Halloween! Let’s celebrate my favorite holiday with a (mostly positive) gender reader!
Source: Wikipedia.
Media Analysis
Writing about horror films and gender.
Andi Zeilser. “The Feminist Power of Female Ghosts.” Bitch Magazine. 12 Sept. 2013.
Zeilser takes a look at some of the tropes about female ghosts in popular horror films:
When you can pause for a moment between waves of stomach-churning heebie-jeebies, you realize that not only are these women sympathetic characters, but they’re all the more terrifying because they have every bit of anger that makes living women sources of fear, but none of the societal restriction.
Holly L. Derr. A Feminist Guide to Horror Movies. Ms. Magazine. 2012-13.
In four, soon to be five, parts!
“Part One: Daddy Knows Best.” October 5, 2012.
“Part Two: It’s Not Just About Vampires.” Oct. 26, 2012.
“Part Three: Worlds Without Patriarchy.” Oct. 31, 2012.
“Part 4”: 1980s Horror Reboots. Oct. 23, 2013. – I like this one the best so far.
Who else is excited about the new Carrie reboot, by the way?
Scary Stories to Read or Listen to in the Dark
Because who doesn’t need a good horror story with feminist themes?
Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The Yellow Wallpaper. 1899. Courtesy of the Library at CUNY.
—-. “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper,” The Forerunner. Oct. 1913.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is possibly my favorite piece of feminist horror literature. The protagonist is a women put on “rest cure” and forbidden to write or work by her doctor-husband. But something is off about the yellow wallpaper in the room–
It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.
A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity–but that would be asking too much of fate!
Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.
Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?
John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.
John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.
John is a physician, and perhaps–(I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)–perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster.
You see he does not believe I am sick!
And what can one do?
Stephanie Burgis. Pseudopod 032: Stitching Time. 6 April 2007.
Read by Mur Lafferty.
In a similar vein, a horror story about the coping methods of isolated farm wives.
We’d heard all the stories when we first arrived in the blazing heat of July, travelling together from Boston. During those welcoming parties, when all the farming families met together and the children played around our feet, older women took us aside.
The winters are long, they whispered to us; watch out. Don’t let your imagination run away from you. Don’t let your husband see, if it does.
Alaya Dawn Johnson. Read by Tina Connolly. PodCastle 194: Their Changing Bodies. 31 January 2012.
Originally published in Subterranean Online. Read the text there.
For a less scary read, this feminist YA vampire story with a twist made me start laughing in the middle of the street.
Other feminist horror/supernatural suggestions:
- the new Sleepy Hollow TV series, which features two WOC as leads and a diverse cast
- The Little Stranger and Affinity — author Sarah Waters writes amazing historical fiction and queer characters. These are not my favorite of her novels (I’m a sucker for a happy ending) but they are well written and spooky
- Welcome To Night Vale podcast, a surreal Prairie Home Companion in which the radio broadcaster Cecil just straight up declares his love for Carlos the Scientist in episode 1, and I fell in love instantly.
Costume Culture
“Sexy Halloween Costumes” with Kristen Schaal. The Daily Show. 22 October 2013.
Brilliant satire from Kristen Schaal on The Daily Show on sexy costumes, and revealing the ultimate sexy costume.
Every year, Take Back Halloween adds new ideas for how to make Halloween costumes of notable women from goddesses to scientists from all cultural backgrounds: Murasaki Shikibu, Josephine Baker, Frida Kahlo, Marie Curie and many more. Most of the costumes have instructions on how to find or craft the parts of the costume, and many can be made at low cost and with low technical difficulty. Why be a “sexy pizza” when you can be Sappho?
“We’re a Culture, Not a Costume 2013.” Ohio University Students Teaching About Racism in Society.
Every year, OU’s STARS creates a poster campaign to educate people about racist costumes.
Have a wonderful Halloween, readers! I’ll be back next time with a recap of the bullying and cosplay panel at Geek Girl Con!
The Lobster Dance 
Oh The Yellow Wallpaper! That, like Katherine Comes to Yellow Sky, was one of the stories that stayed with me from high school. (And maybe the first story I consciously remember someone explaining to me as feminist.) Whenever I’m in a position to be dealing with wallpapers–be it decorating my house in Animal Crossing: New Leaf or touring potential apartments in a new town–it is ix-nay on the yellow allpaper-way. Or rather, a tall glass of nope:
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I had sunny yellow paint in my childhood bedroom, but it wasn’t alarming at all. I think I heard about the story on Jezebel or another feminist blog about a year ago, and it really stuck with me. (And that “nope nope nope” image is wonderful!)
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Dear Leah,
What follows is unrelated to the blog post ‘Halloween gender reader’, but, since I don’t have an email address that would allow me to send the information directly to you, I’m putting it here.
I think you might find the Royal Society publication on ‘Female competition and aggression’ at http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/368/1631.toc interesting. (Pdf copies of all the articles, and not just those labeled ‘Open access’, can be downloaded for free until 30 November.)
The ‘Preface’ and ‘Introduction’ give an overview of the theme issue. (Sarah Hrdy’s ‘Preface’ is to the point, as are all of her writings. If you haven’t read her books, I suggest you do. You can find a list of them at http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_adv_b/?search-alias=stripbooks&unfiltered=1&field-keywords=&field-author=sarah+hrdy&field-title=&field-isbn=&field-publisher=&node=&field-p_n_condition-type=&field-feature_browse-bin=&field-subject=&field-language=&field-dateop=During&field-datemod=&field-dateyear=&sort=relevanceexprank&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=0&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=0.)
Sincerely,
James Wiegert
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Hi, James,
Thank you so much for the recommendations! I’m going to go download all those articles while I still can. Also, feel free to contact me at odorunara at gmail dot com or leave helpful links in the comments whenever. I love hearing from my readers and I’m always glad to have new and interesting reading suggestions!
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[…] this gender reader, doing some catching up from October (when I did a spooky gender reader instead): harassment of non-Japanese women in Japan; bottoming out a whopping #105 in the Gender […]
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[…] In addition to being a Bechdel-test-passing female-led story by a woman author, the other reason I wanted to share this is because it reminded me of “The Yellow Wallpaper.” […]
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[…] The reason why so many stories can be compared to Rosemary’s Baby is because, in addition to the multitude of cultural stigmas and fears surrounding pregnancy and (cis)motherhood, is that the topic of gaslighting mothers and pregnant (cis) women is still relevant, particularly when the person doing the gaslighting is a husband and/or doctor. Just look at “The Yellow Wallpaper”! […]
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