“…The story of an astronaut as she struggles to adjust to life on Earth!” the radio ad promised. My car’s dashboard briefly transformed into the glowing cockpit of a space shuttle. Space, psychology, and a female protagonist? That sounded like a movie I’d see (or a book I’d write). But when I looked up which … More Sexism IN SPACE (and how sci-fi can fight it)
In the first post in this series, we discussed subjectivity and objectification when describing female characters. But “beautiful” isn’t the only contentious adjective frequently applied to them. Lots of readers claim to love “strong” heroines; what does this actually mean? As a kid in the 90s, I caught the leading edge of the “more strong heroines!” … More The Beautiful Scientist Problem, Pt II: Three Tips for Writing “Strong” Female Characters
Fantasy author Intisar Khanani featured a great guest post on her website this week, in which SFF author Anela Deen examines the challenges female sci-fi writers face in creative circles. The incisive piece really hit home for me. Although compelled to respond, I don’t have a Disqus account and my remarks are unreasonably lengthy for website comments, so … More Sci-Fi’s Glass Ceiling: A Guest Post Every Fan Should Read
My guest post on the gender gap in science fiction posted on the LibraryJournal SELF-e blog today, just as Iron Man 3 co-writer Shane Black revealed that Marvel’s corporate interests forced him to change the gender of the movie’s villain to sell more toys. According to Black, the original script featured a female version of antagonist Aldrich Killian, … More The Invisible Woman: Sexual Segregation in Sci-Fi
Okay. Rant time. Remember when Blue Karma won some indie publishing awards late last year? One of the granting organizations just published interviews with the winning authors. Awesome, right? Except for one thing: “[We] recently caught up with author J.K. Ullrich, whose book Blue Karma won the science fiction category. You can click the link below to visit [our] website and read more about his winning … More Gender and Genre: Female Sci-Fi Authors are NOT an Alien Species
Wild Type 