The 12th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans
and
Estrogen Month: Pop Culture Edition 2007 Wrap-Up
otherwise known as
Iron Chef Blogger Estrogen! On July 17, 2006 a delightful blogging tradition took root in the fertile online soil of feminist pop-culture communities everywhere, as Chairwoman Lisa "Ragnall" Fortuner created the concept of a Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans, which "periodically collects posts from the hazy side-reality where feminist social consciousness meets the outer limits of the imagination. This is to draw attention to lesser known bloggers, to bring individuals of like-minded (or at least, understanding) interests together, and to foster the growth of feminist fan communities." With the Chairwoman standing by, please allow me to introduce a veritable pantheon of virtual virtuosos. Ladies and gentlemen, your Iron Bloggers! First up is QueerTransGeek Rob Drake, who hails from the UK where blogger cuisine has something of a mixed reputation, but as someone married to an Englishman named Rob your narrator assures you that unfair rep just isn't deserved! Rob's offering is a leftover from Blog Against Sexism Day earlier in the month, but holds up just fine for weeks on end! It's an analysis of female characters in the Sci Fi series The Dresden Files. The judges feel his dish is spot-on, as he whips up a substantive comparison between the TV show and historically weak-on-feminism genres such as hard-boiled detective fiction, and finds the 21st century supernatural 'tec show still lacking! No capable women who aren't defined primarily by their relationship to men? Check! Villainous "queer women who use their sexuality to manipulate men into complying with their schemes"? Double check to the gut! This show doesn't go down well at all to the feminist palate, but we can certainly identify with Rob's frustration and award major points for perception! Sticking with the TV motif (and who isn't?), our next contestant calls herself tlönista (n. one who invents possible worlds) and checks in as a "godless feminist nerd, ranting and scribbling in the wilds of Toronto the Good, subsists on science fiction, comics, baked goods, ink, and tea." Baked goods and tea, that'll pique the judges' interest right there! The fair tlönista (who gets sun in Toronto this time of year?) shoots down conspiracy theories about Life after Starbuck and segues into a smooth and creamy examination of gender politics via conflicting quotes from Battlestar Galactica bigwig Ron Moore and his wife. Looks like their differences may heat up soon; ready the bamboo steamer! Another BSG post, submitted via the mysterious Jess, comes to us from John Patrick writing about Feminism in Space over at Bitch Ph.D.'s pad. Apparently the show's plots and turns have slotted in nicely with John's "own personal big fat liberal agenda" this season, and it's always fun to watch science fiction that reflects and supports one's own worldview. "His people are all white on the right side!" was as influential to your narrator's home-baked childhood as "You've got to be carefully taught," after all. Speaking of which, Patrick runs down memorable female characters on SF television from Star Trek onward, wondering if we've come a long way or merely made a circular run in twelve parsecs. I still think Nichelle Nichols is pretty right-on, but then I'm stuck in time, somewhere in the 24th and a half century, and I'm sure those muffins must be done and ready for frosting by now! Rounding out the viewing course is S.A. Bonasi of Bonasi's Realm, a 20-year old college student who describes herself as "binormal unit vector sexual, which means I'm attracted to math geeks." What's not to love there? S.A. takes a peek at Action and Relationships in Day Break, an interesting-sounding program starring the easy-on-the-eyes Taye Diggs which S.A. "highly recommend[s] to feminists who like relationships, action, or both, regardless of their gender." This satisfying repast is available for repeated viewing at abc.com, at least once one gets past their "new and improved" viewer (dang it all, that sucker better work, I'm an episode behind in Ugly Betty!). Now we're served a real challenge. The judges absolutely cannot characterize this one, a screed about male jerks by SengAun Ong at Tipskey. Their marks indicate that they found saying "women's awareness about jerks must be escalated" to be rather obvious and unhelpful; furthermore, as we all know, beefs about being jerky are so tough and salty as to be near inedible. One is left wondering what any of this has to do with feminist sf and fantasy. Thank goodness for the book course, which has produced strong contenders in past Iron Blogger battles and rises to the occasion here as well. First up we have Jen the Tacit Hydra at Venturesome, who reviews Tricia Sullivan's novel Maul, a "post-feminist SF novel with gunslinging girls charging through a mall and a future in which a plague has killed off most of the men" with lots of concepts (both in her review and the book) that your narrator isn't afraid to admit rose above her head like a runaway soufflé and stayed there! The tantalizing aroma of those ideas hangs there still, beckoning and taunting us to greater plateaus that I fear some of us will never quite reach. Alas, the confection in question wound up falling flat for Jen, who feels it didn't follow through on its promise. Isn't it the truth, sometimes no matter how closely you follow the recipe the ingredients just don't mix right. Sounds too rich for my blood to begin with! More to my speed is the book course from Reb at Adventures in Lame, who gives us a Fast and Fangirly glimpse at a novel she recently reread after not having perused it since young adulthood. Hang on, you mean there are folks who have time to reread books while your narrator has a shelf full of paperbacks whose covers have never been cracked? Not that I'm bitter, or tangy. Reb extols the many virtues of young-adult writer Bruce Coville, an author I've never had the pleasure of reading but who turned out to be a major influence on Reb, who presents a recommended reading list of some of his work. She concludes, "I don’t think I can think of a single other male author –- and very few female ones, for that matter -– who so consistently writes so many dynamic girls." Better for your young readers than an Easy-Bake Oven! Which, of course, would just singe the books anyway, making them harder to read. Wrapping up the book section of our menu is a Tuesday T&B entry from Maddie at Twisty Faster's blog, I Blame The Patriarchy. This one starts off bafflingly crunchy, as I had to cheat and scroll down to the end to figure out that "T&B" stands for "Truth and Beauty," and dessert before the appetizer is just wrong in most haute cuisine cultures. The confusion continues as this post is apparently spun off from another having to do with Shulamith Firestone's Dialectic of Sex, a book which doubtless contains over 200% of the minimum daily requirement of More Than I Need To Know and therefore one I shall probably never even skim. But to the entrée at hand: it seems many of Twisty's fans and friends are attempting to collate a definitive feminist sf reading list, which appears about as Sisyphusean as trying to serve up a definition of feminism itself, but there you are. I really got frightened and frustrated at the texture of Maddie's ten-dollar words like "approbative" and "enpornulated," but I'll admit I found the second quite tasty although a little slimy on the tongue. I believe she's trying to convey the concept of "chacon a son gout," but that may not sway the judges who still have to arrive at a consensus! Not sure if they're going to appreciate the "heck yes I'm going blame people for not being ahead of their time" sauce, which may be dolloped on a bit thick rather than being portioned out around the edges, but that's not my call to make, for which you can bet I'm grateful! If you found that rough going, our final course is downright metallic, as Jeremy Adam Smith at Other Magazine's blog whips up The Essentialist Android, which he's hoping will learn the fine art of empathy for future android-human relations. Ah, but can it cook? Jeremy doesn't say, but he does detail studies conducted by Billy Lee, a psychologist at the University of Edinburgh, designed to help "understand what conditions cultivated empathy, trust, and intimacy." No mention of haggis anywhere, which is obviously a plus for Dr. Lee, but his conclusion? "Women appear to be the gatekeepers of intimacy... If androids are to substitute for the intimacy function of humans, the android body must be equipped with nurturing features associated with the female form." Oh, momma! Looks like our Jetsonian future may be very Rosie indeed unless half the population reconnects their nurture-gene! Especially those Scotsmen. I've heard cooking helps.Thanks to all our expert chefs for cooking up lots of food for thought! As your after-dinner cocktail, here's a handy conversion table of my and Laura's Estrogen Month: Pop Culture Edition posts from last month: Due to my Dad's death, I was unable to finish out the month as originally planned and Laura graciously stepped in to do the last three (asterisked) posts. But I did want to briefly mention a few other links I read and liked in the past week: Cranky Girl at Life on Queen Street has begun what promises to be an interesting series about her relationship to comics; Amy at Arrogant Self-Reliance has a terrific analysis of good girl and bad girl comic characters; and, in keeping with our Iron Blogger theme, sbg at the Hathor Legacy examines the dynamics of Take Home Chef and finds the same problems with it that I do. (My thanks to her blog-mate Revena for spreading the word about the rescheduling of this Carnival.) I also wanted to pass on notes from a couple of comic-book Lisas: Lisa at Sequentially Speaking calls our attention to some nifty Sequential Tart t-shirts in real-woman sizes; and Lisa Jonte at Women's Work invites us to be a part of GirlAMatic's fourth anniversary celebration, going on through April 6th. Oh, and my personal culture wouldn't be complete without Melissa McEwen, who's just informed me that her group blog Shakespeare's Sister has now morphed into Shakesville; adjust those bookmarks and blogrolls! Speaking of which, I've been promising that at least one blogger's cuisine would reign supreme in my sidebar blogroll, so please welcome Raina Telgemeier and Marion Vitus, who not only have the exquisite taste to be respectively married to long-time Friends of Lulu (and friends of mine) Dave Roman and John Green, but who are incredible talents in their own right. Welcome, ladies! I'll continue to read a number of pop-culture bloggers I found during Estrogen Month, and most of the ones not on my sidebar can be found on my Bloglines subscription list in the "Where the Women Bloggers Are" sections. Thanks for tuning in, everyone! Good night and a full stomach to you all!
RemindersDue to my sitting shiva this week, the 12th Carnival of Feminist SF and Fantasy Fans has been postponed until Monday, when I'm home and can more fully concentrate on things. So far I have nine submissions, which is just fine because I'm going to combine the Carnival with all the Estrogen Month: Pop Culture Edition posts I've made, doing a table like I did two years ago, and announcing the addition of at least one more feminist pop culture blogger to my sidebar. I also wanted to mention, for anyone wishing to make a donation in the memory of my father, Alex Wechsler, that the Hebrew Free Burial Association has an online donation page set up, as does the Jewish National Fund (to plant a tree in Israel). The HFBA notification box asks for mailing information; my address can be found on my résumé, which in turn can be clicked to from my sidebar.
Estrogen Month - Update*Laura G here again. My apologies to anyone who expected Elayne's lucid posting, she left me the keys to the blog and I felt that this bit of news was far too Estrogen-Month-notable to not post about. A female blogger was recently threatened anonymously on-line, which in and of itself was noteworthy and enough to make the average blogger see red. But now BBC News has reported on the threats. Think for a brief moment about what that means. A major news organization is reporting about threats made to a female blogger. True, the article isn't substantial, and doesn't say anything that most of us didn't already know, but hopefully it is exposing the reality of the 'net to people who otherwise would not have noticed. Some choice quotes from the article: "The police are investigating while the blogosphere has launched its own enquiry.
One of the issues raised is the question of how women bloggers are treated online."
...
"Much of the blogosphere has rallied round in support of Ms Sierra.
Robert Scoble, author of popular technology blog Scobleizer, condemned the campaign against her.
"It's this culture of attacking women that has especially got to stop. I really don't care if you attack me. I take those attacks in my stride. But, whenever I post a video of a female technologist there invariably are snide remarks about body parts and other things that simply wouldn't happen if the interviewee were a man," he said
In response, he has decided to temporarily stop blogging and has turned off functionality that allows people to post anonymously." Dare we hope that greater awareness that there is a problem will help to get rid of the problem? *Substitute Estrogen Gal Post
Estrogen Month - Day 25*Hello, Laura G here. Time for my second guest post on Estrogen Month in popular culture. Today's focus is comic creators. First up, over at Blog@Newsarama, Wayne Beamer uses a short mention of William Moulton Marston, the creator of Wonder Woman, in another article to expand on Marston's life. There is a great quote from a Reason article: "Unlike most intellectuals, Marston celebrated the popularity of the comic book form and saw it as an opportunity to get kids to read -- and to circulate radical feminist notions." And now a word from our sponsors: Dark Chocolate is GOOD for you! (Ok, no sponsors here, but the article seems Estrogen-y to me). Moving on, Colleen Doran, creator of A Distant Soil, has a powerful entry on repentance and what it REALLY means. Those who've been wronged in the past, or done somebody wrong, ought to read it. Because while there's something to be said for forgiveness, it is not unreasonable to expect that the person asking for forgiveness be truly contrite and willing to make a reasonable effort at reparations. Our society doesn't seem to understand this basic fact: saying "sorry" doesn't make it all better. If you've wronged someone, you have to make amends, to do your best to fix the problems you caused. Then you can say "sorry". Until then, it's an empty gesture. I hope you enjoyed my links and thoughts, and here's Elayne's closer paragraph: 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). *Substitute Estrogen Gal Post
Estrogen Month - Day 24*Hello, Laura G here. Elayne asked me to sort of fill in on Estrogen Month this weekend as she's going to be busy at I-CON and didn't want the extra stress. I'm not really good at very focused posts, unfortunately, because my mind never seems to settle too long on any one topic, but I'll give it a go for a couple of days, and you all can be just that extra bit happy when Elayne comes back! As the topic is Estrogen Month in Popular culture, I thought I'd focus a bit on my favorite pop culture topics. First up is Feminism and Doctor Who, in which Susanne Saville discusses (on the Livejournal Doctor Who group) the way the new Doctor Who series is focusing less on adventure and more on the relationship between the Doctor and his companion, and not always in a positive way. In particular, the argument spotlights the episode that features the return of Sarah Jane Smith from the old series, and how we learn that her life revolved around the Doctor. As Susanne says, "That could have been the story of *a* Sarah Jane, but that wasn't *our* Sarah Jane." The consensus does seem to be that the new Who leaves a lot to be desired from a feminist standpoint, and sadly I can't disagree. To finish today's post, I'm going to tackle the issue of Harry Potter. This thread at the Chamber of Secrets forum has been going strong for four and a half months. I haven't gotten through all of it, but it covers most of the aspects of the women of the Harry Potter universe, and how they are perceived by the people in our universe. Worth a stroll through, if you have the time. I wish I was as good at this as Elayne, and if I fill in tomorrow, I'll try to get a little closer to her concept. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my links, and here's Elayne's closer paragraph, so I don't look completely foolish: 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). *Substitute Estrogen Gal Post
Estrogen Month - Day 23As 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!
Estrogen Month - Day 22One of the more encouraging signs about the impact feminist thought is having on pop culture is all the male bloggers reiterating versions of "enough is enough" in response to comics and other entertainment that they find sexist. Two examples of this in the past day include posts from Charles Yoakum on how villainesses and "bad girls" always seem to be depicted as (and in many cases defined by being) freer with their sexuality, as well as more severely underdressed, than heroines; and Kevin Church giving a scathing review to a new superhero manga title [my mistake, he actually liked the book despite - or because of - its sexism, so I guess he's less of a "fellow traveler" than I made him out to be]. A lot of supportive posts by guys are covered regularly by When Fangirls Attack, so don't let that blog's name fool you, men can be just as feminist (and outraged) as women! Today's spotlight is on RL Williams of The Essentia Sphere, who seems to have number of pop-culture interests ranging from comics to TV to music to fashion, and good solid opinions on all of it, many having to do with her disbelief that some people seem to be dumber than rocks. Remember, don't drink the Stupid Water! 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). Still holding at only 7 entries (or entrées, if you will, since I plan to do an Iron Blogger kinda theme), but with I-CON this weekend I hope that increases.
Estrogen Month - Day 21My newest column is now up at ComicMix. This one's about my involvement over the years with Friends of Lulu, and since comments aren't up on the ComicMix site yet you're more than welcome to comment on my columns here. While Lulu's not exactly "sucking me back in" again, Robin and I are going to be working at the New York chapter's table this weekend at I-CON, so if you're around "Lawn Guylan" and want to take in a nice relaxing sf/fantasy-oriented con, come on by the Lulu table and say hi. We'll also be doing a few panels here and there, and any local fans of the DC comic Manhunter who want their copies signed can get that done by both the inker (Robin) and the writer, as Mark Andreyko is one of the con's guests. One of the best lead-female kick-ass character comics not being done by women (except on the editorial side, hi Joan and Rachel!). Before I forget, some good reading for feminist pop-culture folk: • Richie at Crimitism has an interesting post on how a webcomic called The Wotch handles gender-bending (disappointingly, in his opinion). Via Melinda Casino at BlogHer. • Ken Jennings talks about using gender neutral language in his book Brainiac. • An encouraging note in Ross Campbell's open invite to Draw Power Girl is how many fan artists have decided to lose the "boobhole" in their costume designs for her. • I know it's not pop-cultural, but in keeping with Estrogen Month I did want to note this post by Sokari at BlogHer about African women's blogs. I know a few of them from the EM posts I made two years ago, but it's nice to see some newer ones too. • Lastly, one of the best bloggers around on Native American culture, MB Williams of Wampum, appears to be closing up shop. I'll miss her exceedingly. Wampum has hosted the annual Koufax Awards for liberal blogs for the past few years, but it's certainly too early to speculate where those will wind up. Today's Estrogen Month: Pop Culture Edition spotlight is on Willow from Seeking Avalon. A lot of her posts are very keen feminist comics analyses, one of the more recent of which is in response to Darren about the cognitive dissonance between the writing and the art in comics which feature strong-voiced women drawn as if they're on display. Granted, in the visual aspect of comics everyone is technically objectified, it's the nature of the beast, but the job of the artist is to tell the story so that you forget the characters are static objects and buy into the illusion that they're autonomous beings that move and act. And too many female characters in comics don't "move and act," they just pose. Much of that is a testament to the artists' lack of skill and craft, and it pisses me off that these guys get so much professional work with that low a crafting level. But a lot of it is also laziness and too much reliance on outdated comic book "shorthand" which perpetuates the incorrect notion that comics exist primarily as outlets for the male gaze (rather than primarily to tell a story using words and art). 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). I've gotten 7 entries so far, and hope to get more at I-CON this weekend. Keep 'em coming, folks; thanks!
Estrogen Month - Day 20Finally spoke with Mom this afternoon, and she gave a fairly positive prognosis about Dad as well, adding she didn't want me to fly out to Vegas, so I'm sitting and waiting for further news. Although Dad's moving his legs and uninjured arm, he'll be sedated until at least tomorrow, so I probably won't know anything more until then. I'm going by the adage that no news is good news. So between that and my boss getting ready to go on a week's vaca, I'm very grateful indeed that someone actually emailed me asking if I would spotlight her blog, saying "I do pop culture stuff and I'm a proud feminist." More than good enough for me! Her handle is Medbh and her blog is Dante and the Lobster, so named after her favorite Beckett story. She specializes in discussing those paper things with covers that you turn the pages and-- ah, books, that's what they're called. So 20th century! She also seems to specialize in things Irish, appropriate considering St. Paddy's has just passed. 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). Six entries so far; woo-hoo!
Estrogen Month - Day 18Lack of sleep and too much to do make for a grumpy blogger. I'm glad Estrogen Month: Pop Culture Edition is starting to get noticed, mainly by some of the people I'm spotlighting, but I wish others would start kicking in their suggestions! Oh well, even if it's just for us, we count too, don't we? Take redlib at Redhead Fangirl, for instance. She had a great St. Patrick's Day post spotlighting an Irish comics publisher which totally fit something I'd wanted to do for ComicMix yesterday, so that's one more post I'd never have made otherwise. We all gotta help each other out, interblog participation and all that. Don't mind me, I'm babbling. Thanks redlib. So it was real tough deciding who of all the worthy folks I've mentioned this past week should go on my sidebar but, since I actually know her in real life, Randi Mason gets the edge here. Welcome to my sidebar, Randi! Not to say some others (especially the ones who've participated in the comments) won't be added as well before the month is out, but I'd really like you to be the ones voting on that. Come on, join the fun! 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).
Estrogen Month - Day 17I found the perfect spotlight post today. It's by Patricia from Quilters Muse. Did you know today was not only St. Patrick's Day but National Quilting Day? Well there you are, some people are into other hobbies besides mass media. Or, in this case, in addition to. Patricia's post, entitled Comedy and Fantasy as Teaching Tools, begins "Oddly enough, I woke up this morning, thinking about comic books." So how could I resist? It's a light comparison of highbrow and lowbrow art, drawing the conclusion "Perhaps fine literature is to comics/cartoons/and fantasy, as symphonic music is to folk music. All have their place. In each case, they use some of the same words, and some of the same notes, yet each genre is entirely different." Some good food for thought. Tomorrow I announce the newest addition to the Kultcha Gals section of my sidebar blogroll. 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).
Estrogen Month - Day 16It's hard not to think about warmer climes in this weather. And with a weekend of catching up ahead of me (if I can fit in video viewing amidst all the other computer work I need to do), my mind drifts toward, as Bullwinkle used to say, "Hollllywood, with three or four l's." So I wanted to spotlight two blogs by women working in the television industry. They may not be outspoken feminists in their posts, but I think they both serve as great role models anyway. The first is Jenna Fischer, who portrays probably my favorite current secretarial character, Pam on The Office. Jenna's sparkling personality shines through on her MySpace blog, although it's sometimes hard to tell where she ends and Pam begins. Lots of nifty behind-the-scenes stuff and general cheerleading. If you're looking for something a bit meatier, try Jane in Progress from Jane Espenson, one of the hardest-working and smartest writers in the business. Espenson is generous with writing tips and structural analysis, which might be a bit process-wonky for some but I love it. While I'm at it, I just wanted to get two open bookmarks out of the way, as I probably won't get to do a blogaround until, well, maybe next month the way things are going. My "blog daughter" and Pen-Elayne techie Laura Gjovaag has a terrific post up on, among other topics, the problem some readers have with anyone who's a non-categorizable blogger. And the fact that everyone's gearing up to watch Jeopardy! tonight because "something will happen that's never happened before" (most folks are betting that it ends in a 3-way tie with all contestants having $0) reminded me I'd been saving this Ken Jennings post about fanfic. (Of tonight's episode, Ken says "it's not the kind of amazing event that will be showing up in headlines and YouTube tomorrow, and Great Game Show Moments clip specials for the next decade. This is not the Price Is Right boob-slip (or whatever the nearest Jeopardy! equivalent of that would be). It’s fanboy trivia. But if you're a Jeopardy!-ite like I am, and the show’s not pre-empted tonight for basketball in your market, you might want to set your TiVo.") Only two days until I add another one of the women I've spotlighted so far to my sidebar blogroll. Whom will it be? Don't forget to voice your opinion! 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). Three submissions received so far; keep 'em coming!
Estrogen Month - Day 15Beware the ides of feminist pop-culture bloggers! Today's spotlight is on a lass who calls herself Lake Desire, blogging at New Game Plus, whose motto is "Dismantling Patriarchy One Video Game at a Time." Her latest post is a rebuttal to a variation on that same old "but we can't see you women, you're obviously not blogging or doing comics or whatever!" You may recall this cartoon I put up during Estrogen Month a couple years back:  Yeah, it's real easy not to see any women bloggers when you seem to go out of your way to avoid them! 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). Only two submissions received so far, so there's plenty of room to plug your posts!
Estrogen Month - Day 13One of the great things about comics conventions in the 21st century is the way every enthusiastic fan seems to have his or her own blog, so reconnecting with old friends is often just a matter of exchanging URLs. One of the more unexpected delights on Day 3 of last month's NY Comic Con was meeting up with Randi Mason, who just happens to have a LiveJournal blog called Thoughts, Clippings, and Utter Nonsense. Randi's a librarian, a pal from our Friends of Lulu days, and a very prolific blogger. The blog seems to specialize in finding interesting bits of online pop culture ephemera, like Stump the Bookseller and Album Insanity. Randi's more on the lighter side of things than the polemical side, but we can't all be fiery feminist standard-bearers or things would just get overwhelming and exhausting, wouldn't they? 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).
Estrogen Month - Day 12Thanks to the folks who answered my questions yesterday about group blogging versus individual blogging! I'm still in awe of y'all who can find that kind of time. Since she participated in the comments, I wanted to spotlight Robyn Fleming, aka Revena, from the group pop-culture blog The Hathor Legacy, which boasts an impressive number of entertainment categories on which its very feminist participants pontificate in "the search for good women characters!" You'll be going through this one awhile, I think. THL also includes Jennifer Kesler, aka BetaCandy (heh), and an Australian code-named Scarlett. (Hathor was an ancient Egyptian goddess, often worshipped as a cow deity; go Wiki her!) 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).
Estrogen Month - Day 11Today I wanted to throw out another question in addition to our usual Estrogen Month: Pop Culture Edition participation (see below for links to guidelines). That's because today I wanted to spotlight group bloggers, specifically Liz Losh of Sivacracy as she brings welcome news about "the speakers at the third annual Living Game Worlds conference at Georgia Tech. The theme is Playing with Reality, and many of those in the line-up are experts on how videogames can serve progressive political or social agendas, or they address the rhetorical or ideological character of games." It's terrific to see a pop culture-related and particularly tech-related event with what looks like a female majority. As someone with little to no knowledge of computer game worlds (my desktop is apparently not fast enough for Second World, and my first world is hectic enough for me as it is) it does my heart good to see so many women taking leading roles in exploring this area of culture that's far more popular with the younger sets than with fogies my age. But as blogging is still popular with us all, here's my question (actually series of questions). This is addressed to women participating in group blogs: What drew you to participating in a group blog as opposed to running one yourself? Did you ever have a blog of your own and decide to close it down in favor of "going group"? How about those of you with both individual and group blogs -- how the heck do you find the time? (Between doing EM:PCE here and gathering news items for ComicMix I feel like I'm stretched really thin!) Do you post a certain way on your own blog and a different way on a group blog? Please leave responses in the comments. As it's Sunday, I also wanted to announce the latest edition to my blogroll. Seeing no nominations in our comments section, I'm going to choose again from the bloggers I've spotlighted so far and officially add Heidi Meeley to my blogroll; welcome, Heidi! 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).
Estrogen Month - Day 10It's always a treat when Karen Healey's RSS feed starts working again. I've now been through her last two months' worth of posts, and feel like every single one is a gem. I particularly recommend Every Time I Move, her Blogging Against Sexism post; Black As Hell, Sweet As Sin, ostensibly about Fetching Him His Coffee; and the hilarious Misfit Reads Your Mail. Brava, Karen! And via the comments on her message board, Karen has also led me to lots of new women pop-culture bloggers, whose blogs have now been added (along with some links I'm grabbing from the indispensable When Fangirls Attack) to the "Where the Women Are 2 - Kultcha+Otha" section of my Bloglines subs for your (and my) perusal during this Estrogen Month: Pop Culture Edition. Another lead I got from Karen is her new co-blogger on the Girl Wonder site, Rachel Edidin, an assistant editor at Dark Horse whose blog is called Inside Out. Like Karen, Rachel is an unapologetic feminist with bold opinions and her writing shot right out of the gate at full speed. She only has a few posts up so far so catching up will take you no time at all, and I highly recommend doing so. I quite liked her most recent two: Be Vewwy, Vewwy Quiet–We’re Hunting Wimmins! about, yes, the old trope of Capturing Female Readers (has it really been ten years since the Friends of Lulu retailer handbook?); and Ma, Can I Be a Feminist and Still Like Men? about Miles, her significant other and geek-partner (awwww, just really, awwww). A great addition to the Girl Wonder pantheon! Elsewhere, it's still one step forward, two steps back as Paul Dini rips into Geena Davis and her See Jane organization, which "seeks to engage professionals and parents in a call to dramatically increase the percentages of female characters -- and to reduce gender stereotyping -- in media made for children 11 and under," for being a busybody do-gooder and not knowing anything about animation and gender stereotyping. Now granted, animation isn't necessarily "children's media" any more than comics is, and Davis (or her speechwriter) is quite likely cherry-picking examples to fit her point whilst ignoring lots of positive portrayals of girls in cartoons, some of which Dini lists. On the other hand, Dini (the head writer on DC's upcoming weekly series Countdown) is a member of the Default group of white men and perhaps hasn't noticed that "male characters still dominate television, movies, and other media for young children" as See Jane points out, because media is geared toward the Default. I think it's important when nitpicking not to lose sight of the big picture. 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).
Estrogen Month - Day 9As I feared, the ninth day with nary a suggestion from y'all, and I'm running out of people to spotlight on my own. Participation in this project is strongly encouraged! Surely there must be some feminist bloggers you want to see spotlighted here during Estrogen Month: Pop Culture Edition! Me, I want to talk about Bibi of Bibi's Box, who describes herself as "A curious girl blogging to share and enjoy." She blogs about whatever cool pop-culture and weird stuff strikes her fancy, usually involving collections. Today she talks about the Comic Covers site, specifically their Detective Comics cover collection. Yesterday she had some great International Women's Day links, Wednesday she talked about the Belgian comics magazine Spirou, she's always finding cool photo journals and cartoons and such... well worth a perusal! 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).
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