By Michael Tymkiw/The Conversation

For many people, events such as the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, with its torchlight parade, eagle-emblazoned shields and Nazi flags, bring with them uncomfortable reminders of fascist visual culture from the 1920s to 1945.
While individuals and organizations associated with the far right have long appropriated elements from fascist visual culture, the sheer brazenness with which symbols and images were appropriated in Charlottesville, the ensuing violence and the proliferation of photographs and videos depicting these events made the specter of fascism seem disconcertingly close.
If we wish to understand how the far right engages audiences today, it is useful to reflect on how fascist visual culture functioned nearly a century ago – particularly in Germany, where the most virulently racist and antisemitic strand of fascism took hold.

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Posted on May 30, 2018

By Annabelle Lukin/The Conversation

The recent killing of unarmed Palestinians by Israeli forces has sparked not only a reasonable outcry, but commentary on the language journalists use to report these events.
For instance, writer and English professor Moustafa Bayoumi, of City University of New York, writes:

It is the peculiar fate of oppressed people everywhere that when they are killed, they are killed twice: first by bullet or bomb, and next by the language used to describe their deaths.

Bayoumi draws attention to one of the most important but contested roles of modern journalism: the act of putting political violence into words.
The bad news for journalists is there is no neutral mode. If your words sound neutral, it’s likely you’ve simply avoided laying responsibility for the killings, or have imputed responsibility only indirectly.

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Posted on May 28, 2018

@chicagozinefest #czf2018 haul, Dog for scale. Thanks so much to everyone who came, zinesters and shoppers and organizations and just everyone. I’m so proud of the fest, and I hope you all enjoyed it! I’ll be posting reviews of the zines over the next few weeks. Long live zines!

A post shared by Anna Jo Beck (@biffboffbamsock) on May 20, 2018 at 10:01am PDT

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Posted on May 20, 2018

By Michael J. Socolow/The Conversation

Mad magazine is still hanging on. In April, it launched a reboot, jokingly calling it its “first issue.”
But in terms of cultural resonance and mass popularity, it’s largely lost its clout.
At its apex in the early 1970s, Mad’s circulation surpassed 2 million. As of 2017, it was 140,000.
As strange as it sounds, I believe the “usual gang of idiots” that produced Mad was performing a vital public service, teaching American adolescents that they shouldn’t believe everything they read in their textbooks or saw on TV.
Mad preached subversion and unadulterated truth-telling when so-called objective journalism remained deferential to authority.

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Posted on May 14, 2018

By Meg-John Barker/The Conversation

I can’t recommend reading over 60 sex advice manuals. I spent several months doing this and it results in a particular combination of sadness, anger and frustration that I’d rather never repeat.
The reason for my painful few months was my new book, Mediated Intimacy: Sex Advice in Media Culture with Rosalind Gill and Laura Harvey. The book explores the changing forms of “sexpertise” and how they influence ideas and practices around sex.
In addition to sex manuals, we studied blogs, magazines, reality TV shows such as Sex Box (which actually gets people to have sex in a box), newspaper problem pages, websites, apps, and more.

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Posted on May 11, 2018

By SIU Press

“In Turkey the Beat message of dissent is being given renewed life as publishers, editors, critics, readers, and others dissatisfied with the conservative social and political trends in the country have turned to the Beats and other countercultural forebears for alternatives.
“Through an examination of a broad range of literary translations, media portrayals, interviews, and other related materials, this book seeks to uncover how the Beats and their texts are being circulated, discussed, and used in Turkey to rethink the possibilities they might hold for social critique today.

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Posted on May 9, 2018

By Chicago Zine Fest

On May 18-19, Chicago Zine Fest will present its 9th annual celebration of independent publishers in the Chicago area and across the nation.
Highlights of the two-day festival include a panel discussion and readings on Friday, May 18 and an exhibition day featuring more than 250 exhibitors and interactive workshops on Saturday, May 19.
New for this year, CZF will debut a youth area geared toward the next generation of zinemakers.

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Posted on May 8, 2018

From Fatima Munroe

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown. But being married to a Chicago bully is even more of a headache. Will these women live through it? Or will the pressure be too much?”

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Posted on May 7, 2018

By SIU Press

“Kara van de Graaf’s debut collection heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary poetry. Through poems that balance personal recollection with ekphrasis, science, and meditation, Van de Graaf searches for answers in the fluctuating relationship between the body and the self.
“Taking as its primary theme the exploration of the female body in current culture, Spitting Image considers the myriad intersections of the body and gender, desire, relationships, and otherness.”

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Posted on May 1, 2018