emma_in_dream

Hollow bitter laughter as Tony Abbot defends his chief of staff against the sexism of Parliament.

I’ve just read my first, and only, Dorothy Wentworth. She wrote murder mysteries, all well and good, in the tradition of Agatha Christie, etc.

But the romance! My goodness, it’s like watching a train wreck. At the beginning the heroine, Stacy, is divorced from her utterly foul alpha male ex. She goes out for a meal with him and he demands that she accept alimony although she initiated the divorce (on the grounds of mistakenly thinking he was a kleptomaniac).

Their romantic tete a tete includes this interlude:

( Read more... )

Clearly nothing says romance better than physically coercing someone and meddling in their finances. Does this read domestic abuser, if I can’t have you, no one can, or what?
Naturally, within the conventions of this genre they reunite. It turns out his sister was the kleptomaniac all along! Wacky hijinks! And the murderer was someone else as well - his cousin’s fiancee and her boyfriend. All is clear for the inevitable reunion.

So in the last paragraphs of the book Charles and Stacy reunite, as he simultaneously reinforces his position as a man who is obsessed with controlling his woman and physical violence.

( Read more... )

Obviously I’m a humourless feminist blah blah blah, because this genre of literary lovemaking - so prevalent in the 1950s and still written today - utterly repellant.

The lead up to our own census reminds me of the release of the 1911 census data in the UK. It's available online - so great.

The 1911 census was the one the suffragists and suffragettes wanted to boycott - no vote, no census!

The census boycott was an easy one for people to join in on, they didn't have o risk imprisonment. I've just been reading about the suffragette movement and thinking how strange life must have been in London in the 1910s (and also how completely the neo-terrorism of it has been blanked out of the historical record).

Things that were happening - the suffragettes were told to 'be patient' by the PM and then went into all out war. It was not a good idea to say this to a woman who had been campaigning for the vote since the 1870s.

There were mass marches attended by thousands and when this didn't work a campaign of violence which by luck did not include any deaths. There were window breakings (but no one seriously injured by the flying glass), fire bombings of postal boxes (which caused injuries to several mailmen), and a lot of arson attacks. One of these lead to prosecution when a housekeeper heard them enter and came downstairs - they had thought the house was empty so it was only because the woman woke up that they avoided accidentally killing her.

There were strings of arson attacks, including burning down Lloyd George. There were a lot of acid attacks, mostly burning 'Votes for women' into the grass at male-only locations like golf courses. After Rockeby's Venus at the National Gallery was slashed women were not allowed to enter some museums and art galleries. Women were not allowed to attend political meetings.

There were literally hundreds of women in jail, many undertaking hunger strikes. The Cat and Mouse Act was regarded, even by opponents of women's suffrage, as a particularly nasty piece of legislation as it was designed to prevent women from dying while in jail so as to not embarrass the Government.

The leaders of the WPSU were forced into exile and there were escapees from the Cat and Mouse Act who were literally on the run. The Government used servaillance photos of notorious suffragettes, taken covertly and circulated to authorities as a security measure (the first time this was done in the UK).

So, basically, it must have seemed like London was under siege (or the suffragettes were). It's interesting that this is not really remembered while other terrorist campaigns (like the Irish movement in the 1970s and 80s) are acknowledged as such. (Another note of similarity: like the Irish, the women were on hunger strike because they demanded that they be recognised as political prisoners).

In the noughties, the suffrage movement had huge rallies, with hundreds of thousands of women. Unlike the trade union rallies, they generally made their own banners rather than buying them from professional corporations.

Some were painted onto plain backgrounds but others called on all the tricks of Victorian needlework and involved applique, quilting, embroidery and embellishment.

Some of the surviving banners have been put into an online collection: http://www.vads.ac.uk/results.php?cmd=advsearch&words=women%B4s+library+suffrage+banners+collection&field=all&oper=or&words2=&field2=all&mode=boolean&submit=search&FSB=1

I have been thinking about representations of female friendship. Here are a few thoughts... I’d be interested in recommendations from others.

Jane Austen’s *Sense and Sensibility* (1811) may not pass the Bechdel test* - most of the dialogue is about love and relationships and, you know, men - but it certainly is about female friendship. The love of Eleanor for Marianne is the centre of the novel. And the relationship between Lizzie and Jane in *Pride and Prejudice* (1813) is pretty cool too.

I guess I am reminded of Louisa May Alcott’s *Little Women* (1868) - Jo loves her sisters so much. There’s a line in there where she talks about wanting to marry Meg herself, to keep her in the family, which I guess is a bit creepy but in the context of the book just seems sweet. (And, indeed, the only one who does marry to get into the family is Laurie who is desperate to find a March girl who will take him in.)

*Little Women* would certainly romp home the Bechdel test as it’s essentially an all-female community which is interested in growing up and improving themselves. Ditto *Anne of Green Gables* (1908) which has the ‘kindred spirits’ of Anne and Diana.

Terry Pratchett’s *Witches* books take the Bechdel standard and toss it contemptuously aside as something far exceded. Each character is completely different and each one is completely kick ass. I particularly like the way they hand the roles of maiden, mother and hag around as they move through their lives.

Marilyn French’s *The Women’s Room* (1977) is basically all about women’s relationships, friendships. Like the blurb says, this book will change your life.

And, for another out of left field suggestion, John Marsden’s *Tomorrow When the War Began* series. Ellie Linton’s friendships with Corrie, Robyn and Fi are incredibly well drawn. She relies on them, idealises them, knows them so well, lives with them and fights by them.

So, what genres am I looking at? Not entirely sure actually. Obviously there’s tons of female-centred fiction in the genre of, say, school stories like the Chalet schools. Apparently there’s a lot of female friendships in classic girl’s stories like *Little Women* or *Anne of Green Gables* or, just thought of it, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s *A Little Princess*.

And when I get into contemporary writing, I’m all over the place. My examples don’t come from one genre. Perhaps that’s because there isn’t one genre of contemporary writing centred around female friendships?




* The Bechdel test - It has to have at least two women in it, who talk to each other, about something other than a man.

The Geena Davis Institute says that in G-rated films produced 1990-2005 fewer than one in three speaking characters (real or animated) are female and more than four in five of the narrator's are male.

For G-, PG- and PG-13-rated films released between 2006 and 2009 there were 2.42 male speaking characters for every 1 female speaking character.

Why?

Hint: not because they are spending their time making non-racist films as 85.5% of the characters in 1990-2005 G-rated films are white.

Actually they went and asked 108 content creators (writers, producers, directors, executives) what they thought was happening. They responded that male stars attract, that male content producers are more likely to make male focussed films, that movies are made for male audiences, that female-oriented films repel male viewers and, overwhelmingly, that 'girls will watch stories about boys, but boys won't watch stories about girls'. 86.7% agreed with that one and a further 10.5% thought maybe this was true.

I don't know whether that is true or not, but certainly it seems to be the accepted wisdom for Hollywood.

See: http://www.thegeenadavisinstitute.org/

Pearl just loves her Disney Princess magazines, but allow me to share my comments on one of the stories from her latest volume.*

This is one of the better stories, better than the one about sentient tools in the Beauty and the Beast being kept prisoner, and better than the Mulan story about how the other village girls pick on her for not having a nice dress.



* Thanks Baby_Elvis. I know how hard it is to resist those begging puppy eyes - I just got her the Angelina Ballerina magazine.

( Read more... )

Our experience of entering and exiting the building was much better today! I parked in the insanely expensive underground car park ($30 for the day!) but you could take two escalators out of the car park. We did try to take a lift down to it but, no, the lift inside the building goes to parking for guests only so after we walked around down there for a while we exited (via a car ramp) and re-entered the hotel (via another car ramp).

Nonetheless, I feel much calmer because:

1, I am not alone! The con was filled with people sympathising and bitching about the mad, stair-obsessed architecture.
2, We resolved on a course of action.

Indeed, there was a Gynaecon panel discussing accessibility, food and health at Swancon. I had to leave before the end because Pearl was getting bored but I made the following notes:

* We are to bring our concerns to the committee. Not in a bad committee! no biscuit! way but in a way where we'd like them to go to the Hyatt about this issue. Action: All to approach committee.
* We are to suggest that future committees consider accessibility (with specific reference to the disability access list created by WorldCon). Action: I am happy to take this to WASFF.
* We are to find out who to complain to about the Hyatt's accessibility. It meets minimum standards, but the standards are obviously very very low. Action: I will find out whether the agency in charge is the Disability Services Commission, City of Perth or whoever.

Plus I got to go to a panel! Well, I was on a panel. And we found our way to the children's room. All in all, a much better day than yesterday!

To one and all!

In a delerium last night I was trying to decide whether the prospect of being turned by *Edward Cullen* would be worth it if in return I got to not be sick. Edward Cullen, people, that's how bad I felt.