Fake Geek Girls

Bring it On brought us many iconic, quotable lines. It also brought us a surprisingly nuanced example of cultural appropriation and the problems of white guilt. Also, Jesse Bradford and Eliza Dushku. Let's get into it! Warning: This one contains cursing. There's also a brief discussion of sexual assault based on the events of the film.  Some Links You Might Find Interesting: Modernism, Cinema, Adolescence: Another History for Teen Film by Catherine Driscoll Beyond Clueless The pleasures of muscular bonding in Bring It On and Pitch Perfect by Samantha Colling Magical Strategies: The Supplement of Realism by Scott Simpkins 'Bring It On': From spirit fingers to appropriation, the cult sports film is much more than a teen rom-com by Katie Barnes Race and the Changing Shape of Cheerleading by Azizi Powell 20 Years of Bringing It: What Bring It On Did for the Culture and the Conversation Around Cultural Theft by J'na Jefferson “I Didn’t Want to Be Saved”: Gabrielle Union Talks Bring It On, 20 Years Later by Keaton Bell Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

Our lists this week are a good reminder of why we don't usually take much time off. Buckle in, it's a long one! Note: Here are some impractical socks. Enjoy. There's also a brief discussion of disordered eating in the section on The Crown, and some mention of inappropriate content (though nothing graphic) in the section on Yes, God, Yes. What Missy's Been Up To: Watching The Love Witch Over the Garden Wall Halloween (2018) Whisper of the Heart Revenge Listening To Gastropod Reading The War of the Worlds by HG Wells Beekeeping by Dominique DeVito What Merri's Been Up To: Reading Emergency Contact by Mary H. K. Choi Beach Read by Emily Henry Watching The Crown Scream The Queen's Gambit Enola Holmes Dash and Lily Yes, God, Yes Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

A boarding school for witch orphans, a bunch of imposters, and a griffin named Klartch—it's time for part two of our dive into Diana Wynne Jones' Chronicles of Chrestomanci! Some Links You Might Find Interesting: Power Plays: Paradigms of Power in "The Pinhoe Egg" and "The Merlin Conspiracy" by Martha P. Hixon Children's Literature Association Quarterly by Ruth Waterhouse Critical Practice by Catherine Belsey ‘“Now Here: Where Now?” Magic as Reality and as Metaphor in the Work of Diana Wynne Jones’ by Catherine Butler "Why don't you be a tiger?": The Performative, Transformative, and Creative Power of the Word in the Universes of Diana Wynne Jones by Debbie Gascoyne "False Pretences" and the "Real Show": Identity, Performance, and the Nature of Fiction in "Conrad's Fate" by Caroline Webb Imagining Other Worlds in Diana Wynne Jones’ Witch Week by A.K. Larkwood Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

It's once again time to judge Missy and Merri's eclectic taste, featuring lots of horror, a long explanation of The 100, and judging the heck out of Leonardo Dicaprio. Warning: There's no swearing above PG-13 in this episode, but because much of what we discuss is adult-oriented, this one probably isn't great for children. We've marked it explicit out of an abundance of caution. What Missy's Been Up To: Watching Lovecraft Country Wolf of Wall Street Blade Halloween The Color Out of Space What Merri's Been Up To: Watching The 100 Borat Subsequent Moviefilm The Mortuary Collection Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

Missy has lucked out once again, as Fake Geek Girls is taking a look at one of her favorite childhood book series: Diana Wynne Jones' Chronicles of Chrestomanci! We're talking about Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia, multiverses, orientalism, and why children's literature is good, actually. Some Links You Might Find Interesting: "Why don't you be a tiger?": The Performative, Transformative, and Creative Power of the Word in the Universes of Diana Wynne Jones by Debbie Gascoyne Devils, Demons, Familiars, Friends: Toward a Semiotics of Literary Cats by Maria Nikolajeva Moving Between Worlds: Foreignness in Diana Wynne Jones' Multiverse by Gabriela Steinke The Physics of Responsibility: Alternate Worlds and Adolescent Choices by Molly Brown Diana Wynne Jones : The Fantastic Tradition and Children's Literature by Farah Mendlesohn On Fairy-Stories by J. R. R. Tolkien Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

What have we been up to? Merri's seeing a LOT of Dakota Johnson, and Missy is watching Oscar bait and utter trash. Warning: Once we start talking about 50 Shades of Gray, the conversation is NSFW. Prior to this, in the discussion about Ginger Snaps 2, there are mentions of sexual assault. What Missy's Been Up To: Watching The Post Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter Waitress Reading Wise Children by Angela Carter What Merri's Been Up To: Watching Ginger Snaps Unleashed Trick R Treat The Lighthouse 50 Shades Trilogy Suspiria Blackpink Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

Nicholas Cage steals the Declaration of Independence...and our hearts? (No.) Join us as we talk about nationalism, the adventure film genre, Riley's goatee, and being egregiously ahistorical. Note: We didn't realize until we were about 20 minutes in that our recording program was using the wrong microphone for Merri. We stopped and fixed it, but the first chunk of the episode will sound a bit rougher than usual. Some Links You Might Find Interesting: “The Imperial Imaginary” by Ella Shohat and Robert Stam The Casual Colonialism of Lara Croft and Indiana Jones by Daniel A. Gross Archaeologists in popular culture by Gabriel Moshenska National Treasure: Re-enacting the past to learn the lessons of history by Emad Aysha 'The Meg' Director "Set Out to Make the Second Best Shark Movie of All Time" by Mia Galuppo Indiana Jones and Ben Gates: Imperial Heroes and the American Marvelous Post 9/11 by Joan Ormrod Catch Hannibal at Mr Ripley's Fight Club if you can: From Eurodecadent cinema to American nationalist allegory by Robert von Dassanowsky Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

There is no uniting theme to this week's episode, other than that quite a lot of people die in the things we were up to. What Missy's Been Up To: Watching: The Wedding Singer The Invisible Man Dead Poets Society Matchstick Men What We Do in the Shadows Season 2 Reading: Black Heart, Ivory Bones ed. by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow What MerrI's Been Up To: Watching: Ever After Jawbreaker The Babysitter The Babysitter: Killer Queen The Witch Punk rock MBA Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

It's happening now. It's happening for the first time. We're discussing The Wicked + The Divine, a comic series about gods reincarnated into the bodies of young adults, the creation of art, our relationship with death, and being lovable and terrible all at once. Warning: Contains swearing and discussions of potentially triggering material, including suicide and abuse. Some Links You Might Find Interesting: Beauty in the Breakdown: The Wicked + The Divine by J. A. Micheline Beauty in the Breakdown, Part 2: The Wicked + The Divine by J. A. Micheline The Queer + The Divine: 'WicDiv' Gets LGBTQ Diversity Right by Aaron Reese The Wicked + The Divine: “Fucking Tara” and the Fame Monster by Nyala Ali The Wicked and The Divine #13: Seeing My Story Retold by Muireann McGlynn Oh Snap! The Godlike Genius of 'The Wicked + The Divine' by Douglas Wolk Multifarious: Why The Wicked + The Divine Doesn’t Deserve its Own Movie. ASAP or Otherwise. by Megan Purdy Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

There are two kinds of people in the world, and they are Merri and Missy's tastes over the last two weeks. What Missy's Been Up To: Reading Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges Watching Pride and Prejudice Fried Green Tomatoes George of the Jungle Groundhog Day What Merri's Been Up To: Watching Dune This is Paris The Social Dilemma Mortis Trilogy Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

It’s time to discuss the Star Wars prequels! So... what's all this about the hero's journey? We hope you're ready for some SPICY Star Wars opinions, because we've got them. We are overwhelmed with them. Please relieve us of some of our many spicy opinions. Some Links You Might Find Interesting "The Phantom Menace": Repetition, Variation, Integration by Anne Lancashire “In That Time . . . ” in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Epic Myth-Understandings and Myth-Appropriation in Star Wars by John Thompson "Let Me Tell You" by Cecilia Tan New Hope: The Postmodern Project of Star Wars by Will Brooker “You Were the Chosen One!” Darth Vader and the Sequential Dynamics of Villainy in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy by Tara Lomax The Jedi Knights of Faith: Anakin, Luke, and Søren (Kierkegaard) by William A. Lindenmuth “Thank the Maker!”: George Lucas, Lucasfilm, and the Legends of Transtextual Authorship across the Star Wars Franchise by Tara Lomax why is cottagecore so gay? Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

Actually, it gets dirty partway through and just kind of stays that way. What have we been up to that caused all this? Let's find out. Warning: The title is a fun quote but it's also true. Once we hit Sex Criminals, a number of inappropriate topics come up and continue through the episode. There's no swearing or anything explicit, but there are references to sex, so proceed with caution. What Missy's Been Up To Watching What We Do in the Shadows Magic Mike XXL Reading Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky The Time Machine by H. G. Wells The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells What Merri's Been Up To Watching Mulan Guns Akimbo Teenage Bounty Hunters A Knight's Tale Frontline Conspiracy - Alex Jones Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

There's really no uniting theme to this week's WWBUT, other than that we've been under some time constraints due to watching lots of [REDACTED] and reading Animorphs. What Missy's Been Up To: Reading Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado, Dan McDaid, Dani Strips, Tamra Bonvillain Watching Death Becomes Her Lovecraft Country What Merri's Been Up To: Reading Sub-Zero Listening Slow Burn: Biggie and Tupac, David Duke Rabbit Hole Watching Becky The Hunt Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

The Animorphs series draws to a close with a not-insignificant amount of heartbreak. So how did those character types pan out? Did [REDACTED] have to die? And will we ever recover? Warning: We discuss the heavy subject matter typical of the series, as well as cursing. Some Links You Might Find Interesting: 3 Things Socialists Should Copy From Animorphs by H We Were Doomed From the Start: Reevaluating ‘Animorphs’ Today by Tres Dean Animorphs Co-Writer Michael Grant Interview Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

Hope you like trash-talking Scarlet Johannson because uh... there's a lot of that, for some reason. Also: psychoanalyzing Missy's terrible taste in men, Merri's thoughts on wide boys, and showing himbos some love. What Missy's Been Up To: Watching: WolfCop True Grit Hail, Caesar! Shirley Playing: A Bewitching Revolution Orwell: Ignorance is Strength What Merri's Been Up To: Watching: The Bling Ring Jojo Rabbit Hatchet 2 Reading: Midnight Poppy Land Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

Body horror, anti-imperialism, and cinnamon buns—what more could you want? Let's talk about Animorphs, a foundational middle-grade series best known for traumatizing a generation of readers and being the butt of every joke about bad cover design. What exactly makes the series so special? Is this just all silly children's fare? And why were we all allowed to read this series without any oversight? Warning: Contains swearing and discussions of suicidal ideation. Some Links You Might Find Interesting: How Animorphs and ReBoot Used Cheesiness to Get Away With Telling Important Stories of Trauma by Natalie Zutter New Perspectives on Environmental Justice: Gender, Sexuality, and Activism — “The Power is Yours, Planeteers!” by Noel Sturgeon Animorphs: Why the Series Rocked and Why You Should Still Care by Sam Riedel Why Animorphs is Frighteningly Relevant in Contemporary Trumpian America by Kitty Reading in Stealth, or My Life in Animorphs by Cassius Adair Whatever Gets You Through Today: An Examination of Cynical Humor Among Emergency Service Professionals by Alison Rowe & Cheryl Regehr "You Have to Save the Planet," He Said: Reading the Animorphs by Jason Earle, Sharon D. Kruse and Taylor P. Kruse We Were Doomed From the Start: Reevaluating ‘Animorphs’ Today by Tres Dean Why were we allowed to read Animorphs as kids, anyway? by TheJakeFormerlyKnownAsPrince Animorphs: The Grey Morality of 90s YA's Most Tragic Characters by Lord Ravenscraft Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

Michael Moscovitz is our collective dream boyfriend, and it's time the world knew. We're talking about The Princess Diaries, including the first three books in the series and the two Disney films. What's up with the diary format? Why do movies insist on trying to tell us Anne Hathaway is unattractive? Lets find out! Mistakes: The Princess and the Frog was among our list of movies that don't feature friendship between two human girls, but Tiana does in fact have a human friend! Unfortunately, Tiana herself does spend a significant amount of the movie as an animal herself, so... still not a great example. Some Links You Might Find Interesting: Royal Subjects: Feminist Perspectives on Diary Writing and the Diary Form in Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries Series by Hanna Liljeqvist Cinderella vs Barbie: The Battle for Postfeminist Performance in Teen Transformation Narratives by Kendra Marston The Politics of Empowerment: Young Adult Literature, Heterotopia and the Possibility of Social Change by Lili Wilkinson Review: 1 Rothschild, Sarah. The Princess Story: Modeling the Feminine in Twentieth - Century American Fiction and Film by Erin Bell, PhD Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

A "short one" in which we talk about Hamilton for 20 minutes. Other topics include: grocery games, cowboy feelings, and time loops. Note: At some point, Missy’s microphone started making a weird clicking sound and our attempts to remove it were unfortunately unsuccessful. It does stop after a bit, but we apologize for the audio annoyance. A Link You May Find Interesting: “Hamilton: the Musical:” Black Actors Dress Up like Slave Traders…and It’s Not Halloween by Ishmael Reed What Missy's Been Up To: Watching: Hamilton The Devil Wears Prada The Bling Ring Palm Springs Matilda Playing: Red Dead Redemption 2 What Merri's Been Up To: Watching: Hatchet Guy's Grocery Games Palm Springs Brave New World Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

We return to another high school classic with George Orwell's Animal Farm! Why does this book get cited as proof that revolutions don't work as often as the opposite? What's all this REALLY about? And why is it taught in American high school, anyway? Let's find out! Warning: Contains swearing. Some Links You Might Find Interesting: All Propaganda is Dangerous, but Some are More Dangerous than Others: George Orwell and the Use of Literature as Propaganda by Samantha Senn GEORGE ORWELL AND THE FAILURE OF DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM: The Problem of Political Power by Lane Crothers Revolution on Animal Farm: Orwell's Neglected Commentary by V. C. Letemendia Some Interpretations are More Equal Than Others: Misinterpreting George Orwell's Animal Farm by Rebecca Herring The Dual Purpose of "Animal Farm" by Paul Kirschner Reputation, Canon-Formation, Pedagogy: George Orwell in the Classroom by John Rodden Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch

It's musical season among the Fake Geek Girls. Also: Scientology, villainous women, and things that aren't as good as Carmilla. What Missy's Been Up To: Reading: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Andersen Watching: Gone Girl Little Shop of Horrors Mad Max: Fury Road West Side Story What Merri's Been Up To: Watching: Hamilton The Order Gun Gale Online Going Clear Citizen Four Our Website | Twitter | Facebook | Patreon | Merch