AvidBards
Reflections

Destigmatizing Fanfiction – A Conversation with Damien Gerard

Actor Damien Gerard, who is known for his work in Call of Duty: Black Ops War and most prominently on the hit HBO Max show Our Flag Means Death, recently joined me in a discussion about the importance of fanfiction. Fanfiction, and fandom culture in general, has long been surrounded by stigma – and to that, storytellers like Gerard agree that this needs to be changed. In this interview, I was lucky enough to sit down with him and hear his incredibly thoughtful insights on the topic.

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TV Shows

Our Flag Means Representation – an Analysis of Everyone’s Favourite Pirate Show

By now, you’ve probably either heard of or watched HBO’s latest hit show Our Flag Means Death, created by David Jenkins. After seeing tons of buzz, fanart, and general discussion about the show online, I already knew it was a show I’d enjoy, especially since many were applauding its queer characters and narratives. And though I was a bit late to the game in watching it (the finale premiered at the end of March 2022), I finally binged it this past weekend.

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Books

Book Review: ‘Sub-Lebrity*: *The Queer Life of a Show-Biz Footnote’ by Leon Acord

At AvidBards, we continue to be honoured when authors ask us to review their books. Though we’ve admittedly been much slower to take on new books and respond to requests in the last little while (especially throughout the pandemic), one request that really piqued our interest was actor Leon Acord’s memoir entitled Sub-Lebrity*: *The Queer Life of a Show-Biz Footnote.

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Reflections

Pride Playlist

Pride Month is one of my favourite times of the year. I live in Toronto, which is one of the most diverse and queer-friendly cities. Pride Month is a time where the weather is finally getting warmer, the city becomes adorned with colour and liveliness, and though major corporations love to adopt Pride month as part of their marketing strategies (which I don’t really agree with), people are reminded of why there is so much to celebrate in the queer community. That being said, it’s extremely important for us to remember what the origins of the Pride Parade and Pride…

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Reflections

Batwoman: Challenging Traditional Gender Norms

In lieu of the exciting news that DC Comics character Batwoman will be made into a TV series (starring Ruby Rose), I hearken back to a time when I studied Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams’ graphic novel, Batwoman: Elegy (2009-2010), in university. This Batwoman edition is part of the modernized Batwoman canon (starting in 2005), in which Kate Kane (formerly Kathy) is written as a Jewish lesbian woman. Now, this depiction is incredibly important because it takes major leaps for the LGBTQIA+ community, as queer main characters are not often found, particularly in the superhero genre. Archaic gendered notions of macho…

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Movies

Guest Post: The New Teen Rom-Com is Queer

Hello, readers! S & I have an important announcement: as of today, we will be putting up guest posts on AvidBards in addition to our own! Katherine H. writes today’s wonderful post, on the queer diversification of teen romantic comedies and what that means for mainstream media. Katherine is a graduate from the University of Edinburgh and American University. She currently lives in New Hampshire and cannot wait to start her PhD in History at Durham University. If you are interested in writing a guest post, contact us on IG or Facebook @avidbards! (Warning: this post contains minimal potential spoilers…

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