In 1696, in Somerset county in southwest England, a schoolboy named John Cannon and his friends took their lunchtime break […]
Mange, Morphine, and Deadly Disease: Medicine and Public Health in Red Dead Redemption 2
Spoiler warning: This essay discusses major plot points about the ending of Red Dead Redemption 2. It’s dead midnight, there’s […]
Hallmark Christmas Movies: Guilty Pleasure or Feminist Rallying Cry?
A woman arrives in a small American town at Christmas time. Possibly her car has broken down, or she’s there […]
My So-Called Life: Angela Chase, Body Image, and Teen Angst
In August 1994, ABC aired the pilot episode of My So-Called Life, and for the first time I felt that […]
Lillie Western, Banjo Queen
It should come as no surprise that the Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists list includes only two women, Bonnie Raitt […]
Photos with Santa Paws: Ruminations on Pets, Precarity, Consumption, and Family
Children have posed for photos with Santa, willingly or otherwise, for more than a century, but recent pics star new […]
Deconstructing HIV and AIDS on The Golden Girls
In 1990, the much-beloved sitcom, The Golden Girls — a show about four older women, Rose, Blanche, Dorothy, and Sophia, […]
“Hateful, Un-American Ideas!” Gender, Race, and Politics in Cold War Romance Comic Books
In the October 1949 issue of the romance comic Hollywood Confessions, the protagonist of the story “Too Ugly to Love” […]
I Was Trolled – Here’s Why I’m Turning It into a Teaching Opportunity
Here’s what happened. I wrote an essay critically analyzing a YouTube talk show I actually watch and enjoy — Hot […]
Women’s Liberation, Beauty Contests, and the 1920s: Swimsuit Edition
For several years, I’ve had a wall decoration in my office: a panoramic photo of a 1920s beauty contest. I […]
