me rambling about how much i love Iris West Allen without having watching season five yet

Iris West Allen is a character that I really connect with. She was one of the first black female characters I saw on T.V who wasn't the "strong independent black woman." In media that is all black women were portrayed as, we could never be love interest or soft and funny girls. Nope, we are only supposed to be strong and loyal. So when I saw Iris for the first time I was so happy. Do not get me wrong she is strong but that is not her only personality trait and I am so happy because of that. She wants to make it her own in the world and it is scary and she is trying her best. I think that Iris is the most realistic character on The Flash. She is not insanely smart and she does not have her entire life figured out by the age of twenty three. She makes mistakes and tries to learn from them, she does not completely understand her feelings but she keeps going. When she finds out that her first love was killed she breaks down and has a hard time moving on. From the beginning of the show it was destined that she would end up with Barry Allen but it took the three seasons for them to get together and even when they did it took a while for them to get comfortable with each other. Since she is married to Barry Allen, who is The Flash, her life is mostly eaten by dealing with that and being overshadowed by it. Even so, she tries to make a solid career out of Journalism something that she really loves to do. She truly loves Barry and is willing to jump of a roof to save him which she did. Iris is just a girl not a super genius or a superhero, a girl and that is what makes her so amazing.


                                                      Update: I finished Season five.

Let's talk about Miss Representation

We watched Miss Representative in class and it made me start thinking about how women are portrayed in media. I have already done a blog post before how black women are shown but overall women are shown to be sex objects by the mainstream media. I didn’t think much of it growing up, in fact I didn’t think about it at all but looking back it it’s evident. As a kid I looked up to Nicki Minaj. I watched all of her music videos and tried my best to remember all of her raps. So me being such a big Nicki Minaj fan, I watched all of her music videos and looking back at it now they were over sexualized to the core. The things that’s she wore and the things that she said all had something to do with her being sexualized. Looking back at this, this affected me greatly. I remember being super young and worrying about my weight because I didn’t want to be “fat”. I remember not eating when I was hungry due to the fear of gaining weight. I had the mindset that if I ate I would be less pretty and then people wouldn’t like me. Media taught me that. Media told me that the only thing that really mattered was how much I weighed. I watched an insane amount of Disney Channel growing up and all of my favorite characters were white and blonde two things that I am not. I remember thinking that I was ugly because I had kinky hair and my skin was dark. I remember being so jealous of my friends hair because they didn’t know what a hot comb was and that their hair was naturally straight. I believed that they had the “good hair.” Now I look back and wonder how much happier I would be if I spent all that time worrying about how I look and spent that time studying.  I have a friend who's parents would not let him watch T.V or play video games at all. I wonder if I grew up like he did I would be different and if so how. Media needs to know that the image that they put out had real world consequences. Girls need to know that we are more than our waist size. Media has made a good majority of women hate the way that they look, now it’s time to love ourselves no matter how we look.

The Midriff

So we watched this documentary called Merchants of cool and one thing I distinctly remember was the characterization of "The Midriff." Just in case you are unaware "The Midriff" is the idea of women being sexualized but it used as a power.To quote the video "They are saying we are sex objects but we know that." This idea is a weird one for me. I believe that women can do whatever they want as long they are not hurting anybody and I encourage women being sex positive and in control over their bodies but that is not what is really happening in these cases. My problem with the Midriff is that most of the time it is not women who are showing off their sexuality to feel empowered and beautiful but it is the system that they have to play to get on top. It's more of a marketing strategy than genuine female sexuality. This is apparent in movies where the Midriff is present. When a Midriff character is present more than likely written by men, men who are aware that the Midriff sells. Another problem I have with this archetype is how it affects young girls. In this documentary we spend some time with a thirteen year old year, Britney. Britney is someone who is affected by the Midriff. She goes around trying to find acting jobs, faulting her sexuality at the age of thirteen. The reasons she wants to do this is that she wants to be successful and become famous. This girl and many others are marketing themselves off to Hollywood producers and that is unsafe. 

The Defense of Daenerys Targaryen

Daenerys Targaryen also known as Khaleesi is a character that has been through a lot and still finds a way to keep her head up and her priorities straight. Despite this, Dany is called "Mad' or a "tyrant." I believe that this is an unfair assessment as I believe that Daenerys or Dany, is the most strongest and good hearted characters on Game of Thrones. Starting when she was a baby her entire existence was seen as a crime. Due to a war the Targaryen bloodline was supposed to be wiped out entirely, so when she was a baby not even old enough to walk nor talk her life was almost taken from her. The only Targaryens who survived were Dany and her brother Viserys. Her own brother was cruel to her, seeing her as something to sell to men who paid enough. He constantly manipulated her and was emotionally abusive to her. She was sexually abused after her husband's death and then was sold into slavery. After her escape from that she started to rise as a Queen. She started an army out of former slaves that she freed. Her best friend Missandei became her right hand as well as her translator. In the latest episode of Game of Thrones, the writers are trying to make her seem "mad" like her father. This does not make sense. In this episode she was first off grieving her dear friend Jorah Mormont who she just lost hours ago in their timeline. As well, she is watching Jon Snow, a man she loves, getting credit for all of her work that she put into the war against the white walkers. On top of that she watched her best friend, Missandei get beheaded and helpless to stop it. People are also insisting that Jon should be the true king of the seven kingdoms even though he has not done anything special besides being a man. To add insult to injury, Jon does not even want the throne. Dany went through a lot of trauma this latest episode so it makes sense that she is on edge that is to be expected. This does not change Dany's good heart no matter what happens she is still the girl who birthed dragons, freed the Unsullied, and ate the horse heart. Dany's entire purpose on the show was to get to King's Landing and take the Iron throne that was hers by birthright. Dany has a good heart and strong morals her feeling hurt about all of the things that have happened to her does not make her "Mad" it makes her human, a strong Queen.

Comics are Cool?? Since When??

So we watched this documentary in class called "The Merchants of Cool." In this documentary we learned what markets do to keep their product relevant is finding what teenagers find cool. And one way of doing so is talking to teenagers on a regular basis and understanding when the culture changes. A big culture change that has happened is how American society treats geek culture and specifically comic books. I remember the times where if you talked about comic books and superheroes people would laugh at you or just be confused, now since due to the popularity of Marvel movies it's cool to be a geek. It is cool to geek out over the new trailer Spiderman: Far from home. It's in style to talk about Game of Thrones, and argue why Daenerys Targaryen deserves to win the Iron Throne. The kicker is that the advertisers know this. I have seen many ads that has parodied Game of Thrones or the Avengers. It works because it is testimonial but it isn't a celebrity it's a fictional character, a characters that we attach to. So when we see someone parody it feels like that could be us as a lot of comic fans do cosplay so it is also appealing to plain folks. I think that geek culture has exploded because it's the idea of being weird and out there and being unique. Like I stated above it used to be lame to be in to comics but their was always a community behind it and I think as time passed people wanted to be apart of that, it's always cool to be an underdog. Comics mean a lot to me to say the least and I am glad that now more people know and can feel love comics and hopefully it affects them, as much as it did me.

The Legacy that is Harley Quinn

When I say "Harley Quinn" most of you already have a picture in your head. Whether it's Margo Robbie's portrayal, her comic book counterpart or her original appearance in the Batman cartoon, there's is no denying that Harley Quinn has made a big impact on geek culture. I am no exception to this love of Harley just in my bedroom alone I have two posters of her and two pop funko action figures. So why? Why is this certain comic book character is so adored my society. Well, I think it has to do with how out there Harley Quinn really was. She did not have a filter or morals. This wasn't seen much with comic book characters at the time so she was something unique. Another reason why she is so loved is that she is just a sweet character, even when she was killing people she was always saying something witty or just not making such a big deal out of it. Since she didn't make a big deal out of it, nether did us, the viewers, we just saw her killing red shirts not actual characters that we cared about. After her popularity exploded in the Batman cartoon she was added to the comic books, where she was given a back story. I cannot keep talking about Harley Quinn without talking about the man who created her, The Joker. Every iteration of this story is a bit different but all have the same following story points. Harley Quinn's real name is Harleen Quinzel and she was a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum here she met The Joker and he seduced her into a life of crime. Later they went to Ace Chemicals and ,depending on the version, Harley jumps into a pool full of bleach, and looses a bunch of her brain cells and her face becomes bleach white. Harley and Joker's relationship is not an healthy one. He is both physically and emotionally abusive to her. Despite this, Joker and Harley still have a bunch of fans and are one of the most infamous comic book couples ever. This also helped bring Harley to more of a popular fan base because she was connect to an already big character in the DC Universe. As well as creates sympathy and empathy for her as The Joker wasn't a good boyfriend to say the least. Harley is a character that makes me and others feel unstoppable. She is a character is so much herself and doesn't care what other people think about her that's what makes her so admirable today. 

Let's Talk about Starfire

Starfire or Koriand'r is a character that has meant a lot to me. Most people including myself know her from the hit cartoon, Teen Titans. For as long as I could remember, Starfire was my favorite character. I loved her so much because she reminded me of myself so much. While she was an actual alien, I used to feel like an outsider among my fellow peers as a child. As we both looked nothing like our friends and had different customs then they did. We both tried to be positive at any time life got to hard and we both loved pizza. I really loved Starfire, so once I got older I started following the Teen Titans comic, the 1980's one to be exact. When starting to read this comic I realized Starfire in the comics isn't the same one I knew as a child, while that Starfire was kind and gentle this one was powerful and snarky. I was in shock, my childhood icon was not who I thought she was for the longest time. It took me a while but I finally let myself enjoy this Starfire and doing so I found more reasons why to love Starfire. Starfire is a character that has been through a lot she was a slave and she was betrayed by her own sister and much other things. While Starfire is an amazing character one of the biggest issue is how for a long time, her biggest character trait being Dick Grayson's love interest. Do not misunderstand me, I love Dick's and Kori's relationship, I believe that they are very cute and they have amazing chemistry with one another, but I don't think that `Starfire's character should be reduced to the man that she loves. Starfire is a character that is still in media today. Thanks to the new DC shows, Titans, we get to see Starfire in a completely new light that most comic readers have never experienced before. I cannot wait to see the future of my childhood superhero and hope other little girls like me can grow up with her and look up to her just like I have done.