Hackathons, R Studio, and Batman Villain Word Clouds

A couple weeks ago (months ago? What year is it? Summer is weird) I attended a Humanities-focused Hackathon at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery [my friend Andrew and I are pictured, even! We're the poster children of humanities hackers!]. It was super interesting and a lot of fun, and I made some neat word clouds that I figure I'd share with y'all.

Justice League Ulimited versus The Gaze

My reaction, upon seeing the first episode of Justice League (over a decade after it originally aired, MY BAD), was of huge excitement. There were two- TWO- lady characters! Not only was there the classic standard (/token non-white-dude) Wonder Woman, but also the totally hard-hitting badass Hawkgirl? AND John Stewart, the one non-white-dude Green Lantern, too? You're kidding me! Heart won, Justice League.

Only...

Despite the unusual number of minority representations, something was way off. My feminist sense was tingling! (I tried to find a cool picture of Spider-Woman, but it appears her only powers are Being Busty and Posing Sexily :/)

This is not the post I originally intended to write- THAT post was way longer and more laborious and I before I was finished, I got distracted by Very Important Work (Mass Effect). The post that follows is more of a discussion of the wonky, gender-lame visualizations that happen in Justice League Unlimited. I'm focusing mainly on where the show goes wrong, rather than where it goes right, because where it goes right is pretty obvious (and fairly superficial). I mean, not only two female characters who kick butt, but ONE of them gets to wear PANTS?

I also want to note before we jump in that I love JL and JLU, despite its flaws. I just can't watch more than about two episodes of it in a row before I get so frustrated with the gender politics that I have to quit. That's bad, because I'm definitely a binge-viewer, and it's taking me a really long time to get through the show because of... okay, well, because of the things I'm going to talk about! Let... let's just dive in.

If you're interested to hear my radio-voice, you can download and listen to my air check tape at my website! Guest-host Andrew Peck and I discuss his reasearch on The Slender Man. And if THAT'S not enough to excite you, I also play The Specials!

I decided that it was outrageous that I couldn't find a giant blog-post/tumblr page filled with images of cephalopods, so I have MADE ONE. I'll add to it as I find or make more.

You're welcome, world.

This cuttlefish is saying SUP

First (and probably last) in my series called "1950's Media or Fallout Quest Description?"

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             In order to simulate the bomb's effect on a typical American city, the networks visited "Survival City," a cluster of typically furnished 1950's American homes constructed for the broadcast just a short distance down “Doomsday Drive” from Ground Zero...

Yesterday (Wednesday, September 19th) there was an Improve Everywhere-organized MP3Experiment flash mob on the UW Madison campus. I heard about it about an hour before hand via Facebook, and immediately got hugely excited about it. Anybody who has thoroughly stalked my FB profile is aware that the Religious Belief I have listed is Flash Mobs, so this was an exciting chance for me to engage in... what, worship? Is that what religious people do? (More info after the jump)

A (Very) Basic Guide to Critical Watching

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Bad news: Like most skills, you have to practice actively engaging with and analyzing cinema and television to get better at it. “Getting better at it” in this case means being able to pick out offensive portrayals (spoiler alert: they're mostly going to be of minorities!), recognizing denigrating stereotypes, and understanding what makes a strong character.

Good news #1: That means you get to watch lots of movies and TV shows! You can practice this skill literally any time you engage with media. If you stop to watch three minutes of commercials on your way out the door, you can analyze it. If you see a newscast or read a newspaper, you can analyze it. Anything created by a human is considered media, and anything media, you can (and should!) analyze it. This extends to things you might not even consider analyzing, like cereal box packaging and porn mags (I've read fascinating theory on both!).

Good news #2: Being able to do this well will make you better in multiple ways. First of all, you'll be a better person. Awareness REALLY IS the most effective tool in fighting prejudice. Once you understand the prejudices that are keeping our society- and possibly yourself- from treating people equally, you can start getting rid of those prejudices.

(Continued after the break...)