Two days after the bombshell that Peppa Pig might be in danger from the budget cuts to the ABC, she’s still trending. I think we’ve found our figurehead, people! Particularly interesting was the revelation that Peppa might be in the firing line because of her “dangerous feminist ideology.” Is this because she rolls in the mud with her family and laughs at the end of each episode, or just because she is smart and articulate?
Funnily enough, I’m interested in gender-swapping as a literary technique at the moment. Jenny Crusie wrote a thoughtful piece this week on why she thinks it’s not realistic to keep the same story if the genders of the main characters have been swapped. As is often the case for me with posts about writing, I think she is both right and wrong.
Hollywood Reporter “reveals” that thing about Game of Thrones that many fans and bloggers have been talking about for years – there’s a code in them thar embroidery. I find it particularly interesting that the women’s costumes are being used in this way, both in and out of the show’s narrative (Doyleist and Sherlockian perspectives ahoy!). And it makes me want to write another fantasy novel about dressmaking.
I’ve seen a lot of critiques of a particular set of submission guidelines around the traps recently, but Charles A Tan’s magnificent take down should be required reading for anyone intending to call for submissions for any project ever. Especially if you want to support diversity.
There’s been a lot of feminist critique and frustration about the latest X-Men movie, such as here at Bitch Magazine (but I could have linked to a dozen similar blog posts or articles). I share the frustration of many who would really like the X-Men movies to reflect the gender balance and interesting diversity of many of the comics going back to the 70′s. But I also felt in my bones that this was actually the best X-Men movie yet for its portrayal of women (yes, even though I know it’s supposed to be Kitty’s story) and wasn’t able to put a finger on why until I read this great piece by Emily Asher-Perrin at Tor.com. It’s super spoilery, watch the movie first! But it also shows the way in which, finally, the movies are addressing some of the core “problems with women characters” issues not only of the previous movies, but issues embedded in the comics, too. It gives me hope.
Plus Mystique rocks in this movie, you know? She is *mighty*.
In other news, my Robotech Rewatch starts tomorrow as part of the Musketeer Space project. To join my awesome financial backers and earn rewards while enabling me in my writing & blogging habit, check out the Musketeer Space Patreon page.