Sarah's A-POP Blog

BOOKS:

https://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=CP71103027910001451&context=L&vid=EVSC&search_scope=tesc_alma_summit&tab=alma_search_tab&lang=en_US

This book is called “America’s world identity : the politics of exclusion” and it looks like it examines American national identity in the context of things like racism and sexism. I think this could have a lot of good background info for me that could help inform which areas of history and culture to look at the most in relation to superhero comics.

https://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=CP71268014490001451&context=L&vid=EVSC&search_scope=tesc_alma_summit&tab=alma_search_tab&lang=en_US

This book is called  “Enter the superheroes American values, culture, and the canon of superhero literature” and it looks like it deals a lot with superhero media in relation to fans and the history of superhero comics in general. I’m especially interested in this book for the sections on fandom and diversity, but all of these sections look potentially useful to my project.

Continue reading

I’ve decided to do my project on representation -and lack thereof- in superhero-related media such as cartoons, comics, and movies. I chose this topic because superhero media extremely popular right now due to things like the Marvel and DC cinematic universes, and that popularity can sometimes obscure problematic themes and ideas that crop up in media and negatively influence our culture.

I plan to explore this topic through examining Asian American representation in Marvel and DC products (including movies, cartoons, and comics). This will potentially include any differences in character backstory between media, such as characters who were whitewashed in an adaptation, characters who were turned into racist caricatures or changed from being racist caricatures to being 3 dimensional characters, etc. I may also look at any racism and related backlash that characters and/or their actors experienced from comic book fandoms.

I know I’m probably going to find a lot of misrepresentation or no representation at all, so I was also considering creating a few “examples” of Asian American characters that are handled more respectfully, but I’m currently unsure of how I would go about doing that for this project.

1.  I could do my project on representation (and/or misrepresentation, and/or lack-thereof) in superhero-related media such as cartoons, comics, and movies. This is of interest to me because superheroes have been around for a long time beginning with comic books, so you can see a lot of the attitudes of the times reflected in the media. Since those attitudes often included casual racism, I think it’s important to see how later creators handled race and whether or not those attitudes are still being perpetuated, inadvertently or otherwise. This would also give me an opportunity to look at any Asian-American creators in the superhero genre and how they’re treated.
2. I could do my project on Asian Americans who should be famous but aren’t, and/or Asian Americans who are famous but aren’t widely acknowledged as Asian Americans for whatever reason. This topic would be of interest to me because there’s a lot of people, such as famous actors, that I had no idea what their ethnicity was and was surprised to find out that they weren’t white like I assumed. This would also presumably give me a chance to examine why assuming the default ethnicity of pale skinned people is white is a problem.
3. I could do my project on how Asian media such as video games and anime has influenced American culture and whether or not that has inspired more Asian Americans to become content creators. This is of interest to me because I know there are a lot of video games and anime that are still really popular and have been for decades, such as the Pokemon and Dragon Ball franchises, and it would be interesting to see how that kind of media has shaped my generation’s attitudes and preferences for content.