More on Sci Fi Characters
I've been reading a large number of very heated opinions on gender targeting in science fiction, and am pretty appalled that the first place many responses went to was to comment on lack of sexual prowess of the poster. His post wasn't great, but the appalling number of insults from women which he received is utterly unacceptable behavior.
In the comment thread, one poster comments that he plans to hold his teenage daughter to the same level of accountability in her actions and lifestyle as his son. Not let her get away with stuff because she's a girl. He gets panned for this, and has his ability to parent questioned -- WTF?
I should probably just learn to stop reading comments on blog posts.
I think the entire flame war could have been avoided if the blog post has avoided blaming women for what TV execs did to try and make shows appeal to them.
When I look back on my book collection it's almost all male authors (or at least male pen names), and I know many of them are white. I can't think of any I know to have other skin colours, but it never occurred to me to check. I don't ever recall passing over a book because it had a girls name on, but a lilac spine is a big no-no, with the possible exception of Saga of the Exiles (was Julian May a woman?... quick wikipedia search says yes), which I read at about 14. I read sci-fi because I love the ideas. When an idea is actually presented with a side-salad of scientific understanding it is far more interesting. The conjoiners and demarchists from whatever series they come from are a really interesting bit of sci-fi. The Borg are touted as original, but look an awful lot like cybermen to me. Probably that's all just a metaphor for evangelical religions.
I should probably avoid getting too uptight about the blogosphere gender arguments. It appears to be already bogged into trench warfare. Nobody is ever going to convince anyone of anything as they all seem to believe things already. Not a good starting point.
In the comment thread, one poster comments that he plans to hold his teenage daughter to the same level of accountability in her actions and lifestyle as his son. Not let her get away with stuff because she's a girl. He gets panned for this, and has his ability to parent questioned -- WTF?
I should probably just learn to stop reading comments on blog posts.
I think the entire flame war could have been avoided if the blog post has avoided blaming women for what TV execs did to try and make shows appeal to them.
When I look back on my book collection it's almost all male authors (or at least male pen names), and I know many of them are white. I can't think of any I know to have other skin colours, but it never occurred to me to check. I don't ever recall passing over a book because it had a girls name on, but a lilac spine is a big no-no, with the possible exception of Saga of the Exiles (was Julian May a woman?... quick wikipedia search says yes), which I read at about 14. I read sci-fi because I love the ideas. When an idea is actually presented with a side-salad of scientific understanding it is far more interesting. The conjoiners and demarchists from whatever series they come from are a really interesting bit of sci-fi. The Borg are touted as original, but look an awful lot like cybermen to me. Probably that's all just a metaphor for evangelical religions.
I should probably avoid getting too uptight about the blogosphere gender arguments. It appears to be already bogged into trench warfare. Nobody is ever going to convince anyone of anything as they all seem to believe things already. Not a good starting point.