laceblade | Entries tagged with wiscon 32

Thanks to

rachelmanija for alerting me to recent developments via my LiveJournal friends list.

Okay. So, this one time, Nightshade Press published an anthology of short stories, titled Eclipse One. The mix of authors contained within the anthology was evenly split between men and women. Despite having a number of good (and good-selling) female authors, every name that was on the cover was male. In addition, the marketing package of the cover art was masculine.

Taken from the Wiscon panel description from this year:

The ensuing argument centered around two main points--the publishers felt that, of the authors in the anthology, the names they'd put on the cover were likely to attract the attention of more casual buyers. And because they were in the business of making money, they could not afford to put an "agenda" ahead of anything else. Readers felt that, because no women were given a slot on the cover, the publishers were reinforcing patriarchal assumptions about who sells books, and who doesn't. Some expressed the opinion that the lack of women on the cover was actually likely to deter them from buying the book.

coffeeandink had a nice write-up of this panel posted in her LiveJournal, here. Of particular note is the concluding thoughts, which mirror my memory of the panel:

The book's sales history: Jeremy said it "sold to expectation," that he's already contracted for Volumes 2 and 3, and that based on the authors already accepted for Volume 2, there will be multiple women on the cover (I forget how many).

The table of contents for Volume Two has been released, and you can see it here, or with more comments accompanying it, here. Every name on that list except for one is a man's name.

So, as spelled out in the Wiscon panel description, there are two sides to the debate. Either it is okay for marketing people to shape their marketing strategy of fiction to reinforce a patriarchy, or it is a good idea for them to acknowledge the diversity in fiction that already exists.

Whatever side of the debate you lie on, there is no excuse for sending a representative (an editor responsible for the decision, no less!) to a feminist convention and have him fucking lie to the entire panel and everyone in the room about what they can expect in the future.

Seriously. WTF.

I now regret not typing up my notes on this panel yet. Perhaps I'll have time to do so tomorrow.

rachelmanija is actually productive in her post, and has started compiling a list of women writers and/or writers of color.

Let's make it easy for them, shall we?

Here is a convenient post listing current authors of gender and/or color who have been known to write sf and/or fantasy and/or magic realism short stories. Editors, should be uncertain whom to solicit to get fantastic stories that are not by white guys (sorry, white guys!), just check the post and comments here, and then feed the names into google. I am certain that many of the authors will be pleased to hear from you.

One could also email the list to any editors whom one happens to know are putting together anthologies. Just a thought.

Personally, I don't think the problem is simply that the white male editors have absolutely no idea where to look. I mean, it's the Internet age,right? One of the editors was at Wiscon. I don't really know what else we could do, short of a color-by-number instruction guide.

To be clear: What upsets me the most is that an editor for the publishing company came to Wiscon, sat on a panel, and lied. Who does that?

56 The Curious Boundaries of YA Fantasy

Reading, Viewing, & Critiquing Science Fiction and Fantasy ♦ Saturday, 1:00-2:15 P.M. ♦ Senate A

What are the limits of what can be discussed in YA fantasy? What themes and issues are considered appropriate, and which are taboo? Who sets these limits and do they mesh with the desires and expectations of YA readers?

M: Mary Anne Mohanraj, Sharyn November, Tamora Pierce, Sarah Beth Durst

So, somebody else moderated this panel, but I can't remember who it was.

My notes are pretty sparse. I'm in it for the book recommendations, :D

( Cut for the uninterested! )

Current Music: Antoine laughing at every page as he reads some Yotsuba&! manga

89 The Slayer's Legacy: Ten Years of the Buffyverse

Reading,Viewing, & Critiquing Science Fiction and Fantasy ♦ Saturday, 4:00-5:15 P.M. ♦ Capitol B

Ten years ago, the television series Buffy The Vampire Slayer debuted, headed by Joss Whedon, a self-proclaimed feminist. The show created spinoffs, academic disciplines, and a fiercely loyal fan community, and embraced ideals of cooperation, alternative sexualities, smart heroines, and the mix between monster and human. Buffy fans embrace all types, from academics in linguistics and gender theory, theologians, writers, ceremonial magicians, artists, bloggers and more. Buffy is still a viable site for discourse and inspiration ten years later and it came in with feminist ideals—there are even Buffy discussion groups at feminist bookstores today. How does this change the landscape of science fiction today—what is the Slayer's legacy? We'll look at how feminist ideals of cooperation have spread to the support of the WGA strike, and how Buffy has created a new kind of fan, actor, writer, and artist. We'll look at the links between fan culture, feminism, academia and how the Buffyverse has shared feminism and feminist ideals with the world.

M: Olivia Luna, Candra Gill, Jody Wurl, Ariel Franklin-Hudson

I wasn't really looking for great theoretical value in this panel, so please forgive me for just posting the squee.

( Spoilers through the end of the series (I think?) lie behind the cut. )

Overall, this was a fun panel to sit in on, having just finished watching all 7 seasons of Buffy for the first time. I am open to suggestions of further Buffy readings, if anyone has them. By "Buffy readings," I refer to comics (have already read most of Season 8, Fray, and Tales of the Vampires), novels (are any of them any good?), or criticism (online or in book-form).

If anyone else attended the panel and has information that I forgot, or different opinions about how the panel went, please express them!

2 Nordic Trek

Reading,Viewing, & Critiquing Science Fiction and Fantasy ♦ Friday, 2:30-3:45 P.M. ♦ Senate B

The long journey across the Gethen Glacier in Left Hand of Darkness. The Svalbard of Iorek Byrnison in The Golden Compass. Even the Alaskan village of 30 Days of Night. The frozen north holds allure for more than Green Bay Packer fans. Whence cometh this fascination? Panel may include dramatic readings; the highly imaginative (or suggestible) should bring sweaters.

M: Adrian Simmons, Evelyn Browne, Maureen Cohen, Lori Devoti

( Panel Report Behind the Cut! )

If anyone else attended the panel and has information that I forgot, or different opinions about how the panel went, please express them!

I'm kind of astounded by how many hits both my blog and LJ have received in the last two days. People of the world, pay attention to this post, too. It is really important to look at how a feminist community responds to such a horrific event.

Pictures of me have now been posted, and excerpts of my blog entry describing the situation have been quoted by the asshats on the SASS forums. I think the most amusing part of reading that thread is their posts of "How long do you think it will take them to find this?" or "Do you think they've figured out we found their Flickr pool yet?" I mean, I know that Internet geek boys love to congratulate themselves for their ability to navigate the Internet, but don't they think that feminist sci-fi geeks might also spend their fair share of time on the Internet? WE ALSO NAVIGATE THE SERIES OF TUBES.

The Angry Black Woman posts: What Rachel Moss Did. If you're confused about WTF is going on, I suggest you begin here. TABW lays it all out for you.

Lesley at Fatshionista posts: A Modest Invitation

Take my picture.

Take it without asking. Take my picture while I’m doing something I love, something that makes me happy. In a place where I can forget that my life often feels like one long activist battle, where I can not feel constantly on my guard, not feel always vulnerable to attack, not feel as though my body is up for debate.

Take my picture, and post it online, in as many high-traffic spaces as you can muster. Identify me if you want. By name, by location, by employer. Surround that picture with vitriolic commentary about my body, my femininity or lack thereof, my perceived sexual habits, my self esteem. Laugh, and laugh, and laugh, that gut-rattling laughter of unmitigated cruelty, that laughter that comes from laughing at people who don’t know you’re laughing at them, who were going about their lives and made a target simply for not falling, unseen, unremarkably, into culturally acceptable slots - people who are targets simply for failing to be invisible.

Take my picture every fucking day for a year. Post it online, and tear me apart. Point out the innumerable imperfections in my shape, my body, my face, my fashion choices, my eating habits, my health. Keep doing it. Do it again, and again, and again. Do it as loud as you can. Do it as often as you can bear it. Be as mean and as ugly and as unabashed as your nature allows.

Do it. Take it. Take my picture and eviscerate me online. It’s just a public, out-loud, communal version of what people do to me inside their heads every single day. It’s happened to me before, online and off. It’ll happen again. It’ll happen every day I leave the house, for the rest of my life.

I am still fat, and I am still not sorry. And nothing you can say, nothing you can post, nothing you can do will change that. No matter how many times you try to humiliate me. No matter how much you want me to hate myself. Because it’s my fucking body. And I don’t owe you a damn thing.

purplefrog26 was the subject of one of the pictures, and replies quite eloquently in her LJ.

This incident, unfortunately, is not unusual. Fat people hear negative comments, see the disgusted looks, and feel the drawing back of people around them. It’s not a safe world to live in if you are a fat person. We lose our right to privacy. Pictures are taken for amusement. Our shopping carts are examined with the intent to judge our eating habits. Our health status is questioned. We are not treated with respect and dignity by employers, service people, or health care workers. This happens every time we step out of our homes. Unfortunately, these messages can be internalized. So not only do you face the challenges of dealing with society but you tell yourself that you are ugly, worthless and disgusting. So it becomes a radical act when you choose to live your life and love yourself despite the negativity that we swim thorough every day.

I’m not sure what this person’s objective was in posting these pathetic attempts at humor. But I know that they did not change my commitment to living my life joyfully and abundantly. And I prefer pictures to include my face.

Panel Report: Sponteaneous Panel: Shoujo Bodies ♦ 7:30pm, Saturday

Most bodies in shoujo manga are thin and wispy, with an emphasis on androgyny. Many of the men tend to lack muscle definition (think Yuu Watase), while the women are much less curvy than their shounen manga counterparts. What does this mean to us? What other body types are there in shoujo manga? We will hopefully talk about gender-bending, cross-dressing, body image, and the fashion industry. Suggested series to discuss: After School Nightmare, Paradise Kiss, Walkin' Butterfly, Angel Sanctuary, Fruits Basket, W Juliet, Rose of Versailles, and Princess Knight.

This panel was organized by

oyceter and

coffeeandink, and it was pretty awesome. For some reason, I don't talk much at Wiscon panels, so even though this one was less than 10 people, I still didn't say much. In my defense, I was quite tired, but still very excited. What follows is basically a list of titles of manga series, with the small amount of commentary I wrote down. Again, I was tired.

takumashii also wrote up this panel with a better summary than I did, and also caught some series titles that I missed.

( List of discussed series; spoilers for Mars lie behind the cut )

Whee! I'd love to read After School Nightmare and Princess Knight, for sure. I intend to check out the other stuff, too.

You know what? I look pretty damn cute in the pictures of me that got uploaded to the SASS thread. Indeed, I love what K. Tempest had to say:

I was scrolling through the thread and looking at the pictures and, instead of being ashamed that I associate myself with such people (horrors!), I couldn’t help but think of how beautiful all those images are. They are pictures of beautiful women of all sizes smiling, having fun, loving where they are and what they’re doing. These are the poeple I go to WisCon to be around. And nothing those half-brained monkeys on that forum say can make me feel any different. You wanna call me out as a fat loser? You go right ahead. But it’s plainly evident that I not only have more class than you, I also have a better life and better friends. All the evidence I need to support that statement is my lack of time spent on the internet trolling for pictures of people I don’t know in order to make fun of them for arbitrary reasons.

Get a life, you losers. And coming from a Star Trek fan, that’s fucking sad.

Panel 191 Report: Last time, on Battlestar Galactica...

Reading, Viewing, & Critiquing Science Fiction and Fantasy ♦ Sunday, 11:30-12:45 A.M. ♦ Senate A

We saw the first part of Season Four, let's talk about it. Where is the series going? Let's speculate on the ramifications of the final five Cylons, Roslin's reoccurring cancer, and all the good stuff in the rest of Season Four.

M: Ben Burgis, Maddie Greene, JJ Pionke

This panel began at 11:30pm. Most of the panelists were drunk, as was most of the audience. This was hands-down the most hilarious panel I attended during the entire convention. I don't even remember what we talked about, and I didn't even drink. Cracktastic Cylon theories and references to Ikea planets were made. It was the just-perfect combination of people making insightful comments while also being drunkenly cheeky. I think my favorite moment (aside from Starbuck's white viper coming from Ikea) was

heyiya's "I have a really complex and insightful theory, but I've had a few beers and I can't complete this thought process!" I had so much fun that I didn't take any notes.

I didn't attend the "Is Racism Inherent in Fantasy?" panel, but I have heard a lot about it from friends (whose brains were broken).

badgerbag has video responses from people who attended the panel. My friend

brdgt is "Bridget" in three of these videos, and you have the opportunity to see how hilarious she is.

coffeeandink has has posted about the "Can Internet Drama Change the World?" panel, posting a mostly-complete transcript of the panel. I attended this panel, and intend to post my own notes later, unless I decide that I don't have anything else to say. The consensus, though, was "Yes, Internet drama can change the world."

( Here be sign-out stories, involving Tamora Pierce, Patrick Rothfuss, and Maureen F. McHugh )

Yesterday was work and grocery shopping, but

sasha_feather and I had time to eat dinner together, and I then showed her the first two episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist. She is pretty new to anime (I think she's only seen Cowboy Bebop?), so I cackle with the glee of corruption. She hopes to reciprocate by getting me to read slash fanfiction.

Okay, so it appears as though Something Awful has deleted the offensive post* made by a Wiscon attendee at her request. Indeed, she is so sorry.

So here is my question. I am assuming that people are going to want to discuss what happened. People should discuss what happened, and IMO, how it can be prevented next time.

I still have the window open on my laptop with the original post. Should I post the text in a public post so that it might be accessible to the interwebs once more? If so, where would be most appropriate: my personal blog, or the Wiscon blog? Is it offensive to re-post the material, or is it more offensive for the perpetrator to hurt people so egregiously and then do a hand-wave because she "did not even begin to consider how much harm it would do to people"?

I'd rather not re-post the pictures in my blog, and I'm not even sure that I could. If the post was deleted, I don't think that I can save them, even if they're still on a web browser window that's been open for hours.

*In case you missed it, someone who attended Wiscon spent her time snapping photographs of people without their permission, removing their faces from pictures, and uploading them to the Something Awful forums with some of the most hateful and ignorant commentary I have ever seen in my life. She attended panels such as "Fat is Not the Enemy," took pictures of people whom she considered to be fat, and then hatefully mocked them for the rest of the world to see, often posting people's names with the pictures. I felt physically ill reading the post, and was nearly in tears by the end of it.

I am disgusted and ashamed that this girl attends my University, and presumably lives in this city. I hope for her sake that our paths never cross. Verily, words would be exchanged.
(Thank God for Facebook, so I know what she looks like, am I right?)

ETA: Read the comments for a link to the first half of the original post. Also, the threads of that post on the SASS forums contain lots more pictures (did people find flickr pools?). People seem to be posting lots of just random photos from Wiscon, including a cute picture of

littlebutfierce,

raanve, and someone I don't recognize. NORMALITY, IT TRANSLATES TO LOLS. I guess I'm just really out of touch with Internet humor. I don't get it.

ETA2: One of the Con-Chairs has posted to the Wiscon LJ community, asking people to please cease violent threats of any kind. The post is here. Please sit tight, people. The Con-Chairs and ConCommittee are aware of the problem and working on it. Please refrain from posting personal information about the person in question, etc.

Also, the thread on SASS seems to be using pictures from the Wiscon Flickr pool in an ever-increasing number of posts. If you have photos of children on Flickr, please lock them. If you took photos of people without asking for their permission, I would recommend locking those as well, until you obtain it.

EDIT 3: Do not threaten the original poster (that's just stupid). Do not post her personal information (there is more than one person with her name in the world). If you happen across her personal information, I would go with: Do not contact her.

EDIT 4: If you want to disagree with my friends and I in the comments, that's fine. But if your comments are in any way derogatory, they will be deleted. I am open to discourse, but will not tolerate slurs.