Fake Geek Girls - A Critical Look at Pop Culture

After a longer-than-expected hiatus, we’re back (Merri included!) to catch you up on what we’ve been doing!

Mistakes (?): We are genuinely sorry about all the baby noises. Missy did her best to edit them out but babies simply don’t care about when people are talking.

What Missy’s Been Up To:

Watching

Poor Things
Interview With the Vampire Season Two
Hit Man

Playing

Baldur’s Gate III (hear more about that on Postgame)

Reading

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel by Julian Jarboe
Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

What Merri’s Been Up To:

Watching

Poor Things
Star Wars: The Acolyte
Grey’s Anatomy
Drag Race Season 16
Fallout
Furiosa

Playing

Disney’s Dreamlight Valley

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The post WWBUT 101 – Big Pharma, Big Fan appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

Join Missy and Nola Pfau to discuss X-Men: From the Ashes, a mid-80s X-Men story featuring Scott’s new girlfriend who looks a lot like Jean Grey, Storm’s punk transformation, and more. We’re talking about Chris Claremont’s iconic writing, the representation of gender, and whether a superhero comic can be truly subversive.

Mistakes: We unfortunately had some audio issues while recording, so you may notice some echoing. Apologies—we’ve done our best to clear it up.

Some Sources You Might Find Interesting:

The Rape of Ms. Marvel by Carol A. Strickland

Reading Between the Lines: How Paul Smith’s Fluid Style Made Him the Best X-Men Artist of All by Nola Pfau

The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics by Ramzi Fawaz

X-Bodies: The Torment of the Mutant Superhero by Scott Bukatman

The Claremont Run: Subverting Gender in the X-Men by J. Andrew Deman

We’ve Been Stranger Things by Avery Alder

On X-(Wo)men and Third-Wave Feminism by Michael Campochiaro

Paul Smith’s Blog

“I am a superhero”; or, A Casting Call (to Arms) from Recovering the Radical Promise of Superheroes: Un/Making Worlds by Ellen Kirkpatrick

Superheroes And The F-Word: Grappling With The Ugly Truth Under The Capes by Glen Weldon

Watchmen author Alan Moore: ‘I’m definitely done with comics’ by Sam Leith

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The post Episode 199 – X-Men: From the Ashes with Nola Pfau appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

Missy is back again with Kat Overland to discuss even more about Scott Pilgrim! What’s up with the “red flag” association? Is Ramona a manic pixie dream girl? What are all these pop culture references accomplishing? Let’s get into it!

Notes: We continued to have a lot to say, so, uh, Missy’s going to try to cut down on the outline length for future episodes. Enjoy this supersized episode!

Some Sources You Might Find Interesting:

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Texts: Adaptation, Form, and Transmedia Co-creation (in Comics and Pop Culture) by John Bodner

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Vs. Neo-Platonic Romance by Tracy Runanin-Telle

Scott Pilgrim was never the guy the movie made him out to be by Zach Rabiroff

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World by Abigail Nussbaum

An Innocent at Home: Scott Pilgrim and His Canadian Multicultural Contexts by Brenna Clarke Gray and Peter Wilkins

Scott Pilgrim vs. Hegemony: Nostalgia, Remediation, and Heteronormativity by Ryan Lizardi

Scott Pilgrim vs. MANGAMAN: Two Approaches to the Negotiation of Cultural Difference by Aaron Pedinotti

Scott Pilgrim vs. the Megacity by Chester N. Scoville

Leading into the Franchise. Remediation as (Simulated) Transmedia World. The Case of SCOTT PILGRIM by Johannes Fehrle

Game (Not) Over: Video-Game Pastiche and Nostalgic Disavowals in the Postcinematic Era (in Flickers of Film) by Jason Sperb

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The post Episode 198 – Scott Pilgrim, Part 2 with Kat Overland appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

Time for our first guest-hosted episode—Scott Pilgrim, featuring editor, copyeditor, and critic Kat Overland! We ended up having too much to say solely on the topic of genre, so we’ll be splitting this one into two episodes. Join us as we chat about growing up and alongside a single piece of media, why Scott Pilgrim is shonen battle manga, and more!

Some Sources You Might Find Interesting:

The Wonder and Horror of Delayed Adulthood by Vikram Murthi

Scott Pilgrim vs the future of comics publishing by Padmini Ray Murray

Scott Pilgrim vs. Loneliness: A Video Essay by Noah McAlister

Scott Pilgrim vs. the Times by Brendan Gillet

Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch | Episode Transcripts

The post Episode 197 – Scott Pilgrim, Part One with Kat Overland appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

Join us for Merri’s last WWBUT before maternity leave! We’re talking about cults, labyrinths, romance, and more.

Mistakes: At some point, Missy heard someone pronounce Borges as “BOR-hays” and assumed that they were right. They were not, but she didn’t thinking to look it up until afterward. Sorry for calling him HOR-hay BOR-hays.

What Missy’s Been Up To:

Reading

DIE by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, Clayton Cowell, and Rian Huges
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Heartstopper Volume 1 by Alice Oseman
Wordslut by Amanda Montell

Watching

Red, White, and Royal Blue
The Boy and the Heron

What Merri’s Been Up To:

Watching

The Great British Bake-Off
Real Housewives of Salt Lake City
The Crown
Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God

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The post WWBUT 100 – Egg Guy appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

He’s just Ken… but what does it mean to be ‘just’ anything? Join us as we take an even closer look at 2023’s Barbie movie, focusing on patriarchy, domination, existentialism, and the goals of feminism.

Some Sources You Might Find Interesting:

I Regret To Inform You That “Barbie” Is A Children’s Movie by Jude Ellison S. Doyle

The Will to Change by bell hooks

Did feminism FAIL men? by Alexander Avila

gaslighter_’s twitter thread about Ken as a class hero 

Social critique from Archivist Ken by Isaac Fellman

Barbie Is an Existential Delight by Emmet Asher-Perrin

Who is capable of dreaming of a better future? by Lux Alptraum

Who Was Barbie? by Christine Smallwood

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The post Episode 196 – Ken (Or: Barbie 2.0) appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

Vampires, werewolves, necromancers, some guy, and our favorite teenage dingdongs. 

What Missy’s Been Up To:

Reading

Harrow the Ninth and Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Watching

Only Lovers Left Alive

Playing

The Quarry

What Merri’s Been Up To:

Watching

Saw X
Expendables 4
North by Northwest
Selling Sunset
Sex Education

Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch | Episode Transcripts

The post WWBUT 99 – That Boy Can MOPE appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

Come on Barbie, let’s go take a potentially controversial look at 2023’s biggest summer blockbuster! We’re talking about Mattel’s dubious history, what Barbieland is, and how the film does and does not tackle the truth and diversity of girlhood and womanhood.

Some Sources You Might Find Interesting:

Barbie: A Subversive Review by Carefree Wandering

explaining the hyperfemininity aesthetic by Mina Le

Just a Girl by Gayle Wald

Bimbos are good, actually by Morgan Sung

We’ve Reached Peak Girl by Delia Cai

The ‘Girlification’ Of Online Life Has A Dark Side by Merryana Salem

Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood by Rebecca Epstein, Jamilia J. Blake, and Thalia Gonzalez

The Resurgence of the Monstrous Feminine by Hannah Williams

The Hunger Fed by ‘Barbie’ and Taylor Swift by Michelle Goldberg

Barbie’s legacy is important. It’s also incredibly complicated by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

Barbie used to be everything wrong with patriarchal beauty ideals, feminist professor says. Now she’s closer to ‘queer camp’ by Carol Hay

Social critique from Archivist Ken by Isaac Fellman

Feeling Cynical About Barbie by Broey Deschanel

The rise and rise of ‘dewy dumpling skin’ by Jessica DeFino

Barbie Has Cellulite (But You Don’t Have To) by Jessica DeFino

The Plastic Feminism of Barbie by Verilybitchie

everything was pink and nothing hurt: on barbie (2023), pinkydoll, and the dialectics of feminist pop culture by Caitlyn Clark

“Ritualizing My Humanity” by J. A. Micheline

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The post Episode 195 – Barbie appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

In this week’s WWBUT, we’re talking about revisiting books, being skeptical about nice characters, and Big Vape.

What Missy’s Been Up To:

Watching

Hyo-ri’s Bed and Breakfast
Sex Education Season 4

Reading

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Abundance of Kindness by ARG

What Merri’s Been Up To:

Watching

Big Vape
Joy Ride
Heat
Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe 

Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch | Episode Transcripts

The post WWBUT 98 – Vapers Gonna Vape, Vape, Vape, Vape, Vape appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

We’re deep diving into Jaws (that’s an ocean pun!), taking a look at film history, genre, class, and a whole lot of masculinity.

Mistakes: Missy apologizes for her pronunciation of Stephen E. Bowles, which now that she’s looking at it again is… probably not said the way she said it.

Some Sources You Might Find Interesting:

Relocating the Western in Jaws by Matthew Melia

How the Western Was Lost (and Why It Matters) by Michael Agresta

Jaws as submarine movie by Robert Willson

Great White Shark a hyperreal monster; conceptual contemplation on the post-Jaws image by Raj Sekhar Aich

The Shark in Jaws Did Nothing Wrong – An Ecological Video Essay by TREY the Explainer

Pedal Pushers: Spielberg, De Sica, and Dismemberment by Sean Desilets

The Narrative Genius of Jaws by blank

Jaws Between the Teeth by Peter Biskind

“The Exorcist” and “Jaws” by Stephen E. Bowles

The Jaws in the mirror by Dan Rubey

Empire of Dreams: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Films of Steven Spielberg by Andrew M. Gordon

The role of editing in the success of Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” by Kevin Reynolds

Jaws: The Individuation of Martin Brody | Video Essay by Film Analyst

Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch | Episode Transcripts

The post Episode 193 – Jaws appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.