Deadpool anticipation or lack thereof Two PS4 owners share their “not at all biased” opinions about the system and discuss a study that claims that PS4 users have better taste and apparently love porn. Related link: http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/173907ps4ownerswatchthreetimesmoreporn andhavebettertastethanxboxoneowners Whitewashing / Americanizing live action versions of Anime and comic book characters specifically Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell and Keanu Reeves in Constantine Related link: http://screenrant.com/ghostshellmoviesamrileyvillain/ Best/favorite depictions of romantic love in escapist media(00:13:36) Aaron: Truly, Madly, Deeply (Alan Rickman), Person of Interest (Root/Shaw), WALLE (Eve & WallE) Star Wars (Han & Leia) Firefly (Zoe & Wash), and Farscape (John Crichton & Aeryn Sun) Joe: Scott Pilgrim (Scott Pilgrim & Ramona Flowers), Saga (Marko & Alana), What Dreams May Come (Chris & Annie), American Gods (Shadow & Laura), Eternal Sunshine (Joel & Clementine), and Matrix (Neo and Trinity) *Plug for Perdido Street Station LGBT relationships in comics, writers and readers clearly want them but those who run the roosts still freak out for example Batwoman and the depiction of the wedding poof. Examples of positive and/or controversial portrayals include: The Authority (Apollo & Midnighter) XFactor ( Rictor & Shatterstar) *Leifeld’s tantrum
Best/favorite depictions of Intimacy a.k.a. sexytime in escapist media (00:22:47) Jessica Jones (Luke & Jessica...angry, messed up, and cathartic) XXXenophile (sex positive consensual humor comic)
A brief chat about how interesting it is that sex is conspicuously absent from popular entertainment or is frequently played for laughs. Joe describes what he calls the the “captain’s chair” phenomenon. Examples of sex played for laughs described include Barbarella and Demolition Man.
Guilty Pleasures I know it’s brain rot but... (00:30:22) A few guilty pleasures described include Anita Blake Fang Banger Heavy Metal (film), Anita Blake (book series), Alyssa Milano from Outer Limits series. The ineffable attractiveness of Keanu Reeves.
Love potions: humor and horror (00:41:45) The entertaining, strange, terrifying, and problematic trope of compulsory love/attraction. For laughs: Buffy ( Xander casting a love spell), Xena (Aphrodite firing off Cupid’s arrows) *Brief description of the Trojan War The horror of love potions; The Chaser (Twilight Zone episode)
Love/ lust themed/powered characters (00:49:00) Marvel and DC and their depictions of female physicality. Power Girl, Starfire, and the Hellfire Club. The evolution of the depiction of women’s sexual power. This idea of women deriving their furtive power through their sexuality is clearly a quite old idea (history of art, woman of willendorf, matriarchal societies and religions, nature worship) but recently, there’s a new twist. Women having some amount of hegemonic power, and reinforcing said power with their sexuality arguably this could be either positive or negative. (Basically the sexy boss paradox) So you have this conflict, wherein you have these archetypal feminine characters who respond to some maiden/mother/whore archetype, but cannot be unique in their sexuality, because they are not allowed to be individualized and woman’s sexual power is based on how well they fit into normative male fantasies. E.G. Mystique (Whore), Jean Gray (Maiden/Mother), Freja (Mother), Batgirl (maiden), April O’Neil (maiden), Harley Quinn (Whore). This is why characters like Jessica Jones are so transgressive, even though they still fit into one or more of these categories, they defy conventual sexualization, because they are individualized. Bad Romance (SNAFU romances/affairs)(00:58:45) Relationships more messed up than Marty Mcfly’s mom having the hots for her son. Notable screwed up relationships Spiderman & BlackCat, Wolverine & Jean Grey, Joker & Harley Quinn, The Wasp & Hank Pym *a brief discussion of depictions of abuse in comics Deathstroke & Tarra, and Hal Jordan and Arisia *Doxing the MRA pickup artist scumbag
Having gone to a dark place, we acknowledge the shortcomings of popular geek culture, and offer our condolences, and perhaps a glimmer of hope. (01:14:34)