Our Era of ‘Confidence Culture’ Preserves the Status Quo for Women
How confidence cult(ure) repackages long-repeated ideas to make them more appealing and to hold women responsible for the damage done to them.
Culture
Punk-Influenced Playwright Alvin Eng Airs the Laundry in His New Memoir
Accomplished playwright Alvin Eng’s fluency across cultures and punk rock, theatrical performance, playwriting, and journalism makes for an engaging memoir.
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Movie Line
Generation TikTok’s easy access to entertainment makes them miss a defining character-building rite of passage of my generation: the movie line.
Antonio Gramsci Biography ‘To Live Is to Resist’ Is Unrivaled
In Gramscian fashion, Frétigné details the material conditions of Antonio Gramsci’s insight and influence while shirking historical determinism and abstract idealism.
Erotic Thriller ‘Poison Ivy’ Isn’t the Lolita Story You Think You Remember
Katt Shea’s subversive 1992 erotic thriller Poison Ivy, like its teenage villainess, is misunderstood, and American media remains obsessed with devious girls.
The Bunkered Decades: Digging into the Atom Bomb’s Effect on Cold War America
When Americans realized the atom bomb their country created could be turned on them, arts and society alike bunkered down into nightmares of nuclear destruction.
Take a Whiff of ‘Perfume’ and Enter the World of Queer Culture
How did Calvin Klein’s gender-neutral CK One, with its scent like “a vodka tonic with lemon twist”, help inspire gender revolution?Perfume follows the fragrant path into queer culture.
Comedy/Drama ‘Somebody Somewhere’ Won’t Let Kansas Be the Joke
Set in America’s “flyover country”, HBO comedy/drama Somebody Somewhere, starring Bridget Everett, defies small-town America stereotyping.
Writer/Comedian Amy Silverberg Wants Freedom on Stage and on the Page
Amy Silverberg’s comedy is at once wry, playful, and at times beautifully filthy, like the trash-riddled Santa Monica Pier during a pink-tangerine sunset.
‘Alien’, Aristotle, and the Ruthless Forces That Control Us
Imagine Aristotle sitting in a movie theater in 1979 with his tub of popcorn. If you think he would scoff at Alien‘s outlandish monster, think again.
What Roger Corman’s Psychedelic Film ‘The Trip’ Helps Us Realize
Roger Corman’s film about psychedelics and self-awareness, The Trip, turns 55 this summer, yet its message resonates to this day.
Anatomy of the Wounded: Márta Mészáros’ ‘Adoption’
Márta Mészáros’ film Adoption is empathetic and beady-eyed about the negotiations and indignities of those caught up in social prejudices, especially women.
