Videos by Pop Culture Detective
Marvel Movie Heroes: Defenders of The Status Quo 22 min
22 min · Superheroes usually manage to roll back the various apocalypses but rarely use their powers to build a better world. The villains are the ones constantly dreaming up big audacious...
How The Shawshank Redemption Humanizes Prisoners 26 min
26 min · On a narrative level The Shawshank Redemption is a movie about the power of hope in the face of extraordinary hardship. But underpinning Andy Dufresne’s story we also find a blistering...
Stalking for Love 24 min
24 min · Stalking For Love is a popular media trope where invasive stalker-like behavior is presented as an endearing or harmless part of romantic courtship. The hero will often go to...
Sexual Assault of Men Played for Laughs 64 min
64 min · It’s hard to overstate just how common jokes about men being sexually assaulted are in entertainment media. Most popular comedic actors engage in this type of humor. Jokes are typically...
What Is Toxic Masculinity? 7 min
7 min · 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...
How The Last Jedi Defies Expectations 21 min
21 min · The Last Jedi is a movie that’s designed to defy fan expectations. Nowhere is this subversion more evident than in the way the film handles its three male heroes: X-Wing pilot Poe...
1980s Movies That Shaped Our Humanity 15 min
15 min · The 80s movies that left the biggest impression on Pop Culture Detective as a kid weren’t necessarily from the most popular or iconic films. And they aren't referenced in Ready Player...
Donald Trump: The Sitcom Misogynist 12 min
12 min · Why wasn't Donald Trump's blatant and unashamed misogyny a deal breaker for voters? Pop Culture Detective argues it has a lot to do with the ways pop culture, especially television...
Donald Duck Meets Glenn Beck 8 min
8 min · Donald's life is turned upside-down by the current economic crisis and he finds himself unemployed and falling behind on his house payments. As his frustration turns into despair Donald...
The Case Against The Jedi 26 min
26 min · At their core, George Lucas's six Star Wars films are coming of age stories about boys becoming men. Both Luke and Anakin Skywalker are guided and shaped by the principles of the Jedi...
Wall-E as Sociological Storytelling 16 min
16 min · Pixar’s Wall-E is a masterpiece of animated filmmaking about two adorable robots falling in love. It also serves as an excellent example of sociological storytelling.
Predatory Romance in Harrison Ford Movies 17 min
17 min · Harrison Ford has played some of the most iconic male heroes ever to appear on film. Many of his most popular characters antagonize women, disregard basic ideas of consent and ultimately...
Born Sexy Yesterday: A Hollywood Movie Trope That Maybe Needs to Die 18 min
18 min · "This video essay is about a gendered trope that has bothered me for years but didn’t have a name, so I gave it one: Born Sexy Yesterday. It's a science fiction convention in which the...
The Complicity of Geek Masculinity on the Big Bang Theory 21 min
21 min · This is the 2nd of two video essays about gender on The Big Bang Theory. The 1st focuses on a popular media trope Pop Culture Detective likes to call the Adorkable Misogynist.
The Adorkable Misogyny of The Big Bang Theory 22 min
22 min · The Big Bang Theory provides a perfect lens through which to deconstruct a popular media trope I like to call the Adorkable Misogynist. Adorkable Misogynists are male characters whose...
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