Inclusion in Fandom: Call for Links
A week or so back, I talked about inclusiveness in fandom and the SF/F community, trying to separate perception from reality.
In the comments, author Ekaterina Sedia pointed out that many people who feel excluded in one way or another have been blogging and talking about this issue for a while, but that the response tends to be pretty minimal. (Whereas when the straight white male geek blogs about it, he ends up with close to 100 comments.
Running with a suggestion from netmouse, I’d like to collect and share some of those less-trafficked blog posts. If you’ve written or read about the issue of inclusiveness in our community, please share the link in the comments. My plan, depending on how many links we get, is to summarize and organize the list in a future post. (LJ Note: LiveJournal has been sending more comments with links into the spam folder. If this happens to you, don’t worry about it. I’ll unspam that as soon as I catch it.)
Short version: If we’re going to have this conversation, let’s try to get more attention to a broader range of voices.
Thanks!
Sylvia Sybil
November 18, 2012 @ 3:56 pm
I wrote Women Are Geeks, Too back in January, discussing and linking to some of the ways women are dissuaded from participating in geek culture.
Tansy Rayner Roberts (@tansyrr)
November 18, 2012 @ 5:42 pm
Hi Jim
I just wrote a piece on geek women and what they wear – http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/what-geek-girls-wear-is-none-of-your-business/
But I’d also like to draw your attention to some of the work done on Doctor Her, the feminist Doctor Who blog, especially:
“Cosplayers are not Fake Geek Girls,” by Courtney Stoker – http://doctorher.com/?p=2030
“Radical Inclusiveness or why Hufflepuff is the Best House,” by Nightsky – http://doctorher.com/?p=1832
“Oh, You Sexy Geek!”: “Geek Girls” and the Problem of Self-Objectification, by Courtney Stoker – http://doctorher.com/?p=1208
and in fact most of the essays by Courtney on the blog!
Cheers,
Tansy
Joe
November 19, 2012 @ 7:11 am
“Whereas when the straight white male geek blogs about it, he ends up with close to 100 comments.”
Was that tongue in cheek or serious. If the former, you should include an emoticon so we can tell. If the latter, I’ll stop reading your blog right now.
Nicholas Kapur
November 19, 2012 @ 2:53 pm
Don’t let the white dudeliness hit you on the way out.
Ryorin
November 19, 2012 @ 9:54 pm
By Neil Gaiman on the subject of cosplay: http://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/35853942696/does-this-really-need-saying-oh-probably
A comic about how the treatment of women in fandom is different by Meghan Danger, posted on The Mary Sue with links to other articles on the topic of “Fake Geek Girl”: http://www.themarysue.com/geek-guys-and-girls/
Another comic satirizing the concept of “Fake Geek Girl” by Jemma Salume, also on The Mary Sue, also with links at the bottom: http://www.themarysue.com/jemma-salume-geek-girls/
I’m unsure how much traffic these get comparatively. I know The Mary Sue is well known, but it seems unlikely that anyone without some feminist leanings would frequent it, so perhaps more exposure outside its usual demographic would be good.
Lesley Arrowsmith
December 31, 2012 @ 11:53 am
Thanks for providing a place for these links – I’ve now found the Doctor Her blog, and it’s brilliant!
(and I love your cover poses!)
Jim C. Hines
December 31, 2012 @ 2:51 pm
Thanks, Leslie!