Fangirls Around the Web: March 18, 2014
It’s that time of the month to introduce the heroines and their fangirls spotted around the web.
Her Universe will be hosting a Geek Couture Fashion show contest at San Diego Comic Con. Get all the details here. Over at the Daily Dot. Lisa Granshaw discusses the impact of fashion on fandom and fangirls more specifically. Her Universe Fangirls of the Day are: Jen, Marcella, Sarah, Emily, Dani, Isabella, Mary, Brianna, Sophia, Carrie, Katie, Lindsay, Ashley, Sarah, and Laura.
Blastr highlighted Women to watch: 11 trailblazing ladies who dominate sci-fi and fantasy, including Ashley Eckstein, Jane Espenson, Julie Plec, and Kathleen Kennedy.
Jill Pantozzi at TheMarySue has a great interview with Dark Horse Comics editor-in-chief Scott Allie about women in comics. She also reports about yet another instance of unacceptable and ignorant response to the issue of cosplay harassment at conventions.
Allie on Tomb Raider: Talking about fans of Lara is an interesting thing, because she’s a whole new woman now, you know? She was an icon that was really useful for women to own in the nineties and later, even though she was very heavily geared toward a male audience at the time. But the audience evolves, the business evolves, and she’s a new person now. Fans of the game are invested in her heroics, they appreciate that she’s not hypersexualized, that she’s more sophisticated and human. And maybe you lose some of the dudes who didn’t want that, but I believe Square Enix made that choice to make a better character.
Allie on Buffy: You know, also with Buffy, things evolve. The version of feminism that’s presented through a fantasy character is different now than it was in 1998, when we first started doing the comics. There’ve been a couple things in the comics that I’ve had to steer the writers and artists away from, to which they’ve very legitimately responded, “But wasn’t that in the show?” And it was, but things change. This is the Buffy of 2014 (or whatever year it is in the comic itself, shhhh), and this is the Lara of 2014, and I’m proud of that. I like presenting these images of heroines, as opposed to some of the other ones in our industry.
Allie on portrayal of women: With Buffy, I’ve often had to push my most well-intentioned artists to play down the cheesecake. I remember once Georges (male) complaining to me that Jo Chen (female) had made Buffy’s breasts too large on a cover, and I had to ask her to tone it down. One of my artists recently kept putting midriff-baring shirts on female characters in scenes unsuited for that. I wrote a long, annoying screed to one of my creative teams about how we’re gonna portray women in comics. And we redesigned Ghost’s costume for the relaunch to make it less about her cleavage.
So I do agree, but I also think that even if you and I are wrong—about the market—I’m happy that we’re doing what we’re doing. Not that I want to suck all the sexiness away from comics. I love Empowered—where Adam Warren has fun with the whole thing, the whole issue of sexualization. I like Jeff Campbell. And I’m not above the genuinely low-brow stuff, that falls into the cliches Adam is lampooning. But I’m really, really happy that most of my work is on material that doesn’t talk down to, or scare off, female readers.
Allie on sensibilities: But those are our sensibilities. We’re actually not changing anything because it might offend someone—we’re changing it because we don’t like it. I mean, we have those sensibilities. I may be wrong, but I sort of doubt that someone at DC looked at that one guy’s Catwoman cover and said, “This may offend people, but I’m gonna go for it.” I sort of imagine a lot of high fiving over that picture, followed by surprise that it got the reaction it did. I’ve been guilty of not predicting a negative response, or not expecting the particular negative response. I bet that’s a big part of it, although I can’t say. But … thank you.
The Wrap reports that the Science Channel is teaming with late-night host Craig Ferguson and the creator of the influential Facebook page run by Elise Andrews “I F-ing Love Science” for a new television series of the same name.
One of the new promos for Captain America: The Winter Soldier is this new featurette, “Meet Black Widow”:
On Facebook I shared this amazing story of the “Night Witches,” female Russian aviators during World War II who flew missions at night against the attacking German forces.
Yahoo Sports reports on the signing of Shannon Szabados by the Columbus Cottonmouths of the Southern Professional Hockey League. A two-time gold medal winning goalie for the Canadian Olympic Team, she is one of the few women to play against men professionally in any context.
Alyssa Rosenberg at ThinkProgress discusses “Lupita Nyong’o Takes On Beauty Standards In An Amazing – And Depressing – Speech At Essence.” Upworthy has the full video.
After her performance at the Oscars, Idina Menzel joined Jimmy Fallon and The Roots for a very different take on the Frozen hit “Let It Go”:
Kay shared this report describing actor Kevin Spacey’s hilarious answers on the Oscars’ red carpet when he was asked the kinds of questions usually inflicted only on the female participants.
Rebecca Rose at Jezebel notes that “Divergent Star Shailene Woodley Isn’t Looking for a Katniss Catfight.”
Actress Jaimie Alexander, who plays Lady Sif in the Thor films, made a great appearance on the Nerdist podcast.
I had a lot of fun with the Buzzfeed quiz Which Joss Whedon Heroine Are You? even though I didn’t get Buffy.
Variety breaks down how female-led movies gross on average compare to male-led movies. And yes, Hollywood is leaving money on the table.
This New York Times Magazine article asking why there are still so few women in science isn’t new, but it’s relevant to asking to see women in storytelling.
Tricia Barr took her understanding of brand management and marketing, mixed it with a love of genre storytelling, and added a dash of social media flare to create FANgirl Blog, where she discusses Star Wars, fandom, and strong female characters. She also writes about Star Wars for Random House’s science fiction and fantasy blog Suvudu.com and Star Wars Insider magazine and is a contributor for Her Universe’s Year of the Fangirl. Her FANgirl opinions can be heard on the podcasts Assembly of Geeks and RebelForce Radio Presents Fangirls Going Rogue.
Tricia has completed her first novel, Wynde – a military science fiction with a fantastical twist that features heroines Vespa and Gemini. For excerpts and tales of her adventures in creating a fictional universe, hop over to TriciaBarr.com.
For updates on all things FANgirl follow @FANgirlcantina on Twitter or like FANgirl Zone on Facebook. At times she tries the Tumblr.
Tricia Barr's novel, Wynde, won the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Award Gold Medal for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Ebook. She was also part of Silence in the Library's successful all-female creator science fiction and fantasy anthology Athena's Daughters, which is available now. For excerpts and tales of her adventures in creating a fictional universe, hop over to TriciaBarr.com.
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