Categories
feminism movie

Disney, why are you now trying to pretend women don’t exist in your movies?

So before Monsters University yesterday, one of the previews they played was this one for Frozen.

Now, this is still the description of the movie from the Disney site for Frozen.

Walt Disney Animation Studios, the studio behind “Tangled” and “Wreck-It Ralph,” presents “Frozen,” a stunning big-screen comedy adventure. Fearless optimist Anna (voice of Kristen Bell) sets off on an epic journey—teaming up with rugged mountain man Kristoff (voice of Jonathan Groff) and his loyal reindeer Sven—to find her sister Elsa (voice of Idina Menzel), whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter. Encountering Everest-like conditions, mystical trolls and a hilarious snowman named Olaf, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom.

The trailer above is underwhelming to say the least. I am completely un-whelmed, really. If nothing else, it gives the impression that it’s a movie about Olaf the snowman. Or possibly just the cute animated short that will lead for the movie, since that seems to be a thing now for Disney. For a bonus, Olaf is also the character who shows up on the story page. (Though in the art there are some nice pictures of Anna and Kristoff.) Kind of makes it seem like this is a movie about a doofy reindeer and snowman combo (Ice Age-esque, really) and involves no humans, let alone any girl ones, at all.

The reason this gives me no warm fuzzies whatsoever reaches back to the debacle with the Rapunzel movie’s title being changed to Tangled because otherwise people would assume it was a girly movie or something. Yes, this is just a pre-pre-pre trailer, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, like they’re trying to disguise what the movie is really about. Because girl stuff is yucky and we all know boys won’t watch girl stuff. (But girls totally watch boy stuff all the time. Because that is the natural order of things.)

Another bonus! This is what the Japanese trailer looks like!

Hint: Anna spends a lot of time in the trailer mentioning her sister and her sister’s magic. And Anna exists in the trailer! And is plainly the heroine of the story!

DOUBLE BONUS: The Japanese title of the movie is 『アナと雪の女王』–Translated: Anna and the Snow Queen. Not something as non-specific as Frozen.

Disney, why the fuck are you now trying to pretend women are not present in–nay, CENTRAL TO–your movies? Is it the same utter, contemptible bullshit that motivated the title change for Rapunzel? Well, little girls watch boy movies and then we can hook them in with the princess thing, but we shouldn’t even try to get little boys interested in movies with women? Is that the thing now?

This just infuriates me. I get that it makes marketing sense, if you think that’s what’ll get butts in the seats. That doesn’t make any less infuriating. Before The Princess and the Frog, there were plenty of Disney movies that had a title centered around the leading lady. But the issue has now been made into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Way to reinforce the idea that women in lead roles just don’t get butts in the seats by making them vanish.

Categories
feminism women in science writing

In which I am interviewed

I was kind of surprised when I got a request for an interview for Laurel Zuckerman’s Paris Weblog. Turns out I caught her attention with my strongly-worded ire about the SFWA Bulletin issue #202 mess. This is actually the first interview I’ve ever had (even if it was by e-mail) and I was very nervous about it. But I think it turned out all right! Dimitri Keramitas asked me some really good questions, and I think I managed to not drool on myself as I typed. The topics ranged from the issue #202 thing to women in writing, women in science, and out from there.

I had a lot of fun, and hopefully you’ll find it interesting! (…and then I found out it was online by the President of SFWA tweeting about it and I may have peed just a little.)

Funny enough, right as I was working on this interview, Waylines also asked me to do a much shorter interview for issue #4. So you should check that out too for more interview-y goodness. It’s under “This Month’s Writers & Filmmakers” in the TOC.

Categories
abortion feminism politics texas texas scares me

Big Damn Hero

I was up past midnight last night, glued to a livestream. I haven’t done that since we landed on Mars. I wish this one had been such a happy occasion. I was, of course, watching the livestream of Texas state Senator Wendy Davis filibustering the horrifying anti-abortion bill that the legislature was trying to pass in an emergency session. Apparently the Texas legislature is allowed to have abortion emergencies but women aren’t. Nice to know.

I think I probably would have been watching anyway, but this is particularly important to me now that I live in Texas. And amusingly enough, at least for now I can literally claim I didn’t vote for any of these people. (Though god, I wish I could vote for Wendy Davis. I’m not in her district, though.)

Filibusters are apparently serious business in Texas. You’re not allowed to speak off topic, sit, lean, have a bathroom break, eat, or drink. This is one place where I can wish the Federal government was a bit more like Texas, because I bet if those were the filibuster rules the Republicans would stop being such dickbags about every damn piece of legislation. Anyway, I can only imagine Senator Davis must have carb loaded on Monday to manage this one today, because she was going strong up until the end. Appeals for testimony for her to tell went out repeatedly on Twitter, so she’d have something on-topic to speak about.

I sent her an e-mail during dinner. I don’t have my own abortion story and I don’t feel like I have a right to tell the stories of my friends. But I did catch an impressive case of baby rabies this weekend because my three-month-old niece Aya is SO RIDICULOUSLY CUTE. And the moment after I contemplated, “gosh I kind of want one” I immediately followed the thought with “no way in hell am I being pregnant in Texas.” So that’s what I told her – bills like this make me actively afraid to be a woman in Texas, where pregnancy transforms you into a second-class citizen no longer in control of your own decisions and life.

I have no idea if that ended up being useful, but I tried.

Anyway, she was still going strong at midnight, when the filibuster ended, supposedly with the Senate session. And then – I cannot fucking believe this – the State Senate voted anyway. And then tried to claim they had voted two minutes before midnight instead of two minutes after. Twitter ERUPTED.

image

Who knew, apparently Republicans think they’re Timelords. The time on the voting record was changed on the website. I went to bed at 12:30 with Twitter still exploding with rage and couldn’t sleep because I was so incredibly angry. They won’t get away with this was the consensus on Twitter, and apparently from the angry crowd filling the state capital. Everyone was watching.

Well, they didn’t get away with it.

I had an e-mail from Wendy Davis sitting in my in-box this morning when I got up:

 

I have amazing news!

Just moments ago, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst announced to the Senate that SB5 is officially dead!   Evidently, Governor Perry and the legislative leadership can hear our voices.

This amazing feat is because of you.  I wanted to share this wonderful news as soon as I could.  

Thank you so much for all of your encouragement, support, hard work, and most of all dedication and determination.  

It is a great night for women and families in Texas and our allies across the country.  
 
Your friend and, proudly, your State Senator,

 Wendy

This woman is a hero.

image

A Big Damn Hero.

Let’s make sure she wants for nothing. I just wish we could send this woman to the Supreme Court and have her work some magic there. The victory in Texas was amazing, but let’s not forget Tuesday was also the day the Supreme Court took a shit on the voting rights act. Unfortunately the vociferous protests of Justice Ginsburg (the resident badass of the Supreme Court in my opinion)  didn’t have the same kind of power as the words of Wendy Davis did in the Texas State Senate; that’s not how the Court works.

Anyway, back in Texas, apparently the Republicans are already planning part two; per BBC news, the Lieutenant Governor “hinted that the vote could be held again at a second special session.” The abortion emergencies. They never end. (You know, if they have any time after they do some voting rights work.) But we’ll be watching, even more of us now that we know what they’re up to. And I have faith that Wendy Davis or another Big Damn Hero will step up.

Categories
feminism rants sfwa women in science writing

Lady [Insert Job Title Here]

This may come as a shock, but I am not a “Lady Geologist.” I do not examine women visually and use lab tests in order to understand their physical properties, provenance, and environment of deposition. I have never gone up to a female stranger, hammered a chunk off of her, and sent it to the lab so I could determine the abundance of her constituent minerals. That kind of thing would, I assume, land me in jail.

I’m a Sedimentary Geologist. I commit those sorts of friendly acts on sedimentary rocks, which are mineralogically more interesting and also don’t mind if you take a hammer to them. (Okay maybe they do mind, but they have no legal standing under current US law.)

I would likewise think that “Lady Lawyers” don’t limit themselves to female clients. And “Lady Engineers” don’t spend their time designing more durable women in AutoCAD. And “Lady Writers” (this I can speak to personally) don’t just write women or about women. And “Lady Editors” don’t leave trails of women in their wake, panting and covered with marks made in track changes.

Oh, right. The “Lady” is supposed to indicate that we’re a professional of some sort that happens to be a lady. And what’s wrong with that?

It’s simple. By feeling the need to point out that holy shit, that engineer is a woman, you are paying lip service to the idea that it’s only normal for men to be engineers. That women are the exception instead of just a normal part of the professional landscape. When you append or job titles with the unnecessary flag of gender, it effectively removes us from the work ecosystem and marks us as an invasive species, abnormal and not belonging.

Maybe I could have understood that more back when women were just starting to claw our way as a group out of the role of housewife, but our presence in the workforce hasn’t been a surprise in decades or far longer. (At my ripe old age of 32, I literally do not remember a time when women were not doctors, lawyers, and engineers, though admittedly not without struggle.) It isn’t shocking–SHOCKING!–that women write scifi. You have heard about this little book called Frankenstein, right?

And using the word Lady instead of Woman? Just makes it sound more cutesy and condescending because it’s a callback to all that chivalry bullshit. I’m not a lady, guys. I’m a woman. I’ve yet to hear someone referred to as a Lady Anything when her accomplishments or her gender weren’t then subsequently (if subtly) belittled. Wow, look what she did, and she’s a lady! Look what that lady did, unlike all those other women! Pretending to be amazed over and over again that we are here and working and doing just fine effectively erases our presence in the past.

Do you get what I’m saying? Do you get why I (and many of my fellow women, though please don’t think I am in any way claiming to speak for all women) are getting a little tired of that shit? Do you get why, even if it wasn’t meant to be patronizing or paternalistic, it might sound that way?

Good. Now kindly knock it off.

When I’m at work, I’m a goddamn Sedimentary Geologist. I’m a Writer. The presence or absence of tits does not change either of these facts.

Categories
feminism

End of the ban on women in combat

Surprise! Pentagon to end ban on women in front-line combat. I knew about the lawsuit back in November and got the sense that things were kind of moving on this front, but I didn’t expect this one. Happy inauguration present, I guess?

Having never served in the military, I can only really speak to how it’s looked from the outside. Like it’s seemed really ridiculous to continue to keep women out of combat assignments when female soldiers have gotten wounded fairly often in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, considering the way combat in those wars hasn’t stayed nice and neat on a battlefield. And I’ve heard over and over that combat assignments are the better path to promotion (is this true?) which would make keeping women out of those assignments beyond shitty.
That, and I think it’s an intense pile of bullshit to keep women out of a job so long as we’re physically capable of doing it. And what I mean by that is that I totally understand why in, say, firefighting you want someone to be able to drag at least a 150 lb person to safety when you might be depending on them to save your ass one of these days. And if a woman can do said dragging? There’s no excuse to keep her out. 
Thoughts from actual military type people? I’d like to hear.
If you’d like to laugh yourself sick or potentially cause brain trauma from too much headdesking, read some of the comments on the CNN article. Apparently this is a bad decision because women have periods (if this is even potentially a problem, there is birth control that actually prevents this by the way), it’s a scientific fact that men use logic and women use emotion (my emotions say LOL), and women are meant only to create and nurture life and we are disrupting the order of the universe (if that’s the order of the universe it could use some more disruption thanks). 
I cannot even make this shit up. 
Categories
feminism

If women aren’t women any more, are we houseplants?

I normally don’t curse my eyes with shit from Fox News, but I couldn’t quite resist this piece about the “war on men” because there is something I find particularly annoying about assholes that think they get to decide if you are a woman or a man. For example:

And in doing so, I’ve accidentally stumbled upon a subculture of men who’ve told me, in no uncertain terms, that they’re never getting married. When I ask them why, the answer is always the same.
Women aren’t women anymore.

So wait, what are women then, if we aren’t women? Houseplants? Evil robots? Corporate flying monkeys? A form of parasitic fungus? Cheap plastic toys? That little bit of popcorn that gets stuck in your teeth that you just know is going to give you an instant cavity?

Because goodness knows, we apparently aren’t people. And neither are men, I guess. We’re caricatures controlled by our biological natures, which I’d guess is that “poison from the gonads” stuff General Custer mentioned in Little Big Man.

As far as I can tell from this essay, women only get to be women if they want to get married and then let men do their manly man duty of manliness, which is to be the primary breadwinner and “protect their families.” I am also going to take a wild guess and say that in order for a woman to be a woman, she must want to have kids too.

The entire basis of this argument seems to be that the author has talked to people. Woo, anecdotes! Well, I have a bunch of anecdotes, too. There are people who want to get married and people who don’t. There are people who want to have kids and people who don’t. There are men that want to be the breadwinner and others who would like to be stay-at-home dads and the same with women, and some that would even like to split things 50/50. This may come as a shock, but people are a diverse bunch. And incidentally, there are men that want to marry men (or don’t) and women who want to marry women (or don’t) and it’d be great if they had that choice too.

Oh yeah and:

All they have to do is surrender to their nature – their femininity – and let men surrender to theirs.

I just threw up a little in my mouth.

You know what would be awesome? If people were just allowed to be themselves. I’ve never bought the idea of their being an essential femininity that comes with possessing a uterus, just like I don’t think there is something essentially masculine that people with penises get to have. (Okay, except maybe the part where you get to pee standing up because that’s kind of awesome.) I don’t feel like I’ve missed something important in my life because I don’t like makeup and dresses and would rather die than be a housewife; but I also think the experiences of my friends who do like and want those things are just as valid because it makes them happy.

Ms. Venker, I’d hazard a guess that a great many people out there aren’t angry because evil feminism has caused us to fight against our “natures.” We’re tired and cranky because we constantly have to fight with assholes like you who think there’s only one way to conduct a life.

Also: Eric has some entertaining things to say about this from his naturally manly position of manliness as he tries to parse out just what he’s so angry about.

Categories
feminism worldcon

[Worldcon] Feminism in Fantasy

Saturday (September 1) at 1800: Feminism in Fantasy
Panelists listed in program: Sandy Lindow, Joan D. Vinge, Valerie Estelle Frankel, Sarah Hans, Julia Rios [Note: Sandy Lindow did now show.]

Disclaimer: These are my notes from the panel and my own, later thoughts. I often was unable to attend the entire panel, and also chronically missed panelist introductions. When possible I try to note who said something, but often was unable to. Also, unless something is in double quotes it should be considered a summary and not a direct quotation.

Moderator for the panel did not show up so Julia Rios from Strange Horizons has stepped in.

Valerie Estelle Frankel: the heroine’s journey. Not the same as feminism. The girl travels to fight against the evil queen/symbol of infertility. The young girl heroine doesn’t get a sword; she gets an array of items to fight with most of which are not actually weapons. Talismans of information and perception, often magic apparel. Still descends into death and comes back stronger than before, metaphor for growing up. Normally in heroine’s journey she’s off to rescue a family member rather than great evil. Boys often set out to fight the great evil, for the girls it’s incidental to rescuing the family member. May come from women traditionally being the protector of the family while the men are the warriors. Boys are the warriors and girls are the saviors – see Prince Caspian. They are going on different quests and fight differently. Lucy gets to be more of a hero than Peter… depending upon the definition of hero.
Examples: The Golden Compass, Cupid and Psyche, Seven Swans

Most writers in horror are not women. And generally when male writers have female characters, they are victims. Very traditional American horror trope. There are editors in horror that specifically want female writers writing female characters. So if you’re up against a male writer with a similar story, you have a better chance of getting chosen just because you might be the only woman who has even submitted to that project.

Sarah Hans prefers reading female writers in general because there is more emotion and better rendered relationships between characters during the journey. Little girls will read stories about little boys, but supposedly little boys won’t read stories about little girls. However, with teenaged boys and adult men, it’s shifting so that men are starting to read stories by female writers and with female characters. It’s not emasculating to read things with emotions!

Socialization of culture that boys aren’t supposed to like girl things.

VEF: Women in trousers research. Lots of Victorian women used to dress up in suits and take photographs and do posed scenes. “If you don’t want to be the wimpy girl sidekick you have to identify with the male hero.” What happens when we try to identify with the non-standard. Feels that Katniss got really white-washed in the movie.

SH: part of the reason little boys don’t like reading books about little girls is because books about little girls suck really bad. Which only perpetuates the vicious cycle. If there’s an adventure character that’s female in a story book, they’re almost always either in a fantasy world OR an anthropomorphized animal. In a fantasy world girls get to have agency, but they can’t seem to do it in the real world; not many stories about little girls just being little girls in the real world.

Do female heroes have less value because they use different methods than males?

Joan D Vinge: Depends on the definition. The higher ranked a warrior is in society, the lower the status of the women. In really strong warrior societies, women are almost considered animals that are just for procreation so homosexuality is societally promoted. And then institutionalized pedophilia often. Women’s roles just completely disappear.

VEF: The Ruins of Isis. (Marion Zimmer Bradley)

Julia Rios: Pulp scifi that had women characters normally did the planet of the women hellishly dominating men.

Question as applied to horror-
SH: Heroine is normally super smart or charming or has magical power of awesome sexuality. Can do the same thing with a male character, but for a female character it almost seems like the weakness becomes your strength to write.

Audience Q&A

Audience: Is it true that there are truly enough strong female characters, or are there problems that we see and what are those problems? What would we like to see? (Because some people would say this kind of panel is no longer necessary.)

VEF: Twilight. [Crowd groans.] Katniss is great and kicks butt, but she doesn’t really want to be a girl. The warrior woman is a strong female character, but is cutting herself off from and often despising her femininity. Sends message that the only path to power is to be a tomboy. (Also saw this as the message in the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland.) Hermione is awesome but is technically a sidekick and spends her entire time trying to help Harry succeed in his goal. Problematic as well, because it says no matter how awesome you are you’ll spend your life picking up after Harry Potter.

SH: Would like to see more incidental LGBTQ people. (I’d like to see a dude who enjoys wearing a dresses and it’s not a big deal.) Would like to see more about female friendship and the extremely close bond with a female friend that can eclipse your relationship with a man that’s very passionate even if there is no sex to it. Would like to see a girl and her best friend having adventures together, rather than a woman and her male sidekick. Holmes and Watson relationship between two women.

JR: More female friendships where they aren’t jealous each other about men! Because women don’t really do that! How many of us in our real lives have had this happen with our best female friends?

JDV: [I’m having a really hard time following what Joan is saying. :-/]

SH: Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books were huge for her with the female dragon riders. Jacqueline Carey’s series now. None are really coming of age stories. Using sexuality to overcome obstacles. Shout-out to Laurel K Hamilton. Both series start out with badass and intelligent female heroines but then descend further and further into smut with huge harems of men. But at least most women have a lot of agency and get to make choices.

JDV: Andre Norton – (what is this book title? I missed it.) Ordeal in Otherwhere

What about Buffy?

VEF: Wrote a book about it. It rocks. Many feminist characters other than just Buffy.

JDV: Liked it. Way better than Angel series which had too many male characters.

SH: Loves it, recommends comics. Strong female friendship between Buffy and Willow. Incredible bond between the two.

Audience: With conservative revival in America and elsewhere, is that having an effect? Backlash in fantasy?

JR: YA dystopias abounding with fertility issues where women are being forced to breed. Probably related.

JDV: What is being written always reflects today.

Audience: How does sex factor into feminism in fantasy?

SH: There is a lot you can learn about a character in a sexual encounter – how generous/selfish or skilled/inexperienced.

VEF: Kushiel girls come out of sex winning. GRRM girls have sex and try to influence and lose. Sex as power.

JR: Women having choices and giving enthusiastic consent. Very tired of women getting raped as a plot device.

Audience: Says Buffy is emasculating and anti-man.

JR: Does Buffy emasculate men to begin with?

VEF: Maybe a little, but no story is perfect.

JDV: Men aren’t the main characters so maybe that’s why it seems emasculating. I liked all the guys.

SH: The whole series is supposed to be turning tropes on its head. Buffy doesn’t need a male sidekick she has the most powerful female witch in the world.

Audience guy: But Xander is buffoonish!

JR: He’s one guy. Not all the male characters are like that.

SH: Xander is the heart of the group. He’s supposed to be a clown. And he’s supposed to be someone that Buffy doesn’t want to date.

Audience: What about Firefly. Feels like it’s basically perfect.

SH: Mal is clearly the main character. It’s not 50/50. Buffy has that same problem the other way. You do have to pick a main character at some point.

#

Bless Julia Rios for making the attempt at moderating. It was kind of a rough panel, viewed from the audience. But also a very interesting one.

And I admit it, when the guy in the audience asked his question about Buffy the Vampire Slayer being emasculating, all I could hear in my head was, “But what about the men?” For goodness sake, we get one series that’s the most awesomesauce ever for the women compared to nearly every other one where the men get to be the hero.

I think the remark I really liked the most was the request for more stories about strong female friendships where the women don’t fight over men. Goodness this, a thousand times yes. I can think of precisely one occasion in my life (in high school) when I had a thing for the same guy one of my friends did. The other girl and I worked it out just fine and remained good friends – because shockingly enough, genuine friendship is more important than boys. (Sorry boys, I know you may not want to hear this.)

I have no idea why that trope gets written so often. Is it because men are supposed to be that important? Romance and marriage is supposed to be a woman’s be-all and end-all? Ugh. I’m not going to say it never happens, but the way it gets presented in books and media you’d think it was rampant.

One thing that did bother me was the remark about the warrior woman, cutting herself off from essential femininity and taking the tomboy path to power. I don’t think that should be presented as the only path to power (I want to see my niece be the hero whether or not she wants to wear pink frilly dresses while doing it) but I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. Admittedly, I’m a bit biased as a life-long tomboy that’s never really been impressed by the idea that there’s something I’m missing out on as a woman because I’m simply not interested in “femininity,” essential or otherwise.

Then again, I don’t necessarily buy into the idea of the existence of “essential femininity” or “essential masculinity” to begin with; I don’t think men and women are actually as different at the level of blood and bone as we like to pretend. We’re all part of that glorious rainbow of humanity that bridges the horizon.

But hey, that’s just me. I suppose you could accuse the warrior woman of trying too hard to be like a man, but I’d ask in return – what if she’s just trying really hard to be herself?

Categories
feminism rants things that are hard to write

Stop calling me a "real woman"

Because you know what that implies? Are there really femmebots out there, complete with boob guns that make up the category of “not real” women? Are there girls made out of plastic? Is there a test you have to take, or are there government regulations sort of like they have for beef that mean we get tagged as real women, right next to the stamp stating we’re organic, because hey we’re composed of carbon-containing molecules?

It’s a bullshit term. It always struck me wrong when I went to Lane Bryant and was rewarded with “real woman dollars” for shopping. But the wrongness burst into ugly life when I re-watched the episode of Project Runway where one of the designers is a giant toolbag to a plus-size lady. The utter patronizing tone in which its delivered and that it’s obvious he’s using it in place of “fat” because he’s trying to weasel out of being eviscerated for being an asshole is even more insulting.

You’re not fooling anyone. We shouldn’t need some kind of smirking consolation prize for wearing clothing that’s bigger than a 16. We already know we’re real. We exist. It’s a sad disguise for the fact that often plus-size clothing feels like cultural punishment by setting set us in an adversarial position to women who wear “normal” sizes. Perhaps if we’re too busy trying to look down our noses at each other, we’ll miss the evil truth that we’re being compelled to attack people who should be our allies in this struggle, divided falsely along superficial lines.

Or maybe I’m reading too much into it. Maybe it’s just a pathetic attempt to make us feel better about ourselves. Hey, you’re large and are apparently considered unworthy to wear anything other than black smocks (it’s slimming, you know) but you’re a real woman. As if realness is determined by mass rather than an authenticity of spirit. 

Being a woman isn’t a contest that some of us have to lose. There is a full spectrum of women to which we all belong, an infinite continuum of what it means to “look like a woman,” and no part of that spectrum should be defined as inherently superior. Doing that (and then gleefully jumping over a cliff with the invention of photoshop) is what got us into this mess in the first place.

I’m tired of the implication that my struggle to accept myself has to come at the detriment of other women.

Real women are fat. Real women are thin. Real women come in all colors and shapes and identities, and sometimes we have curves, and sometimes we don’t but damnit we’re all real women.

And we’re all really beautiful.

Categories
department of corrections feminism

Princess? Sigh.

ETA: I have since confirmed that this gifset is totally fake and I should feel ashamed of myself. I’m going to go sit in the corner. I have preserved the text of this post in all its unedited glory so (a) you can see the dumb thing I said by grace of not confirming sources [not yay] and (b) I still very much stand by what I said about the whole “princess” thing, because it doesn’t actually matter what guy is saying it, and it is a thing you hear men say all the fucking time. It’s still infantilizing bullshit.

 

I adore you, Tom Hiddleston. I do. And I totally grok what you are trying to say, here. But that word. Princess.

Sigh.

This is admittedly a bit of Rachael brain damage, but since this is a Rachael blog, I get to complain. I hate the Princess shit with burning passion. I hate it when people (normally guys) say women should be treated like princesses, unless the word princess is immediately preceded by the word warrior.

There’s a lot of baggage to Princess. Historically, what were they? Women of royalty who (normally) could not inherit or rule. They were there to basically belong to their father until they could be sold in the cause of a political alliance to another man. At which point the purpose switched over to providing (hopefully) male babies.

And then there’s Disney. Disney hasn’t exactly made the Princess into an empowering concept either. Princesses get rescued by the man and live happily ever after as someone’s meek wife. And if you look at the recent Disney “princesses” that have had more guts, most of them aren’t actually princesses.

Princess to me doesn’t hold the ring of respecting women. It conjures up images of paternalistic protectionism, rescuing the damsel in distress.  So fine, I twitch a lot less when a dad calls his daughter his little princess, because he should be looking out for her. (And presumably not looking for a husband and political deals.)

But please don’t treat grown women like princesses. Treat us like unique, powerful, and beautiful human beings who are worthy of respect.

Or if we must stick with the verbal paradigm of royalty, Queen is acceptable. But only if you mean Queen in a sort of Elizabeth I/Maleficent way. Because fuck yeah.

Categories
feminism

LOL your personhood amendment

I’d heard that we were going to get the Son of the Revenge of the Personhood Amendment from the Black Lagoon in Colorado this year. I rolled my eyes so damn hard that I think I might have pulled a muscle.

Oh, guess not. 

The attempt to get the Personhood Amendment (tl;dr version: fetuses have rights, women don’t) on the ballot was shot down due to a lack of valid signatures. The campaign only turned in 106K signatures, and had 24K knocked off as invalid, which put it below the threshold for making it onto the ballot. Of course the campaign is now going to take legal action on this, but I have high hopes for that being a complete bullshit move.

They tried to have a Personhood Amendment in Mississippi last year. In Mississippi! It failed by something like a ten percent margin.

Maybe when Mississippi is telling you that your ridiculous anti-choice bullshit is too draconian, it’s time to pack it in.

Because I don’t know. Maybe even women who hate abortion like having access to birth control. (You know, birth control. The number one thing that helps prevent the potential need or desire for an abortion.) Or being able to have access to in-vitro fertilization. Or don’t want their vagina treated like a crime scene if they have the poor taste to miscarry a baby that they wanted. Maybe women are getting tired of being characterized as wombs with legs who lose all agency when they get pregnant. (That’s for sure one of the main reasons I have an absolute horror of being pregnant. Kat, I don’t know how you do it, you’re amazing.)

Personhood Colorado, please take the hint and fuck off.