This year at Ad Astra, I did a panel on Fake Geek Girls. Or rather, their mythical quality. (For future reference, there are about as many Fake Geek Girls in existence in 2013 as there were witches in Salem, MA in 1693.) During the question period, a teenaged girl at the back of the room asked what was to be done about all this, about the guys who would seemingly never accept her in their space (which was never their…
I mentioned in my previous post, I spent part of the week before last doing appearances at two Toronto public libraries. My first afternoon out, I spoke with a couple of classes of fifth graders about being a writer, and more importantly, being a reader. I talked about all the books that had ever gotten me into trouble. These included To Kill A Mockingbird (which caused me to have a conversation about rape with a fellow second-grader, and I suspect…
So, in response to reading this Buzzfeed piece about how comics pro Tony Harris hates female cosplayers — only some of them, though, which we’ll get to in a moment — I tweeted Pro tip: geeks of all genders who are confident in their geekery and their sexuality get laid more often. Confidence is sexy. Whining isn’t. That tweet has since been retweeted over a hundred times. It’s been favourited 20-something times. I consider that license to write a longer…
So there I was at Chicon 7, attending a panel called “Human or Robot: Is Human Spaceflight Necessary?” with Ben Bova. Bova was the moderator, and there were no other panelists beside the two of us. (There were more of us scheduled, but none of them showed. I assume they were hung over.) The panel was quite interesting, and everyone involved clearly held passionate opinions about the issue. I even joked that that was what was best about it; the…
There must have been something in the tubes last week, because I found three really excellent pieces about gender and feminist concerns that really stuck with me as I procrastinated on finishing the edits to vN. Given that the novel has a female protagonist for much of the story, you can see why I might have had these issues on my mind.
C. Wess Daniels has a great post wherein he explains Henry Jenkins’ definition of fandom thusly: Appropriation – A person appropriates in their own life a particular text, work, and practice relating to their fan object. Often these objects are reinterpreted in their own life. Participation – There is an openness for people to participate at all levels within the community. They are so inspired by it they write music, create events, etc. Emotional Investment – People become really invested…
This is my Ad Astra schedule: Friday, 9pm, Salon 434: Science, Fantasy, and Horror in Anime Saturday, 9pm, Salon 241: Move Over, Meatbrains! (a panel about robots, why they’re useful in fiction, and recent advances in robotics/AI) Sunday, 2pm, Ballroom Centre: Tesseracts Anthology Panel (I appeared in No. 11, and will likely be sitting next to this guy. But you’ll know me: I’ll be the only girl. You’ll also recognize me because I’ll be disheveled, sweaty, and quite possibly exhausted….
Sometimes I stumble upon links which make me absurdly happy. Case in point: Project: Rooftop, which unites both pro and fan artists around the huge drawing board that is the history of superhero costume design. My favourite so far is the tribute to Stephanie Brown, AKA Spoiler, AKA Robin. Stephanie got a raw deal from Detective Comics, which they have recently tried to repay. But whatever you might think about the wisdom (or lack thereof) of DC writers, you can’t…