I fully realized/accepted during BronyCon 2016 that Rarity is my favorite pony. Technically, I more or less knew this last year and it should be obvious given that I spent a good five minutes talking about her in my 2015 panel. However, I still maintained that I didn’t really have a favorite pony. At first,… Continue reading On Loving Rarity and Unlearning Internalized Misogyny
Category: Essays, Criticism, and Analyses
The Gospel of Bronycon
This past weekend, I attended my second Bronycon as a panelist. I reunited with my teammates from last year and we presented a panel called “Cutie Marks and Branding: The Importance of Social and Mythological Identity Formation Among Friends.” The turnout was great and we got overwhelmingly positive feedback on our presentation! One person even… Continue reading The Gospel of Bronycon
On Narratives and Hate Crimes
Whenever systemic sins rear their ugly heads and people die, there are narratives that spin around in our minds and on social media. The stories we tell ourselves, more often than not, perpetuate fear and otherization. In the case of the Pulse shooting, they also revive age-old narratives of death as divine justification. They create… Continue reading On Narratives and Hate Crimes
Showbread is Showdead: Raw Rock Kills One Last Time
During my college days and ever after, three bands have had a tremendous impact on my theology: Showbread, Thrice, and mewithoutYou. Thrice bowed out for a while, but came back with another album recently. mewithoutYou shows no signs of slowing down. But Showbread has bid us all a radically fond farewell, killing us one last… Continue reading Showbread is Showdead: Raw Rock Kills One Last Time
Queer Life and Death in Cartoons and TV Shows
The Internet has been abuzz lately regarding the “Bury Your Gays” trope, escalated by several popular TV shows killing off queer characters, particularly women, and adding to this larger idea that relationships between queer women are unstable at best and tragic at worst. A lot of people are currently criticizing The 100 and Orphan Black… Continue reading Queer Life and Death in Cartoons and TV Shows
The Passion’s Surface-Level Treatment of Holy Week
Over the past few months, NBC and Fox have experimented with airing live theater performances. First came The Wiz Live, then Grease, and now The Passion, a copy-paste of the Holy Week story into the 21st century. The Passion narratives in the gospels recount Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem through all the well-known scenes of… Continue reading The Passion’s Surface-Level Treatment of Holy Week
Comparing Matriarchies: My Little Pony and Steven Universe
Both My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Steven Universe present matriarchal societies in which women fulfill the most powerful roles in their worlds. In My Little Pony, it’s the alicorn princesses. In Steven Universe, it’s the Great Diamond Authority. Yet both of these matriarchies show vastly different applications of power. Equestria’s matriarchy is more… Continue reading Comparing Matriarchies: My Little Pony and Steven Universe
Reflections on Star Wars: The Force Awakens
I’m new to Star Wars. I didn’t grow up watching the original trilogy, nor did I spend my early teen years watching the prequel trilogy or any of the numerous spinoff cartoons that aired on TV. I had one of those sound books for kids of A New Hope, knew the basic spoilers of the original trilogy (and… Continue reading Reflections on Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Scream Queens is the Kill la Kill of U.S. TV
A young, headstrong girl starts at a new school in hopes of finding out what really happened to her dead parent. Upon arrival, she makes a nemesis of the campus queen who may or may not have something to do with it. However, the deeper the girl gets into the mystery, the more complicated, personal,… Continue reading Scream Queens is the Kill la Kill of U.S. TV
Tradition Tension: Your Hearthwarming Must be My Hearthwarming
A couple weeks ago, I shared some reflections about advent, the anxieties some Christians feel about its perceived secularization, and the reactions they have as a result of this sense of loss. I described how a strong faith with a minimal connection to the history of traditions can easily breed a perception that Christ must… Continue reading Tradition Tension: Your Hearthwarming Must be My Hearthwarming