Fangirls Around the Web: June 11, 2014
We have to start off this edition of Fangirls Around the Web with the exciting news that Merriam-Webster has added the word “fangirl” to the dictionary.
Confidence and Careers For Women
Katty Kay and Claire Shipman at The Atlantic write about “The Confidence Gap: Evidence shows that women are less self-assured than men — and that to succeed, confidence matters as much as competence. Here’s why, and what to do about it.” Along similar lines, notable scientist Neil DeGrasse Tyson spoke about the obstacles facing women and minorities in STEM fields.
Show Them Your Fangirl Money
Box Office Mojo reports on the big opening weekend for Maleficent:
Maleficent got off to a strong start in the U.S. and abroad this weekend, while Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West flopped.
Disney’s big-budget reimagining of Sleeping Beauty earned an estimated $70 million at the domestic box office, which is the biggest debut ever for star Angelina Jolie. Meanwhile, it grossed roughly $100 million overseas, which is a significant improvement over 2013’s Oz The Great and Powerful. …
Maleficent‘s success can be attributed in part to the enduring popularity of Disney’s animated fare: Sleeping Beauty has tons of fans who were clearly excited to see a new take on the story. Maleficent isn’t the last time that Disney is mining its animated library for live-action stories: they have Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella and Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book on the 2015 calendar.
It’s also important to note that Maleficent was the first major Summer movie targeted toward women. At the risk of sounding redundant, women make up half of the population and half of moviegoers and will continue to reward movies with interesting lead female characters.
Finally, Maleficent likely got a boost from having Angelina Jolie in the title role. Jolie has been a solid box office draw throughout her career, but hasn’t appeared in front of the camera since late 2010. Her return to the big-screen—in an exciting, unique role—was surely cause for excitement among her fanbase.
Publishers Weekly has an interesting feature on “Despite Early Sales Slump, Comics Retailers Remain Upbeat,” including some interesting insight into the changing nature of the comics consumer landscape.
Retailers are also seeing a need to adjust their ordering to accommodate some of the new groups they see coming into their stores. While many stores report that their children’s comics sections continue to grow, the demographic that seems to be growing the fastest is young women, aged 17–33. Image titles like The Walking Dead, Saga, and Pretty Deadly have gotten their attention, but Wayne Wise reports that at Phantom of the Attic there are “a lot of young women who are really invested in Marvel and DC titles, as well as the Indies. New titles aimed at this group are an important part of this. Books like Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and Young Avengers have been particularly successful.” Data from a reader survey by digital comics vendor Comixology supports what retailers are seeing. Chip Mosher, Comixology’s v-p, communications and marketing, confirmed that 20% of its new customers in the third quarter of 2013 were females ages 17–26.
Words Of Wisdom From Writer/Academics
Rose Lemberg wrote a pair of great blog posts: On the Pitfalls of “merit” and Narrative, Objectivity, and Viewpoint that discusses diversity debates in the SFF community. Natacha Guyot participated in a fun writing process “blog hop.”
Women on Film
Vulture encourages everyone to “Read Gabourey Sidibe’s Wonderful Speech From the Ms. Foundation Gala.”
At TheMarySue, Rachel Kolb conducted a fascinating interview with Lindsay Ellis about YouTube and the future of new media in storytelling. Katie Schenkel writes about how the character of Tina on Bob’s Burgers has become one of her favorites on television.
Star Wars (and Star Trek) Fangirls Are Awesome
Thanks to Johnamarie Macias for her delightful feature on Fangirling Over Other Fangirls.
Ashley Eckstein is the first profile featured at Legion of Leia. The latest Fangirls of the Day are: Mariana, Kim, Andra, Bailee, Beth, Karen, Rachele, Bella, Liani, Anna, Bri, Katherine, Jen, Sarah, Ashley, Angela, Sarah, Lauren, Caitlin, Marina Rosa, Laura, Amity, Holly, Amber, Delaney, Charity, Vanessa, Ashley and Marisa.
Linda’s friend Meg, who I met at last year’s GeekGirlCon, sent along a link to this great Star Trek shirt at Red Bubble.
Do you keep up on Club Jade’s Twitter roundup? You should.
LucasBooks editor Jen Heddle shares her Star Wars EU Awards, including among her favorites Jaina Solo, Ania Solo, Scarlet Hark, and the Yuuzhan Vong as villains.
Priya sent a link to Laura Hudson’s excellent essay at Wired about how to combat online harassment, as well as Vulture’s feature titled “Eloisa James on Feminism, Sexuality, and Why Romance Novels Are More Than Worthy of Respect.”
Overcoming Hurdles
Finally, former collegiate gymnast Kacy Catanzaro, all of 5′ tall, became the first female competitor to successfully top the 15′ high Warped Wall obstacle and complete the course on American Ninja Warrior. Check out her amazing performance:
As this post was going to press a second woman topped the Warped Wall!
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.
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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