The Lobster Dance

Mutant and Proud

“Beyond Categories: Non-Binary Sexuality” Panel at Emerald City Comic Con. Erika Moen. 7 March 2013.

This video is an hour long and worth every single minute of your time. From the discussion of biphobia-fueled homophobia to “wibbly wobbly” sexuality (to appropriate the Tenth Doctor’s description of time), the all-star panelist cast of Randall Kirby, Leia Weathington (a fellow Yoshinaga Fumi fan!), Charles “Zan” Christensen, Ellen Forney, Jason Thompson and Erika Moen

gathered together to discuss having bi/pan/queer sexualities in a monosexual world where both the straights and the gays don’t accept you (or straight up view you as The Enemy) and our experiences with biphobia– all with a healthy dose of dick jokes and wise-crackin’.

Root. “The Five Best Genderqueer Characters in Comics.” Bitch.  6 March 2013.

Speaking of which, here’s a list of genderqueer characters (more in the comments) in American comics. My favorite right now? Hiraga Gennai from Yoshinaga Fumi’s Ôoku.

Cosplay is Not Consent

Jill Pantozzi. “When Professionals Aren’t:  The PAX East Tomb Raider Cosplay Harassment Story.” The Mary Sue. 28 March 2013.

A cosplay (or any) outfit is not an invitation. Pantozzi writes about the harassment of Lara Croft cosplayers at a convention and the culture of harassment as it relates to cosplay.

“He proceeded to tell me that ‘I was one of those oversensitive feminists’ and that ‘the girls were dressing sexy, so they were asking for it.’ Yes, he pulled the ‘cosplay is consent’ card.”…

Wizemann said, “Honestly, I couldn’t think of a less sexualized costume at the event, but I suppose anything worn by a woman can be ‘sexualized.’”

Sushi Killer. “The Beginnings of CONsent.” 16-bit Sirens. 3 April 2013. [Via The Mary Sue.]

In this brilliant photo essay, Sushi Killer takes back the con:

I presented cosplayers with a wipe off board, simply reading “Cosplay =/= Consent” and asked them about their experiences of harassment. I was not surprised to hear many horrible stories from women and men alike. These can be as seemingly harmless and annoying as not asking for permission before taking a picture or bothering them for a picture or interview while they were taking a water or food break. But the majority of the stories were more serious and ranged from threats of violence to inappropriate touching, and from lewd facebook messages to stalking.

Susana Polo. “What if Feminist Ryan Gosling… Was Pictures of Con Staff?” The Mary Sue. 10 April 2013.

Also in response to the PAX East fuckery, the Feminist Pax Enforcers were born.

A bit older, but still relevant:

Then something awesome happened. Dark Horse Comics editor Rachel Edidin staged a “cheerful coup” to overrun the Quickmeme page for the Idiot Nerd Girl with image macros written from the perspective of a Genuinely Nerdy Girl who’s tired of being automatically labelled a poser just for being female. Now a majority of the newest pictures at Quickmeme are of this type, and I f–king love it.

Mind the Gap

Mathilda Gregory. “Why Doctor Who needs more female writers.” The Guardian. 27 March 2013.

Doctor Who hasn’t had a female writer since 2008, and the show has had only one female writer since its reboot in 2005. What’s happening with the lack of women behind the scenes in contemporary sci-fi TV and film? (And when will the Doctor get his wish to be a [ginger] woman?)

“We can knock and knock, but if they won’t let us in, we’ll never get to see how big the Tardis really might be inside. Right now, the Tardis only holds men, so maybe it’s not that big, after all.”

Susana Polo. “Game Developer Had to Specifically Request that Focus Groups Include Women.” The Mary Sue. 9 April 2013.

Fact: overlooking women in focus groups and marketing for video games doesn’t actually help market video games to women.

In fact, if the folks who were responsible for problematic portrayals of female characters or poor representation of real women in games industry were doing it all purely deliberately, it’d probably be a lot easier to fix. The reality is that a lot of this stuff is far more subtle than that, and the sad fact remains that all of us are capable of having noble or even neutral intentions while still overlooking the subtle ways in which we’re contributing to a stereotype, operating on a false assumption, or missing out on a different but important perspective.

Caperton. “How to write about lady-scientists (e.g., stuff they cook that ISN’T dinner).” Feministe. 2 April 2013.

Caperton discusses some articles on Beef-Stroganoff-gate, otherwise known as the sorry excuse for rocket scientist Yvonne Brill’s obituary:

Brill developed the concept for a new rocket engine, the hydrazine resistojet, but the paper of record starts off with her beef noodle skills.

Double Dose of Awesome

(Okay, a lot of these were awesome. But have some more!)

Kathryn Hemmann. “Writing ‘Strong’ Female Characters.” Contemporary Japanese Literature. 9 April 2013.

Hemmann lays out some ground rules for writing female characters well. (The inclusion of Kushana from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind made my heart explode from joy. Manga!Kushana is one of my all-time favorite characters in the history of literature.)

Since gender is an important component of any work of fiction, I feel that this is an excellent opportunity to clarify my own opinions about what makes a “strong” female character, with “strong” meaning “well developed” in a literary sense.

Lindsay Ellis and Antonella “Nella” Inserra. 50 Shades of Green. Chez Apocalypse & Blip.

Tired of “steamy” Twilight fanfic getting published while your favorite AU slashfic is overlooked? Never fear, the minds behind Nostalgia Chick have come to the rescue!

Crowdsourcing the next, worst erotic paranormal romance novel.

The riveting romance between Cthulu (Edward) and Lego Brick (Bella) as told by every one of us who threw Twilight across the room, screamed “THAT’S NOT HOW S&M WORKS” at 50 Shades of Grey (please see Mark Reads‘ Mark Oshiro attempt to tackle this crap here and here),  and now want to shake Simon & Schuster because it just needs to stop.