Interesting article urging scifi authors to use more female and lgbt protagonists

I really did not get a sense that she understands storytelling.

My main issue is that she doesnt seem to be as well-read as she wants us to believe. I have had no trouble finding historical fiction that presented women as more than child-ovens and marriage material. writings dealing with lesbians, intersex individuals, and other such groups are no less present than ones about gay male relationships; the stigma itself against both kept them out of the mainstream. she is throwing about names, but not really talking in detail about the figures. she is throwing out random stories, but they have nothing to do with literature in and of itself.

Queer literary theory is fairly new, and still in its formative stages as a way to explore and analyse literature.


Also, I found it strange that to justify what she was saying, she was throwing off archaic words, big words, and phrases willynilly, without a sense of what those things actually mean. She seems to spend the entire time talking down to whoever is reading the article, and showing off a mis-used vocabulary.

I have seen fellow students get D's writing papers like this, then, seeing I maintain A's and B's on my papers, asking me what they did wrong: they over-spoke, and lacked meaningful substance.

 

Very good article. When I was younger I did read a fair bit of fantasy. I saw a lot of what the writer was talking about, especially in more famous works. There were certainly books that handled these issues relatively well (Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce, for example, has four protagonists, 3 of whom are women and one of whom is neither white nor straight), but as a whole the genre still has issues. I haven't read much historical fantasy, so I can't comment on any specific examples.

 

Having some women be in high positions might be realistic in a work aiming at seeming historical (like before 1900), but if they want it to seem vaguely historical, they would have to remember that the gender balance was no where near as balanced as our modern days. Even Queen Elizabeth I's power was often doubted because of her sex. Those women she lists are the exceptions, not the norms.

The same-sex thing really depends on the setting. If it is in an area dominated by a Christianity, Islam, or something similar, then having open homosexuals being accepted isn't going to work. Having it set in some other religious environment could, possibly.

Also, this thread should be retitled "Interesting article urging historical fantasy authors..." as this doesn't talk about science fiction (a genre often abused by including futuristic fantasy in it) at all really.