Browsing all articles tagged with sexism.
Monsters, the Monstrous, and Reclaiming the Other
Monsters—or, in the very least, the monstrous—show up fairly frequently in most speculative fiction. Whether under the guise of dragons and creatures from the deep (ocean or space) or by way of vampires and the fickle, often cruel fae, monsters and the absolute other of evil is a mainstay of much of our fiction. Casting the net […]
The Problem with Abandoning the “Strong Female Character”
Yet another descriptor has been caught in the verboten term net. Recently, several essays have appeared arguing that people should stop using the term “strong female character” (SFC) or “strong female protagonist” because a) The SFC has become just another trope in speculative fiction, providing authors with another cardboard token with which to people their […]
Queer Representation in SFF
One of two things happen when you raise the issue of queer and gender rep in speculative fiction: The first is we’re told it’s not important, that unqueer people don’t care, and that they do not want it “shoved down their throats”. Second, we’re given a blithe, well-meaning shrug and told that people are not […]
Publishing and LGBT Erasure or My Issues with Robo-Boobs
I always knew someone would tell me to add a Sexy Lady Robot to my book. When I first starting writing my novel, Echo of the Larkspur, I set out to write a story that was first and foremost about love. Love between a male human and an omnipotent, genderless robot that identified as male, […]
Breaking the Glass Slipper: Podcast Celebrating Women in Genre
This month, I’d like to officially introduce Fantasy-Faction readers to Breaking the Glass Slipper. The brainchild of Megan Leigh over at Pop Verse, it’s a bi-monthly podcast focusing on women in genre. Charlotte Bond and I join Megan as co-hosts. Our aim is straightforward: we want to get people talking about women, be they authors, […]
Women Dominate Graphic Novels in 2015
Looking at the Goodreads Choice Awards for 2015, of the top 8 Graphic Novels, 7 of them have women on their covers. It’s also worth noting that Attack on Titan, which is the the eighth cover that does display a male, actually stars the incredibly strong willed, skilled and determined woman – said to be as deadly as one hundred soldiers by […]
Gender and Stereotyping in Fantasy – Part Three: Balance
Last time we focused entirely on characters drawn from the YA SFF spectrum, visiting authors from Cassandra Clare to Maggie Steifvater and Meagan Spooner/Amie Kaufman. Whilst we’re still not done examining gender and stereotypes in YA, we’re going to swing the spotlight onto more regular fantasy in this instalment. Note that I veer away from […]
Suffrage or Just Plain Suffering? The Princess Problem in Fantasy
It’ll never be easy to create a Cinderella who isn’t a victim. This has clearly been a challenge for Disney, whose live action version of the classic fairy tale opened earlier this year. Modern fantasy heroines should appeal to their young female audience as strong yet compassionate, intelligent yet humble, warriors, princesses, majestic ice-castle-builders. Cinderella’s […]
Women Write Fantasy
There have always been serious issues revolving around gender parity and sexism in the fantasy community. Whether this is the depiction of women – as little more than damsels in distress waiting for the fella to rescue her – or the fact that many bookshops and even publishers seem reluctant to fully invest in the […]
Elspeth Cooper adds her thoughts on Industry’s Sexism Problem
Fantasy-Faction is lucky enough to have a good number of talented published authors – especially female authors – posting in our forums. Perhaps I am being presumptuous, but I’d like to think that each of these wonderful ladies are friends of mine and so am very interested in their opinions and experiences revolving around the […]
Jonathan Ross Withdraws from Hugos
Twitter has been alight with the news that one of the UK’s biggest and best known talk show hosts, Jonathan Ross, has withdrawn from his role as Master of Ceremonies at this year’s Hugo Awards. For those who don’t have a clue who he is, he isn’t too far from the mould of Jay Leno […]
Jen Williams responds to opinions on Bookshops’ perceived SFF Prejudice
So, yesterday we published a piece on Fantasy-Faction highlighting the observations made by three of British fantasy’s female authors suggesting that UK Booksellers are selling them and their contemporaries short. A number of comments and tweets came flooding in, and Forum Members even started a topic; the overwhelming feeling was that ‘yes, there is a […]
