popdetective

Sexual Assault of Men as Comedy Part 2

Finally! Here's part two in our video series on the sexual assault of men as comedy in entertainment. As you'll recall part one ...

How The Shawshank Redemption Humanizes Prisoners

Time for a brand new video essay! In this episode, I take a deep dive into why The Shawshank Redemption remains so popular 25 years after its theatrical release, and examine how the film functions ...

Victory! Video Essays Back on YouTube

After a ridiculous month-long fair use battle with Warner/Chappell over a few seconds of music in two short movie clips, both of my video essays are finally 2019-03-26 01:17:44 +0000 UTC View Post

Bogus YouTube Takedowns

You may have noticed a couple video essays disappeared from our YouTube channel yesterday. Don't worry, we are working to get them back online.

Here's what happened. On March 8th 2019 Warner/...

Sexual Assault of Men Played for Laughs - Part 1

It's finally finished! This is my longest and most complex video essay to date. It took a ridiculous amount of work and tons of time watching really really really bad movies. Just a heads up, this ...

How The Last Jedi Defies Expectations

A brand new Pop Detective video essay is here! The Last Jedi is a movie that's deliberately designed to defy fan expectations. Nowhere is this subversion more evident than in the way the film handles ...

Abduction as Romance

It took a long time, but it's finally here! I watched and took notes on over 60 movies for this ...

1980s movies that shaped our humanity

Since I often discuss the negative impacts of entertainment on this channel, I thought it would be nice to do an episode focusing on more positive media. So in this video I highlight 5 movies about em...

Stalking For Love

My Stalking For Love video essay is finally here! 

Stalking For Love is a popular media trope where invasive stalker-like behavior is presented as an endearing or harmless par...

Production script: The Case Against The Jedi

Normally only backers pledging $5 or more to help support this project get access to my pre-production scripts. However I've decided to open the script for 2018-01-04 21:39:56 +0000 UTC View Post

The Case Against the Jedi Order

It's finally here! My long-form video essay focusing on masculinity according to the Jedi in George Lucas's six Star Wars films is now on YouTube. I've been working on this one for the better part of ...

Wall-E as Sociological Storytelling

Pixar’s Wall-E is a masterpiece of animated filmmaking about two adorable robots falling in love, though I’d argue it also serves as an excellent example of sociological storytelling. 

Soci...

Henry Jenkins interviews Jonathan McIntosh

I was recently interviewed about this project by author and USC Cinema Arts professor Henry Jenkins. The following was originally published on 2017-10-23 22:22:04 +0000 UTC View Post

The Complicity of Geek Masculinity

Here it is! My 2nd and final video about geeky manhood and the Big Bang Theory. 

The Big Bang Theory delights in poking fun at its male characters for their geeky obsessions but I argue there's...

The Adorkable Misogyny of The Big Bang Theory

Here it is! The first of two critical video essay about the most watched show on television. The Big Bang Theory provides a perfect lens through which to deconstruct a popular media trope I like to ca...

Is Wonder Woman Born Sexy Yesterday?

I’ve been asked hundreds of times about whether or not I think Diana’s origin story in the new Wonder Woman movie fits into the 2017-07-21 19:10:13 +0000 UTC View Post

The Unfulfilled Potential of Video Games

This video series primarily focuses on film and television, but every once in a while I like to check-in on the world of video games.

Interactive media has the incredible potential to deliver a wide...

The Fantastic Masculinity of Newt Scamander

As a cultural critic, I watch a ridiculous number of movies,  always on the lookout for more positive Hollywood representations of masculinity. I usually walk out of the theater disappointed but ...

Stalking as Romance trope list and research

Here's the latest in my series of trope lists that collect examples of movie where non-consensual male behavior towards women is framed as harmless or romantic. 

2017-05-19 18:52:46 +0000 UTC View Post

Born Sexy Yesterday

This video essay is about a gendered sci-fi trope that has bothered me for years but didn't have a name, so I gave it one: Born Sexy Yesterday. The trope isn’t really about female character...

Men and romance movie trope lists

I’ve started creating lists of movies that include troubling tropes having to do with masculinity. The intention is that each list is part of my research and will eventually become a full fledged vi...

The Predatory Romance of Harrison Ford Movies

Finally finished my in-depth video essay focusing on the troubling romance scenes in Harrison Ford's most famous movies. I highlight four sequences in which Han Solo, Indiana Jones and Rick Deckard di...

A window into my creative process

I wanted to give you all a quick update on this project. I've just gotten my voice back after battling a bad flu for most of February. While I couldn’t record videos during that time, I took the opp...

The Stormtrooper Paradox: Finn's Awakening

 New video highlighting on something that's bothered me since I first saw JJ Abrams' Episode 7 on opening weekend. The Force Awakens does what no other film in the long running Star Wars franchis...

Donald Trump: The Lovable Misogynist

Why wasn't Donald Trump's blatant and unashamed misogyny a deal breaker for voters? I argue it has a lot to do with the ways pop culture media normalizes sexism. Sitcoms are especially good at makes j...

Subversive Boyhood of Steven Universe

The Cartoon Network series Steven Universe is an adventure show about a boy with interstellar super powers but in many ways it’s also a coming-of-age story about a young man growing up and trying to...

What Is Toxic Masculinity?

You may have bumped into the term toxic masculinity during your travels around the internet. It usually shows up in connection with particularly abusive male behavior, but what does it really mean? In...

Episode 1 - Emotional Expression on Steven Universe

This is the first in a series of videos exploring what Steven Universe has to say about men, boys and masculinity. This episode covers representations of emotional expression, and highlights the ways ...