Tomie isn’t as meme-ified as Amigara fault, or as widely adapted as Uzumaki, but is another of his bigger works, would recommend!

Also, you may have seen a few images from Uzumaki (the hair, the face) but the story is quite long and really unsettling! Would still recommend giving it a read.

How do you pronounce “graphic”?

I got the Pokémon ones as junior sizes go up to an EU 39! My only regret is that I didn’t get both colours.

Are you suggesting those as alternatives for outside? Is it this brand you’re talking about?

Agree, the shame and embarrassment I felt about trying Crocs disappeared the moment I took my first step in them. I now hate wearing any shoes that are not Crocs.

Oooh this is what I did too - recent convert here, I saw them becoming the new ‘fashion’ and I’m weak and decided to try them because people would not shut up about how comfy they were.

Now my favourite part about coming home is taking off my outdoor shoes and getting to put the Crocs on. They have no business feeling that divine. If I lived in a more temperate and dry place, I’d buy more for outdoor use. Any shame or embarrassment I may have initially felt about wearing them is gone.

Team Orca right here.

For a while I thought they might be a 60 person dance crew.

My current theory is that they’re training for some sort of furniture moving marathon. Or maybe running an illicit 24hr gym.

TLOU is good and potentially fits the criteria, I’m not sure actually, as the main female character is a child so inherently vulnerable and kinda reliant on this achey old man to ferry her through the apocalypse. Would still recommend, I cried like a baby through certain parts.

The Sean Astin character I’m referencing is in Stranger Things S2. I think has at least one potential example of female gaze (as a compliment to Winona Ryder’s character).

Stranger Things probably isn’t great for other metrics though, like the Bechdel test.

This baffles me, you can tell them this over and over and they’ll still tell you that you’re wrong, and ACTUALLY you’re attracted to the Chris Hemsworths of the world and not the Jack Blacks.

Hmm, I see your point now I’ve looked up the actual theory of female gaze.

It seems in the modern social media space, female gaze has been used to mean something more like “the male characters who women find attractive are the ones that show more emotional, loving, nurturing and supportive traits”. So if used this way, it’s not a direct contrast to male gaze. Maybe we need to call that observation something different!

I wonder if Bob (Sean Austin) does fall into the proper definition though? His character does exist for the most part to lift every other character around him, especially Joyce Byers.

Surprised you could only think of Idris! Would say he’s definitely female gaze in most of his roles. Off the top of my head, and as a woman who talks about celeb ‘crushes’ with other women, the tops are:

• Stanley Tucci in literally anything.
• Tom Hiddleston (Loki had way more female attention than Thor)
• Jack Black as Bowser
• David Harbour as Jim Hopper
• Sean Austin (in general, but also as Bob in ST)
• Paul Rudd (again, in almost anything)
• Pedro Pascal (particularly as Joel)
• Hugh Jackman in musicals (as opposed to being Wolverine)

All examples of men who, for the most part, are not obvious sex symbols in their roles, all of whom women go absolutely wild for.