Meta Links 2013/08/22-08/28
Notices
We're back, all tagged up and ready to go! Because of the hiatus, we're having a mini-amnesty, date wise. So some of the meta linked this week is a bit older than the usual fortnight.
If you have meta to sumbit or rec, please comment to this post or to the screened Submissions Post. If you'd like to give us blanket permission to link your meta please comment to the Blanket Permissions Post. If you have feedback or questions, check out our FAQ, Contact the Mods, or PM/email. If you'd like to volunteer to link-find or mod, please comment to the Volunteers Post.
General Fandom
Podfic Permissions Discussions
Permissions Statements are Awesome: thefourthvine (DW) - "If you're thinking,yes, but I don't actually just want to say yes to everything, fear not! Blanket permission is a misnomer. (Or, okay, it isn't - it just means "this is the statement that covers everything you need to know." But it sort of sounds like you have to say yes to everything, no limits, no conditions when you give one. You don't!" (mod note: those wishing to be added to a fandom-wide blanket permissions list may leave a note in the comments)
topic:podfic
Podfic Permissions Meta: legionseagle (DW) - "...[T]his post sets out not why I'm against people who wish to do so having blanket permission statements - their works, their rules - but why I, personally, am not in favour of them for my works and why I find the sort of social pressure coming out of the links posted above to be hostile and upsetting."
topic:podfic
Podfic Permissions Discussion: anonymous in fail_fandomanon - General discussion on podfic permission blanket statements.
topic:podfic
Blanket Statement Troubleshooting: maryaminx in podficmeta (DW) - "So, permission statements and/or transformative works policies. Extraordinarily handy things, cause of so much confusion and controversy. Here’s a guide for what to do if your stance on podfic and permission statements are anything less than “yes, please, everything!”
topic:podfic
Podfic, Permissions, and False Analogies: kindkit (DW) - "I'm thinking about the analogy sometimes made between podfic of a fanfic and fanfic of a professionally-made source text. "You didn't ask permission to write that fanfic," the argument runs, "so you have no right to say that people should ask permission to podfic it, or to impose conditions on how it can be podficced." It's a false analogy for a couple of reasons.
topic:podfic
Fandom As a Source of Income: Eleanor Musgrove (blog) - "Today, we’re looking at how fans themselves can make money off their fandoms. After all, those convention tickets aren’t going to buy themselves…"
topic:fandom, topic:money
Copyright and Comics in Japan: Does Law Explain Why All the Cartoons My Kid Watches are Japanese Imports? Salil K. Mehra - Social Science Research Network: (blog) - "The relatively weak legal regime in Japan, noted widely elsewhere, appears to have by chance solved a collective action problem and prevented the interests of a few copyrightholders from inhibiting the growth and development of the industry as a whole."
topic:copyright, fandom:anime
Fandom and Identity/Fandom as identity Keidra Chaney - The Learned Fangirl: (blog) - "Fan culture can be more than just a social community, it’s also identity, a tribe of sorts, and often those identities or connected to cultural, racial, ethnic, gender, class distinctions and presumptions. Think of all the online comments from people talking about how diversity dilutes “their” fandom, the presumption that fandom identity is owned by certain demographic subsections of people and that race or gender is a distraction to a story, rather than another element of storytelling. "
topic:fandom, topic:gender, topic:race
Let's Define Terms, Shall We? The G - Nerds of a Feather: (blog) - "The commonsense way to differentiate fantasy from science fiction is simple: fantasy has magical wonder; science fiction has technological wonder. Alternatively, fantasy draws from mythology; science fiction draws from scientific theory. Fantasy projects backwards to reimagine history (or the present); science fiction projects forward in order to imagine the future. These methods of distinguishing the sister genres have a lot going for them, not least of which is the fact that they represent how most people think about the question, when they think about it at all."
topic:fantasygenre
One of these things is not like the other: We’re The Millers and Virginity: (blog) - "The whole concept here is that each of them is pretending to be something they’re not. And for Sudeikis, Aniston, and Roberts, this makes sense, because our concepts of “dad,” “mom,” and “daughter” are incompatible with our concepts of “drug dealer,” “stripper,” and “runaway.” This is already kind of hilarious, because drug dealers and strippers are certainly capable of having children, and every female runaway is somebody’s daughter. But logical or not, that’s what these concepts mean in our culture. So the joke works. But the concepts of “son” and “virgin” are not opposed in the same way. Kids that age are supposed to be virgins! Aren’t they?"
topic:sexuality, topic:film
The Desolation of Statistics: Book Length vs. Movie Length, Part 2 Mark Lee - Overthinking It: (blog) - "The findings were interesting in and of themselves (TL;DR: The Hobbit Books have way smaller WIBPSOM values than the other franchises), but they begged for a larger scale analysis, both in size of dataset and scope of inquiry. To address the size of the dataset, I found all of the (English language) entries on this list of best-selling books that have theatrically-released, non-silent movie adaptations. After including multiple movie adaptations of the same movie and excluding movies where I couldn’t find any data on book length as measured by word count, I came up with a dataset of 59 movie adaptations of best selling books."
topic:adaptations, topic:film
SOPA is not back : heidi8(LJ) - nameless-traveler recently posted concerns that "The Obama administration announced that it will be bringing back a piece of SOPA legislation that would make streaming copyrighted material a felony" and linked to a petition against SOPA at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-sopa-2013/LMzMVrQF"
topic:copyright, topic:fanfic, topic:podfic, topic:vidding
No New SOPA for fanworks: Claudia Rabaza for Organization for Transformative Works (blog) - "To be clear, the provision proposed by the Commerce Department could have some impact on fandom activities. If it were to become law it could affect, for example, live group viewings of TV shows or films through unlicensed sites.[...]But even if the proposed law were enacted, it wouldn't have any direct impact on transformative fanworks like those hosted by the AO3.”
topic:copyright, topic:fanfic, topic:podfic, topic:vidding
Some Meta for your Day: ladycat777(LJ) - "I like Vampire Diaries, I watch True Blood, (we are not discussing Twilight because no) but what he said is consistently my biggest complaint. Everyone has some sort of empowerment and autonomy except for the supposed main character. The girl. She has no strength, no powers, no knowledge of what's going on. She is not weak, necessarily. But what made Buffy so fantastic is appallingly lacking in the clone shows that came after it*. And it galls me. It really does."
fandom:buffy, fandom:thevampirediaries, fandom:twilight, fandom:teenwolf, topic:feminism
Sydney Bristow is a Better Feminist Role Model than Buffy Summers: discuss : Jezebel(blog) - "ihateemo asks, "Can they even be considered feminist role models at all when they are both creations of men?" Discuss for extra credit."
fandom:buffy, fandom:alias, topic:feminism
Still Distressed: Damsels in Distress, Part Three of Tropes vs. Women in VideogamesKeidra Chaney - The Learned Fangirl: (blog) - "One can be both a victim and not a damsel - victims can also become heroes, as in Dragon Age, in which the Warden is arrested and imprisoned and then has the choice to rescue him/herself, or wait for others to come and rescue him. Lara Croft in the most recent Tomb Raider (more on that later!) is victimized and takes control back for herself. A damsel is helpless by definition - and someone can be a victim who isn’t helpless or hopeless or reliant entirely on others for personal salvation."
fandom:gaming
Personal Experiences Of Femslash Fandom As A Queer Space: sqbr (DW) - "I've seen a lot of people talk about slash fandom as a queer space, but I'm not sure I've seen anyone talk about femslash fandom as one. When I started out in online fanworks based fandom I identified as straight and had extreme difficulty finding femslash for anything I was interested in. Figuring out where the femslashers are at and figuring out my sexuality have to some extent gone hand in hand, and hanging out with other femslashers has been a hugely positive experience."
topic: femslash, topic: sexuality
Specific Fandoms
A Song of Ice and Fire
Cersei Lannister and Daenarys Targaryen - A strong woman’s parallel journey: -catelynstark (tumblr) - "Throughout the A Song of Ice and Fire series there are many character parallels, similarities in personalities or the journeys they find themselves on. Two of the characters which struck me as having a lot in common are Cersei Lannister and Daenarys Targaryen, on the surface there are the obvious similarities, they are both women, have fair hair, have become ‘Queens’ in their own right. But there is a lot more between them than just that, starting with the fact that they both lost their mothers at a very young age, the ‘children’ they both have, the men in their lives and right up until A Dance with Dragons: After the Feast when they are both walk barefooted across the earth, virtually naked and bald. "
fandom:asoiaf
The Parallels between Sansa and Arya Stark’s Storylines: jeynewaters (tumblr) - "It’s common for people on tumblr to say that Arya and Sansa are two sides of the same coin - even though the terminology never appears in the books in reference to these girls. Instead, the only expression close enough is when Eddard Stark depicts them as different as the sun and the moon. In fact, George RR Martin even said that Sansa was created to be Arya’s foil because the Stark siblings were getting along too well. So while I do think it’s clear that the two sisters are meant to be contrasted, I don’t think George has put the two girls in a position where one proves better or more worthy than the other. This goes the same for Robb and Jon, who are introduced directly as each other’s opposite."
fandom:asoiaf
Untitled: joannalannister (tumblr) - "Hello! I was reading a few of your essays about the theory of Jaime/Cersei being ~secret Targs~ and why you think it isn’t true. While I agree, I saw you mention that Joanna would have just aborted a baby conceived by Aerys once she realized she was pregnant. But my question is, if the “liberties” taken at her bedding was rape, how could she know that the child was Aerys’s? Couldn’t it have been Tywin’s, assuming that she had intercourse with him as well soon after? Would she take that chance?
Hi! So, I’m gonna pick this apart on several levels, and I’m sorry, my response might not come across as very gentle because I feel very strongly about this subject."
fandom:asoiaf
Arrow/Birds of Prey/Justice League Unlimited/Legend of the Seeker
Huntress and Cara Meta: vorquellyn (LJ) - "This term one of the guest speakers for one of my classes talked about how when he went to see a play, movie, etc. he didn't think about whether or not something was believable. When he was watching As You Like It, he didn't wonder about how a forest like Arden could exist. He then went on to say that this way of viewing things was the more intelligent choice which I'm not buying. I think however I or anyone else experiences storytelling is just that, how the experience works for the individual. For me, I never forget that the story in front of me is a collection of choices made by a human or group of humans. I understand that sometimes people don't think through everything that goes into their story. However, I can't think of any element as if it just accidentally slipped into the story. There is no, "Whoopsy! My story never included a woman who didn't want to be a mom all on its own.""
fandom:arrow, fandom:birdsofprey, fandom:legendoftheseeker, fandom:dccu
Breaking Bad
The Skyler White problem: can we accept complex female characters? JOS - Feministing: (blog) - "Yes, Walt becomes an increasingly horrible, even evil person over the course of the show. But while Walt is dealing with a shitty reality - the entire plot of Breaking Bad hinges on the cruelty of the US healthcare system - he works to act from a position of strength. This goes a long way to making a fictional character likable, at the same time that we can recognize his actions would be deplorable IRL. But Walt’s also a white man, and this is key. Hell, Dexter is a long running show with a white male serial killer protagonist, and it’s seemed like every network wanted their own white man serial killer lately. "
fandom:breakingbad, topic:feminism
Buffy
False Consciousness in Sunnydale: Karl Marx, Adam Smith, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Richard Rosenbaum - Overthinking It: (blog) - "But is that really such a good thing? What is the real reason for leaving the population in the dark about of the evil legions lurking just beyond their field of vision? The “Weirdness Censor” trope in the work of Joss Whedon is not just a convenient way to tell stories about monsters while keeping the background world relatively relatable to the audience. It’s also a commentary on the very real tendency of people to disregard inconvenient facts, to avoid cognitive dissonance."
topic:philosophy, fandom:buffy
Is It Me You're Looking For? - Britta, Chang and Authority As Romance: ilthit (AO3) - "Analysis of the Britta/Chang plot in "Geography of Global Conflict" as a romance, written in the (sloppy, it's been a while) form of an academic essay."
fandom:community
Doctor Who
The Ninth Doctor, The Tyranny Of Conformity, And The Future Of ‘Doctor Who’ Alyssa Rosenberg - ThinkProgress: (blog) - "But there’s another characteristic that’s deeply embedded in the Ninth Doctor’s stint on Doctor Who: a suspicion of conformity, particularly when it’s in the name of manufactured tradition or enforced by the media, and a celebration of individuality and curiosity. It’s a critique that could easily be applied to Moffat’s dismissive insistence that the Doctor is as inherently white and male as Elizabeth Windsor, whose job doesn’t happen to involve reincarnation, is white and female."
fandom:doctorwho, topic:gender
Elysium
Elysium, politics and of course liminal humanity: cybercat (blog) - "The predictable: Straight White American Guy saves the world. If you've seen the trailer, you've figured that part out. It also, predictably, failed the Bechdel test. Again, it has a LOT of company there: I haven't seen a movie this summer that passed. So bashing it for either of those? Kind of pointless unless you also plan to froth about Pacific Rim, Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man 3, World War Z......However, it was also the best movie I've seen this summer."
fandom:elysium
Game of Thrones
Meta Monday: Casterly Rock: justadram (tumblr) - "“Stone, I must be stone, I must be Casterly Rock, hard and unmovable.”-Tyrion Lannister
Today’s topic is Casterly Rock and its stated inspiration, the Rock of Gibraltar, both with ancient pasts, both known for their resilience and impregnability."
fandom:gameofthrones
Harry Potter
JKR’s presentation Slytherin vs Griffindor values: melusinahp (LJ) - "“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?""
fandom:harrypotter
The Unforgivable Curses and Wizarding Society: ncfan (AO3) - "An essay on the Unforgivable Curses and what their designation as "Unforgivable" says about Wizarding society. Also, a theory on how the Cruciatus Curse works, and my case for why the Imperius Curse is the most insidious of the three."
fandom:harrypotter
Hayao Miyazaki
The Feminism of Hayao Miyazaki and Spirited Away Hanna White - Bitch Magazine: (blog) - "Characters Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa both actively fight to defend their homes, using both weapons and kindness. Sophie of Howl’s Moving Castle is less physically active than those two warriors-particularly compared to her boyfriend Howl-but is stronger than him in many ways and at saves his life at one point in the film. I'll add that their romance, as with all Miyazaki’s romances, doesn’t totally dominate the picture. That's a refreshing change from the love-obsessed fare of America's female-centric narratives."
fandom:anime, fandom:hayaomiyazaki
K-Pop
Electric Shock: Amber from f(x)Raizel - The Learned Fangirl: (blog) - "But peeling back the layers further - it is not that she is so out of the ordinary; after all, she basically looks, dresses, and sounds like Justin Bieber, One Direction, and many of the kpop boy bands. But what makes her different is that this type of androgyny is in the body of a girl this time rather than a boy."
fandom:kpop, topic:sexuality, topic:gender
Kuroko no Basuke!
Challenge No.34: Liu, Fukui and racist pranks: basketballpoetsociety (tumblr) - "I wanted to talk about an aspect of their relationship that tends to get lost in translation."
fandom:anime, fandom:kurokonobasuke
Mad Men
Behind Every Man: Gender Roles at Play in Mad Men*: coachandbuffyandomar (tumblr) - "Mad Men’s female characters are integral to the show, and their storylines are some of its most fascinating, chronicling the rise of women in the workplace through Peggy, and the gender norms that she eschewed to get there."
fandom:madmen, topic:feminism
Madoka/Revolutionary girl Utena/Sailormoon
Post-Otakon panel grumbling: sailorptah (DW) - "So, okay. One year there was this one person talking about Awesome Female Characters who said that Tsukino Usagi did not count because she's "always being saved by a guy." Which is aggravating enough by itself, given that her real situation is "often having a guy provide split-second distractions so she can deliver the killing blow -- when he's not too brainwashed, amnesiac, or dead to help, anyway.""
fandom:mahoushoujomadokamagica, fandom:revolutionarygirlutena, fandom:sailormoon, fandom:anime
Marvel Comics: X:men
Why I have a problem with Rick Remender’s Uncanny Avengers and “don’t see differences” philosophy: ami_angelwings (tumblr) - "I was reading this post on Racialicious about the continuing problems with Rick Remender’s Uncanny Avengers and his idea that discrimination would just be solved if people stopped seeing differences. In the specific issue the post is talking about, Remender uses Scarlet Witch as essentially his mouthpiece to shut down Rogue who is kind of a strawman representation of his critics. She’s portrayed as being overly emotional and presenting weak arguments (or poorly backed up arguments) so that Remender’s stand-in can easily knock them down. On top of what Racialicious has brought up as the issues with Wanda’s arguments (the mutants do have a shared history, etc), I wanted to add some of my thoughts of why I think this entire argument of “don’t see differences and there will be no problems” that Remender’s posited (starting from Havok, continuing through Wanda) is ridiculous and problematic."
fandom:marvelcomics
MCU: X:men
The costumes of X-Men: First Class, Part 2: Menswear.: Hello Tailor (blog) - "OK, let's be real here. 99% of this section is gonna be about Erik and Charles, firstly because 99% of the movie is about Erik and Charles, and secondly because most of the other dude costumes are pretty dull."
fandom:mcu
Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim Is Not Your Average Action JuggernautBrooke Jaffe - The Mary Sue: (blog) - "Raleigh is the protagonist whose perspective we follow throughout much of the narrative, but Mako is the main character. She is the the crux of the story, the one we cheer for, the one whose story we learn and troubles we care about. Raleigh is our point of reference, but Mako is what binds the rest of the characters in the story together. So we’ve got a female main character of color who is incredibly smart, observant, capable (she can beat up Raleigh in a one-on-one match and also manage an entire Jaeger restoration program), determined, and passionate, who goes on a Campbellian heroic journey."
fandom:pacificrim
I’ll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours
: Samantha_kathy (AO3) - "Interrogating someone is showing something of yourself to make a connection. Carter is very good at this, and the show used this as a way to introduce the viewers to her."
fandom:personofinterest
Lowering the bar = Not Okay: cybercat (blog) - ""The Mako Mori test is passed if the movie has: a) at least one female character; b) who gets her own narrative arc; c) that is not about supporting a man’s story." Wow, it's like NCLB has come to mass media. Bechdel Test too hard? MAKE AN EASIER TEST. Halve the number of females required, and make her something other than stage dressing. The irony is, of course, that Mako Mori fails the Mako Mori test. "
fandom:pacificrim
Sailor Moon
I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS ON THIS: initiala (tumblr) - "So, Politics and Spirituality in Sailor Moon: How Crystal Tokyo Works, something I’m really sure I could teach an entire class on with how much thought I’ve put into this. Someone left a review on this fic I wrote last year that really kicked it into overdrive. A lot of this thought might refer back to said fanfic, since I spent the better part of a year thinking solely in terms of that, but I think this applies generally to the series as well."
fandom:sailormoon
Star Wars
Opinion: What Ben Affleck Teaches Us About Star Wars: Star Wars Underworld (blog) - "Before you unleash your rage across the internet about how Daredevil is now the Caped Crusader or how Bartleby is donning a mask, keep in mind just one thought: Everyone on the planet groaned when that blonde from “A Knight’s Tale” was named the Joker. But why am I bringing this up on a Star Wars site? Because this announcement, and the reaction to it, can teach us so much about what Disney is doing with Episode VII."
fandom:starwars, fandom:dccu
Supernatural
Short Change Hero: gaelic spirit(LJ) - "At first I thought that would be easy, but as I began to write it out I realized how much Jensen brings to the character of Dean, breathing life into words on a page and hooking me with a glance, a sigh, a grin, a tear. Still, I've written over thirty SPN-centric fics...I reasoned I couldn't have done that if the character hadn't also compelled me in some way."
fandom:supernatural
Teen Wolf
on structural narrative failure in teen wolf: season 3: morgan_leigh (tumblr) - "In wake of this week’s episode, I wanted to write something about the way Teen Wolf has been plotted over the course of this season. I was pretty enraged about character assassination after “Visionary,” but this episode left me thinking more about the overall way Jeff Davis et al have been telling the story this season, on a broad structural level as well as in terms of character development."
fandom:teenwolf
Everything wrong with 'Teen Wolf' explained in 4: Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (blog) - "The real issue arose when Teen Wolf appeared to abandon its original message of feminism, LGBT visibility, and racial harmony. "
fandom:teenwolf
Tolkien
Affixes in Quenya names (1/2): anghraine (tumblr) - "A conversation with awildellethappears got me thinking about doing a more comprehensive post about Quenya names-and specifically, the suffixes (actually, affixes) to Quenya names. So here we go."
fandom:jrrtolkien
The Wolverine
The Wolverine: Let’s Look at the Women: Arwen Spicer (blog) - "The latest X-Men film, The Wolverine, has recently opened in theaters. As you might guess, it’s about Wolverine-but I need to talk about the women. As gender fail goes, The Wolverine is by no means an egregious offender. In some ways, it handles its female characters well, but this is all the more reason to critique it: its gender fail not a fluke. It’s not a movie that just happened to be penned by a sexist writer. If anything, its handling of women is better than the norm for a Hollywood superhero flick. Yet it’s still offensive, and we have to do better. Now."
fandom:mcu
We're back, all tagged up and ready to go! Because of the hiatus, we're having a mini-amnesty, date wise. So some of the meta linked this week is a bit older than the usual fortnight.
If you have meta to sumbit or rec, please comment to this post or to the screened Submissions Post. If you'd like to give us blanket permission to link your meta please comment to the Blanket Permissions Post. If you have feedback or questions, check out our FAQ, Contact the Mods, or PM/email. If you'd like to volunteer to link-find or mod, please comment to the Volunteers Post.
General Fandom
Podfic Permissions Discussions
Permissions Statements are Awesome: thefourthvine (DW) - "If you're thinking,yes, but I don't actually just want to say yes to everything, fear not! Blanket permission is a misnomer. (Or, okay, it isn't - it just means "this is the statement that covers everything you need to know." But it sort of sounds like you have to say yes to everything, no limits, no conditions when you give one. You don't!" (mod note: those wishing to be added to a fandom-wide blanket permissions list may leave a note in the comments)
topic:podfic
Podfic Permissions Meta: legionseagle (DW) - "...[T]his post sets out not why I'm against people who wish to do so having blanket permission statements - their works, their rules - but why I, personally, am not in favour of them for my works and why I find the sort of social pressure coming out of the links posted above to be hostile and upsetting."
topic:podfic
Podfic Permissions Discussion: anonymous in fail_fandomanon - General discussion on podfic permission blanket statements.
topic:podfic
Blanket Statement Troubleshooting: maryaminx in podficmeta (DW) - "So, permission statements and/or transformative works policies. Extraordinarily handy things, cause of so much confusion and controversy. Here’s a guide for what to do if your stance on podfic and permission statements are anything less than “yes, please, everything!”
topic:podfic
Podfic, Permissions, and False Analogies: kindkit (DW) - "I'm thinking about the analogy sometimes made between podfic of a fanfic and fanfic of a professionally-made source text. "You didn't ask permission to write that fanfic," the argument runs, "so you have no right to say that people should ask permission to podfic it, or to impose conditions on how it can be podficced." It's a false analogy for a couple of reasons.
topic:podfic
Fandom As a Source of Income: Eleanor Musgrove (blog) - "Today, we’re looking at how fans themselves can make money off their fandoms. After all, those convention tickets aren’t going to buy themselves…"
topic:fandom, topic:money
Copyright and Comics in Japan: Does Law Explain Why All the Cartoons My Kid Watches are Japanese Imports? Salil K. Mehra - Social Science Research Network: (blog) - "The relatively weak legal regime in Japan, noted widely elsewhere, appears to have by chance solved a collective action problem and prevented the interests of a few copyrightholders from inhibiting the growth and development of the industry as a whole."
topic:copyright, fandom:anime
Fandom and Identity/Fandom as identity Keidra Chaney - The Learned Fangirl: (blog) - "Fan culture can be more than just a social community, it’s also identity, a tribe of sorts, and often those identities or connected to cultural, racial, ethnic, gender, class distinctions and presumptions. Think of all the online comments from people talking about how diversity dilutes “their” fandom, the presumption that fandom identity is owned by certain demographic subsections of people and that race or gender is a distraction to a story, rather than another element of storytelling. "
topic:fandom, topic:gender, topic:race
Let's Define Terms, Shall We? The G - Nerds of a Feather: (blog) - "The commonsense way to differentiate fantasy from science fiction is simple: fantasy has magical wonder; science fiction has technological wonder. Alternatively, fantasy draws from mythology; science fiction draws from scientific theory. Fantasy projects backwards to reimagine history (or the present); science fiction projects forward in order to imagine the future. These methods of distinguishing the sister genres have a lot going for them, not least of which is the fact that they represent how most people think about the question, when they think about it at all."
topic:fantasygenre
One of these things is not like the other: We’re The Millers and Virginity: (blog) - "The whole concept here is that each of them is pretending to be something they’re not. And for Sudeikis, Aniston, and Roberts, this makes sense, because our concepts of “dad,” “mom,” and “daughter” are incompatible with our concepts of “drug dealer,” “stripper,” and “runaway.” This is already kind of hilarious, because drug dealers and strippers are certainly capable of having children, and every female runaway is somebody’s daughter. But logical or not, that’s what these concepts mean in our culture. So the joke works. But the concepts of “son” and “virgin” are not opposed in the same way. Kids that age are supposed to be virgins! Aren’t they?"
topic:sexuality, topic:film
The Desolation of Statistics: Book Length vs. Movie Length, Part 2 Mark Lee - Overthinking It: (blog) - "The findings were interesting in and of themselves (TL;DR: The Hobbit Books have way smaller WIBPSOM values than the other franchises), but they begged for a larger scale analysis, both in size of dataset and scope of inquiry. To address the size of the dataset, I found all of the (English language) entries on this list of best-selling books that have theatrically-released, non-silent movie adaptations. After including multiple movie adaptations of the same movie and excluding movies where I couldn’t find any data on book length as measured by word count, I came up with a dataset of 59 movie adaptations of best selling books."
topic:adaptations, topic:film
SOPA is not back : heidi8(LJ) - nameless-traveler recently posted concerns that "The Obama administration announced that it will be bringing back a piece of SOPA legislation that would make streaming copyrighted material a felony" and linked to a petition against SOPA at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-sopa-2013/LMzMVrQF"
topic:copyright, topic:fanfic, topic:podfic, topic:vidding
No New SOPA for fanworks: Claudia Rabaza for Organization for Transformative Works (blog) - "To be clear, the provision proposed by the Commerce Department could have some impact on fandom activities. If it were to become law it could affect, for example, live group viewings of TV shows or films through unlicensed sites.[...]But even if the proposed law were enacted, it wouldn't have any direct impact on transformative fanworks like those hosted by the AO3.”
topic:copyright, topic:fanfic, topic:podfic, topic:vidding
Some Meta for your Day: ladycat777(LJ) - "I like Vampire Diaries, I watch True Blood, (we are not discussing Twilight because no) but what he said is consistently my biggest complaint. Everyone has some sort of empowerment and autonomy except for the supposed main character. The girl. She has no strength, no powers, no knowledge of what's going on. She is not weak, necessarily. But what made Buffy so fantastic is appallingly lacking in the clone shows that came after it*. And it galls me. It really does."
fandom:buffy, fandom:thevampirediaries, fandom:twilight, fandom:teenwolf, topic:feminism
Sydney Bristow is a Better Feminist Role Model than Buffy Summers: discuss : Jezebel(blog) - "ihateemo asks, "Can they even be considered feminist role models at all when they are both creations of men?" Discuss for extra credit."
fandom:buffy, fandom:alias, topic:feminism
Still Distressed: Damsels in Distress, Part Three of Tropes vs. Women in VideogamesKeidra Chaney - The Learned Fangirl: (blog) - "One can be both a victim and not a damsel - victims can also become heroes, as in Dragon Age, in which the Warden is arrested and imprisoned and then has the choice to rescue him/herself, or wait for others to come and rescue him. Lara Croft in the most recent Tomb Raider (more on that later!) is victimized and takes control back for herself. A damsel is helpless by definition - and someone can be a victim who isn’t helpless or hopeless or reliant entirely on others for personal salvation."
fandom:gaming
Personal Experiences Of Femslash Fandom As A Queer Space: sqbr (DW) - "I've seen a lot of people talk about slash fandom as a queer space, but I'm not sure I've seen anyone talk about femslash fandom as one. When I started out in online fanworks based fandom I identified as straight and had extreme difficulty finding femslash for anything I was interested in. Figuring out where the femslashers are at and figuring out my sexuality have to some extent gone hand in hand, and hanging out with other femslashers has been a hugely positive experience."
topic: femslash, topic: sexuality
Specific Fandoms
A Song of Ice and Fire
Cersei Lannister and Daenarys Targaryen - A strong woman’s parallel journey: -catelynstark (tumblr) - "Throughout the A Song of Ice and Fire series there are many character parallels, similarities in personalities or the journeys they find themselves on. Two of the characters which struck me as having a lot in common are Cersei Lannister and Daenarys Targaryen, on the surface there are the obvious similarities, they are both women, have fair hair, have become ‘Queens’ in their own right. But there is a lot more between them than just that, starting with the fact that they both lost their mothers at a very young age, the ‘children’ they both have, the men in their lives and right up until A Dance with Dragons: After the Feast when they are both walk barefooted across the earth, virtually naked and bald. "
fandom:asoiaf
The Parallels between Sansa and Arya Stark’s Storylines: jeynewaters (tumblr) - "It’s common for people on tumblr to say that Arya and Sansa are two sides of the same coin - even though the terminology never appears in the books in reference to these girls. Instead, the only expression close enough is when Eddard Stark depicts them as different as the sun and the moon. In fact, George RR Martin even said that Sansa was created to be Arya’s foil because the Stark siblings were getting along too well. So while I do think it’s clear that the two sisters are meant to be contrasted, I don’t think George has put the two girls in a position where one proves better or more worthy than the other. This goes the same for Robb and Jon, who are introduced directly as each other’s opposite."
fandom:asoiaf
Untitled: joannalannister (tumblr) - "Hello! I was reading a few of your essays about the theory of Jaime/Cersei being ~secret Targs~ and why you think it isn’t true. While I agree, I saw you mention that Joanna would have just aborted a baby conceived by Aerys once she realized she was pregnant. But my question is, if the “liberties” taken at her bedding was rape, how could she know that the child was Aerys’s? Couldn’t it have been Tywin’s, assuming that she had intercourse with him as well soon after? Would she take that chance?
Hi! So, I’m gonna pick this apart on several levels, and I’m sorry, my response might not come across as very gentle because I feel very strongly about this subject."
fandom:asoiaf
Arrow/Birds of Prey/Justice League Unlimited/Legend of the Seeker
Huntress and Cara Meta: vorquellyn (LJ) - "This term one of the guest speakers for one of my classes talked about how when he went to see a play, movie, etc. he didn't think about whether or not something was believable. When he was watching As You Like It, he didn't wonder about how a forest like Arden could exist. He then went on to say that this way of viewing things was the more intelligent choice which I'm not buying. I think however I or anyone else experiences storytelling is just that, how the experience works for the individual. For me, I never forget that the story in front of me is a collection of choices made by a human or group of humans. I understand that sometimes people don't think through everything that goes into their story. However, I can't think of any element as if it just accidentally slipped into the story. There is no, "Whoopsy! My story never included a woman who didn't want to be a mom all on its own.""
fandom:arrow, fandom:birdsofprey, fandom:legendoftheseeker, fandom:dccu
Breaking Bad
The Skyler White problem: can we accept complex female characters? JOS - Feministing: (blog) - "Yes, Walt becomes an increasingly horrible, even evil person over the course of the show. But while Walt is dealing with a shitty reality - the entire plot of Breaking Bad hinges on the cruelty of the US healthcare system - he works to act from a position of strength. This goes a long way to making a fictional character likable, at the same time that we can recognize his actions would be deplorable IRL. But Walt’s also a white man, and this is key. Hell, Dexter is a long running show with a white male serial killer protagonist, and it’s seemed like every network wanted their own white man serial killer lately. "
fandom:breakingbad, topic:feminism
Buffy
False Consciousness in Sunnydale: Karl Marx, Adam Smith, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Richard Rosenbaum - Overthinking It: (blog) - "But is that really such a good thing? What is the real reason for leaving the population in the dark about of the evil legions lurking just beyond their field of vision? The “Weirdness Censor” trope in the work of Joss Whedon is not just a convenient way to tell stories about monsters while keeping the background world relatively relatable to the audience. It’s also a commentary on the very real tendency of people to disregard inconvenient facts, to avoid cognitive dissonance."
topic:philosophy, fandom:buffy
Is It Me You're Looking For? - Britta, Chang and Authority As Romance: ilthit (AO3) - "Analysis of the Britta/Chang plot in "Geography of Global Conflict" as a romance, written in the (sloppy, it's been a while) form of an academic essay."
fandom:community
Doctor Who
The Ninth Doctor, The Tyranny Of Conformity, And The Future Of ‘Doctor Who’ Alyssa Rosenberg - ThinkProgress: (blog) - "But there’s another characteristic that’s deeply embedded in the Ninth Doctor’s stint on Doctor Who: a suspicion of conformity, particularly when it’s in the name of manufactured tradition or enforced by the media, and a celebration of individuality and curiosity. It’s a critique that could easily be applied to Moffat’s dismissive insistence that the Doctor is as inherently white and male as Elizabeth Windsor, whose job doesn’t happen to involve reincarnation, is white and female."
fandom:doctorwho, topic:gender
Elysium
Elysium, politics and of course liminal humanity: cybercat (blog) - "The predictable: Straight White American Guy saves the world. If you've seen the trailer, you've figured that part out. It also, predictably, failed the Bechdel test. Again, it has a LOT of company there: I haven't seen a movie this summer that passed. So bashing it for either of those? Kind of pointless unless you also plan to froth about Pacific Rim, Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man 3, World War Z......However, it was also the best movie I've seen this summer."
fandom:elysium
Game of Thrones
Meta Monday: Casterly Rock: justadram (tumblr) - "“Stone, I must be stone, I must be Casterly Rock, hard and unmovable.”-Tyrion Lannister
Today’s topic is Casterly Rock and its stated inspiration, the Rock of Gibraltar, both with ancient pasts, both known for their resilience and impregnability."
fandom:gameofthrones
Harry Potter
JKR’s presentation Slytherin vs Griffindor values: melusinahp (LJ) - "“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?""
fandom:harrypotter
The Unforgivable Curses and Wizarding Society: ncfan (AO3) - "An essay on the Unforgivable Curses and what their designation as "Unforgivable" says about Wizarding society. Also, a theory on how the Cruciatus Curse works, and my case for why the Imperius Curse is the most insidious of the three."
fandom:harrypotter
Hayao Miyazaki
The Feminism of Hayao Miyazaki and Spirited Away Hanna White - Bitch Magazine: (blog) - "Characters Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa both actively fight to defend their homes, using both weapons and kindness. Sophie of Howl’s Moving Castle is less physically active than those two warriors-particularly compared to her boyfriend Howl-but is stronger than him in many ways and at saves his life at one point in the film. I'll add that their romance, as with all Miyazaki’s romances, doesn’t totally dominate the picture. That's a refreshing change from the love-obsessed fare of America's female-centric narratives."
fandom:anime, fandom:hayaomiyazaki
K-Pop
Electric Shock: Amber from f(x)Raizel - The Learned Fangirl: (blog) - "But peeling back the layers further - it is not that she is so out of the ordinary; after all, she basically looks, dresses, and sounds like Justin Bieber, One Direction, and many of the kpop boy bands. But what makes her different is that this type of androgyny is in the body of a girl this time rather than a boy."
fandom:kpop, topic:sexuality, topic:gender
Kuroko no Basuke!
Challenge No.34: Liu, Fukui and racist pranks: basketballpoetsociety (tumblr) - "I wanted to talk about an aspect of their relationship that tends to get lost in translation."
fandom:anime, fandom:kurokonobasuke
Mad Men
Behind Every Man: Gender Roles at Play in Mad Men*: coachandbuffyandomar (tumblr) - "Mad Men’s female characters are integral to the show, and their storylines are some of its most fascinating, chronicling the rise of women in the workplace through Peggy, and the gender norms that she eschewed to get there."
fandom:madmen, topic:feminism
Madoka/Revolutionary girl Utena/Sailormoon
Post-Otakon panel grumbling: sailorptah (DW) - "So, okay. One year there was this one person talking about Awesome Female Characters who said that Tsukino Usagi did not count because she's "always being saved by a guy." Which is aggravating enough by itself, given that her real situation is "often having a guy provide split-second distractions so she can deliver the killing blow -- when he's not too brainwashed, amnesiac, or dead to help, anyway.""
fandom:mahoushoujomadokamagica, fandom:revolutionarygirlutena, fandom:sailormoon, fandom:anime
Marvel Comics: X:men
Why I have a problem with Rick Remender’s Uncanny Avengers and “don’t see differences” philosophy: ami_angelwings (tumblr) - "I was reading this post on Racialicious about the continuing problems with Rick Remender’s Uncanny Avengers and his idea that discrimination would just be solved if people stopped seeing differences. In the specific issue the post is talking about, Remender uses Scarlet Witch as essentially his mouthpiece to shut down Rogue who is kind of a strawman representation of his critics. She’s portrayed as being overly emotional and presenting weak arguments (or poorly backed up arguments) so that Remender’s stand-in can easily knock them down. On top of what Racialicious has brought up as the issues with Wanda’s arguments (the mutants do have a shared history, etc), I wanted to add some of my thoughts of why I think this entire argument of “don’t see differences and there will be no problems” that Remender’s posited (starting from Havok, continuing through Wanda) is ridiculous and problematic."
fandom:marvelcomics
MCU: X:men
The costumes of X-Men: First Class, Part 2: Menswear.: Hello Tailor (blog) - "OK, let's be real here. 99% of this section is gonna be about Erik and Charles, firstly because 99% of the movie is about Erik and Charles, and secondly because most of the other dude costumes are pretty dull."
fandom:mcu
Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim Is Not Your Average Action JuggernautBrooke Jaffe - The Mary Sue: (blog) - "Raleigh is the protagonist whose perspective we follow throughout much of the narrative, but Mako is the main character. She is the the crux of the story, the one we cheer for, the one whose story we learn and troubles we care about. Raleigh is our point of reference, but Mako is what binds the rest of the characters in the story together. So we’ve got a female main character of color who is incredibly smart, observant, capable (she can beat up Raleigh in a one-on-one match and also manage an entire Jaeger restoration program), determined, and passionate, who goes on a Campbellian heroic journey."
fandom:pacificrim
I’ll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours
: Samantha_kathy (AO3) - "Interrogating someone is showing something of yourself to make a connection. Carter is very good at this, and the show used this as a way to introduce the viewers to her."
fandom:personofinterest
Lowering the bar = Not Okay: cybercat (blog) - ""The Mako Mori test is passed if the movie has: a) at least one female character; b) who gets her own narrative arc; c) that is not about supporting a man’s story." Wow, it's like NCLB has come to mass media. Bechdel Test too hard? MAKE AN EASIER TEST. Halve the number of females required, and make her something other than stage dressing. The irony is, of course, that Mako Mori fails the Mako Mori test. "
fandom:pacificrim
Sailor Moon
I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS ON THIS: initiala (tumblr) - "So, Politics and Spirituality in Sailor Moon: How Crystal Tokyo Works, something I’m really sure I could teach an entire class on with how much thought I’ve put into this. Someone left a review on this fic I wrote last year that really kicked it into overdrive. A lot of this thought might refer back to said fanfic, since I spent the better part of a year thinking solely in terms of that, but I think this applies generally to the series as well."
fandom:sailormoon
Star Wars
Opinion: What Ben Affleck Teaches Us About Star Wars: Star Wars Underworld (blog) - "Before you unleash your rage across the internet about how Daredevil is now the Caped Crusader or how Bartleby is donning a mask, keep in mind just one thought: Everyone on the planet groaned when that blonde from “A Knight’s Tale” was named the Joker. But why am I bringing this up on a Star Wars site? Because this announcement, and the reaction to it, can teach us so much about what Disney is doing with Episode VII."
fandom:starwars, fandom:dccu
Supernatural
Short Change Hero: gaelic spirit(LJ) - "At first I thought that would be easy, but as I began to write it out I realized how much Jensen brings to the character of Dean, breathing life into words on a page and hooking me with a glance, a sigh, a grin, a tear. Still, I've written over thirty SPN-centric fics...I reasoned I couldn't have done that if the character hadn't also compelled me in some way."
fandom:supernatural
Teen Wolf
on structural narrative failure in teen wolf: season 3: morgan_leigh (tumblr) - "In wake of this week’s episode, I wanted to write something about the way Teen Wolf has been plotted over the course of this season. I was pretty enraged about character assassination after “Visionary,” but this episode left me thinking more about the overall way Jeff Davis et al have been telling the story this season, on a broad structural level as well as in terms of character development."
fandom:teenwolf
Everything wrong with 'Teen Wolf' explained in 4: Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (blog) - "The real issue arose when Teen Wolf appeared to abandon its original message of feminism, LGBT visibility, and racial harmony. "
fandom:teenwolf
Tolkien
Affixes in Quenya names (1/2): anghraine (tumblr) - "A conversation with awildellethappears got me thinking about doing a more comprehensive post about Quenya names-and specifically, the suffixes (actually, affixes) to Quenya names. So here we go."
fandom:jrrtolkien
The Wolverine
The Wolverine: Let’s Look at the Women: Arwen Spicer (blog) - "The latest X-Men film, The Wolverine, has recently opened in theaters. As you might guess, it’s about Wolverine-but I need to talk about the women. As gender fail goes, The Wolverine is by no means an egregious offender. In some ways, it handles its female characters well, but this is all the more reason to critique it: its gender fail not a fluke. It’s not a movie that just happened to be penned by a sexist writer. If anything, its handling of women is better than the norm for a Hollywood superhero flick. Yet it’s still offensive, and we have to do better. Now."
fandom:mcu