“ Women read comics. Anyone at all engaged in social media knows this. Women read comics and are a driving force behind fandom. I think I could call them the driving force behind fandom and put up a convincing argument. Just think about it: what fandoms have driven America crazy in the last decade? Could anyone dissuade me from saying that they were Harry Potter, Twilight and the Hunger Games? “Avatar” may have put butts in theater seats, but you don’t hear about it… ever. No one is immersed in the world of “Avatar” except James Cameron and people who enjoy wearing Na’vi Zentai suits. “The Avengers” was pretty darn huge and, if Tumblr is any indication, a whopping portion of the people driving that fandom online do not possess a Y chromosome. Women engage in fandom to levels that men do not. When women get behind something, their sheer numbers and passion force it into the mainstream. That’s why you can name the actor who plays that werewolf kid in “Twilight” and probably sing at least the chorus to one Justin Bieber song. What do tween boys like? I have no clue. Sports? Probably sports. ”
Brett White, Comic Book Resources (via wandrinparakeet)
and yet men remain the most marketed demographic for just about everything.
(via ohhoechno)
I’m pretty sure the only men who spend more time thinking about DC than women on Tumblr are the men who actually work there.
(via touchofgrey37)
the whole yahoo/tumblr thing is rly just like when a single dad marries a new woman and the kids get rebellious and are like “YOU’RE NOT MY REAL MOM”
Some interesting info: This is very reminiscent of the Baby X experiments, in which it was discovered that people reacted differently to a baby’s behavior depending on whether or not they believed the baby to be male or female. People were asked to watch a video of a baby reacting to a startling image (a Jack-in-the-box popping up), and describe the baby’s emotional state. When people believed the baby to be female, they described the baby as being scared and upset; when they thought the baby was male, they perceived the baby to be angry. This was very telling, as it showed that literally identical behavior could be construed differently based on the perceived gender of the subject.
“ The German government regards its years of outright racial wars with inexorable guilt, while the white [United States] South… often celebrates its Confederate and pre-civil rights past with heroic pride and nostalgia. In 2011, one hundred and fifty years after secession and the start of the Civil War, many Southern states celebrated the date with balls and festivities. In distinct contrast, it is unimaginable that any reputable German political or social leaders could honor and commemorate the passage of the Nuremberg Laws and the erection of a German racist state. ”
by Judith Goldstein
This quote from one of my fellowship readings really stood out to me. As a German-American, the contrast between how Germany and how the United States deal with their pasts has always struck me as bizarre. Both nations have horrifying, violently racist pasts (and still deal with racism today), but in Germany it is an issue of enormous shame, with the evil of the acts widely acknowledged and the government working to address this time and its effects (though some ultra-conservative, white supremacist groups certainly still remain unashamed). In the US, however, we barely speak of the millions killed through the slave trade, slavery itself, lynchings, deprivation of resources during Jim Crow, and so on, not to mention centuries of rape of Black women and other horrors. Another reading mentioned that although there is a Holocaust museum in Washington, DC, there is no “museum dedicated to the history of Black/White relations in the US,” though memorials and museums dedicated to the Holocaust exist in Berlin. Is it wrong to think that a little more shame would be healthy for the US?
(via minglehart)
