I started my
ConCarolinas weekend with this panel, and I felt totally outclassed by this
outstanding group of women:
- Beth Revis
- Alexandra Duncan
- Wendy Delmater Thies
- Janine Spendlove
- Nicole Givens Kurtz
Sorry my notes are
pretty rough -- I was still getting into Con mode!
For aspiring authors
- who want to write in spec fic
Let’s talk about
women as characters
There's a panel this
weekend on negative tropes: Hell Hath No Fury
Rape is lazy writing
- an overdone trope
Yes it happens, it's
a very real thing
But in writing, it's
not the only way to build drama
It turns women from
characters to victims and objects
Too often we see the
author sacrificing the woman for the man's plot - kill them, sideline,
marginalize
In much of feminist
fiction, men stink - that's not really helpful either
Why do we get the
dark tales? Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's
Tale, etc.
Do we have postive
ones? Absolutely!
Lois McMaster Bujold
- Vorkosigan series - many
of the women have courage, conviction, honor, wits
We all have
different strengths
What about older
women? Vorkosigan, also CJ Cherryh's Foreigner series - terrific role models
Ageism is rampant in
SF
How ridiculous to
try to pair young Scarlet Johansen with Robert Downey Jr?
Hate the
"There's only room for one bitch in this room" trope - as if you
can't have two strong women work together
We need a panel on
librarians! Because you don't mess with the librarian!
What are some of
your fave sci fi characters?
The Bees by Laline
Paull - not marketed as SF- takes place within a beehive - Watership Down for bees -
murder-
Wendy's
second-in-command at Abyss & Apex is a Canadian woman from Trinidad - she's
writing a novel with an outstanding female main character
Leia in Star Wars
Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint - sequel shows
the main character training to build muscles and become a competent warrior
Mary Sue - how do we
overcome the trope?
It's primarily about
wish fulfillment
Men have James Bond
Read about a woman
resisting assault - female empowerment fantasy
Make the character
imperfect - make mistakes, learn and grow
Daniel Craig's
incarnation of the brand-new James Bond - part of the appeal was that he
*wasn't* perfect - he fumbled and made mistakes!
Women are allowed to
be shown with different kinds of strength
Men are stuck -
*have* to be the hero, strong, successful
Nicole wrote Cybil and Jane as
terrific partners - Cybil has to train and work out - she is injured and put in
hospital, she's not infallible - grittiness, realism, didn't want her to be
overly strong or a Mary Sue
How to write a
strong female character who is more than a "dude with boobs"
Athena's Daughters -
wanted to see women all out, show emotions, show strength and resolve when she
needs to, not just physically strong, but someone who will sit up all night
with a baby and then go to work the next day,
someone who puts up with sexism every day and stands up against it even
though they know they could lose their job
Multifaceted
Women characters,
goal oriented, know what they want, move toward it despite everything
Decide what they
want and go for it
Humans are
infinitely variable
Weak women and weak
men exist
Saga-graphic novel
Beth praises
Alexandra's Salvage
Breaking stereotypes
and roles - beautiful young want to get married and have kids - how does SF
tear down those and show other amazing women?
Captain marvel
comics - in her mid 40s - kick ass
Zoe in Firefly
Ready Player One -
explodes a lot of tropes
Star Wars canon
reboot
Claudia
Gray, Lost Stars
Chuck
Wendig, Aftermath
Janine
didn't put a single white man in her story, Inbrief, in the Star Wars 2016 Del Ray
Sampler
BBC just announced
all their future shows will be 50% women
We make assumptions
- all the time! "Black Hermione" ( JKR retroactively approves casting
a black woman - she never said Hermione was white in the books!)
We have default
settings in our brain
The first person to
name Ripley's cat (Jones) in Alien won a copy of Athena Daughters 2!
#
And so, with a loving heart, I offer you
Namaste
I’ve heard many translations. Here’s my favorite:
The light of the universe that shines within me
recognizes
the light of the universe that shines within you.
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