Ever felt completely invisible?
I’m at home in Wolves for a couple of days, as Suzie needed to collect some stuff from her parents. My dear mother’s reaction when I told her I was coming home? “Oh good, you can sit round your sister’s house whilst the workman are there, keep an eye on things.” Yeah. Great. Thanks for that.
As most of the electrics were off, I occupied myself by wondering down to the local shop and buying issue 2 of what is apparently a new science fiction magazine: “SciFiNow”. And read it. And got mad.
I actually had high hopes for SciFiNow at first. The editorial focused on expectations for X-Files 2, commenting that if it did happen and if it was a success, it could path the way for other sci-fi shows to be brought back in film form. The magazine also featured a two-page news spread on XF2, which, whilst slightly misrepresenting old interviews (“…if Anderson decides to pull out” - Erm, what? She’s never mentioned pulling out. In fact she constantly says the exact opposite.), was not overly offensive.
I wish I could say that about the rest of the magazine. I was very pleased to see an 8 page article on the glory of The X-Files: at least one main-stream sci-fi organisation has managed to remember exactly what XF did for the genre. They also managed a fair assessment of seasons 8 and 9 (for fair, read: one that I agree with). But the article went from nit-picky mistakes that only the likes of myself and red_scully would notice (No, David Duchovny’s dog Blue did not star in Ice.) to the realm of “do you not think you should check your facts before you print in a national magazine?” For example, their ‘worst episode of season 5’ was Mind’s Eye Folie a Deux. Yes, that’s right. All as one. Aside from the fact that they are two separate episodes with no relation whatsoever, most fans I know consider both to be fair episodes. Hello, remember Schizogeny?!
The non-checking of facts for a magazine catering to sci-fi fans, who are notoriously, gloriously geeky nit-picky, as well as the general lack of understanding and addressing of fandom as a whole were irritating, but not overwhelmingly anger inducing. What made me angry was the complete dismissal of the existence of female sci-fi fans. Throughout the magazine they constantly referred to ‘fanboys’, including one whole section dedicated to “Fanboys: For those that LIVE sci-fi”. Their only concession that they may have some female readers was a tiny box saying “and fangirls”, stuck in as an afterthought.
Let’s do a simple check here. I currently have 100 mutual friends on my f-list. Of them, 97 I have met through one fandom or another. 2 of those fandom friends are male, the other 95 are female, and I’m fairly sure about 90 of those women would consider herself a sci-fi fan.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but my f-list is a fairly standard representation of online fandom as a whole, at least as I know it. Women keep fandom running now-a-days, and sci-fi is no exception to this. Added to this is the fact that science fiction seems to be the only genre still pushing feminism forward (Serenity, Sanctuary, etc), and it’s hard to understand why female fans are still not represented outside of the internet. I checked the credits for SciFiNow - 31 were male names, 9 were female. 6 of those female names were involved in marketing and art editing, only 3 were making a contribution to the actual content of the magazine.
I know the argument for women being more involved with online fandom; that as a whole we prefer to be more socially active and that the male fanbase is out there, just quieter. I’m sure there are just as many men invested in sci-fi as there are women, in a slightly different way. But that doesn’t change the fact that this oh-so-needed and active fanbase - the people who are spending the money and watching avidly and promoting the shows by word of mouth - is mostly female. And yet the promotion of science-fiction as a whole is always geared towards men. Something is not adding up here.
And so I’m angry. Angry that I have to resort to reading magazines blatantly not geared towards me, magazines that imagine I don’t even exist, when I know damn well that I and thousands like me are here, waiting and watching for our break into this industry, for someone to actually notice we are here.
So my question to you all is this; does anyone know of any women-friendly sci-magazines out there? One that has a review of Grindhouse that doesn’t add up to “ZOMG fit women get butchered and it’s so gross FOR THE WIN!”? One that has writers who understand that “Scully begins investigating the cause of her tumour. Unfortunately, all but one of those with a similar condition have died.” could never, ever be an accurate description on the 45 minutes of television perfection that is Momento Mori? It doesn’t even have to be a magazine; is there any online resource like metafandom designed specifically for fan essays about sci-fi? And if there isn’t, can I please CREATE one? Because I’m feeling a desperate need to read something by people who know what they are talking about. And those people are right here. They are fandom people.
As most of the electrics were off, I occupied myself by wondering down to the local shop and buying issue 2 of what is apparently a new science fiction magazine: “SciFiNow”. And read it. And got mad.
I actually had high hopes for SciFiNow at first. The editorial focused on expectations for X-Files 2, commenting that if it did happen and if it was a success, it could path the way for other sci-fi shows to be brought back in film form. The magazine also featured a two-page news spread on XF2, which, whilst slightly misrepresenting old interviews (“…if Anderson decides to pull out” - Erm, what? She’s never mentioned pulling out. In fact she constantly says the exact opposite.), was not overly offensive.
I wish I could say that about the rest of the magazine. I was very pleased to see an 8 page article on the glory of The X-Files: at least one main-stream sci-fi organisation has managed to remember exactly what XF did for the genre. They also managed a fair assessment of seasons 8 and 9 (for fair, read: one that I agree with). But the article went from nit-picky mistakes that only the likes of myself and red_scully would notice (No, David Duchovny’s dog Blue did not star in Ice.) to the realm of “do you not think you should check your facts before you print in a national magazine?” For example, their ‘worst episode of season 5’ was Mind’s Eye Folie a Deux. Yes, that’s right. All as one. Aside from the fact that they are two separate episodes with no relation whatsoever, most fans I know consider both to be fair episodes. Hello, remember Schizogeny?!
The non-checking of facts for a magazine catering to sci-fi fans, who are notoriously, gloriously geeky nit-picky, as well as the general lack of understanding and addressing of fandom as a whole were irritating, but not overwhelmingly anger inducing. What made me angry was the complete dismissal of the existence of female sci-fi fans. Throughout the magazine they constantly referred to ‘fanboys’, including one whole section dedicated to “Fanboys: For those that LIVE sci-fi”. Their only concession that they may have some female readers was a tiny box saying “and fangirls”, stuck in as an afterthought.
Let’s do a simple check here. I currently have 100 mutual friends on my f-list. Of them, 97 I have met through one fandom or another. 2 of those fandom friends are male, the other 95 are female, and I’m fairly sure about 90 of those women would consider herself a sci-fi fan.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but my f-list is a fairly standard representation of online fandom as a whole, at least as I know it. Women keep fandom running now-a-days, and sci-fi is no exception to this. Added to this is the fact that science fiction seems to be the only genre still pushing feminism forward (Serenity, Sanctuary, etc), and it’s hard to understand why female fans are still not represented outside of the internet. I checked the credits for SciFiNow - 31 were male names, 9 were female. 6 of those female names were involved in marketing and art editing, only 3 were making a contribution to the actual content of the magazine.
I know the argument for women being more involved with online fandom; that as a whole we prefer to be more socially active and that the male fanbase is out there, just quieter. I’m sure there are just as many men invested in sci-fi as there are women, in a slightly different way. But that doesn’t change the fact that this oh-so-needed and active fanbase - the people who are spending the money and watching avidly and promoting the shows by word of mouth - is mostly female. And yet the promotion of science-fiction as a whole is always geared towards men. Something is not adding up here.
And so I’m angry. Angry that I have to resort to reading magazines blatantly not geared towards me, magazines that imagine I don’t even exist, when I know damn well that I and thousands like me are here, waiting and watching for our break into this industry, for someone to actually notice we are here.
So my question to you all is this; does anyone know of any women-friendly sci-magazines out there? One that has a review of Grindhouse that doesn’t add up to “ZOMG fit women get butchered and it’s so gross FOR THE WIN!”? One that has writers who understand that “Scully begins investigating the cause of her tumour. Unfortunately, all but one of those with a similar condition have died.” could never, ever be an accurate description on the 45 minutes of television perfection that is Momento Mori? It doesn’t even have to be a magazine; is there any online resource like metafandom designed specifically for fan essays about sci-fi? And if there isn’t, can I please CREATE one? Because I’m feeling a desperate need to read something by people who know what they are talking about. And those people are right here. They are fandom people.