Women & Media Blog Reflection

Writing this blog has been a challenge to say the least. I'm an avid blogger, but being constrained to a certain form and way of writing was suffocating for me and I found it hard to really articulate everything I wanted to say in the ways I was supposed to say them. I also found myself writing more than I was supposed to but, again, I felt like they were necessary so I kept writing anyway. I always love discussing pop culture texts and dissecting them so at the very least I enjoyed talking about things I like (who doesn't).
I didn't really learn much from the writing process, I guess. I'm very used to discussing pop culture in blog form (I run a blog with a friend about positive/problematic race representation in geek/nerd culture/fandoms) and felt relatively at ease while writing about the things I was writing about. I mostly learned that apparently I am not very good at blogging when there are rules and directions. I already view most texts with a very critical eye and generally try and discuss them with others to try and flesh out the reasons I feel that certain way and how it related to previous discourses. It's something I've always kind of done, but being in the WGS department for this long has really made it a constant thing for me.

This Damsel Is Definitely Not In Distress (Women & Media Blog Post #7)

Okay, first of all, I need everyone to look at this picture for a good long while. 

Yeah, that's a Black princess with a sword on the front of a comic book. If that wasn't good enough, the entire story is about how this WoC princess is sick and tired of the "damsel in distress->gets rescued->marries Prince Charming" route in life and decides that she should go on adventures and rescue other people all on her own. A better run-down of the story itself and some wonderfully scanned pages and panels can be seen here. 

To me, Princeless, is a direct successor to the throne that Buffy the Vampire Slayer had so many moons ago. There is no doubt in my mind that this comic wouldn't exist without Buffy, but Princeless also succeeds in places where Buffy falls very, very short: race representation. Adrienne is a sassy, self-sufficient girl of the highest social standing and guess what? She's a Woman of Color. Even better? She has natural hair. It's not straightened but rather bushy and curly while pulled back in to a reasonable-length ponytail. Princeless could easily be viewed as a work of Third Wave Feminism and most definitely works within the framework Irene Karras uses to explain Buffy and its Third Wave appeal: "The program also exemplifies the third wave's commitment to girl power by turning the victim role typical of the action and horror genres on its head with the character of Buffy herself." (pg. 1) Adrienne, our Not-So-Distressed Damsel is doing the same as Buffy did before her: she is taking the generally passive role of being a storybook princess and making it active by leaving the castle and going adventuring on her own.