On our radar this week: sweatshirts as amor, casting news for Catching Fire, and the taxonomy of 80’s movie dads.
- Check out this sweet armored hoodie! Unfortunately, the creator has been overwhelmed with requests, so they are not currently available.
- This video tribute to redshirts, set to Jonathan Coulton’s song “Redshirt” is… strangely touching.
- Details about Frozen, Disney’s upcoming adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen have been released, and we’re excited! Starring Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, it sounds like it will be in a style similar to Tangled, and it hits theaters November 2013.
- Philip Seymour Hoffman to be cast as Plutarch Heavensbee in Catching Fire? Alright, alright, we’re with you so far, Hunger Games, just get Jesse Williams for Finnick Odair and we’ll be golden.
- Folks have not been happy about the cover of Catwoman #0, where our favorite feline villainess is reduced to a poorly proportioned amalgam of T&A. DC Women Kicking Ass had some choice words about the decision and The Mary Sue collected a few of the visual responses offered by some prominent web cartoonists.
- Tongue in cheek, biting humor that’s still right on the nose, talking about race, media, and culture in this mythical “post-racial” age? Yes please! Justin Simien and co. are hoping to make their indie satire Dear White People a success and you can pitch in through IndieGoGo.
- We had the pleasure of meeting Anita Sarkeesian from Feminist Frequency at GeekGirlCon last year, and were disappointed to hear that she has been receiving ridiculous amounts of harassment over her Kickstarter project about women and video games. While it’s nothing new for a woman in this community to be treated so poorly, it needs to stop, and Becky Chambers penned an excellent essay for The Mary Sue on why, and how.
- Elinor Ostrom, the only woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics, passed away at age 78. We hope that her brilliant career has inspired more women to continue to forge their path in this male-dominated field.
- Cracked hits the nail right on the head again. Ponder this curious trend of why 80s sitcoms decided to kill off moms and how it has partially leaked into 90s superheroine tropes.
- Incidentally this seems to be a theme, as Flavorwire has offered up the counter argument with the taxonomy of 80’s dads and the best surrogate father-daughter relationships. We’d like to remind you that there is a chapter dedicated to this topic in Jennifer Stuller’s excellent book Ink Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors.
- Attempting to use science to justify sexism and racism is just so tired and primitive. Some female athletes with an excellent track record at their sport (i.e intimidating to sexists) have undergone offensive “gender testing” and this io9 article provides a bit more detail.
- Lois has resigned herself to sitting through another terrible Resident Evil movie, but she will secretly love it. Watch the trailer!
- Some people are late (really late) adopters when it comes to things like Internet memes and various Flash-based distractions. For those Rip Van Winkles just waking up to web time wasters for the first time, Mental Floss has a pretty good and unique jumping off point.
- Remakes and reboots are such an iffy thing, but casting buzz around José Padilha’s planned RoboCop remake might have Hugh Laurie, Samuel L Jackson, and Gary Oldman in one flick. Maybe with Laurie on board they can make it RoboCop: The Musical?
- What happens when you play a game of Civilization II, off and on, for a decade? It turns into “a hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation.” (via Coilhouse)
- Brit Mandelo’s spotlight on James Tiptree Jr./Alice Sheldon is a thoughtful piece about a remarkable SFF author, whose work spoke to the struggle of going beyond normative limitations of sex and gender.
What’s on your radar this week? Tell us in the comments!
Check out our previous Geeking Out posts.
