Feminism

The Finkbeiner Test and Default Status Characters

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

One of the more interesting things I found online this week was the Finkbeiner Test. Inspired by the Bechdel Test, this is aimed at journalists who cover women scientists. It’s very nice for women to have articles written about their scientific achievements, but all too often such articles spend a few sentences on what they have actually done, and whole paragraphs on how amazing it is that a woman could have done this. So Christie Aschwanden proposes the Finkbeiner Test for stories about women scientists. To pass the test, the story cannot mention:

  • The fact that she’s a woman
  • Her husband’s job
  • Her child care arrangements
  • How she nurtures her underlings
  • How she was taken aback by the competitiveness in her field
  • How she’s such a role model for other women
  • How she’s the “first woman to…”

This got me thinking about the way in which minority characters are used in fiction. It is all very well having characters who are representatives of minority groups, but all too often they only get in because their minority status is the focus of their story, if not of the whole story. We’ve all heard tales of how an agent, editor or reviewer has said something along the lines of, “Why does that character have to be female/black/gay/etc., it doesn’t add to the story in any way.” That’s because so often the assumed default of all characters in all stories is straight, cis, able, white male. If a character doesn’t fit that template then it must be remarked upon, in the same way that Chekov’s legendary gun on the mantlepiece has to be fired.

Obviously an equivalent of the Finkbeiner Test for fictional characters would be different for each minority group you can think of. Nor would such a thing be a hard and fast rule. Sometimes the story is about that character’s problems. But I think it is a useful start in trying to catch ways in which a minority character that you have created might be getting used in a tokenistic way.

Female Invisibility – Some Numbers

~ Cheryl

Yesterday’s tweet stream was full of this article by Alison Flood at The Guardian, which is based on the 2012 data from VIDA regarding male domination of literary review magazines. I wish I could say I’m surprised that no progress has been made in the three years VIDA has been collecting this data, but I’m not.

I’m also rather more interested in this article from Forbes which looks at the gender of people asked to give their opinions in the American media during last year’s Presidential election. The article focuses on data from National Public Radio which clearly demonstrates the problem. Overall men were quoted 68% of the time and women 23% of the time (the remainder being quotes from corporations and the like, not gender-free persons). However, looking at gendered persons only, female journalists only quoted men 52% of the time, and women 48% of the time. Male journalists, on the other hand, quoted men 80% of the time and women 20% of the time.

So, do male journalists mostly talk only to other men, or do they think women’s opinions are much less interesting? I guess it is a combination. I can only speak for myself, but I’m pretty sure that most trans women will be able to report, from personal experience, that being brought up male means you are taught to discount women’s opinions. Until we stop that, the data reported by VIDA will not change.

New From Aqueduct

~ Cheryl

Fresh from their triumph in the Tiptree, our good friends at Aqueduct Press have sent us four new books. They are:

Necessary Ill looks particularly interesting to me. The idea of deliberately spreading plague to reduce the human population sounds disturbingly Tepper-esque, but the book moves beyond that. There’s an enthusiastic blurb from Suzy McKee Charnas who notes, “…the reader finds an in-depth exploration of what a human society minus sex hormones might be like”. Personally I’m rather partial to my estrogen, but I do have an essay on the future of gender to write, and consequently this book has flown to the top of my To Read list.

Tiptree Winners Announced

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

In my email this morning was the announcement of this year’s Tiptree Award results. There are joint winners: The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Ancient, Ancient by Kiini Ibura Salaam.

As you probably know, I love The Drowning Girl. It will be on my Hugo ballot and my World Fantasy ballot. I’m absolutely delighted to see it pick up this award. You can find my review here.

I read Ancient, Ancient for the Crawford Award. It is a fine book and I was delighted to see it on the short list. I haven’t had time to review it myself, but here is one from Martha Hubbard. The book is published by Aqueduct so it is available from my bookstore.

As always, the Tiptree jury produced an honor list as well. The books on it (with links to my reviews and the bookstore where applicable) are:

  • Elizabeth Bear, Range of Ghosts
  • Roz Kaveney, Rituals
  • M.J. Locke, Up Against It
  • Kim Stanley Robinson, 2312
  • Karin Tidbeck, Jagannath (buy)
  • Ankaret Wells, Firebrand
  • Lesley Wheeler, “The Receptionist” (in The Receptionist and Other Tales buy)

I’m delighted to see Roz, Stan and Karin on that list, and Bear’s book is one I’d already noted as interesting. But each year the Tiptree jury finds wonderful books that I have managed to miss. I’m particularly interested in Firebrand which is apparently steampunk.

Yes, This!

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

I’ve re-tweeted a link to this, but I think it is worth a blog post as well. Here Foz Meadows takes on the fairly common view that because a book portrays the world the way it is, then it is portraying the world the only way it can be. Naturally that idea is promulgated mainly by straight cis white men.

The problem is that if you try to challenge them then your ideas are dismissed as escapist fantasy. It is a seductive argument. But it is wrong, and we know it is wrong. The work that my colleagues and I at Out Stories Bristol have been doing to mark LGBT History Month prove conclusively that the world can, and does change. It will change again, hopefully for the better.

Of course there is no happy ending. We won’t suddenly arrive at Utopia. There may be happy endings for exceptional individuals (like in the story I have just written), but they will never be for everyone. The point about happy endings is that they give hope. They let people know that they don’t have to accept that darkness and oppression are the natural state of the world. If the world can change for one person, it can change for others too. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, not matter how white, straight, cis male and cynical they might be.

By Popular Demand

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Our little LGBT History Month exhibition in the M-Shed has proved so popular that it is being extended for a further two weeks to March 17th. I am very happy about this.

By the way, we now have a nice set of photos of the launch event on the Out Stories Bristol website. So if you are looking for more images of my awesome dress (John Rocha, for anyone interested), or pictures showing how ugly I look in profile, go here. Many thanks to Matt Seow who did an awesome job.

Gay Cartoon History

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Last night I attended a talk by my colleague, Robert Howes, at Bristol City Library. It was titled “From Scandal to Domesticity: Cartoon Images of Homosexuality”. Basically the idea was to trace the changing public attitudes towards LGBT people through cartoons. Robert was very entertaining, but his focus was mainly on single-panel political cartoons. He doesn’t know a lot about comic strips, or books. He did manage to find Spandex though.

Anyway, this has given me an idea for next year’s LGBT History Month: “To the Batbed, Robin! — A History of LGBT Superheroes”. Thankfully I have a whole year to work on it. I have my talk at Microcon to worry about first.

Talking of which, I’ll probably be quiet for the next few days as I’ll be traveling or at the convention.

Yesterday’s Radio

~ Cheryl

Yesterday was Ujima Radio day. I very nearly didn’t make it, as the train I was planning to catch was cancelled. Fortunately I don’t trust FGW and there was a later train that, with the help of a taxi, got me to the studio in good time.

Being there on time meant I got to meet Mel and Shana, The Lovettes, who apparently did quite well on X-Factor. It was very clear that they were stars. To start with they were an hour and a half late for a two-hour show, having overslept from a good night out. But once arrived they blew through the studio in a hurricane of charm and energy. You can catch them singing live in the last 10 minutes of Tommy Popcorn’s show.

The first half hour of Women’s Outlook was all me. In the first segment I talk about Karen Lord’s books, and play an interview that I did with Karen over Skype. You may hear a certain amount of background noise during the first bit. We haven’t done pre-recorded interviews on the show before and a small amount of tech panic ensued. Thankfully it all turned out right in the end. You find find that material in this hour of the show (sorry about the title of the show still being wrong in the Listen Again section). The second half hour is all about feminism, and includes a guest from France.

I’m also on in the first 15 minutes of the second hour. That’s a less serious segment, in which Paulette wanted us to talk about power dressing and shoulder pads. Somehow I managed to get in a mention of Lucy Worsley’s recent TV shows, and to have a dig at the RadFems. Do also stay with the show for the Woman of the Week segment because Nia is an awesome lady who is well worth listening to. The second half hour is once again devoted to the issue of female genital mutilation, with again some interesting guests.

Next week on the show I’ll be talking about getting boys to read. I’ll be reviewing Ian McDonald’s Planesrunner (and introducing Bristol to the awesome Anastasia Sixsmith). Tim Maughan will be my guest in the studio.

Harlots, Housewives and Heroines

~ Cheryl ~ 9 Comments

This post will, I hope, come as no surprise to UK-based readers, especially the female ones. If they haven’t been watching Lucy Worsley’s series, Harlots, Housewives and Heroines: A 17th Century History for Girls, then they have been missing out. Some of you will be able to catch it on the iPlayer, and if all else fails there’s some information here.

Worsley says in her introduction to each episode that the Restoration — when Charles II returns from exile to put an end to Puritanism — is the start of the modern world as far as the UK is concerned. I tend to agree. During this time, Charles’ Queen, Catherine of Braganza (a Portuguese princess) introduced tea drinking to England. The era also saw the invention of the coffee house and the shopping mall, and a change in the law that allowed women to act in the theatre. The pamphlet became the forerunner of newspapers (and was every bit as dishonest and muck-raking as the worst tabloid). The King had to develop skills in spin doctoring. Alongside the significant expansion of scientific endeavor, and of the British empire (part of Catherine’s dowry was the city of Mumbai), there was a significant change in women’s place in society. After all, under Puritanism things could not have been much worse.

The era saw the rise of many prominent women in all walks of life. Nell Gwyn is by far the most famous, but Worsley introduces us to many others. They include the much traveled Celia Fiennes, the woman soldier, Christian Davies, and the prolific playwright, author and poet, Aphra Behn. Above all there is the early feminist Margaret Cavendish. She was one of the few women allowed to attend a meeting of the Royal Society in its early years. And her novel, The Blazing World, is not only an early example of science fiction, it is decidedly feminist in outlook.

I thoroughly enjoyed all three programs in the series. Worsley was perfectly happy to dress up in period costume to illustrate a point, and did not shy away from the bawdier aspects of 17th Century life. Yes, it is history as entertainment, but it is good history too (at least as far as I know — I await correction from my historian readers). And, of course, it is her-story. Thank you, Ms. Worsley.

New Feminist SF Study

~ Cheryl

Last night I got email from Lyda Morehouse drawing my attention to Cyberpunk Women, Feminism and Science Fiction: A Critical Study by Carlen Lavigne. It sounds very interesting, and Lyda understands that it mentions the AngeLINK series quite a bit. Of course being an academic work it is ferociously expensive, but the ebook is more in my range. Before I commit my $20, has anyone out there read it? Opinions?

Talking of Lyda, I’ve just listened to the latest Outer Alliance podcast, which is a live recording of a panel on QUILTBAG SF&F from Arisia. One of the audience members gives an enthusiastic recommendation for Lyda’s books. There are lots of other great recommendations in the show notes too. Good job, Julia.

Yesterday’s Radio

~ Cheryl

My appearances on local radio yesterday are now available as podcasts. The Ujima Radio show was all about China, in honor of the Chinese New Year. In this segment, around 23 minutes in, you can hear me enthusing about Ken Liu and Guy Gavriel Kay.

Somewhat to my surprise, I also featured in yesterday’s Shout Out Bristol. The entire show is given over to the hot topics of marriage equality and LGBT History Month. Around 45 minutes in there is a selection of sound clips from the two launch events. You get part of my speech opening the exhibition immediately after the Lord Mayor.

A Mention in Parliament

~ Cheryl

Today the House of Commons was debating the second reading of the putative marriage equality bill. As usual with Parliament, a lot of hot air was spouted. However, a significant number of British MPs are openly gay. Many of them made strong, emotional speeches. One of them is Stephen Williams, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bristol West. He opened his remarks by noting that on Saturday he had attended the opening of an exhibition about LGBT lives at a local museum. That was this exhibition launch, at which I made a speech. Of course I didn’t get quoted in Parliament, but I still got a tremendous buzz out of this, and I’m very happy for my gay and lesbian friends at Out Stories Bristol who must be delighted to have heard their hard work recognized in this way.

Update: You can read the speech here.

By the way, I say “putative” marriage equality because the bill is very badly drafted and, as several speakers pointed out, is more a “creation of a new and different type of marriage” bill than a “marriage equality” bill. However, the bill will now go to a committee stage where some of the defects will hopefully be ironed out. In particular I hope that something will be done for heterosexual couples who want civil partnerships, and for trans people whose marriages were stolen from them by the Gender Recognition Act.

In The Papers

~ Cheryl

We have some media coverage of the LGBT History Exhibition today. The Bristol Post‘s website has a general article up, and a more specific one about Michael Dillon. I understand that there will be coverage in the print edition today as well.

I’m quoted in both articles, mainly because I’m one of the co-chairs of Out Stories Bristol. Credit for the news coverage goes to my good friend Eugene Byrne.

Nature, It’s “Not Natural”

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

With the marriage equality debate going through Parliament in the UK (and France) right now we are hearing a lot of people complain that certain practices are “not natural”. I’m sure you all know by now that there are loads of species in which homosexual behavior has been observed in the wild, but to stretch your minds a little further here is Deep Sea News with a list of “10 Ocean Species That Challenge Gender Role Stereotypes”. It includes sex changes, hermaphrodites, transvestism, a species that has been reproducing by cloning for 80 million years and my favorites, the Loriceferans, whose gender identity is very clearly dependent on what food they eat. Goodness only knows what our bishops would make of all this depravity. What was God thinking when she made these creatures?

The Launch: Phase II

~ Cheryl

There were still piles of tools and an unmistakable smell of glue when I arrived at the exhibition gallery this morning. Thankfully I have seen Worldcon from the inside and things like that don’t worry me any more. By the time the guests started to arrive, everything was under control.

The choir from Sing Out Bristol got us underway very effectively. If people weren’t quiet before, they certainly were once the songs had finished. The M-Shed’s boss opened proceedings, remarking that we were just the sort of community-focused project that they were created to host. My co-chair, Andy Foyle, then did the traditional speech of explaining how the exhibition came into being, and thanking all and sundry, after which he handed over to me to be political.

We did record the whole opening ceremony. Hopefully it will be on our website soon. I can, however, give you the text of my speech. It wasn’t delivered exactly like this, partly because I prefer to speak without notes and never remember the words exactly, and partly because I was making little improvements to it as I memorized it on the way in this morning. Here’s what I planned to say.

Thanks Andy. It’s a tremendous amount of work that you and the rest of the team have put in, and you should all be very proud.

I’m a fairly recent addition to that team, having only moved near to Bristol in the last few years. I can’t claim to have encyclopedic local knowledge. But I do represent a piece of the jigsaw. I have seen far too many supposed LGBT projects in which the T component is at least silent, if not totally invisible. When it was suggested to me that I should get involved in Out Stories I leapt at the chance because I didn’t want that sort of thing to happen again. I’m absolutely delighted at the reception I got, and at the way in which Andy and the team tried hard to make the exhibition as inclusive as possible.

There are still areas we could improve. In particular I would like to have seen more involvement of Bristol’s ethnic minorities. However, the work of Out Stories won’t end with the exhibition. We’ll continue to work collecting and recording the stories of Bristol’s LGBT citizens for many years to come. Diversity is one area we are keen to work on.

Of course our journey isn’t over either. As the marriage equality bill works its way through Parliament, we can expect to see renewed media attacks on our gay and lesbian friends. These past weeks have also shown, quite graphically, the level of hatred of trans people that still exists in British society, even at a supposedly liberal newspaper such as The Observer.

This exhibition illustrates how far we have come in the space of a lifetime. Acceptance and equality are still a way off, but we have reached the point where we no longer have to hide. In mounting this exhibition, Bristol’s LGBT communities are saying very clearly that we too are part of the city. We hope it will succeed in giving Bristolians a better idea of the sort of people we are, and help us all go forward into the future together.

The speeches were followed by ribbon cutting and cake cutting, and more fabulous singing. Not to mention lots of photograph taking. The official photos should be on the website eventually. I have very few, due to having had to be in most of them and not having Kevin around to take pictures for me.

The exhibition looks great. It isn’t huge, but it is a huge statement on behalf of the city and its LGBT community. I’m also quite pleased with some of the text, for example the mention of forced divorces under the Gender Recognition Act, and the death toll from TDOR. I think visitors will learn something from what we’ve done.

After lunch we had an excellent talk from gay historian, novelist and theatre director, Neil Bartlett. I like what he had to say about history being all about how the world could be different (just like science fiction, really). It also turned out that he knew quite a bit about Boulton & Park (aka Stella & Fanny, Victorian London’s most famous genderqueer people) and we had an interesting chat about the difficulties of assigning trans identities to historical characters.

If you live near Bristol, please do go along and see what we’ve done. It’s free to get in. Even if you don’t like our bit, you can visit the exhibit on the history of chocolate that is on at the same time. As for everyone else, hopefully we’ll get the panels and pictures of some of the artifacts online once the exhibition is over.

The Launch: Phase I

~ Cheryl

I’m just back from an evening event in City Hall, Bristol, at which LGBT History Month was giving the civic push off the gangway. Peter Main, the city’s first openly gay Lord Mayor, and George Ferguson, our first ever elected Mayor, were both in attendance. (For Americans confused about the difference, George gets to make the decisions, while Peter gets to wear the bling or, as Peter explained it to me, “he’s the power and I’m the glory”).

Also launched at the event was a new Diversity in Schools project aimed at teaching the city’s kids to respect cultural diversity. George, in his speech, noted that one of the first debates he attended as a young councilor was about whether the city would allow LGBT groups to meet on council premises. Now here we were teaching our kids to respect them. Kudos also to Annabelle Armstrong-Walter, the city’s LGBT equality officer, who talked about trans awareness being a key issue for her this year.

Of course you always get someone who is outraged. We got an angry “Lesbian Feminist” complaining about how few women were at the meeting. This confused a lot of people as the numbers were close to 50:50. I think what she meant was that there were very few wimmin there. There were female-identified persons, but some were not lesbians, some were lesbians but not feminists, some were femme and, shock horror, there was even the Evil Trans Agenda, infiltrating our feminisms with their cunning Patriarchal tricks. None of those count as Real Wimmin. And this, of course, is a major reason why so many young women these days say they are Not Feminists. Sigh.

Still, the vast majority of the evening was very positive. Lots of different LGBT social groups got to give a pitch (including me doing Out Stories because the boys and butches were all still down the M-Shed with their power tools putting the finishing touches to the exhibition). And at the end were got a short concert from the fabulous Sing Out Bristol choir. The final song they did was Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” from Transformer (in fact I think it was the b-side for “Walk on the Wild Side”). It’s a wonderful song, and ideal for a choir. I can’t think of a better way to get ear-wormed.

Tomorrow I have to be up at the crack of dawn so that I can be at the M-Shed for 10:00am. The official opening of the exhibition is at 11:00. I have to make a speech. That can’t be too hard, right?

Women Warriors at Ujima

~ Cheryl

The podcasts from yesterday’s shows at Ujima are now available worldwide.

I started off with a slot in the last 10 minutes of the Tommy Popcorn show, where I got to preview LGBT History Month. Many thanks to Tommy for inviting me on.

The discussion of warrior women comes in the first half hour of the Women’s Outlook show (which I see the Ujima website still has incorrectly titled). I managed to get in some discussion of Julian May’s Saga of the Exiles, and Justina Robson’s Quantum Gravity series. The other people on the podcast loved the picture of Lila Black on the cover of Down to the Bone. I was hoping to get a mention in for Kameron Hurley’s Bel Dame Apocrypha as well (I love the opening of Rapture, which I wanted to read), but there’s only so much time available on live radio.

The second half hour of that segment features some women drummers who are a lot of fun and are clearly doing useful woman-positive work. I find it very sad to find such people insistent that they are Not Feminists, because to them Feminism is all about hating men. I blame you for this, Julie Bindel.

I’m also involved in the Lighter Side of Life segment in the first 15 minutes of the second hour of the show. That’s all about “What’s in a woman’s handbag?”. So if you want to know what is in mine, do listen in.

Next week I’m doing a slot on the main Outlook show where we celebrate Chinese New Year. Women’s Outlook takes a break until the 20th when, it being February, we’ll be doing love stories.

Ujima’s LGBT Show

~ Cheryl

I’ve now managed to listen to all of yesterday’s Women’s Outlook show on Ujima. I think we did OK. I’m still very much learning to do radio. It requires a lot more thinking on your feet than blogging, and sometimes you just can’t make the points you want to make because the discussion has moved on. Also Ujima is much more of a working class environment than the parts of the blogosphere I move in. I don’t expect the people I end up talking to there to have the same nuanced understanding of sexuality and gender that is expected of people online. I’m much more interested in knowing that people’s hearts are in the right place, than in having them use “correct” language all of the time.

Anyway, the first hour of the show is available here. In it we talk books, and I get to enthuse about Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve, and Stella Duffy’s Theodora. There’s also a lengthy digression on the subject of Julie Burchill. That’s followed by a segment on lesbian life with my friends Annabelle, from the City Council, and Janet, a recent arrival from Australia. Annabelle explains that Bristol Council has placed 21st overall, and 3rd amongst local authorities, on this year’s Stonewall LGB employer index. Janet contrasts the legal situation for lesbians in the UK and Australia. I get to be rude about Stonewall and explain intersectionality.

Toward the end of the hour you get to hear some background noise as Donald pops in to tell us off for using bad words, followed by Paulette apologizing for having quoted Julie Burchill. Later on we talk quite a bit about the forthcoming Revealing Stories Exhibition, and I talk about Michael Dillon.

Hour two, available here, starts off with the standard “lighter side of life” segment, which Paulette and I agonized over a lot beforehand. We ended up talking a lot about cross-dressing in comedy, and I think I got all of the right points in eventually. I also got to enthuse about the very wonderful Bethany Black.

The second segment is, I’m afraid, all about me. Everyone except Kevin can fast forward through that and on to the final segment in which a group of us chat generally about sexuality and gender. I get to comment on the relationship between LGBT folks and gender, and to dump on the Tories.

Next week the topic for the books section will be “warrior women”, which will be my opportunity to enthuse about the likes of Mary Gentle and Kameron Hurley. Even if you are not interested in the LGBT stuff, I hope you’ll take a listen to the books segments of these shows. Sooner or later someone at Ujima will notice they are getting downloads from all over the world.

Bristol’s LGBT History Month Events

~ Cheryl

February is almost upon us, and Bristol will once again have an extensive program events to mark LGBT History Month (yes, US readers, we celebrate it at a different time of year). The key event is the exhibition at the M-Shed, which has been occupying a great deal of my time over the past few months. If you need extra incentive to come, I note that the other exhibition they are hosting in February is all about chocolate.

Out Stories Bristol (well, Kim) has also arranged a program of external events. You can find a list of them all here. I’d like to draw your attention in particular to this one. The blurb for it is:

Michael Dillon was the first person in the world to undergo medical gender transition from female to male. Oxford educated, he trained as a doctor and played a key role developing the modern medical view of transsexuals. He also assisted with the UK’s first male-to-female gender surgery. Cheryl Morgan explains how the modern history of trans people began here in Bristol, and how two World Wars helped make this gender revolution possible.

Other LGBT groups around the city are also putting on events, and the City Council has produced a comprehensive list (PDF).

We didn’t quite have time to arrange the erection of a statue of Julie Burchill to mark her contribution to trans rights (she was born in Bristol), but perhaps we can manage that next year.

On Shout Out: #TransDocFail, Doctor Who And Me

~ Cheryl

Last night’s episode of Shout Out is now available online. It includes Nathan and I talking about #TransDocFail, and a news report about a group of gay Doctor Who fans. That all starts around half way through, but there’s more mention of #TransDocFail and Julie Burchill earlier in the show. You can listen here. (If you come to this link more than a year after I posted it, you’ll need to scroll down to the January 17th episode.)

I could have done a lot better on the show. There were some key points I didn’t manage to get across. Practice. I need practice. But it is good to have these things out there.