Here are my highlights from the Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans, editions Five, Six, Seven, and Eight. That gets us caught up for the New Year!
Carnival #5 made me laugh with Writing Cliches, comparing Buffy to Astonishing X-Men. Arisia, Bras, and Boob Physics 101 is also pretty entertaining – at least film action heroines actually have to wear the outfits, so there are some limitations. Since I haven’t seen Heroes, I tried not to read Seriously, NBC, would it kill you to be a little bit less cliché? in case of spoilers, but now I want to watch the show so I can read the whole post. The end of the Carnival post itself has a photo that I desperately want to steal.
Carnival #6 is chock full of good reading. First, some hilarious responses to a set of “how to draw comics” tutorials. Señora de la Cranky Pantalones did a three part response:
IM IN UR STUDI0 DRAWIN UR D00DZ is another cool response. If you don’t make it all the way through the redrawing, do make sure you skip to the notes at the end. Dinosaur Comics has a quick explanation of the male gaze, if you need one. Why better treatment for women in comics does matter is excellent. Here’s another post about Heroes, going through the cast to discuss race and gender. Should I perhaps go back to paying for cable?
Carnival #7 had a post that really spoke to me:
In general TV it seems the era of ‘strong women’ was short-lived. How surprised am I? We had Xena and Gabrielle, Buffy, Max in Dark Angel, and even Sydney Fox in Relic Hunter, and a few others, but what’s coming up now with independent, active women? Very little, as far as I can see.
I feel the same way about action movies right now. It’s annoying to recall the era when I had several films and television shows competing for my attention, and now there are few. I felt the same way about music after the Liz Phair – PJ Harvey – Tracy Bonham era had ended.
The gem in Carnival #8 is an excellent takedown of misogyny in Bond films: Just Back from the Casino. If you love a well-written rant, check this out.
The unfortunate side effect of all this is more blogs I want to read, but I am so glad this Carnival exists. If you’ve missed any, check out the main page of the Carnival or this list:
Carnival #1 at Ragnell’s Written World
Carnival #2 at Pretty, Fizzy Paradise
Carnival #4 at the Official Shrub.com Blog
Carnival #5 at One Hundred Little Dolls
Carnival #6 at the Hathor Legacy
Carnival #8 at Dance of the Puppets
This post was originally published on Heroine Content, a feminist and anti-racist movie blog that ran from July 2006 to May 2012.