Tag: sigh

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sfwa sigh

Sigh.

Rescued my SFWA Bulletin from the mail today. And… sigh. We’re apparently celebrating the 200th issue with a muscular barbarian babe in a chainmail bikini with red poofy 80s hair.

I know we should celebrate our pulpy genre roots and take glee in them, and I try people, I really try. And the cover is always a fantasy/scifi thing, which I’ve always liked. But this? It doesn’t even bug me so much as… sigh. Yeah, that.

Can I not even escape getting punched in the face by the unattainable “idealized” female body in my nerdy writer space? It’s not like female writers are exotic specimens you only see on safaris or feminists (of any gender) in the organization have been shy about making their presence known. But it feels as if ‘Bonus: we remind you of the pervasiveness of the male gaze!’ should be in yellow under Bud Sparhawk’s name in the lineup.

Sigh.

Double bonus – the Resnick and Malzberg dialog at the back is to sing the praises of lady editors and publishers. With, “She was competent, unpretentious, and beauty pageant gorgeous… as photographs make quite clear. Tell succeeding generations all about her [Dorothy McIlwraith], please.” at the start.

Just… sigh.

Categories
lgbt sigh

Little Boy Wears Awesome Shoes, Adults Freak the Fuck Out

Just a quick break from thesis hell to link to this: Photograph Of Little Boy Wearing Pink Shoes To Preschool Sparks Heated Blogosphere Debate

Which really reminds me of this: 5 year old boy dresses up as Daphne for Hallowe’en, other moms have gender panic

The little son of one of my kung fu buddies has an amazing pair of bright pink crocs with sparkly jewels on them. The kid loves those things, it’s adorable, and they keep him from getting glass in his feet, so it’s win/win, right?

Something just really bugs the shit out of me about the “but if you let your boy wear pink shoes, he’ll get bullied” argument. Because beyond letting bullies win, wouldn’t that just reinforce the stupid cultural more that the bullies use to excuse their shitty behavior? And frankly, if there are bullies, they will find a way to be an asshole to your kid no matter what. They make fun of your clothes and you change your clothes, so next they make fun of your hair, or that you wear glasses, or that you’re smart, or whatever. Living life because you’re afraid someone’s going to say something mean to you is no way to live.

And I would think that’s no way to force your kid to live. But I’m not a parent, so I can’t really speak authoritatively on that. Parents? What say you?

Also, I feel like the “but bullies!” argument is just lipstick on the pig of “but pink will make him gay” argument. Because it’s still about fear that a little boy will be perceived as gay – not that there’s anything wrong with it, there are just mean people who obviously aren’t me, say the concern trolls. It really feels like a more subtle take on the the same old shit, just spoken in a concerned voice to make it less ugly because people have finally realized that we’re fucking done with accepting overt homophobia.

She explained to him in the store that they were really made for girls. Sam then told her that he didn’t care and that ‘ninjas can wear pink shoes too.’

Rock your shoes, kiddo. Haters gonna hate, life is short, get out there and make it work.

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.