Books

Follow the links below to purchase copies of books that I have co-authored and/or co-edited. I’ve provided descriptions of the content of my contributions to these volumes so you can see what they are all about!

Feminism in Play

Palgrave-Macmillan, 2018.

I am the co-editor and co-author of Feminism in Play. I co-edited the book and co-authored the introduction with Dr. Kishonna Gray and Dr. Gerald Voorhees. I was the sole author of the chapter “The Magic Circle and Consent in Gaming Practices”. My chapter examines Johan Huizinga’s 1938 concept of the magic circle in relation to contemporary play practices and ideas of consent. The chapters discusses sex as play as well as why consent is so often left out of non-sexual play. In turn I discuss how consent functions in trash talk and how marginalized players find themselves unable to enter the magic circle.

Feminism in Play as a whole “focuses on women as they are depicted in video games, as participants in games culture, and as contributors to the games industry. This volume showcases women’s resistance to the norms of games culture, as well as women’s play and creative practices both in and around the games industry. Contributors analyze the interconnections between games and the broader societal and structural issues impeding the successful inclusion of women in games and games culture. In offering this framework, this volume provides a platform to the silenced and marginalized, offering counter-narratives to the post-racial and post-gendered fantasies that so often obscure the violent context of production and consumption of games culture.”

Zombies and Sexuality

Mcfarland, 2014.

My chapter in Zombies and Sexuality “Laid to Rest: Romance, End of the World Sexuality and Apocalyptic Anticipation in Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead” explores the millennial acceptance of, or even longing for, the end of the world or what I call “apocalyptic anticipation.” At a time when simple comforts like home ownership, financial stability, and motherhood feel like an impossibility apocalyptic media like The Walking Dead comics demonstrate a fantasy of post-capitalist romance and domesticity.

“Kirkman's ongoing comic series The Walking Dead epitomizes this same trend, being as much about sex and romance as it is horror and apocalypse; Kirkman's characters learn how to fully "live" and love after the end of the world."

Sexual Fantasies

Peter Lang International Academic Publishers, 2015.

My chapter in Sexual Fantasies looks at Fifty Shades trilogy contextually as pornography (as opposed to as popular literature) and examines the sexist double standard surrounding “women’s” pornography. Essentially I argue that women’s pornography is degraded for not meeting certain standards that no pornography made for men is held to. I also examine the controversies around the books which are almost universally despised by conservatives and progressive critics alike and how this criticism often feeds into the aforementioned double standard and the sexist idea that women aren’t smart enough to differentiate between fantasy and reality.

"This book expands the notion of sexual fantasies from the field of psychology into the realms of cultural studies, anthropology, philosophy, and sociology. So far, much research on sexual fantasies has dealt with issues of gender differences, the effect of sexual fantasies on people’s sex lives, or how problematic fantasies can be treated in therapy. In this volume contributors from different academic disciplines explore sexual fantasies at the convergence of the cultural and the individual, taking into account that fantasies are paradoxical: highly individualised and private, and at the same time dependent on a world that supplies structures, images, symbols, and narratives."

Masked Mosaic: Canadian Super Stories

Tyche Books, 2013.

My chapter in Masked Mosaic “not a dream! Not a Hoax! Not an Imaginary Story!" is a long poem about Canadian icon and Superman co-creator Joe Shuster’s "lost years” after the success of Superman. In this time he was broke and drawing BDSM pornography to make ends meet. The poem imagines these lost years from Joe’s perspective weaving together historical details with pornographic imagery and pure speculation.

"Thrilling Tales of Canadian superheroes... and villains! 75 years ago Canadian cartoonist Joe Shuster co-created the world's premier superhero: Superman. Over the decades the genre has gone from camp to counter-culture, from pop art to postmodern, from noir to new wave. Today's superheroes feature in bestselling novels, hit TV shows, Hollywood blockbusters ... and Masked Mosaic: Canadian Super Stories. […] In these 24 tales Canada's most daring writers reimagine the super genre from its outer limits to its pulp origins, exploring the diverse landscape of Canadian identity and geography."