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Credit: Landmark Media
Dune and Climate Fiction: Lost in Translation
Sierra Magazine | March 2024
In print spring 2024
Frank Herbert’s Dune is a work of climate fiction. So why have filmmakers struggled to make the eco-plot clearer?
Credit: Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast
This Oscars Category Has a ‘Jewface’ Problem
The Daily Beast | January 2024
Why does the Academy keep recognizing such blatantly offensive makeup and hairstyling choices?
Credit: Warner Media
What to Remember From Adventure Time’s Finale Before Watching Fionna and Cake
Polygon | August 2023
Where did the original show leave off? And what should folks know before jumping into the new series?
Credit: Jetta Productions
Pregnancy Test Before Surgery: What to Know About Consent and Your Rights
Teen Vogue | May 2023
What are the repercussions of medical facilities having records of patients’ pregnancy tests in states where abortion is illegal?
Credit: Netflix
The Crown Courts Controversy as It Approaches Real Tragedy
Polygon | November 2022
The Crown still offers moments of greatness, but some of the shine has worn off as it pushes up against the present day.
Credit: HBO
Rhaenyra and Alicent Are House of the Dragon’s Most Compelling But Underserved Relationship
Polygon | October 2022
Alicent and Rhaenyra have few scenes together, making the reasons for their falling-out-turned-civil-war maddeningly unclear.
Credit: Bustle
Ramin Djawadi Is Living Out His Dreams
Bustle | September 2022
I interviewed Ramin Djawadi, composer for House of the Dragon, Game of Thrones, Westworld, and more.
Credit: Disney
20 Years Ago, Disney’s Most Chaotic Sci-Fi Experiment Ever Paid Off
Inverse | June 2022
Beneath its absurdity, Lilo & Stitch captures what it feels like to yearn for belonging.
Credit: Netflix
Is Bradley Cooper’s Prosthetic Nose in Maestro Really Necessary?
Hey Alma | June 2022
Ethnicity is not a costume, not something to be conjured out of latex.
Credit: Prime Video
The Quietly Radical New Amazon Show About Stranded Teens
Slate | May 2022
The Wilds is campy and fun — and blows up the gender binary.
Credit: Prime Video
The Wheel of Time Isn’t “the New Game of Thrones.” It’s Better.
Slate | November 2021
Wheel of Time is banking on the idea that shock value isn’t the only way to make people pay attention.
Credit: Netflix
Superheroines and the Monstrous Feminine
Inverse | October 2021
Curated for Inverse’s special superhero issue by Roxane Gay
Until recently, there hasn’t been space for superheroines to transform into anything but glamazons. Monster girls are flipping the script.
Credit: Polygon
The First Note in the Lord of the Rings Score Has an Ancient History
Polygon | August 2021
I talk to musicologist and Lord of the Rings score expert Doug Adams and others about the first instrument heard in Fellowship: the monochord.
Credit: Disney
The Anti-Fascist Bedknobs and Broomsticks Deserves Its Golden Jubilee
Observer | August 2021
Angela Lansbury's zany feature is just as enchanting as it was in 1971 and more radical than some may remember.
Credit: Apple TV+
Inner Demons: Physical Presents a Darker Underdog Story
Bitch Media | June 2021
With stellar performances and a vicious script, the show doesn’t pull any punches.
Credit: Disney+
Cruella Is an Irredeemable Villain—and Disney Should Keep Her That Way
Bitch Media | June 2021
Bad behavior doesn’t become feminist simply because a woman is the perpetrator.
Credit: Marvel / Disney+
The World Doesn’t Need Another Captain America
Slate | April 2021
To many, an agent of the state can never be a true symbol of justice.
Credit: Cartoon Network / Lil Nas X
Lil Nas X’s “Montero” Is the Latest in Red-Hot, Sexy, Queer Satanic Panic
Observer | April 2021
These villains are iconic, unhinged, and queer-coded.
Credit: Netflix
Netflix’s Hilda Gives Us the Animated Youth Activist Hero of Our Dreams
Mic | March 2021
In Hilda’s second season, the stakes are higher, the animation is more breathtaking, and, in 2021, the show’s environmentalist themes strike a chord.
Credit: Prime Video
The Expanse Team Unpacks Its Abuse Storylines in Season 5
Observer | March 2021
I talked to James S.A. Corey, the pseudonymous co-authors of The Expanse, and Dominique Tipper, who portrays Naomi Nagata, about the show’s arcs about abuse in season five.
Credit: Disney+
In the World of WandaVision, It’s Been Grief All Along
Bitch Media | March 2021
What is WandaVision, if not a show about grief?
Credit: Current Affairs
Nonprofit Workers, Unionize!
Current Affairs | March 2021
Nonprofit workers need not sacrifice a living wage, work-life balance, and sufficient benefits in service of the “greater good.”
Credit: Island Press
Give Power to the People Most Affected by Climate Change
The Progressive | February 2021
Revolutionary Power promotes what Shalanda H. Baker calls a “justice first” approach to averting climate disaster.
Credit: Warner Bros.
Wonder Woman 1984 Replaces Girl Power with Empty Platitudes
Bitch Media | December 2020
Though it tries, Wonder Woman 1984 struggles to speak to this moment and deliver a coherent message.
Credit: Kate Dehler
My Therapist Says “Yes, And”
Elemental | November 2020
“Yes, and” has forced me to challenge my black and white thinking and the overpowering desire to have the answer.
Credit: HBO Max
The New Adventure Time Special Is the Scary, Sad, Sweet Payoff that Fans Demanded
Polygon | November 2020
The episode’s writers make it very clear that the romantic subtext between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline has always been straight-up text.
Credit: Bravo
RHONY Illuminates the Class Divide in America
Bitch Media | September 2020
Ask Bravo aficionados which iteration of The Real Housewives is best, and most will tell you, “New York.”
Credit: Nickelodeon
The Legend of Korra’s Provocative Villain Zaheer Raises Questions of the Moment
Polygon | September 2020
The show’s villain and his quest to free the world of monarchs, nations, and borders are ultimately righteous.
Credit: Shutterstock
Reveal Everyone’s Pay
The Boston Globe | August 2020
In print August 30, 2020
Publish all salaries. If employers are adamant that their current pay practices are fair, what’s to fear?
Credit: NYC Parks Department
How to Spot Nature from Lockdown
The Guardian | June 2020
The pandemic gives us a unique opportunity to challenge our collective perception of what counts as nature.
Credit: Ali Pazani
Depicting the Truth of Painful Sex on Television
PULP Magazine | June 2020
Chosen by Medium as a featured story
Painful sex is common, but it’s not often depicted in the media we consume. Six women talk about their experiences.
Credit: Hulu
Little Fires Everywhere Illuminates Racial Tension in Female Friendships
Bitch Media | April 2020
Though the series has its missteps, lacking the novel’s gentle nuance and oscillating in tone between “soap opera” and “intro to women’s studies course,” it sometimes succeeds.
Credit: Riverhead Books
Interview with Sarah Blake
Jewish Women’s Archive | April 2020
I interviewed author Sarah Blake about her feminist retelling of the biblical story of the great flood, Naamah.
Credit: DC Films
In Birds of Prey, Harley Quinn Is Free of Joker and Sexist Branding
Bitch Media | February 2020
To naysayers and cynics, I say: Watching Margot Robbie beat up very bad men™️ while wearing roller skates as Heart’s “Barracuda” blares in the background is good.
Credit: Enya
Enya: Icon of Radical Softness
The Conversationalist | February 2020
When I listen to Enya, I hear the sound of a woman in control, undaunted by those who underestimate her.
Credit: Drew Struzan
An American Tail Still Resonates
VICE | November 2019
I talk to director, producer, and animator Don Bluth and the voice of Fievel, Phillip Glasser, about the film’s relevance today.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Radical Family that Inspired Little Women
Electric Literature | October 2019
May Little Women provide us a much-needed escape from devastating news cycles, and the memory of Louisa May Alcott and her radical family inspire us to action.
Credit: Netflix / Bitch Media
How Stranger Things Turned Jim Hopper into an Abuser
Bitch Media | July 2019
Bitch Media’s most-read story of 2019
This unwitting misrepresentation of toxic masculinity as normal behavior suggests that the showrunners don’t always know abuse when they see or write it.
Credit: Electric Literature
The Left Hand of Darkness Is the Anti-Nationalist Book We Need Right Now
Electric Literature | April 2019
The novel acts as a warning against xenophobia and a call for radical collaboration — powerful and timely messages today.
Credit: Timothy Long
Apostle of the Cacti: How Minerva Hamilton Hoyt Saved the Desert
Bitch Media | March 2019
Minerva Hamilton Hoyt weaponized garden clubs and women’s organizations to save millions of acres of wilderness.
Credit: W. W. Norton
Interview with Dara Horn
Jewish Women’s Archive | December 2018
I interviewed award-winning author Dara Horn about her 2018 novel, Eternal Life.
Credit: Netflix
The Fashion of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
Jewish Women’s Archive | October 2018
I interviewed costume designer Rafaella Rabinovich about her work on Netflix’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
Credit: Jenny Silverman
Twenty Years of Singing for Bread and Roses
Jewish Women’s Archive | May 2018
I speak to founding chorus members of the Boston Workers Circle Yiddish choir, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018.
Credit: EA Games
The Sims 4, Now 4 Everyone
Bust Magazine | June 2016
The Sims doesn’t cower or scoff at the idea of diversity in gaming, but instead listens, changes, and thrives.