PinnedWho is this Alex with the opinions? (BIO)I am Alex Mell-Taylor. I am a nonbinary culture writer who writes unseriously about important topics and very seriously about unimportant ones. If there's a hill out there, I have died on it. Please return my corpse to the nearest coat check. Greatest Hits The Most Exhausting Part About America Is The Pretending Refuting "American Exceptionalism" so that we can build a better tomorrow!aninjusticemag.comAlex Has Opinions2 min read
Published in Prism & Pen·1 day agoMember-onlyWe Shouldn't Care If Someone's "Faking" Being Queer For AttentionSo what if people are "pretending" to be gay or trans? — There is this odd narrative that gay, bi, and trans people are just being queer for attention. For the past couple of years, there has been a lot of discourse around the concept of "transtrenders" (i.e., people who allegedly aren't "real" trans individuals and are just identifying as such for…LGBTQ7 min read
Published in Fanfare·5 days agoMember-onlyExploring Toxic Motherhood In "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness"Magical powers, alternate dimensions, anti-vaxxers, and homophobia — The second Doctor Strange movie, the Multiverse of Madness (MoM), tackles a lot of elements. It serves as not only a vehicle to expand on the multiverse (a real, theoretical concept, if you believe it) where the MCU is now connected to an infinite amount of parallel universes, but an…Culture7 min read
Published in An Injustice!·Jul 27Member-only'Teaching A Robot To Love:' The Anti-Capitalist Musical For Our TimesA story about love, queer relationships, & the death of capitalism — By the time a mainstream musical passes the many eyes and hands it takes to write, film, produce, and circulate it, chances are that the moderating influence of "those on top" have taken out a lot of its bite. It's hard (though not impossible) to make a work that criticizes…LGBTQ4 min read
Published in Fanfare·Jul 25Member-onlyThe Best Reality TV Shows Are Happening On Dropout TVCollege Humor, Nerdy Game Shows, & Comedy Gold. — Comedy has not had the best luck on the Internet over the last few years. The comedy streaming service Seeso shut down in 2017. Cracked fired much of its video staff the following year, causing them to spread to the Internet winds (see Maggie Mae Fish, Cody Johnston, etc.). College…Comedy4 min read
Published in After The Storm·Jul 15Chapter One: Mateo In The Woods“Did someone die or something?” — Mateo made his way through the unmarked forest. Even after all this time, he still loved exploring the ever-shifting topography of the woods. Life be praised, he loved his job. There was no better thrill as a scout than experiencing a place for the first time, untouched by the many…Fiction5 min read
Published in An Injustice!·Jul 12Member-onlyCancel Culture Isn't About Winning An ArgumentCountering the idea that you shouldn't shame others because it's a bad tactic — I have recently done a 180 on "Cancel Culture," or what I call "the politics of shame." I was once an avid supporter of the idea that you shouldn't shame others as a tenant of political organizing (see Unpacking the Deadly Politics of Shame), but recently I have changed my…Politics8 min read
Published in Fanfare·Jul 5Member-onlyThe Problem With ‘Moon Knight’ & Mental HealthEgypt, The MCU, Mental Health, & Dissociative Identity Disorder — Moon Knight is a show about a person (Oscar Isaac) given superpowers by the Egyptian God of the Moon Khonshu. This vigilante's goal is to fight wrongdoers. He is pitted against Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), the servant of Ammit, who wants to judge wrongdoers before they commit their crimes. Along…Television7 min read
Published in Fanfare·Jun 29Member-onlyBreaking Down Disney’s “Woke” AdvertisingMining the Far Rights Toxic Reaction to Diversity for Profit — Listen, I love Disney. I am up to date on both the MCU and Star Wars. I have also watched every Disney animated movie from Hercules to Turning Red. I have not stopped loving Disney cartoons as an adult, and, now that this company has problematically acquired every popular media…Television8 min read
Published in An Injustice!·Jun 17Member-onlyHistorically, Shame Has (Sometimes) Been A Good ThingSuffragettes, Civil Rights, The Black Panther Party, & ACT UP — In the past, the argument that "shaming people is always wrong" was one I identified with strongly. I wrote an entire piece arguing in length how shame was not a good principle to organize around (see Unpacking the Deadly Politics of Shame). In that piece, I concluded: "…shame seems to…Politics9 min read
