Strong Women and Other Scary Things

Full credits to http://www.fanpop.com/

I am fed up.

Let me share with you the women I have met over the past few weeks:

A victim, a fairy princess, a whore, a mother, a crone, a virgin, a sacrifice, a paragon of beauty, a housemaid, a spinster, a beauty queen, a shopoholic, a girlfriend, a chatterbox, a piece of eye candy, another victim, more virgins, more whores, more and more mothers and a whole slew of victims.

Where have all the strong women gone?

This is not to say that the women in the above list could not be strong, but in the books I've been reading recently, all women seem to do is wear flattering clothes so that men can ogle them and then either (a) feel desire and give in, or (b) feel desire, not give in, and then congratulate themselves for their fantastic self-restraint. Women over a certain age, from whom sexual desire has fled like an antelope flees a cougar, are cast in the mother role. From this benevolent position, they produce food and pronounce words of wisdom about the merits of the whores and virgins in (a) and (b) above.

What is most horrific about this phenomenon is that the perpetrators (authors) of these crimes are, themselves, women!

It's that cliche thing, isn't it? Oh, happy, easy, stereotyped characters. Without them, writers would actually have to think about what's happening on the page. How inconvenient.

Fight the good fight, writers, and ask yourself these questions about your female characters:

1. Is she blond and described as the very epitome of beauty?
2. Is her idea of a good time going shopping?
3. Does she giggle when some idjit ogles her?
4. Does she giggle when some idjit gropes her?
5. Does she giggle at all?
6. Does she, upon being ogled, groped or harassed, then go on to FALL FOR the idjit?
7. Is she passing time in school/work until she is rescued by a man?
8. Does she, having worn glasses her entire life, miraculously find her vision CURED by said man?
9. (a) Does she enjoy sex? (b) Is she judged negatively for this?
10. If you answered 'yes' to #9 (a), does she die (either at the hands of a monster, or by sacrificing her life for the life of the 'hero' she had sex with)? If you answered 'no' to #9 (b), and she dies, then you need to change your answer to #9 (b).

Let's hear it for strong female characters. Who is your favourite?

Act.

Young Women for Change Empowering Women Across Afghanistan

"You must be the voice of all women, all over the world." 

 Ideas, CBC Radio 1

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is hosted this month by Unabridged Chick.

Rustic, or rusty? So long as it contains BOOKS.

I have been burning up the bandwidth this week exploring the delightful world of online Journals and Literary Magazines.

Sterling

Published twice yearly by Pens and Hammer Press, Sterling is edited by David Bester and Vincenzo Aliberti. It publishes short fiction, poetry, interviews and plays. It is currently accepting submissions for Sterling 4. I wish it a long and prosperous career. The writing in #3 was lush, lively and entertaining. Available as a e-version or, for the reasonable price of $12, a gorgeous print version will arrive in your post box! #3's cover was designed by Martin Bregman.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Edited by Scott Andrews and Kate Marshall, Beneath Ceaseless Skies is going to be a regular in my house. #113, with stories by Tori Truslow and Raphael Ordonez, kept me glued to my sofa throughout most of Friday's snowstorm. This afternoon will see me glued to my earphones to listen to an audio podcast called 'Death Sent' by Christain K. Martinez. The magazine has won numerous awards and is highly recommended.

It's like we've gone full circle, isn't it?

 Having gone into deep mourning at reaching the end of BBC's Sherlock (series 2), I have no choice but to begin reading the omnibus edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes that has been sitting in my library for...a long time (*blushes*). My omnibus does not contain A Study in Scarlet (the first case Holmes and Watson work on together), so it was off to the virtual store with my Kindle. The novel was written in 1886 and published the following year in Beeton's Christmas Annual. It caused very little stir when it was published, which goes to show that one should never give up at the first failure. Unlike a lot of fiction written in the 19th century, A. Conan Doyle remains very readable and entertaining to a modern audience.

You said WHAT?

Is it the hair? (Picture credit here)

Tuesday morning, 99.9FM in Toronto, a radio hostess, referring to Beyonce's Superbowl Show:

"It's a good day to be a woman."

Good grief.

Elizabeth Blackburn,

Carol W. Greider

2009 Nobel Prize Laureates 

Shafi Goldwasser

Theoretical computer scientist, leader in cryptology 

Kelsey Ramsden

President, Belvedere Place Development Ltd. 

Madeline Paquin

President and CEO, Logistec Corp.

Now THAT's a good day.

Late Afternoon

No new books this week for me, so I'm sending you all home with a piece I wrote when I was home with three very small children.

Small mercies are the most important.

         There is something about late afternoon.       

         It is the time after school, before dinner needs to be started.  The time before your husband is home from work, yet not so much before that you despair in your loneliness and frustration with the kids.  The eldest does homework, perhaps. The younger children play quietly, or watch television, and the shadows are long on the driveway; you have a cup of tea at your elbow and nothing much needing to be done.

         There is something about late afternoon.

         Friends have gone home, but the house still swells with their laughter and presence.  Crumbs have been swept up and there is always laundry to do, but that can wait, and it’s much too late in the day to pull out the vacuum.  The dogs sleep peacefully on their mats, the light in the sitting room is on and the sun drops behind the clouds, sending lazy fingers of light through the kitchen blinds.

         There is something about late afternoon.

It holds the promise of long evenings in winter, the pulled curtains of the night, bedtime stories, pajamas and a soft pile of children on the sofa.  Soft breath, sweet skin, hugs and kisses then bedtime.

There is no need to look beyond that.  The tea cools.  Now is suspended, a breath exhaled.

There is something about late afternoon.

Think Again: Not My Usual Fare

Being sad and sorry are just not enough any more.

"According to the Canadian Women's Foundation, on average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.

....[the accused murderer] is her former boyfriend, and the father of her children. At the time of the attack, he was on bail [my emphasis], following numerous charges of assault, assault with a deadly weapon and threatening to kill [her]"

-- Violence Against Women and Bail, CBC Radio, The Sunday Edition with Michael Enright

Bridget Takyi deserved better.