As I'll be surrounded by a nice fannish community this weekend, I wanted to spotlight a couple community-building things perpetuated by two women listed in my Bloglines "Where the Women Bloggers Are 2 - Kultcha+Otha" section. Those who haven't had time to peruse that section as part of the Estrogen Month: Pop Culture Edition nominating and voting game may not have seen them, and as I support both ideas I wanted to pass them along.
• On Friday, April 20, Jeanne Sessum of Allied will be participating in the first annual Poetry Fest for PanCan, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, in memory of her father who died from pancreatic cancer when he was in his 30s. Her goal is to raise $500; please consider sponsoring her.
• Michele Agnew has a great way to Spread the Comment Cheer. How you play it is you leave a comment in her section that says hi, then you visit the person who commented above you and leave a comment on their site that says "Hello, Michele sent me." I think we should do something like this in the comics blogosphere, but of course, this only works on blogs with fairly active comment sections (which Pen-Elayne isn't, for reasons I've yet to fathom).
Lots and lots of comics bloggers have been decrying the unfortunate rendition of Power Girl drawn (badly, the consensus has it) by Michael Turner. Via When Fangirls Attack, I've found two more folks I want to spotlight today for Estrogen Month: Pop Culture Edition which use this piece as a launching point for thoughtful essays.
• Brown Betty of Sturdy and Serviceable gets it very right, to my mind, when she notes "it's not about her breast size, it's that apparently her breasts are so crucial that Turner couldn't be bothered to get the rest of her right." To be honest, the first thing I thought when I saw the art in question was that it reminded me of Rob Liefeld's rendition of Captain America. Seriously, side by side comparison:
It's about the chest, sure, but it's more about the chest in relation to the rest of the body, particularly the neck and head. Anyone who's taken basic anatomy drawing classes should be well past this stage.
• And Megan from Dude! It's a Chick! is frustrated that some artists are missing the point in thinking the Turner PG thing is about anatomical realism (when superhero comics are by their nature anti-realistic) because, among other reasons, they've never had to handle the very real cumulative effect of their privileged gender being consistently and significantly objectified. If fantasy worlds promise escapism, it stands to reason that many of us want to escape that mindset as part of our "power fantasies."
I'm going to try to keep these EM posts going through the weekend, as we'll have our laptop with us in Stony Brook and Rob assures me the hotel in Ronkonkoma has free wifi, but considering everything on my plate and on my mind I'm making no promises. The guidelines for nominating and voting for feminist pop-culture bloggers during Estrogen Month are outlined here. I'm also hosting the 12th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans on March 31. The deadline for submissions is March 29, and guidelines are outlined here (please send links via email or use this submission form). See some of you at I-CON, I hope!
• On Friday, April 20, Jeanne Sessum of Allied will be participating in the first annual Poetry Fest for PanCan, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, in memory of her father who died from pancreatic cancer when he was in his 30s. Her goal is to raise $500; please consider sponsoring her.
• Michele Agnew has a great way to Spread the Comment Cheer. How you play it is you leave a comment in her section that says hi, then you visit the person who commented above you and leave a comment on their site that says "Hello, Michele sent me." I think we should do something like this in the comics blogosphere, but of course, this only works on blogs with fairly active comment sections (which Pen-Elayne isn't, for reasons I've yet to fathom).
Lots and lots of comics bloggers have been decrying the unfortunate rendition of Power Girl drawn (badly, the consensus has it) by Michael Turner. Via When Fangirls Attack, I've found two more folks I want to spotlight today for Estrogen Month: Pop Culture Edition which use this piece as a launching point for thoughtful essays.
• Brown Betty of Sturdy and Serviceable gets it very right, to my mind, when she notes "it's not about her breast size, it's that apparently her breasts are so crucial that Turner couldn't be bothered to get the rest of her right." To be honest, the first thing I thought when I saw the art in question was that it reminded me of Rob Liefeld's rendition of Captain America. Seriously, side by side comparison:
It's about the chest, sure, but it's more about the chest in relation to the rest of the body, particularly the neck and head. Anyone who's taken basic anatomy drawing classes should be well past this stage.
• And Megan from Dude! It's a Chick! is frustrated that some artists are missing the point in thinking the Turner PG thing is about anatomical realism (when superhero comics are by their nature anti-realistic) because, among other reasons, they've never had to handle the very real cumulative effect of their privileged gender being consistently and significantly objectified. If fantasy worlds promise escapism, it stands to reason that many of us want to escape that mindset as part of our "power fantasies."
I'm going to try to keep these EM posts going through the weekend, as we'll have our laptop with us in Stony Brook and Rob assures me the hotel in Ronkonkoma has free wifi, but considering everything on my plate and on my mind I'm making no promises. The guidelines for nominating and voting for feminist pop-culture bloggers during Estrogen Month are outlined here. I'm also hosting the 12th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans on March 31. The deadline for submissions is March 29, and guidelines are outlined here (please send links via email or use this submission form). See some of you at I-CON, I hope!
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