Tag: diversity

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EUbits: The great gender kerfuffle of 2012

The blogside. There are, so, so many great responses out to EUC’s gender post now. (Why ours is the only one with 100+ comments and some hella tangents, I remain perplexed. Or maybe that’s just my headache speaking.) Synlah and Skuldren at Roqoo Depot were first out the gate with cluelessness in Star Wars. Emily at Tosche Station wrote Why Star Wars needs women – now more than ever. Rachael of The Galactic Drift says that asking for equality in Star Wars isn’t sexist, and, later (inspired by our comment section, I believe) how turning women into sex objects removes their humanity. And Tricia and Lex at FangirlBlog addressed how the original post missed the point of Star Wars and fandom, and Tricia came back last night with a look at the silver linings of the whole thing.

And, finally, Pete Morrison at Lightsaber Rattling took a look at the dramatis personae of Star Wars novels from the last few years and did a gender breakdown that showed male characters outnumber females almost 2 to 1.

Say what you will about EUC’s post, but it certainly got fandom talking!

Get your X-Wings in bulk. Knights Archive found a listing on Random Houses’ Smart Archive for an eBook bundle of the X-Wing novels. There’s no price yet, but it does include all the classic Stackpole and Allston books and goes on sale July 30th. That’s cutting it a little close for those who want to catch up or reread: Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill will be out the very next week.

The most magnificent motivation of all. Peter David has republished the first draft of Skippy the Jedi Droid, his classic Star Wars story from the much-missed Star Wars Tales comic. (via)

Celebration VI. The first Celebration Show Store exclusive to be announced is a 12″ figure of Clone Commander Ganch from Sideshow. Why is he here? Because he was created by Pablo Hidalgo and Tom Hodges for the The Clone Wars webcomics.

Background. Even more endnotes for The Essential Guide to Warfare..

Reviews. James reads Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness #5 and Boba Fett is Dead #1.

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Why do we want more women highlighted in the Expanded Universe?

This is not the post I set out to write when I asked the other day which Star Wars ladies should be headlining novels. After all, Nanci already quite eloquently laid out why we need more women in the Expanded Universe. But on Friday, EUC posted a rebuttal to her post, titled Let’s Stop Thinking About Gender and it seems there’s still more work to do on the ground level. I know, I was shocked, too. Though I probably shouldn’t be.

Clearly we’ve forgotten that Star Wars is aimed at boys! And that by asking for something as minor as a female characters whose functions include something other than being Big Bad Lady Cthulu or Confused Teenage Girlfriend makes us the sexist ones! For shame, ladies. For shame. Because we’ve never heard anything like this before.

Continue reading “Why do we want more women highlighted in the Expanded Universe?”

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An Avenger’s oopsie: Women totally don’t get superhero movies, right?

Yesterday afternoon, Moviefone.com (a division of AOL) posted an article by Jessie Heyman initially entitled “Girl’s Guide To The Avengers: What You Need To Know If You Know Nothing.” After the internet community got a hold of the article (including yours truly) and the outrage began to spawn on Twitter and other sites, the title was amended to “One Girl’s Guide…” because, according to the Editor’s note that was inserted, the intent was not to make female superhero fans feel marginalized and the satirical nature of the piece didn’t come through. Female superhero fans feeling marginalized? Satire? Really? Is that what you’re going to go with?

Continue reading “An Avenger’s oopsie: Women totally don’t get superhero movies, right?”

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EUbits: Where the hell are the female protagonists?

The blogside. Over at EU Cantina, Nanci has a lot to say about the disappointment that many were feeling about yesterday’s cancellation of the Nomi Sunrider novel, and why it’s important for the books to start nurturing their female characters. Meanwhile, at Roqoo Depot, Lane has something you can link to your curious friends: An introductory roadmap for the Expanded Universe.

Sneak peeks. There’s been an abundance of previews for Essential Guide to Warfare. Three on Facebook (a map, Lando at Taanab and one of Luke and Daala. Dude is too old for the shag, not that I’m advocating a return to the Wall Street.) plus 10 more at io9 today. Lots of ships and battles and things, but there is one of Anakin and Ahsoka.

Fate of the Jedi. Yet another mini-excerpt from Apocalypse, plus a link to Roqoo Depot’s giveaway.

Interview. Knights Archive talks to Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff about Shadow Games and the upcoming fourth Coruscant Nights book.

Review. James is kinda meh on Crimson Empire III: Empire Lost #5.

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‘Women don’t read sci-fi’ incites chaos on Twitter

What started out as a lovely tribute to the awesomeness of A Wrinkle in Time has ignited a hashtag frenzy on Twitter.

In the article, Pamela Paul, a children’s book editor at The Book Review, cites some sad surveys that indicate the number of women who identify as reading sci-fi is depressingly low.

So rather than talking about the book, the statistics got Twitter going.  The hashtag #womenreadSF has gotten the geek women on Twitter recommending all sorts of awesome titles and authors.

In the face of these depressing statistics, what would you recommend? Do you try to engage the girls in your life with some good sci-fi?

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Comic-Con: Her Universe panel examines what women want in their sci-fi

Her Universe hosted its second annual panel at Comic-Con last Thursday, with Ashley Eckstein moderating a panel entitled “What Women Want in their Female Sci-Fi Heroes.” The six announced panelists were Dave Filoni of The Clone Wars, Betsy Mitchell (Editor in Chief of Del Rey), Gail Simone (comics writer, including Birds of Prey, Secret Six, and the upcoming Batgirl), Chris Sanagustin (Senior VP Development & Current Programming for Universal Cable Productions), Bryan Q. Miller (Exec. Story Editor for Smallville, comic writer Batgirl), and Melinda Hsu Taylor (writer/producer- Lost & Medium and Supervising Producer on Touch) . They were joined by unannounced panelist Alison Scagliotti (Claudia on Warehouse 13).

Eckstein started the panel by giving each panelist a question regarding developing female roles in their particular media, especially with the female audience in mind. Watch portions of the panel:

  • Introduction of Panelists by Ashley Eckstein
  • Chris Sanagustin on making characters accessible to the audience, including a bit about Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome
  • Bryan Q. Miller on character vulnerabilities and breaking down the notion that a butt-kicking heroine has to be either a robot or a sexbot
  • Betsy Mitchell comparing now to 30 years ago for women sci-fi readers and women writers and editors, and the rise of female-oriented urban paranormal fiction.
  • Gail Simone on progress in the portrayal of women in comics, moving past the Women in Refrigerators trope, and the industry’s gradual awareness of growing female readership, and developing female characters.
  • Ashley Eckstein commenting on the progress in recognizing that there is a female fan base in science fiction.
  • Finishing up with Gail Simone and then Melinda Hsu Taylor on being inspired by sci-fi growing up in Maine, and some of her favorite female characters from science fiction and fantasy.
  • Dave Filoni on the process of developing a female Jedi character like Ahsoka Tano and also reading Éowyn as a child.
  • Allison Scagliotti on playing her character Claudia Donovan, the women characters of Warehouse 13 and the issues of being a female actor – and being a role model of the cool smart girl.

In the Q&A, Simone, Filoni, and Scagliotti fielded most of the questions, with Filoni and Simone clarifying how their approaches to writing female characters were similar. Even though the panel went over time, the audience remained and the panelists stayed on stage to answer questions about incorporating female biology into developing and portraying female characters, the differences in creating female villains from male villains, predicting the future of the importance (or nonimportance) of being critical of gender for characters (and for creators), and finally ended with a young fan thanking the panelists for making it cool to be a young female fan.

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Stick them with the pointy end: Believe it or not, but the ladies sure do love them some fantasy

HBO’s adaption of Game of Thrones premieres tonight amid a new storm of controversy about women and fantasy. What could possibly have soiled the premiere of what is probably the biggest fantasy literature event of the year? (Well, the biggest one that doesn’t involve boy wizards and horcruxes, anyway.) Why, yet more false assumptions about women and what they watch and read, of course!

It was all sparked by Ginia Bellafante’s New York Times review. Behold this bit of ‘wisdom:’

The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.

Uh-huh. There’s plenty one can say to this, but since I am the absolute last fantasy-loving female in the blogosphere to address it, here are a few selected responses:

The reality check. Emily of The Discriminating Fangirl responds to many of Bellafante’s misconceptions. Key quote: “…How can the show require MENSA-member viewers and be too stupid/silly for HBO?”

The feminist. Sarah Louise of Bleeding Cool takes on the gender normative tone of the review. Key quote: “The main thing I find shocking about all these sweeping remarks is the fact that the piece was written by a woman. Aren’t we all supposed to be in this thing together?”

The ally. Alan Kistler wonders where the actual review was in his Newsarama Op-ed. Key quote: “We didn’t get an informed opinion on the show. In fact, in her whole review, the story premise is barely touched on and not one character, plot point or scene is mentioned. ”

The snarky: Annalee Newitz of io9 asked (with spoilers) why would men want to watch Game of Thrones? Key quote: “Who but a woman would even be able to keep all those Stark children’s names straight, let alone all the other people connected to the Stark family?”

The full package. Amy Ratcliffe of Geek with Curves talks about what she really wants to see in the series. Key quote: “I’m not tuning into the television show to see sex either. I won’t lie – I’m not unhappy about seeing Jason Momoa shirtless as Khal Drogo, but that isn’t the primary reason I’m watching. I want to see Westeros on screen.”

The author. George R. R. Martin breaks his own rules to say something about the review. Key quote: “…if I am writing ‘boy fiction,’ who are all those boys with breasts who keep turning up by the hundreds at my signings and readings?”

And naturally, amid all this? A Today piece on how ladies power viewership for SF/F TV. How long must we have to harp on this before the Ginia Bellafantes of the world catch on?

UPDATE: Bellafonte responds. What does she take from this? ‘People on the internet are mean?’ So much facepalm.

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Back off, guys: It’s our turn

The Her Universe booth at Celebration V. Photo by popculturegeek @ Flickr.

Attention male Star Wars fans around the world! I say this from the bottom of my heart because us nerd girls, we love you (I should know, I have my own nerd boy). We know that you mean well and sometimes what comes out of your mouths or through the keyboard is not necessarily what you mean to say, but rather can become a bit of a mess in translation and that’s okay. Lately, it’s not. Let me tell you why. Continue reading “Back off, guys: It’s our turn”

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Video: The Bechdel Test for women in movies

The Bechdel Test or Mo Movie Measure (misnamed as it may be) is a simple formula that tests three simple things in a movie: a) if there are (named) female characters and b) that they talk to each other about c) something other than a man.

Most movies fail this by a mile, including the lions share of the Star Wars saga.

I believe The Phantom Menace (Shmi and Padme) and Attack of the Clones (Padme and Queen Jamillia, Padme and Beru) may be the only Star Wars movies that pass the Bechdel test… Though perhaps barely, Anakin being a topic (but not a romantic one) in all three conversations I’m thinking of. Thoughts?

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Roundup: Everything Her Universe

The reaction to the the announcement of Ashley Eckstein’s upcoming Her Universe line has been overwhelmingly positive, to the shock of no one with an XX chromosome.

The line will launch with not only t-shirts, but also a sweatshirt, some long-sleeved tees, hats, and two necklaces, Eckstein said on last week’s Forcecast. “The female fans have always been there, but it’s really changed over the past decade,” she said, adding: “A lot of the top blogs and sites are now written by women.” (NO WAI.)

Former fan club president Dan Madsen is also involved – He’s been answering questions on Rebelscum’s forums. He revealed the list of conventions the Her Universe folks will be hitting up – all the majors: San Diego Comic Con, Celebration V, Chicago Comic Con, Dragon*Con and New York Comic Con.

Sizing has been a hot issue, and in a FAQ posted yesterday, Eckstein says that the first line will be avaliable in sizes XS-XXL – and they are pursuing plus size. The cost may be a bit more than folks expect, though, with t-shirts in the $30-$35 range.

Artists Katie Cook and Cat Staggs are already on board, but get your vote in on the Her Universe Facebook page.