A Plague of Perfect Boys
So. Hello, blog. We haven’t spoken in a while. How are you? How are things? How’s life in your corner of the internet? I’m so sorry for treating you like that friend I speak to once every six months only when I have something exciting I want to share, but it’s a little hard to maintain close friendships when you’re so far away, you know? Besides, I’m been keeping busy in my internet life with Tumblr, and yeah, things are going really well between us.
Anyway, I wanted to come and talk to you about a problem I’ve been having. All around the internets you’ll find discussions about Mary Sues and while I certainly agree with many of the points various authors bring up, I have a problem of a different sort. You see, the term “Mary Sue” is something given to a female character by an audience, and I feel a lot of readers’ (especially female readers) problems with female characters has much more to do with societal baggage and internalized misogyny than poor writing or poor characterization.
My problem, you see, isn’t with Mary Sues. My problem is with the Plague of Perfect Boys in fiction.
Because nobody's perfect. Unless he's David Tennant. (Obligatory image of Sexy Person included in post to drive up traffic. I am transparently shallow that way.)
Lots of F Words Today
Today’s blog post is brought to you by the letter F: for fatigue, feelings, and feminism.
So here I was, all ready to talk about my blog fatigue, when something actually sets a fire beneath my ass and gets me posting again. (Although to be fair, I have been writing; I just haven’t been blogging.)
Theatre Review: Much Ado About Nothing
Catherine Tate as Beatrice and David Tennant as Benedick
For those who aren’t familiar with the text (I highly doubt my blog readership–such as it is, ha–isn’t familiar with Shakespeare, but you never know), Much Ado About Nothing is a romantic comedy in which two pairs of lovers, Beatrice and Benedick and Hero and Claudio, get into complications on their respective ways to the altar. (Isn’t that the plot of every romantic comedy though?) Of course, that is drastically oversimplifying the plot, but after nearly two years of working in publishing, I’ve gotten somewhat better at finding what Cap’n Sweet Valley calls the “handle” (one-sentence sales pitch) of things.
But Much Ado is perhaps the best known for its verbally sparring, love-masquerading-as-dislike pair Beatrice and Benedick, arguably the most famous of the Sexual Tension Disguised as Bickering couples in media, played in this production by David Tennant and Catherine Tate. Nearly every pair of romantic leads in screwball comedies from the 1930s is modelled on them, and many books have tried to recreate that tension as well, to varying degrees of success. (Pride and Prejudice on the good end…and countless scores on the not-so-good end.)
For all that I usually dislike the trope in fiction (perhaps because of the countless scores on the not-so-good end), Much Ado is my favourite of Shakespeare’s comedies, and this was a delightful production.
Lessons From The Other Side of 21: The F Word
Today I want to talk about the “F word”. No, not that one. That one. Yes, THAT one. You know what the word is. Oh yes. No, not feminist. Feminist is not a dirty word, you know that. But you know what’s also not a dirty word? Feminine.
New column is up! I’m rather proud of this one, although it’s a bit long.
Comic Book GirlThis is a story about women--tons of women. Every personality type you can imagine. Young women, old women, queer women, straight women, ditzy women, brainy women. This is story about the bond of friendship between these women and how they are the most powerful people in the universe.
Sailor Moon is classic superhero stuff- eldritch villians, secret identity drama, the power of friendship, face-melting horror, epic battles--but it's set in a world where teenage girls are the greatest heroes.
Former Sailor Moon fanatics, unite! Moon Kick-assing Power!
Girls Who Kick Ass (Or Don’t)
Xena, Warrior Princess and archetypal Kickass Heroine
A while back, my colleague and I were discussing a set of YA fantasy novels by the same author which featured two very different heroines. One was a “kickass” heroine, the other was not. I expressed my preference for one over the other, and the choice surprised my colleague.
“I thought you would like the kickass one,” she said.
“Yeah…no,” I replied.
You see, I have a weird relationship with these so-called “kickass” heroines in fantasy, and by “weird”, I mean I generally don’t like them. But why? you might ask. What could be more awesome than a girl who kicks ass and takes names?
Nothing, I would reply, nothing except the way in which said girl is “kickass”.
Triggers
Oh look, an ice storm! On my fire escape! Pretty, but OH-SO-INCONVENIENT.
Dear winter: I am so over you it’s not even funny. In addition to the 50+ inches of snow you’ve dumped on the city this year, last night you saw fit to send us an ice storm. Which is gorgeous, by the way. Bravo, it’s one of the prettiest sights I’ve ever seen. But however pretty it might be, it is also incredibly inconvenient, especially as I don’t have a pair of skates to strap to my feet so I can glide my way to the subway station. I made my TV debut this morning by taking a header in the background of some reporter’s weather segment. Still, despite the slipping and sliding, it is kind of fun to crack the film of ice on top of snow like the glaze of a crème brûlée.
When I finally made it to my desk this morning, I saw that the internets was stirring itself into a frenzy over Bitch Magazine‘s inclusion and subsequent removal of a few books from their 100 Young Adult Books For The Feminist Reader. Mentioned in particular was Margo Lanagan’s TENDER MORSELS, the content of which includes incest, rape, and horrific violence. A reader said the book was triggering and asked that it be removed from the list.
Other people have said better than me why the inclusion and then removal of a few select books based on one reader’s comments is troubling (because heaven knows there are a ton of other books on that list with triggering content), but it made me think about “triggers” in general, especially as I had an experience myself last night.
Sungkyunkwan Scandal
Dear Readers, I must acquaint you all with something with which I was obsessed over the Christmas holidays.
The Jalgeum Quartet in Sungkyunkwan Scandal
What do you get when you have a witty, intelligent, cross-dressing heroine, a stodgy, principled (but adorable) nerd, a rebel with a heart of gold, and a weaselly, manipulative, and ambiguously gay mischief-maker? ONLY JJ’S NEWEST KOREAN DRAMA CRACK.
And Now For Something Slightly Different
I try and try and try to maintain a regular blogging schedule, but I think I’ve somehow constrained myself to the Publishing Box and am unable to break out of it. Coming up with ideas for blog posts and then finding the energy to expound upon said ideas is more than I can spare. JJ, you maintained a personal blog for years before you began a pseudo-publishing focused one! Get back on it! You can write about your personal life! People won’t care! (And how they won’t care! My personal life is pretty boring.)
Anyway, so last night I had a strange dream. This isn’t especially unusual; I have weird dreams all the time. They’re usually like this:
JESUS RIDES A DINOSAUR!
My dreams don’t have much to do with the “real world”; instead, when I sleep, my subconscious mind populates my nighttimes with fantastic post-apocalyptic landscapes, flashbacks, Christopher Plummer narrators, epic quests, differing POVS, etc. (It appears that I am an editor even in my sleep.) I don’t often have nightmares because it’s rare that my actual emotional self is a player in the dream–I’m playing a character, (literally) head-hopping, or surveying the scene like some sort of benevolent ghost–but when I do, they’re usually built around a theme.
Show Me Some Love
