It’s Friday! This week, I’m excited about my new short story publication “Fake Geek Girl” in the Australian Review of Fiction, and also my new author newsletter which you can sign up for here.
Next week I will be in MELBOURNE where I am Guest of Honour at Continuum! Eeeee!
This interview with successful women in the film industry about the terrible statistics about how many women directors get to work in film and television is fascinating, depressing and oh, so relevant. It’s not the sexism to your face that kills your career, it’s what happens behind your back, and what is actually built into the system… gah.
I really loved this essay about Real Genius, and why it’s still such an important (and beloved) film about geekery, 30 years later. I have a soft spot for Real Genius largely out of nostalgia – it’s one of my partner’s favourites and he basically courted me with 80′s movies until I moved in with him – but this essay reminded me of all the reasons why it’s not just funny and cute, but genuinely great. And not just because of Val Kilmer’s hair!
The Mary Sue has a good piece on the lack of Black Widow merch – the gender-obsessed marketing of toys is one of my pet topics but even I’m sick and tired of it now because it doesn’t get any better (Disney you make me sad). Still, this is a great piece about the economics behind the issue. When we have Natasha Romanov lunch boxes, the culture war will be ours. (I notice no one even talks about the lack of Scarlet Witch merchandise, are we supposed to wait until she’s been ignored through a second movie too?)
I don’t usually rec fanfic (maybe I should!) but this is an cute piece about Donna Noble, Ianto Jones and Pepper Potts at a conference, swapping war stories about their terrible “bosses”: Never Have I Ever, by st_aurafina
Here’s a couple more Fury Road updates (check back to my Mad Max As Feminist Ally post from time to time, I’ve been gathering all the good ones there at the end of the article):
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD by Liz Bourke at Sleeps With Monsters (Tor.com)
MAD MAX: BEYOND PATRIARCHY — ON FURY ROAD’S (2015) VISUAL RHETORIC AND APOCALYPTIC SOCIAL REBIRTH by Shaun Duke at Totally Pretentious.