Eh, I’ve been trying and failing to write an essay about how often women (fictional and otherwise) end up being shamed, dismissed or hurt in the name of feminism, but it’s tangling me up in knots, so I’m going to stop now and do something productive instead.
Hoyden talk about the myth of the bra-burning feminists, an idea which has been used to try to make women look stupid for decades, and how the false story was spread.
The Moffat’s Women series continues on Tor, with a comparison between the main female character in this Christmas special and last year’s. I find it very interesting how quickly people have leaped to criticise Moffat for writing a story in which the mother is the hero, so this article made me happy.
Sarah Rees Brennan’s response to the post we linked to in Galactic Suburbia about the wealth of positive girl heroes in YA right now.
One that I meant us to discuss on GS but forgot at the last minute (sorry, Sean!) – Sean the Blogonaut surveys his reading after a year of trying to change his reading habits, genderwise.
Linda Nagata talks about her rationale for self publishing rather than going back to big publishers.
The ever awesome Mary Beard comments on the latest salacious media drama about Ancient Romans and brothels. Yes, really. As ever, her pragmatism wins the day.
Alison Bechdel’s new book is to have an opening print run of 100,000 copies and a massive publishing/publicity campaign when it’s published in May, which is extraordinarily good news. It’s a comic book about a lesbian and her relationship with her mother, people!!! In all seriousness, Bechdel is an extraordinary writer-artist, and Fun Home was a brilliant, fascinating memoir about her father and herself. The only flaw in it was the almost-invisibility of her mother as a character, which was why I (and I imagine, 100,000 other people) was so keen to hear she was working on a sequel about their relationship. To see an LGBTQ title getting such mass promotion and support is excellent, because it is a book which should absolutely transcend any idea of a niche market.
And it gives you all five months to read Fun Home while you’re waiting!
I was interested in this article about how DC Comics have beat the pants off Marvel with their New 52 and then kind of horribly fascinated at how little information the article actually has. It entirely focuses on the print sales, mentioning the whole e-sales and day and date matters as some kind of quirky twist on the tale, but not actually citing those RATHER MORE INTERESTING statistics.
I continue to be annoyed that this entirely dull and by the numbers rendition of Justice League is in their top three sellers. Thereby proving, sadly, all over again, that comics readers don’t care about women. BAH I SAY. Still, could be worse. It could be Red Hood and the Outlaws.