Noah Berlatsky

Noah Berlatsky

Bio

Noah Berlatsky is a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He edits the online comics-and-culture website The Hooded Utilitarian and is the author of the forthcoming book Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics, 1941-1948.

Noah Berlatsky Articles

Image: Flickr

A Love Letter To The Original Movie, The Transporter 

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.

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Scandal Over Sexually Violent Batgirl Cover Reveals Changing Comics Landscape

Fans of Batgirl are fans of Batgirl. They buy her comic to see her being heroic, not to see her being a slasher movie victim.

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Credit: ThinkStock

For Anti-Sex Work Writers, Sex Sells 

Hating sex workers—and treating them as things—can get you money.

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Ex Machina Promotional

The Castrating Power Of The Femme Fatale: Ex Machina

Their sexuality traps and destroys male innocence, as they grad hold, by the penis- the better to lead him to castration. Make no mistake that castration is greeted with fear, terror, and disgust—but also with glee. Women as super villains allow their characters to be super powerful; a force for evil is at least a force. In a media landscape where women are often rendered secondary, invisible, and passive, the femme fatale, in her icy violence, seizes female agency along with the phallus that she so efficiently cuts off.

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Billie Holiday (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Blues Music's Hidden Queer History

The history of pop music, and of black pop music in particular, has always been gay history.

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All photos courtesy of Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki via Paste Magazine

Violence, Sex, And Coming Of Age: Why Everyone Is Talking About This One Summer  

The first graphic novel to win a Caldeott gives children the chance to be adults, and adults the chance to be kids.

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Andre Cymnone

Why Is Everyone So Scared Of Rock Music's Mixed-Race Roots?

The founder of the brilliant fyeahblackrockmusic Tumblr talks racial politics, Kelis, and . . . the Doobie Brothers?

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Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The Problem With Spock's Sex Appeal 

With the death of Leonard Nimoy, it's a good moment to pay tribute to (and question) his most famous character.

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Credit: Flickr/U.S. Embassy New Delhi

All Hail The Great Women Of Gospel

The loss of gospel history has meant forgetting how important black women have been to American performance styles.

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Scene from To Kill A Mockingbird Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Oscars Voter Raises Question: What Does A Racist Look Like?

According to an Academy Awards voter, the right sort of people, with the right sort of education and connections, can't be racist.

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