Big Girl's Broken Heart

A very serious topic...

So, Mrs. B., I was reading some articles recently and as a strong role-model and a librarian, I thought we should talk.

These two articles depress me:

http://www.themarysue.com/why-talking-about-character-gender-still-matters-even-though-it-shouldnt/

http://jezebel.com/5966528/want-to-be-a-writer-then-ideally-dont-be-a-woman

I always wanted to be a strong woman like my mother when I grew up and I always complained about the lack of strong female characters in the stories I wanted to read. Sure it was great that there were strong male characters, but for the most part, like in the Middle Earth stories, a strong female is far rarer than a weak one. It's part of why I started writing, to give myself that character archetype to read. Then, Buffy came out and I was so excited. But, there haven't been many since. Especially when you look and see how pervasive characters like Bella Swan are. The Katniss-to-Bella ratio is painfully small, and these are things our young women are reading and watching on the big screen. And I'm not okay with that.

It breaks my heart, but it's the reality of the thing is that whether you're talking games or books, those strong females are still mostly missing. Sure, you get to play as Fem-Shepherd in Mass Effect, but as the lady said, how often in a Sci-Fi setting does that actually happen? Fantasy games have been getting better at that, but more often than not the armor and weaponry are still unrealistic -- clad in little more than a chain mail bikini, your dungeon-bunny goes bouncing her unnaturally proportioned body through the Underdark, and by the power of Greyskull, manages to take hits that would put down a rhino. Or maybe it's the magic of that braziere.

And, trust me when I say, my sister the archeologist complains just as loudly about Lara Croft as she does about Indiana Jones.

As a female writer who loves reading and writing in a male-dominated set of genres, I'm not okay that this is the advice that almost is needed to be given in order to succeed in the field. We live in a different world from the one my mother grew up in. Even the one I grew up in. We've had female astronauts and female Secretaries of State. There have been female Prime Ministers. We live in a world emboldened by female scientific pioneers like Sally Ride, Jane Goodall, Marie Curie, and Ada Lovelace. And these are no longer whispers behind closed doors, but people that we know and can learn about.

Yet, we not only hesitate to give ourselves fictional heroines that live up to that light, we instead give ourselves the exact opposite; offer our daughters the exact opposite on a regular basis. Female genre writers are almost thrown back to eras past where women like Mary Wollenstonecraft Shelley and others were relegated to publishing anonymously because the menfolk couldn't take the idea of a woman publishing a creative work.

I think I'm going to take February to give those stronger ladies I know some love and talk more about this.

Much Love,

-Odd.

A Case of Mistaken Identity

So, Mrs. B....

I know this is going off topic, but I have had a bit of an ... I wouldn't call it identity crisis... I suppose, it is more of a case of mistaken identity. Purloined personality, perhaps. It's been happening to me my whole life. Every so often I will encounter someone who tells me I remind them of someone (or that someone reminds them of me). Sometimes the comparisons are great -- I love being compared to someones sister, cousin, daughter, or mom or some awesome famous or historically important person (I keep voting for Felicia Day or Abraham Lincoln, but I have yet to be that lucky).

More often than not, I'm left a little unsure of how to respond.

Recently, we were forced to have our photos taken at work. This happens periodically. I hateses it. They never come out right and I always have to force myself not to make a stupid face when the flash goes off (especially if forewarned). New Years Resolution number 7 this year was to avoid pulling crazy faces (or in particular Angle's Patent Pending "Crazy Face": I look too darned excited to be out an about on my day off from the Funny Farm....). So, reluctantly, as you can imagine, I went into the recent rash of picture taking. (I prefer being behind the camera, rather than in front -- always have, even when I was a cute, young thing -- remember the Sock Hop? The "Mad, Surprise Camerawoman?" Me. Totally me. By the way, Mrs. B., you are fantastically photogenic on the fly.... ) After all, I'm still licking my wounds from the ID badge, Licence Renewal, and Passport hat-trick from last year.

Yeah, it was pretty bad.

So, after a little bit of argument on my part and a statement from my boss that summed up to "because I said so, stop killing fun," I allowed my soul ... er picture to be taken. I smiled without showing my teeth. I did not hold my eyes too far open. I tried to avoid looking like the generally odd-and-out-of-place person I am. 

Apparently, I only succeeded in making myself look like someone else entirely. 

I was originally pleased with the outcome, that was until a co-worker made a regrettable comparison. She takes one look at the picture I okayed and said "You look like Sarah Palin."

This is not to say she's not a lovely woman,
but this is not who I think of when I look in the mirror.

I did a double take. 

This is not to say that I don't appreciate the comparison with a woman who looks lovely at her age. However, I think I'm a good 24-years her junior. 

::blinkity blinkity::

Crap.

I've got to stop letting people take my picture. Or I need to just conveniently be missing when I need a new one taken. 

Divergent politics aside, this isn't the worst person in the world to be compared to. I've been getting a lot of comparisons of late to "The New Girl" and Zooey Deschanel, and granted that is more the me that friends remember from days before working where I am now: the bubbly, silly, frankly naive girl who sings to herself (I still do) and tends to hang with more guys than girls. But, my hanging with the guys was less beers and more books. Gaming books that is. Yeah, I can totally hack and slash my way out of a dungeon and I can give you advice about how to get past the blood dragon guarding the duergar cairn, but I would be totally lost on being fashionably adorkable.

She does have a point, though. I just gotta be me.

However, I still wish I could be as freaking awesome as Felicia Day. 

+10 to AWESOME! 

Just saying.

Much love from your ever crazy, goofy, and generally misunderstood,

Angle.