Swancon 2014 notes 4: Queer women, Happy Queer Sff, Gender Ambiguity, Angst & Violence, Matriarchy
Last one! I put all the remaining serious-ish topics together. Homestuck panel notes to appear once I have them tidied up!
EDIT: Do not trust the recs. They are a VERY mixed bag.
Queer women in sff
Elizabeth Lynn
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Paxanarian
Liaden Series
Nicola Griffiths "Ammonite"
Poppy Z Brite (who is a man! People didn't seem to know)
Batwoman
Runaways
Ursula K leGuin
Eve's Apple
Simply Sarah
"Heralds" series Mercedes Lackey
Circle of Magic by Tamora Pierce
The Movement (asexual)
Shadow Unit
Dwellers in the Crucible
Door into Fire
Secret 6
John Varley
Heavy Subtext:
Batman Animated
Xena
Adventure time
Games:
Guild Wars 2: same sex relationship between NPCs in background
Dragon Age
Mass Effect
Pathfinder expansion has 2 lesbian npcs one of whom is a trans woman
Magical Diary
Skyrim?
Webcomics:
Homestuck
Girls with Slingshots
Questionable Content
Yu+Me Dream (kinda racist imo)
Menage a 3
Happy Queer Sff
Adventure Time
Ellen Kushner
Magical Diary
Left Hand of Darkness (NOT ACTUALLY HAPPY)
Dante's Cove
Lost Girl
Orphan Black
Imagine Me and You
Fucking Amal/Show Me Love
Janet King
Love and Other Catastrophes
Buffy
John Varley
Star Trek (?)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (subtext)
Lainey Cairo
remake of Sirens
START of Torchwood
Battlestar Galactica (Pretty sure she dies angstily)
Yu+Me Dream
Batwoman
Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey
Sailor Moon (...don't they all die?)
Equal oppurtunity misery like Game of Thromnes may not be homophobic but still doesn't count as happy!
Didn't think of until afterwards: Greg Egan!
Gender Ambiguity in pop culture
(I missed the first half)
There is a middle class bias against singular "they"
Shouldn't define a character entirely. Would be good to see characters comfortable correcting those who misgender them.
It's ok to show someone freaking out about a character being trans/non binary gendered, as long as they get over it.
Recs from panelists:
Sailor Moon: Sailor Uranus and Sailor Stars
"Larque on the Wing" by Nancy Springer
BMO from Adventure Time
Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Recs from mostly cis audience (though it got fuzzy to my sleepy end-of-con brain):
Bone Doll's Twin
The Jackaroo
George in The Famous Five
Aunty Jack and Dame Edna
Shades of A
Ranma
Tilda Swinton and David Bowie
Orlando
Mac in "Phrynie Fisher" books/tv show
Bel Thorne and Dono in "Vorkosigan Series"
"Distress", and other works by Greg Egan
John Varley "Barbie Murders"
Ancillary Justice
"Elven Bane" Mercedes Lackey
"Nightsiders" Sue Isle
Bad:
Ally McBeal
The homophobic Tropfest winner
Why we like misery and violence in fiction
Violent images bring down anxiety/PTSD
Art as therapy, overcoming bad times.
Angst less appealing as you get older?
Contrast of bad to good makes the happy ending more satisfying.
Tragedy vs just depressing. Latter is no fun.
resolution is cathartic.
Octavia Butler: shows violence as experienced by the marginalised
Do depressing stories need hope at the end? (general consensus was yes)
300 made vioence too pretty? That line is very subjective between healthy catharsis and unhealthy glorification/torture porn etc.
Persecution fantasy where EVERYONE is mean to poor innocent protagonist.
Nobody's life is uniformly good OR bad, and both extremes make for a dull story.
Tragedy has a lesson at the end about bad choices: for the characters or the reader. Or is about inevitability?
Fluffy happy violence which doesn't resemble any real violence in your life is more fun than things which hit too close to home.
Did teen angst exist before the idea of teenagers?
Matriarchies
"The Female Man" has no men. "A Brother's Price" has hardly any.
Complicated mixture of patrilineal and matrilineal in Indonesian subculture in Malaysia (Glenda Larke's husband's village)
Men "do the cooking" for weddings: tell women what to do, take credit.
"Black Jewels" trilogy: balance between male and female power. Not everyone is comfortable with their gender roles but ~magic~.
Having a queen is not enough to be a matriarchy eg Queen Elizabeth I.
Not everyone HAS a surname. Some patriarchies have matrilineal surnames.
Use matriarchal animals as inspiration eg Hyenas in Digger.
WWII: absence of men meant women filled their roles. Lovely colour photos from Library of Congress.
recs:
The Gate to Women's Country
The Ruins of Ahiberte
Ursula K LeGuin
Delusions of Gender
Living Dolls
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/533736.html. There are
comments.
EDIT: Do not trust the recs. They are a VERY mixed bag.
Queer women in sff
Elizabeth Lynn
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Paxanarian
Liaden Series
Nicola Griffiths "Ammonite"
Poppy Z Brite (who is a man! People didn't seem to know)
Batwoman
Runaways
Ursula K leGuin
Eve's Apple
Simply Sarah
"Heralds" series Mercedes Lackey
Circle of Magic by Tamora Pierce
The Movement (asexual)
Shadow Unit
Dwellers in the Crucible
Door into Fire
Secret 6
John Varley
Heavy Subtext:
Batman Animated
Xena
Adventure time
Games:
Guild Wars 2: same sex relationship between NPCs in background
Dragon Age
Mass Effect
Pathfinder expansion has 2 lesbian npcs one of whom is a trans woman
Magical Diary
Skyrim?
Webcomics:
Homestuck
Girls with Slingshots
Questionable Content
Yu+Me Dream (kinda racist imo)
Menage a 3
Happy Queer Sff
Adventure Time
Ellen Kushner
Magical Diary
Left Hand of Darkness (NOT ACTUALLY HAPPY)
Dante's Cove
Lost Girl
Orphan Black
Imagine Me and You
Fucking Amal/Show Me Love
Janet King
Love and Other Catastrophes
Buffy
John Varley
Star Trek (?)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (subtext)
Lainey Cairo
remake of Sirens
START of Torchwood
Battlestar Galactica (Pretty sure she dies angstily)
Yu+Me Dream
Batwoman
Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey
Sailor Moon (...don't they all die?)
Equal oppurtunity misery like Game of Thromnes may not be homophobic but still doesn't count as happy!
Didn't think of until afterwards: Greg Egan!
Gender Ambiguity in pop culture
(I missed the first half)
There is a middle class bias against singular "they"
Shouldn't define a character entirely. Would be good to see characters comfortable correcting those who misgender them.
It's ok to show someone freaking out about a character being trans/non binary gendered, as long as they get over it.
Recs from panelists:
Sailor Moon: Sailor Uranus and Sailor Stars
"Larque on the Wing" by Nancy Springer
BMO from Adventure Time
Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Recs from mostly cis audience (though it got fuzzy to my sleepy end-of-con brain):
Bone Doll's Twin
The Jackaroo
George in The Famous Five
Aunty Jack and Dame Edna
Shades of A
Ranma
Tilda Swinton and David Bowie
Orlando
Mac in "Phrynie Fisher" books/tv show
Bel Thorne and Dono in "Vorkosigan Series"
"Distress", and other works by Greg Egan
John Varley "Barbie Murders"
Ancillary Justice
"Elven Bane" Mercedes Lackey
"Nightsiders" Sue Isle
Bad:
Ally McBeal
The homophobic Tropfest winner
Why we like misery and violence in fiction
Violent images bring down anxiety/PTSD
Art as therapy, overcoming bad times.
Angst less appealing as you get older?
Contrast of bad to good makes the happy ending more satisfying.
Tragedy vs just depressing. Latter is no fun.
resolution is cathartic.
Octavia Butler: shows violence as experienced by the marginalised
Do depressing stories need hope at the end? (general consensus was yes)
300 made vioence too pretty? That line is very subjective between healthy catharsis and unhealthy glorification/torture porn etc.
Persecution fantasy where EVERYONE is mean to poor innocent protagonist.
Nobody's life is uniformly good OR bad, and both extremes make for a dull story.
Tragedy has a lesson at the end about bad choices: for the characters or the reader. Or is about inevitability?
Fluffy happy violence which doesn't resemble any real violence in your life is more fun than things which hit too close to home.
Did teen angst exist before the idea of teenagers?
Matriarchies
"The Female Man" has no men. "A Brother's Price" has hardly any.
Complicated mixture of patrilineal and matrilineal in Indonesian subculture in Malaysia (Glenda Larke's husband's village)
Men "do the cooking" for weddings: tell women what to do, take credit.
"Black Jewels" trilogy: balance between male and female power. Not everyone is comfortable with their gender roles but ~magic~.
Having a queen is not enough to be a matriarchy eg Queen Elizabeth I.
Not everyone HAS a surname. Some patriarchies have matrilineal surnames.
Use matriarchal animals as inspiration eg Hyenas in Digger.
WWII: absence of men meant women filled their roles. Lovely colour photos from Library of Congress.
recs:
The Gate to Women's Country
The Ruins of Ahiberte
Ursula K LeGuin
Delusions of Gender
Living Dolls
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/533736.html. There are
comments.