Wicked girls, saving ourselves

[dolorosa_12]

The title of this post deserves an Una icon because she is AWESOME.

I had to do something about all the tabs I've got saved in Firefox, so you're all getting a linkpost. Aren't you lucky? The first is a discussion about whether epic fantasy has been 'feminised'. I think I came across that link via kateelliott. Then, I've got a couple of links relating to GLBTQ characters in fiction, and how outing characters in extra-textual spaces (webisodes, interviews etc) does not really address the problem.

Then Patton Oswalt posted this article on Wired about the supposed demise of geek culture, and rodo on Dreamwidth and seperis, also on Dreamwidth pointed out that rumours of geekdom's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Those last couple of links are courtesy of metafandom.

Neil Gaiman remains as awesome as ever, as does Jo Walton. Seriously lacking in the awesome, however, is Sebastian Faulks, who, in a BBC programme about the history of the English novel, claimed that Shakespeare's heroes lacked both personality and flaws. To which I say, have some Borges!

Then I read about this (trigger warning for rape) and got even more angry. Thank goodness the good folks at Tiger Beatdown are all over it. (A couple of good other Tiger Beatdown posts on the subject: Sadie calls out the Democrats on their deceptive advertising with regards to HR3 and a post about contraception and abortion, and the problems relating to them in the US. (This freaked me out somewhat, since it's a subject about which I'd only been dimly aware. I had some vague idea that things were somewhat better in Australia, where I lived until 2008, and the UK, where I live now, but it suddenly occurred to me that I have LITERALLY NO IDEA about how such things work in either Australia or the UK. For all I know I could be wringing my hands with pity at the situation in the US and it could be just as bad here.))

As a unicorn chaser of sorts, I hung around listening to this song by seanan_maguire. That made me feel a whole lot better!

Comments

[boojumlol.livejournal.com]

In regards to your first link, you might be interested in some reviews at a site I follow called Ferretbrain. The same fantasy book - Kristin Cashore's Graceling - was reviewed twice, by a woman (http://ferretbrain.com/articles/article-523) and a man (http://ferretbrain.com/articles/article-534).

Stuff

[(Anonymous)]

The links about femininity and GLBTQ characters in fiction are great.

Tiger Beatdown am teh awesome. Sady Doyle is one of those rare thinkers who actually seems to get smarter, fairer, more compelling and more eloquent when genuinely angry.

You might want to check things out regarding abortion law. I was shocked when a Queensland couple were recently in the news charged for obtaining the morning after pill - turns out, contrary to everything I assumed, that such statutes are still on the books in most Australian states but are just effectively ignored by people in health and law enforcement. In this case the judge threw the case out on what seemed like a questionable technicality; in theory they could have gone to gaol.

- Jordan

[losseniaiel.livejournal.com]

This (http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Emergency-contraception/Pages/Introduction.aspx) and this (http://www.healthcentre.org.uk/pharmacy/morning-after-pill-nhs.html) seem to provide decent information on getting the morning after pill and this (http://www.bpas.org/bpaswoman/ec-how-it-works) seems to be a more general site. Basically, it looks like there's a lot of information available for the UK at least for that side of things. I know a couple of people who've had abortions in this country, and they don't seem to have had to go through the shit that the American system throws at women, even when getting the morning-after pill.

On the geek culture side, I'm actually tempted to write a post about geekery.