Jim Hines seems like a nice guy. I'm not yet certain that his writing style totally meshes with my reading style, but he seems to be trying in Real Life to "get" my gender and I really appreciate that. So I can happily recommend Jim Hines' experiment to recreate sci-fi/fantasy covers and learning that, no, those Grrl Power! poses aren't particularly "natural" or "comfortable" for everyone. Thank, Jim Hines, I thought that was pretty awesome of you. And thank you, Ils, for your demonstration, too!
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Recommends threads are Open Threads where I highly encourage promotion and self-promotion and cross-linking. What have you read or written this week? Please share!
37 comments:
By the first picture of him striking a sexy pose I was laughing aloud. It reminds me of Linkara, a comic book reviewer, who often points out things from a feminist perspective when it gets really egregious in comic books. (He's also the reason I literally know anything about comics.)
I was wondering how to approach you with an 'ohmygod Ana pleasereadthis' sort of thing. Well, I guess this would be the place.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7670318/3/Records_of_Our_War
The link will actually take you to chapter three of my work, but it's chronologically first in the story. In fact, it's the intro to the very game being fanfiction'd. I hope that makes it easier to understand. I really would be honored to have anyone from here have a look at the story, this is a really good little community of lit people you've made with your blog, Ana.
I would be all 'go read my novel omg omg omg omg' but it's still in the, ah, development phase. One day!
Yay! I love fan faiction -- I'll add it to my list To Read, thank you! :)
*MEGA BLUSH*
Well...I wrote my 4th WUYM ("Why I Disliked When They Said 'Wait Until You're Married'") post. Silver, as usual is one of my main commentors:
http://amarie24.dreamwidth.org/
And, if it's sharing time, I'm reading yaoi fanfiction. Unashamedly. Yep. ^ ^
Everything in your post is awesome, Amarie. :D
I am quite pleased with myself for The Search for #Sherlock, about the last episode of the new season of Sherlock on the BBC. (Warning: spoilers.)
Nerdiness and nationalism crossbred in my brane to inspire a post about SOPA and the independence referendum for Scotland.
I am really pleased that we got Edinburgh Council to not privatise some essential public services. Sometimes we win!
And one of my tweets has hit the 100+ RT'd mark so I wrote a post about it, too, in response to some particularly egregious hypocrisy on the part of a Tory minister: Challenge Iain Duncan Smith.
I saw those and blogged about them on my own blog. It wasn't just a laughing out loud part for me, but it also reminded me of the trope of how women are impossibly proportioned in comic books (and haven't changed much even into this age of feminism).
And about what corsets did to the internal organs of those who wore them. *shudder* One only hopes that in the steampunk revival, we've learned how to wear them so as not to cause the same thing.
Amarie's always good for a read, but her most recent post (as of this comment) strikes a major chord both about why the idea of Wait Until You're Married doesn't really work, but also why it has stuck around in the face of evidence.
My own self has just been aggregating links into giant Katamari balls and then posting occasional bits of Shadow Idol (like LJ Idol, but without the need to garner votes or engage in popularity contests) that even occasionally garner comments from people. I might even be a Real Blogger, occasionally!
Also, yaoi fanfic? I sincerely hope that it's quality material in a fandom that you like, Amarie. Sturgeon's Law applies double to fanfic, and then redoubles when it's fanfic that crosses into slash or yaoi territory.
I apparently do my most focused writing while angry with rage. So after seeing a particularly foul (in my estimation) picture posted on facebook, it didn't take long to come up with this: (Trigger Warning/Content Note:] Rape culture, gender essentialism, attacks on consent.) However, since the same anger that makes me capable of actually writing quickly also makes it much harder to actually edit, I'd appreciate a look-see on how right/wrong/problematic I'm actually being, or how I could better make my point.
I can see the link in page source, but in disqus it does not exist. Not sure why that would be, but your should probably edit your post.
I slammed back all three of the Hunger Games books in a row. (Yes, I am late to read popular books.) I'm not quite sure what I think yet - I don't think the Fridge Logic is holding up particularly well, and I think the second and third books really suffer from the first person perspective restrictions, but I *really* enjoyed the first one. I really like Battle Royale-type set-ups, and the protagonist came across as a breath of fresh air.*
* Guvf vf abg gehr va yngre obbxf, jurer V srry yvxr punenpgre qrirybczrag fgnyyrq bhg, jrag vagb n gnvy fcva, naq penfurq vagb n zbhagnva va n sverl onyy bs snvy, but that could just be personal issues - I'm not sure whether it's an actual Problem with the Books or just rubbed me the wrong way.
Because I listened to the second and third books while playing Dwarf Fortress, these things combined into a massive horror-dream last night that was kind of awesome.
Then I read about powdery mildew and looked at a lot of scary pictures of fungi.
Fans/detractors/cultists of the Hunger Games trilogy may conceivably be interested in a scattering of my thoughts after reading all three books in the space of a week, and are of course welcome to share their own: http://narrowcrookedlanes.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/gonna-need-more-rope/
I haven't been blogging much lately, or writing at all - arguments on the internet keep sapping my linguistic strength. My local writer friend is trying to push me into finishing my NaNovel as well, which I will then happily make available to anyone who is entertained by awkward first drafts of fantasy conspiracy dramas with patriotic gay wizard mimes.
I totally love those Twilight slogans, btw. I nearly bought a Team Leah shirt, but I know from experience that the CafePress XL is just a bit too small for me.
I only started to read what you wrote, because I had to remind myself that I don't have any time right now, but I caught enough to know that I never want to read The Hunger Games. Which is a good thing to know because people tend not to warn you about that kind of thing instead acting as if there's some magical power that makes it so that just because something is good means that it's also something that would be good for you personally.
Yeah, the conversation that sparked me to actually pick up Hunger Games was when the trailer for the upcoming movie played before Game of Shadows - my mother said "That looks completely unnecessary" and I said "Actually, I've heard the books are really good". So right from when I started reading, there was a part of my brain that was keeping a running estimate of How Much Are These Books Not For Everyone, and the final measure came out to Way Lots +/- 5% 19 times out of 20.
I would not recommend them for you. Scott Pilgrim could be a winner, if you haven't read it. (Cannot be judged by its movie at all.)
And now I have to try to remind myself that I am not swimming in free time either, because LINKS!
Yeah, the conversation that sparked me to actually pick up Hunger Games was when the trailer for the upcoming movie played before Game of Shadows - my mother said "That looks completely unnecessary" and I said "Actually, I've heard the books are really good"
Whoa - that's why *I* read them. Minus your mother, plus a friend.
What have you read or written this week? Please share!
Well since you ask. =) I'm typing out another chapter of the Epic Winx Fanfic o Doom. I wrote it longhand in a notebook with quite small pages and worried that I'd get the chapter length wrong in transition to typing but it looks like I got it right. Yay for tiny victories!
And due to popular demand I posted my first ever fanfic I wrote when I was fifteen. It's terrible of course; I was NOT one of those savant teen authors who skips the Mary Sues and goes straight to the good stuff, but it was apparently good enough that people remembered it and wanted to read it again!
Then I mentioned this re-posting to Mom and got a sigh of disappointment that I'm still writing magical girl fanfics after all these years. She had hopes I'd move on to bigger and better things, or at least outgrow the sparkly unicorns, which I show no sign of doing. Poor Mom. She has a good point. I probably should be attempting more serious stuff but... my fanfics make me happy. They make my readers happy. Not that I have hordes of readers, maybe ten at the most, but I make them happy. Still, maybe I'll try a romance novel next, because I'd like to make my mother happy as well.
My stuff can be found on my da gallery if for some reason you want to look them up. Visit with caution; da is a hotbed of viruses.
I writed a guest post at the Slacktiverse. I are so proud.
Also I invite people who have read American Gods to come to my Dreamwidth and comment about it. I put a post up...last week, maybe? and I will have more to say.
I might consider doing a more detailed deconstruction if I had the time, but I don't think I will.
She had hopes I'd move on to bigger and better things, or at least outgrow the sparkly unicorns, which I show no sign of doing. Poor Mom. She has a good point. I probably should be attempting more serious stuff
No. No one is allowed to outgrow unicorns. Then the unicorns would get all lonely and they'd cry and it would be terrible.
There should be no shame in bright, happy things* -- and if they make you happy and your readers happy, then you are officially making people happy and that is buckets of valuable right there. :)
* Seriously. I love Rainbow Brite.
I missed this yesterday:
And about what corsets did to the internal organs of those who wore them. *shudder* One only hopes that in the steampunk revival, we've learned how to wear them so as not to cause the same thing.
Perhaps I'm biased because I find women in corsets incredibly hot (to a degree--there's a point where diminishing returns set in, and the look goes from "sexy" to "what"), but there's actually a body of evidence suggesting that the horror stories weren't particularly true, at least to the extent that popular culture believes. In any case, you'll be glad to know that, in my experience, the women who wear corsets regularly--at least those who then go to post about it on the internet, whom I sometimes correspond with--tend to be quite informed about how to wear them without issue.
On the subject of sparkles and glitter and the occasional unicorn:
LammasBaby is taking his second gymnastics class. There are seventy-zillion kinds of gymnastics leotards for girls, including sparkly and glittery and holographic and so forth. There are many, many fewer for boys, and that makes me sad.
I support and hang out with grown men who enjoy glitter and nail polish and so forth, but I realize that's not the majority of the market. Kids, though. Pre-school kids? They pretty much all like bright colors and shiny fabrics and I would think catering to letting them live it up for a few years could be winning proposition. Yet consistently clothing for kids comes in a fun variety colors and styles for girls, and much less for boys. Boo.
Aw, thanks guys! *hugs Chris and Ana*
@Lonespark
Big boo on the lack of colorful ballet outfits for boys. It gets worse when you walk into the Big Toy Store and realize that the very setup of the store and its color scheme has gender-segregated all the toys. And then there's the accounts of the clucking hens when the boys want to dress up as girls and the other way around. It's really too bad that our society and culture insists that there be gender roles and that they be enforced rigidly.
@Cupcakedoll
Outgrow such things? Hah! It's those things that keep us sane and creative. If I'd outgrown those things, I'd be rotten at my work with children. Even serious authors have written bits that they would never publish, but were what they wanted to write about at the time. Plus, serious writers are employed at writing My Little Pony. No need to outgrow anything.
@Mime_Paradox
Yay! I didn't know that it wasn't really that bad. And, yes, from the people that I've seen in various degrees of corsetry, they seem to be more about wearing it to accentuate what's there rather than trying to contort themselves into something else. Which makes them quite attractive, indeed.
there's actually a body of evidence suggesting that the horror stories weren't particularly true, at least to the extent that popular culture believes. In any case, you'll be glad to know that, in my experience, the women who wear corsets regularly--at least those who then go to post about it on the internet, whom I sometimes correspond with--tend to be quite informed about how to wear them without issue.
I'd expect (from what I know, which is not thoroughly researched) that it was not unlike modern fashions: there are the ordinary things that most people wear, there are the somewhat more extreme ones that only a few people wear, and there are the ridiculously outlandish things that no one should wear but some do for unfathomable reasons. And because the last one is most memorable, it get generalised to everything in the area.
Basically, I suspect the harmfully-constrictive corsets were the contemporary version of dresses that only fit size -2s, or, less medically-painfully, the extremely questionable hats worn by certain attendees to the last British Royal wedding. 200 years from now they'll claim that wearing a sort of velvet squid thing on your head was a sensation that rocked the early 21st century.
I'm reconsidering my stance on tremendously silly hats now that I've read that hat pins are a great secret weapon. In fact, I'm wondering how I can add a tremendously silly hat and mini-rapier to my jeans-and-cardigan wardrobe.
(http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2010/07/the-sting-of-a-hornet-edwardian-hat-pin-self-defence/)
But I suspect that "wear them properly" meant rather different things in different eras - I feel sorry for the young girls just coming out during periods when the fashion was to wear a tight-laced corset in order to get that impossibly tiny waist.
*shudders*
I still remember "Little House in the Big Woods" where Laura Ingalls Wilder proudly relates during a stays-lacing scene that her Ma's waist is so tiny that her Pa can span his hands around her waist without having any trouble or gaps in his hands. I leave it to the mathematicians to tells us what the circumference there would be.
[Trigger Warning: Destructive Beauty Methods]
Fun beauty things I've read about this year: Chasity belts! Bound feet! Arsenic-based make-up! And now... corsets!
I still remember "Little House in the Big Woods" where Laura Ingalls Wilder proudly relates during a stays-lacing scene that her Ma's waist is so tiny that her Pa can span his hands around her waist without having any trouble or gaps in his hands. I leave it to the mathematicians to tells us what the circumference there would be.
Well, I'm just eyeballing this, but if his hands were my size (and mine are not incredibly enormous but I do have quite long fingers) that would be a circle sixish inches across and thus somewhere in the 19-20-inch zone of circumference.
what
that would be a circle sixish inches across and thus somewhere in the 19-20-inch zone of circumference.
Hmm. Probably those exist naturally in the wild, but that seems awful small. Maybe Ma was just really really naturally slender, but since the scene ALSO has two sisters (Laura's aunts, iirc) lacing each other up as tight as they possibly can, I really don't know.
Maybe Pa just has really large hands? *is hopeful*
Also, chastity belts as related to "Dark Ages" are thankfully a myth. The modern ones may be a source of great frustration and delight. (NMK)
Also, chastity belts as related to "Dark Ages" are thankfully a myth. The modern ones may be a source of great frustration and delight. (NMK)
They exist, they just existed later than a lot of literature on the subject realized and in lower quantities. But we have old court rulings referencing them.
There was a nice article floating around on Twitter earlier in the month, I think via Jessica Valenti. I can't google for it at work though, for obvious reasons.
I love the Jim Hines post, and it's gotten quite a bit of linking around the 'net. Maybe a few cover artists (or fantasy artists in general) will notice. One can hope, any way.
I've been thoroughly eaten by SWTOR and writing - mostly fanfic about my SWTOR characters, because Star Wars has eaten my brain. Who knows, maybe I'll even post the silly things somewhere when I finish them.
Gender-segregated clothing: do you know how hard it is to find dress shoes for boys? Nothing to fancy, just something that isn't an athletic shoe.
And *hats* ! Apparently the world of affordable fashion believes that the only acceptable headgear are ball caps and floppy brim beach hats!
/cherishes the marvellous hat store that's an hour and half drive away, where I last bought my sage green fedora/
Oh, and as for Ma's waist span -- I had 22 inch waist in high school, without lacing. It doesn't seem unlikely to me. (Not telling my current measurements)
On the subject of hats, a lot of people look good in fedoras. I have gotten several male friends in to them, and they weren't all geologists, I swear. It was a pretty popular look in our high school drama club.
Also if you figure out the dress shoe thing, let me know. LammasBaby has several nice vests, and nice shirts and pants...and ratty Ninja Turtle shoes...and hiking boots, which kinda look ok, but for, like, school pictures and funerals I'm at a loss. I think something like an oxford would do it, except he can't tie his laces yet.
TW: Body horror beauty and behavior trends
If we're talking about horrible devices for women, I must gives scold's bridles a shout-out.
On the subject of horrible comic book poses, I'd like to share Randy Milholland's most recent Super Stupor.
That is all.
Also if you figure out the dress shoe thing, let me know.
Well, I've finally found a solution but I think that LammasBaby is probably a bit too young: marching band.
Basic black shoes, not fashionable but not offensive, and comfortable enough that hapaxson will wear them at appropriate events. Dreadfully expensive, though.
But I suspect that "wear them properly" meant rather different things in different eras.
Oh, quite. I suspect that a careful tightlacer now would have a much easier problem avoiding complications than a careful tightlacer then. Something like safely corseting down to a fifteen inch waist—as uncommon then as it is now, relatively speaking, but possible—requires a lot of care, dedication, patience, a deep knowledge of one's own body and its limits, and bodily autonomy. Could corseting to that degree have negative effects, for those lacking privilege enough to afford all five*? Sure. Could it have caused all the diseases the practice would sometimes get blamed for, such “incontinence, dyspepsia, liver failure, 'congestive hypertrophy of the uterus' and loss of mental faculties”, (Bill Bryson, At Home). Probably not. That said, even if they were completely harmless, the fact that most women wouldn't have a choice in the matter still puts “socially mandated corsetry” rather definitively in the FAIL category.
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* Which was probably most of them, back then.
@Lonespark and @hapax
Ohgodsyes, dress shoes. It's either sneakers, boots, or slippers. Occasionally, you get lucky and see some sold-colored loafers in the appropriate size that fit. And heaven help them if they have a shoe size that ever goes above US 12M, or it will be twice as hard to find a shoe that fits in a store. (And above US 14M, as a friend of mine is, there's no store that carries in their size.)
If we're talking about horrible devices for women, I must gives scold's bridles a shout-out.
Though at least that was intended as a punishment.
So: Shameless self aggrandizement. I suppose this is a perfect time to plug my ill-advised crossover fanfic (Ill-advised in the sense of 'I don't know why I thought crossing over these two worlds would be an especially good idea', not that it's badly written. At least, not terribly badly...)
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5172623/1/CotIW_Unfortunate_Meetings
It's essentially a (smallish scale) war-fic crossover between Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Warhammer 40k. Two universes that... well, actually work kind of well together, being just similar enough to be completely dissimilar.
I do seem to have started a trend. Prior to this, people were like 'no, that's dumb'. Now there are *six* MGLN/40k entries on FF.N
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