Slash/Girl

News of the Day

One member of Pussy Riot freed on suspended sentence: http://bit.ly/T5m99w

One tiny bit of happy news for free speech

See the jump inside the article on "Public perceptions of private parts: Attitudes on women's bodies"

Today I came across this link: http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/

Have just dipped my toe in, but it looks good.

Do you think that the reader who asked Seanan McGuire when she was going to write about the rape of her female characters was, perhaps, male? http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/470626.html Yeah, call me cynical, but so do I.

With all the news about online abuse of female gamers, of course based on the endless marginalization of women, are we surprised that rape is still expected to be the most important thing that happens to female characters? No, neither am I. 

That's why I think that women's writing is critical. Even, maybe especially, underground writing, like slash. Slash *may* seek to sexualize  males the way dominant culture sexualizes females, but I'm not necessarily convinced of that. I think what's important about slash is women using the culture to our own ends, to exert control over it, to bend it to our wills, to recontextualize it, to refashion it in our own images, to exert our sexuality over the dominant paradigm, rather than being subjected to it everywhere we turn. 

So keep writing. And keep subverting the culture. 

Do you crave fanart? Go visit Blackbird_singing at archiveofourown.org. Her series of Avengers done with markers is to die for.

After fanflailing my way around fuckyeahblackwidow.tumblr.com for a while, I was searching for "black widow" on a03. Natch, I  thought that I'd first bump into a fic. But no. The universe was feeling generous, and this gem appeared: http://archiveofourown.org/works/407086. 

For my money, the marker pieces are MUCH better than the pencil and other works. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, no? Blackbird has done a lot of Loki art, but my fave is In Darkness, http://archiveofourown.org/works/396439. 

So give some fab fanart a try.