Fangirls Around the Web: June 29, 2012
It’s time to feature fangirls and heroines spotted around the web this week.
Have you seen Brave yet? Emily Asher-Perrin at TOR had some thoughts on the title choice. I really liked what she said at the end:
So despite a few misfires (and an awkward title), Brave will still pack the punch you expect from a Pixar film. More than anything, it proves something important—we need more stories about mothers. About mothers and daughters. About mothers and daughters having adventures together.
Or, maybe, we all just need to have more adventures with our mothers.
There are mixed opinions on whether Brave was a success or met expectations. I’d say $66.7 million isn’t too shabby. Here’s a quick summary from The Wrap on the demographics:
Audiences skewed female at 57 percent and 55 percent were under 25 years of age. Families made up 66 percent of the crowds, couples 22 percent and teens 12 percent. Concerns that the female heroine would keep young males away vanished.
“Being brave and chasing your fate are themes that transcend gender and age,” Hollis said. “The only way you get the kind of numbers we did is to resonate with families and adults, and Pixar can do that.”
The same weekend Merida premiered, a favorite television heroine’s story came to a close. While we wonder about where The Legend of Korra will go next season, how about some really cool fan art featured on MTV Geek?
The best thing about Merida and Korra is that they inspire future real life heroines and fangirls just like Princess Leia did back in the day. Lucasfilm editor Jen Heddle tweeted this fantastic post from Claudia Gray about how important the Original Trilogy was to young women at the time it was released.
A few weeks ago, I posted a comment on Twitter saying that, if the internet had been around in 1980 (the year “Empire Strikes Back” came out), we’d all be Team Luke or Team Han. Some guy took it upon himself to inform me – to explain to me, like I was not alive and aware during that year – that “girls didn’t like Star Wars.” He insisted that we were, in 1980, only interested in Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy, the heartthrob stars of “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries.” (Surely some girls also liked Pamela Sue Anderson as Nancy Drew, but we shall let the heteronormative side of this slide for now.)
Let’s try to count everything that’s wrong with that, if we can:
In 1980, EVERYONE EVERYWHERE IN THE WHOLE WORLD LOVED STAR WARS. I cannot emphasize this enough. From 1977 to 1983, Star Wars was basically as popular as Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, One Direction, American Idol, NASCAR, chocolate, and oxygen, combined. Also, EVERYONE EVERYWHERE IN THE WHOLE WORLD includes girls.
While I wouldn’t want to be born in any other time, exactly because I got to see Episode IV: Star Wars: A New Hope when it was just Star Wars, I do wish we had these awesome superhero tutus when I went took ballet. (Original article spotted on TheMarySue.com)
Have I mentioned that sisters are pretty cool? Mine spotted an article from the Wall Street Journal on the new initiative Girls Who Code. The organization will host an “eight-week program in July for 20 high-school-age girls, who will learn how to build websites and mobile apps and start their own companies.”
Finally, FANgirl contributor and The Clone Wars reviewer Megan Crouse did a fantastic interview with Catherine Taber, the voice of Padmé Amidala at her own site Blog Full of Words.
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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