television - The Flytrap

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television

A collection of 13 posts

a colorful illustration of a green VW Beetle on a coastal road surrounded by greenery. Roadsigns read "don't visit Love Island" and "you deserve better, babe"

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Un-Loving ‘Love Island’

The messy discourse around Season 8 of Love Island USA exposes reality television’s deeply entrenched anti-Blackness.

Illustration of a white man in glasses and bowtie holing a gun while running by a window with text: "we need fun, silly, espionage shows."

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Where Did All The Fun Spy Shows Go?

Can I please have some escapism with my fascist nightmare?

Steve Zahn as Mark and Murray Bartlett as Armond in The White Lotus. The men are seated at a bar in conversation.

“The White Lotus” Shines Its Tiki Torch on Settler Colonization’s Greatest Exports

Can whiteness be centered in our attempt to decolonize? Or is the effort to dismantle settler colonization merely a vessel—a rowboat—for appeasing white shame?

An athelete in a locker room carrying a duffle and looking into an open locker with a "21" jersy.

I Saw My Own Search for Sunlight in “Heated Rivalry”

'Heated Rivalry' dares to ask: Why should queer athletes be forced to choose between their identity and their sport?

A view through a window of a blond woman at her laptop, thinking "I couldn't help but wonder, was I due to repeat the past?"

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Go Girl, Give Us Nothing!: Why Hollywood Undervalues Original Storytelling

Why do studios keep pumping out sequels, reboots, and remakes of the same old IP?

A from-the-lap view of a cat and a hand holding a remote control. The TV says: "Everyone deserves to have healthy relationships and to feel loved."

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Can Coercive Control on TV Interrupt Real Cycles of Intimate Partner Violence?

Television transformed how I think about abuse in romantic relationships.

A joyous fat Black woman in a fly outfit standing with a shorter, brown-skinned person in front of an amusement park.

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If Fat Bodies Are ‘Problems,’ Then We Need New Equations

‘The Biggest Loser’ was the worst vision of a fat future. Fat liberationists are done losing that fight.

Illustration: An anime magical boy looking fiercely at the camera, katana sheathed on his back.

The Case for Magical Boys

If anime can subvert and complicate femininity in magical girl shows, it can do the same for masculinity with magical boys.

Illustration in green, yellow, and red: The Situation flexes in front of a wreath of evergreen leaves and fish under a sign reading "Jersey Shore."

Feast of the Seven Fishes and Eight Abs

Canceling Vinny Guadagnino and Christmas Eve at the Jersey Shore.

Illustration in blue and white: Four gorgeous fat women in lingerie posing together. One has a cane.

Young, Fat, and Gifted

Two new streaming comedies show viewers are eager for stories about fat Black women that don’t just rewrite old, damaging scripts about our lives.

Illustration in orange and yellow: A busty housewife in pearls holds up a martini.

Housewife Luxury Will Never Be Quiet

Get your half-baked class analysis out of my face

Illustration in purple, black, and brown: Three characters from "Evil" stare defiantly at the reader.

The Freaky Feminism of 'Evil,' TV's Weirdest Horror Hit

Showrunners Michelle and Robert King surrounded their demons-of-the-week with feminist signifiers, but ultimately stopped short of really condemning the patriarchy.

I Missed My Mom. So I Rewatched All Nine Seasons of 'Roseanne.'

I Missed My Mom. So I Rewatched All Nine Seasons of 'Roseanne.'

Thirty-six years to the day after its debut, the sitcom is still groundbreaking — but also, now, genuinely heartbreaking ... on so many levels.