A lecture of sorts on gals and gaming, with a hefty contribution from Gamasutra’s Leigh Alexander. (via)
Has Twilight shone a new light on female fandom?
It certainly made MSNBC take notice (well, technically Newsarama, but let’s take a wild guess at which version got the most eyeballs) that more women are flocking to geek fandom – or at least the traditional aspects like San Diego Comic Con.
“Hollywood is finally waking up to the fact that girls like a wide variety of things beyond Barbie and Sex and the City,” said actor Mike McMillian, who plays the Rev. Steve Newlin on the HBO television series “True Blood”, a sexed-up vampire show that has proven itself popular with both male and female fans. “The universal success and appeal of ‘Harry Potter’ probably kicked this off in some ways. There are obviously concepts out there that are more appealing to boys than girls, and vice versa, but things don’t always have to be organized into ‘pink’ and ‘blue’ categories.”
McMillian counts himself among the fanboy culture and is writing next year’s comic book series “Lucid” from publisher Archaia. But the actor said he thinks there have always been fangirls — Hollywood just never courted to them before now. “There are legions of women out there who love this stuff, but I think they’ve been largely disregarded up to this point,” he said.
Is it time to step back from the hate and take a look at the bigger picture here? (via)
Just when you think Twilight fans have gone far enough…
You get this. Actually, the personal stalker-shadow is the least disturbing of the two unofficial Twilight products to emerge (so to speak) this week, but it is the only one actually appropriate to slapping up on this site at 500 pixels wide. The other one is so not safe for work or direct linking, if you get what I’m saying, and I think you do. (via)
Retro horrors of unintentional hilarity: 1977 Tiger Beat says Hans Solo who?
This 1977 Tiger Beat feature (preserved for the ages by Stuck in the 70’s) is disturbingly squeeful… My question is, how the hell does one get ‘horse’ from Chewbacca? (via)
What was a ’70s Star Wars fangirl to do?
Other than collect action figures?
StarWars.com’s Pete Vilmur takes a look at the horrific girl-oriented merchandise of the 70’s. Sadly, things haven’t improved that much in 30 years. (Well, the dolls are nicer, but good luck finding a female one.)
Flashback to the forties with the ISO
StarWars.com has been highlighting some old content this week with the women of Star Wars feature. Today we meet the ladies of the Imperial Service Organization.
Like abs? Like laundry? You’ll love Comic Con!
Yes, the reasons ladies enjoy San Deigo Comic Con all come down to there being hot guys (and vampires!) there. What more could a woman ask for than this:
Women will be rushing the stage, offering to do star Jake Gyllenhaal’s laundry on those washboard abs that he acquired for the film, since he spends much of it fighting, shirtless or both. Jake, we don’t want to know how to quit you.
Mmm, laundry. We love laundry. But does the Gyllenhaal come in a front-loading model?
Lady gamers looking for new recruits
I’ve never heard of the Frag Dolls before Heartless Doll wrote about them today, but if you think you have what it takes to be a professional gamer, they’re hiring.
(Professional gaming? Who knew?)
At least someone in comics is trying!
It’s a sad statement of how screwy comics can be that a Batwoman design featuring sensible shoes is being hailed as a breakthrough big deal.
Or maybe it’s just the timing.
Marvel misses the point yet again
Did Marvel took that one guy’s rant on woman and comics– Remember, the one that unleashed a furious response from the female comicsphere – a little too much to heart? Check out an upcoming mini-series, Marvel Divas, as announced by Dude-in-Chief Joe Quesada:
“The idea behind the series was to have some sudsy fun and lift the curtain a bit and take a peep at some of our most fabulous super heroines. In the series, they’re an unlikely foursome of friends–Black Cat, Hell Cat, Firestar, and Photon–with TWO things in common: They’re all leading double-lives and they’re all having romantic trouble. The pitch started as “Sex and the City” in the Marvel Universe, and there’s definitely that “naughty” element to it, but I also think the series is doing to a deeper place, asking question about what it means…truly means…to be a woman in an industry dominated by testosterone and guns. (And I mean both the super hero industry and the comic book industry.) But mostly it’s just a lot of hot fun.
There’s some hope that the execution could turn out better than it sounds – the writer, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, is on the staff of HBO’s Big Love, a show that has sympathetic portrayals of women in a society that pays even less lip-service to equality than comics. But with an introduction that uses words like ‘naughty’ and ‘hot fun,’ the backlash is likely to be very loud.