Black Women Changing and Making Change: After surviving Eddie Murphy’s “Norbit,” it’s nice to see some recognition of the complexity of African American women. Whether it is Jennifer Hudson helping to redefine beauty or Tasha on “The L Word” breaking the silence of black butch lesbians in pop culture, stereotypes are so last … month?

How Low Can You Go?: A little lower, it seems, if you are a girl. Meta Wagner of PopMatters dissects the gender gap between media representations of celebrity “bad girls” and “bad boys”: “Nothing short of truly bizarre behavior, a la Tom Cruise or Michael Richards, will garner anything remotely like the harsh treatment that befalls female celebrities for behaviors that should, in some cases, draw compassion rather than moralizing judgment.”

Check out Wagner’s revealing comparisons of the way gender bias has influenced portrayals of drug abusers, “Whitney Houston vs. Keith Richards,” rehabbers, “Britney Spears vs. Ben Affleck,” and others.

America, the Allegory: Captain America died earlier this month (for a second time), but Neely Tucker of The Washington Post argues that he left a vacuum of symbolic nostalgia in his wake:

Recalls a character in Captain America #25, yesterday’s landmark edition: “Even though he was a soldier, you could almost feel the kindness behind those eyes hardened by war. He’d fought through the worst days of the 20th century, and he was still the most decent man you could ever meet.”

Ah, yes, dreamy-eyed dames liked their Real Men like that back in the day, and it was, of course, a metaphor for America’s romantic view of itself: tough but fair, honest and undeniably studly

America sees itself a little differently now, however, and even the Captain doesn’t always stay the course:

In comics, things got edgier, meaner, grimmer. Violence became more realistic, with more consequences. Superman died, Batman broke his back, Spider-Man took off his mask. The good guys were flawed.

And so was Captain America, much like his country. He started out a true-blue patriotic icon, but in recent years grew more complex. He had gone from always fighting for the government to sometimes fighting against it. The battle for American ideals had changed, and so, we learned yesterday, had the means of menace and treachery.