What I Should Have Said Was

[andpuff]

I had every intention of putting the following up online on Saturday morning but I didn't want to write it in Lj and I could figure out how to select all, then copy and paste off my tablet (I'm sure it's possible, I just couldn't figure it out) so this is going up a few days after the fact.  It's not at all time sensitive, but for referencing sake

Comments

[wiliqueen]

This is very cool. Also, I kind of wish I'd heard the ranty parenthetical version, just because I talk (and heck, half the time post online) the same way...

[stalbon]

Excellent points, all! And while I've not hosted a panel, I take away all of the points an author or artist brings up in response to questions when I am at panels, and generally find them to match my own, if not do one better thanks to their greater experience. As such, I am sure you're definitely not the only one to leave with the words 'I should have said...' in your mind. :)

[msagara]

I have the exact opposite.

I come out of a panel fretting about all the things I shouldn’t have said...

[andpuff]

I do that too. That is, I fret about the things you shouldn't have said... ;)

KIDDING! I also fret about what I shouldn't have said. Fortunately, unless I think I said something REALLY appalling, I usually forget the meh... and mostly, I worry about being meh.

[mindstalk]

"Once you've chosen this as a biological characteristic, denial is no longer an option, particularly if we're talking a point of view character. Suck it up"

I've read a lot of books with female protagonists, by female authors, and unless it's a coming of age story where menstruation happens for the first time, it's hardly ever mentioned, any more than going to the bathroom is.

[andpuff]

Yeah, it's not necessarily advice I follow all the time myself. Given a few more paragraphs, I'd probably have talked myself around to your bathroom analogy. Otoh, if there's a point in the story where it's relevant, it -- either of it -- shouldn't be ignored.

[mindstalk]

And a man's less likely to think of such a point.

But like I said, female authors haven't found many such points either, that I've noticed. Robin McKinley, P.C. Hodgell, C. J. Cherryh, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Anne McCaffrey, Tamora Pierce (maybe Alanna had a "my first period" moment), Fuyumi Ono, Girl Genius (with Kaja as advising writer), Carla Lightspeed McNeill, Lois Bujold (I'm less certain with her.)

If anything bathrooms come up way more often: there's the occasional chamberpot, and I'd almost swear half of McKinley's _Outlaws of Sherwood_ is Robin Hood worrying about privies.

Missed opportunity in some cases: Ono could have had Youko think "at least my inhuman body means never having to worry about that again".

Granted maybe there's been mentions I've missed or forgotten.

Tamora Pierce...

[ext_1220556]

Tamora Pierce actually seems to cover it pretty well, from what I can remember. Alanna freaked out the first time she bled, thinking there was something wrong with her. Pretty sure it was mentioned at least once in the Keladry books too.

Then again, guys waking up aroused is hardly ever mentioned either, and that's part of a working parasympathetic nervous system.

Gender Differences

[ext_1220556]

Everyone always makes a big deal about gender differences. Psychologically speaking, there is a slight difference overall, but there is more variation within one gender than between the two. (Put more simply: the average girl is more similar to the average guy than she is to a girl at either extreme of the spectrum)