Welcome to Geek Magnet

This is the personal blog of feminist media scholar/writer Denise Du Vernay. On this blog, she writes about pop culture, issues of sexual politics, current events, and whatever is grinding her gears. She also occasionally writes book review. If you’re looking for her information on her book The Simpsons in the Classroom: Embiggening the Learning Experience with the Wisdom of Springfield, it has its own site. If you’re looking for Denise’s co-author, Dr. Karma Waltonen, check out her blog here.

Meet Denise. You can call her “Du.”

Writer. College English and Speech teacher. Pop-culture maven. Media studies scholar. Simpsonologist. Beer drinker. Reader of fiction, non-fiction and Lucky magazine. Book blog tour host. Contributor to Splitsider.com, The Simpsons Archive, Patch.com, Dear Teen Me, USA Today, and Macmillan Dictionary. She supplied a chapter on feminism and SpongeBob SquarePants to a recent book and has contributions forthcoming about politics and pop culture and the AMC show Breaking Bad.

This blog is called Geek Magnet because in previous years, Denise denied being a geek and thought it was simply a strange coincidence that most of her friends and lovers were geeks. She thought they were drawn to her for a mysterious reason, not that she was One Of Them. Now she embraces her geekiness (The Simpsons, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Hello Kitty) and named her blog in honor of all of her friends who have helped make her who she is.

You are welcome to read and comment on whatever you see here, be it book reviews, political issues, discussions on film, TV, teaching, or whatever else you see. One request: just don’t be a dick.
Cheers!

Note from Denise Du Vernay:

Look, I know this should go without saying, but I’ve got to anyway. Please don’t plagiarize from my blog. Also, please don’t “borrow” my photos. (Unless noted otherwise, they’re mine, and if I find one from another source, I cite it honestly and do not alter it, so I would ask the same of my readers.) If you want to use my words, quote me properly and keep my words in context. If you have questions or want permission to use anything, email me at du@simpsonology.com

Sadly, I do have to say this because I’ve seen my photographs elsewhere online. While it’s flattering, it’s not right. It’s not just the principle of respect for intellectual and creative property, but also that I don’t appreciate my likeness and my work used to endorse something I don’t agree with or even know about. Thank you.