How can you have an afternoon snack if you haven’t even eaten breakfast? This Origins Week linkpost is full of thinkpieces articles focusing on the histories and inceptions of your favorite (and potentially least favorite) things. Seriously — think of a thing you are sorta interested in. It’s probably hashed out in this link post.
The Mary Sue’s exceptionally thorough history of Sailor Moon in three parts:
These articles were written in the lead-up to Sailor Moon Crystal so it doesn’t really address our favorite awkwardly-animated addition to the series.
Vox takes a look at how color film was created and optimized for white people and stayed that way for a stupidly long time.
If you have even the most casual, passing interest in the X-Men, Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men takes you through the “ins, outs, and retcons” of everybody’s favorite superhero soap opera. This podcast is infinitely binge-listen-able and they bring some pretty stellar comics creators onto the show as guests.
The Errors of our Ways: A fascinating history of error reports
Multiversity Comics’s Small Press Month back in Februray is an insanely comprehensive history of underground comix, indie comics, and small press publishers.
If you read (and loved) Anne Helen Petersen’s awesome Tiger Beat article last week, you’re going to enjoy The Hairpin’s The Tragic History of Fallen Teen Magazines. After I entered into the wide world of the feminist blogosphere back in the early-to-late-aughts, I became very aware that I missed the boat on being a part of the Sassy Magazine generation. I always regretted that I missed out on Sassy and even Smile, but I’m glad I was young enough to be a part of the manga boom generation because I can appreciate…
…this amazing history of shoujo manga written by none other than English-language shoujo manga expert Matt Thorn. While the formatting of this website looks like (and is) something from the early days of the internet, it’s still a solid piece about the history of the genre (and one I go back to every time I do any research).
While the other articles on Thorn’s website range from 1994-2008, they’re still pretty timeless research material for any shoujo scholar or enthusiast.
My enthusiasm for the work of full-time-scholar-turned-full-time-internet-writer Anne Helen Petersen can get out of hand sometimes, I know. But she’s one of the best writers on the internet and deserves all that sweet Buzzfeed money. Go read some more of her super detailed yet super accessible research like:
- The origins of the “cool girl” and the “It girl” in pop culture
- The origins of pumpkin spice-basic
Just Girly Things ™ – all you ever wanted to know and more about the fraught histories of birth control, tampons, and Franzia boxed wine.
Finally, the eternally-delightful oral history of the “1000 yellow daisies” scene from Gilmore Girls.
Well that’s about all I’ve got, POMEs. If you have any oral histories, retrospectives, or other origin stories to drop on us, leave us some links in the comments!
