The last few days have been a mighty era of internet commentary about diversity, gender issues and other fun stuff in genre, much of it inspired positively or negatively by recent convention panels and in-person discussions.
A lot of the commentary happened over Twitter, quite annoyingly while I was asleep because, Australian. Still, worth checking out the #DiversityInSFF hashtag and from last night (where I did catch some of it thanks to being woken up at 2am for the Great Blankie Hunt) this splendid, thoughtful collection of ragey-tweets from Seanan Maguire.
Post of the week for me is undoubtedly this clear, sharply-honed essay at Apex by Deborah Stanish: Fangirl Isn’t a Dirty Word. Deb works through some of the issues we discussed at greater length in a recent episode of the Verity! Podcast, but has transformed the conversation into a very effective piece of writing about gender, ageism and the destructive nature of fandom gatekeeping.
Fangirls are not only being told they are doing it wrong, they are also being mocked and marginalized within the larger fandom community.
Madeline Ashby writes about the ageing population of Worldcons, and its “youth problem.”
Tobias Buckell responds with some further thoughts about conventions and how useful they are for authors.
At Strange Horizons, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz writes On Escapist Literature and Being Dangerous in response to a recent Nine Worlds conference panel about the various RaceFail discussions across the net.
On Tumblr, a thoughtful piece about why the ‘Women in…’ panel titles are so problematic, ESPECIALLY when they are there instead of panel parity and when they create a sense that men are the default.
A very silly article at Amazing Stories talks about what shouldn’t be in science fiction, and trots out the tired old idea that anyone like Lois McMaster Bujold who puts romantic threads or other feminine stuff in her SF is NOT writing SF but actually writing romance. Yeah. Tell that to someone who has read a romance novel. Seriously, that’s like complaining you’ve been tricked into reading a murder mystery novel every time a character gets shot. I do like the hilarious implication that Alexandre Dumas wrote girly books, though. MUST BE WHY THEY ARE AWESOME.
Hugo Stuff and Worldcon stuff! Here are some lovely photos on Facebook of the award winners.
Con wrap up from Glitter and Mayhem including pics of the rollercade party book launch.
Mark Oshiro from Mark Reads (& other Verbs) wrote a really lovely piece about his first Worldcon and Hugo ceremony, which is remarkably generous to me as the person who won the award he was up for. Glad he had such an awesome experience! I noticed earlier in the week that a lot of traffic was coming to my site via Mark’s, and followed it back to find his fans comiserating him on his loss – but nevertheless being REALLY nice about me and my win, and talking about how they gave me second preference. MARK YOUR FANS ARE ADORABLE.
Stina Leicht talks about Winning, Losing, The Tiara Club and World Con.
Mondy talks about nearly making the Hugo ballot with the Writer and the Critic, his responses to the Hugo winners, and also says some lovely things about me.
Jim Hines interviews a SMoF with some great, forward thinking ideas about where future conventions should be heading, and the desire to improve diversity issues.
Forbes talks about the profitability of novellas. I really have to write more novellas.
i09 reminded me how much I love Robotech. This may be my next big rewatch once I’m done with Xena! Oh, Robotech, you cracked out piece of nonsense, I adore you.
A Conversation with Avery Brooks. A lovely, thoughtful man.
Sarah Rees Brennan talks about poet Seamus Heaney and his legacy in Ireland as well as her own personal memories of him.
One of my favourite things on the internet this week – an artist lets her small child finish her drawings to wonderful effect.