Ta-Nehisi Coates writes an interesting post about Philip Marlowe, masculinity, biology and misogyny at The Atlantic: “I’ve consumed art like this all my life–men claiming invulnerability, against all I know of maleness and human attraction. Misogyny is not merely a moral problem, but a problem of art. It takes half the world and caricatures it. [...]
Maria at The Hathor Legacy looks at the Paranormal Activity franchise from the standpoint of abuse, neglect and gaslighting. “It’s also a reminder that one of the franchise’s major themes is that when women and children are victims of abuse, they are not only not likely to be believed, they are also often put into [...]
In writing about–and exposing the identity of–Reddit moderator and troll, Violentacrez, Adrian Chen makes an interesting point, well, many interesting points in this excellent piece for The Gawker: “When it comes to mods, the political model of Reddit is not so much a vast digital democracy, as it’s often framed by fans and users, [...]
Andre at Black Nerd Comedy has some advice on how not to be a creeper at cons (and pretty much anywhere else) in his latest, “Black Nerd Rant.”
At Bookslut, Jenny McPhee writes about female readers, the imagined female reader and the anxiety of male authors: “The [contemporary male novelists] fear the female reader is no longer willing to interpret rampant misogyny as searing self-portraits of mangled masculinity, but rather as just more misogyny and who needs it? Their livelihoods threatened, the [contemporary [...]
“Imagine a female pov character is going along about her protagonist adventure, seeing things from her perspective of the world as written in third person. She hears, sees, considers, and makes decisions and reacts based on her view of the world and what she is aware of and encounters. Abruptly, a description is dropped into [...]
At Gameranx, Ian Miles Cheong addresses more kerfuffling in the gamer community over Anita Sarkeesian’s “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games” and explains where the project’s at.
Amanda Marcotte examines the hatred of Breaking Bad‘s Skyler White: “The anti-Skyler brigade seems to be part of a larger trend of fans loathing wives on television—especially if they’re married to anti-heroes.” And Tod VanDerWeff talks about the same in reviewing an episode of The Sopranos for The AV Club: “The Sopranos invented the many [...]
“I’m a woman, I’m a consumer and I actually like my first time playing a genre games to include a character option that can destroy my opponents rather than something adorable. I also like to be marketed to. Can this happen? I’m hoping so and I’m looking forward to it.” More, including many excellent links, [...]
S1E1‘s Jessi and CNN Geek Out‘s Genevieve Dempre have some things to clear up for CNN Geek Out!‘s Joe Peacock, including that models paid by companies to work at conventions are different from cosplaying attendees. “The other problem with this whole conversation about which women are legitimately geeks and which women are just faking it [...]
Leaping once more into the breach, Dr. Nerdlove writes about “the Internet Hate Machine” and Feminist Frequency‘s Anita Sarkeesian. “There’s a good question as to just why there’s this active core of hatred and fear of women in geek culture and why they seem so determined to silence anyone–women especially–who dares question male privilege. Now let’s be [...]
As part of the harassment of Feminist Frequency‘s Anita Sarkeesian, a guy from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario made a “game” where players could punch her. The Internet found the game’s designer and people talked to him on Twitter. Storify has more as does Gameranx. And She Was Disclaiming has an analysis of the ensuing conversation.
TV Tropes has blocked all its pages concerning rape as trope in popular culture after Google threatened TV Tropes‘ ad revenue over “explicit content.” “If you’re thinking this ineffectual censorship just highlights how ridiculous and dangerous the pressure to rid our social vocabularies of potentially ‘creepy’ words like ‘rape’ and, oh, ‘vagina,’ have become, you’re [...]
“One of the unlovely things that has been happening in Anglophone SF/F … is the resurrection of unapologetic – nay, triumphant – misogyny beyond the already low bar in the genre. The churners of both grittygrotty ‘epic’ fantasy and post/cyberpunk dystopias are trying to pass rape-rife pornkitsch as daring works that swim against the tide [...]
Mighty God King responds to game designer James Desborough’s essay, “In Defence of Rape.”
Feminist Frequency‘s Anita Sarkeesian set up a Kickstarter for her project, “Women vs. Video Game Tropes” and received a hateful response. Rock Paper Shotgun, The Escapist and Think Progress have more. The Mary-Sue theorizes on what can be done. Jezebel and Slate have pieces on how depressingly common misogynistic attacks are and Gamespot interviews Sarkeesian.
Greg Rucka shares the short answer and the long answer to the question he’s asked most frequently, “How Do You Write Such Strong Female Characters?” My favorite line: “This is a matter of respect, for both the story itself and for the audience receiving it. The reader is smarter than you. The reader is always [...]
An armorer has some suggestions about balancing functionality, character and story in “fantasy armor and lady bits.”
In discussing Astron-6′s horror movie, Father’s Day, Dave Pace notes that what seems to make viewers uncomfortable is not the violence but the nudity, the male nudity. “What I don’t understand is the uncomfortable shifting around and the outright revulsion you will hear for the scenes where you just see regular naked men. I also [...]
Kelly Thompson and Colin Smith offer two related criticisms of Wonder Woman #7. Thompson asks, “Is the Destruction of the Amazons the Destruction of Feminism in DC Comics?” And Smith writes, “Of all of the flak fired up to obscure the mean-spirited, thick-headed sexism of Brian Azzarello’s script for Wonder Woman #7, the most stubbornly [...]
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What, it’s June already? I’m sure a I had a whole year here a minute ago. In any case, summer means humidity, allergies, and a sad lack of home AC. This year, it also means squirrels in the roof (don’t ask. No, really).
