Some interesting thoughts on women in comics..
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/10/13/female-characters-superhero-comics/
Overthinkingit.com opens an important can of worms....
/http://www.overthinkingit.com/2008/08/18/why-strong-female-characters-are-bad-for-women/
The point about Megan Fox's character in Transformers (first film) is interesting to me because I had enjoyed that movie and one of the reasons was because I like the fact her character was a real grease-monkey, and rather than change this interest and skill in mechanics, to please her boyfriend, she left him.Of course that's when it all started to go wrong. By the time the 2nd film was in full swing, the sexy posey part of her character took over, -am thinking particularly of the scene where she is painting a bike, while contorted in a rather ridiculous pose on the bike. The other thing that annoyed me was when Shia and Megan are running around , Shia is getting sweaty and dirty and Megan does not get a fleck of dirt on her!
Check out Womanthology. Comics written by women, and for charity. Not published til 2012, so keeping an eye on it.
Superheroes .
Not exactly a superhero, but she does have physic abilities, Judge Anderson is a well written and drawn character . She is a colleague of Judge Dredd in the series that sprang from the 2000AD comics. She is both strong and vulnerable, and while her costume can be rather tight, perhaps, the male Judges seem to have the same apparel.She thought of as a judge first, and fact that she is a woman doesn't really come into it.For more see links on my comics page.
Firebrands: Pamela Sargent and Ron Miller
I have finally finished reading this book and listed many of the book I thought looked interesting in my reading wish list.
I reccomend this book as a introduction and overview of how female scifi and fantasy characters have been portrayed through history, and the authors responsible. As mentioned in my initial post, on this book, the text is accompanied by the art of Ron Millar. Some of these portraits I liked, but many of them inexplicably portrayed the characters naked or semi-naked.
Now I am in no way a prude , however unless they were somehow related to a scene in the stories I didn't get it. One repeated theme seemed to be the female warrior in mid battle half naked, ummmmm..obviously tailored to attract men to the stories? The only warriors I've heard of fighting naked were the ancient greeks......in this day and age however it doesn't make sense. Perhaps someone can explain it to me?
Some of Ron Miller's Art
A interesting Wikipedia entry on:Women_in_speculative_fiction.
This discusses the history of the representation of women in speculative fiction, and reminds I should really give Frankenstein a read.This is often pointed out to be the first scifi book , and it's written by a women.
The Blazing world was an even earlier peice of fiction, and I would like to try and get a hold of it. Written in 1666!
Interesting article in Bitch magazine about Female artists in Literature, though not about scifi or fantasy.
An interesting book request and anwers on librarything.Many if the books suggested would also go on my reading wish list too...
another fun list from librarything. Not just about women but quite an intersting list.
Ink Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors: Superwomen in Modern Mythology-Jennifer K Stuller.
I am halfway through this interesting analysis of how superwomen are represented in popular culture.She has me thinking about things I never really noticed, and second guessing my interests in some genre fiction.
Stuller so goes right back to the 40s and the emergence of Wonder Woman. This is quite facinating,
because according to her research William Moultan Marston, who created the character, believed that Women were the superior sex, and purposely created the Amazon Princess to show as a role model to show that girls could be strong and independent(1).the chapter on Moultan Marston is an intersting read.
I have now finished this book, which continued to be an interesting read.From Wonder Woman Stuller continues into the the late 20th century, covering Buffy and Xena, singing Joss Wheden's feminist praises. She also had me rethinking my love of Star Wars, in pointing out the general disappearance of Princess Leia's independant strength and power as the sequals came out....
1)p15.chpt 1.Stuller, J
How about this list: women-in-science-fiction-and-fantasy-who-are-great-at-their-job/
can you think of any others to add?
