I should warn you up front I’ve never watched the modern Dr. Who series, just because I always wanted to see it from the beginning. Now that what remains of the show from the early ’60s is available on DVD (some episodes were taped over, as was the policy at the BBC then!), I’ve been watching the early years with William Hartnell. I’m impressed with the show overall, but one character really stuck out: Barbara Wright.

Barbara, Ian and Susan are ...Read More

Alexa Vega (Spy Kids 1, 2, 3) and two Cassidy brothers, David and Patrick, star in this new ABC Family sitcom that just started up in July.

The premise of the show is that Ruby’s mother died when she was 12, and she was raised by her grandparents who “forgot she was there” and was rescued by her Rock Star father, David Gallagher (David Cassidy). He’s the stereotypical irresponsible, ne’er do well, Peter Pan rock star, who appears in each show ...Read More

The interminable Simpsons repeats on some of my local channels recently worked their way round to the one where Bart gets a vision of the future where he’s a dropout with a pretend band, and Lisa is President. Anyway, the US is in deep financial trouble and Lisa is having trouble placating the other countries it owes money to. Until Bart swoops in and saves the day with his mad putting-off-creditor skillz.

The daughter of my recently ...Read More

Wonder Woman is easily the most recognized female superhero out there, and yet how many people can tell you anything about her except that she was protrayed by Lynda Carter in the 70s TV show? The producers of Justice League were clearly aware of this when initially developing the show, as Superman and Batman, the other two members of DC Comics’ “Big Three” heroes, were much more familiar to audiences and had already headlined animated shows by the same creative ...Read More

I watched the first episode of the remake of Gladiators, and the thing that struck me was how the female gladiators looked and acted. I’ve broken it down into three categories, appearance, attitude and names. This is the Australian version I’m critiquing, but I would love to hear how other versions compare. (And I recommend you check the site out, it’s hard to describe just how homogenous this group of women is.)

Appearance

Every one of ...Read More

A couple of days ago I wrote that the reason people react more strongly to criticisms of sexism in kids’ shows and movies than adult shows and movies is that they’re terrified of what will happen if young girls learn they don’t have to buy into their assigned gender roles.

Three of my readers took it a step further and made a really great point: S.A. Bonasi said:

So I don’t think Hollywood is afraid that little girls will learn that they ...Read More