Noah Berlatsky

Last year there was much excitement at the announcement that Lupita Nyong'o was going to play a major role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens — the first Black woman to star in the franchise.

english lit academic. wish fulfiller. thwarted world-changer.

Action movies don't usually bother much with romance. The trailer for The Transporter: Refueled certainly doesn't. The hero is cool — sexy women, plural, throw themselves at him, or at least stand near him and things blow up; there are fights and revenge and high production values. Romance is, at best, a secondary concern.

These covers remind us of the lengthy, rich—but often obscured—history of female songwriters.

Banks' "Ice Princess" video shows that it's not only white people who can pick up someone else's culture.

The Lord of the Flies can feel like a vacation spot for conflict-management consultants in comparison to social media.

Did the classic Adam West Batman show strike a blow (Kerwhap!) for feminism?

Rodriguez is confused when she says that people want her to steal white people's superheroes. But she also has a point.

Talking about race can get you into a lot of trouble . . . especially if you don't have a lot of class power or status.

Writing can be hard and uncomfortable and precarious—but it's hard and uncomfortable and precarious in the way that any job can be.