The latest edition of the Geek Syndicate podcast (another audio fanzine worthy of Hugo considerations) sees Dave & Barry interview Dave Bradley of SFX about the recent SFX Weekender convention. It sounds like things went pretty well, and that the SFX people are learning a lot about con running. I was particularly amused to hear Bradley explaining that they didn’t announce awards in every category on the night because they had worked out that the ceremony would take forever. Yes, exactly. That’s one reason why WSFS has a fit every time someone suggests new Hugo categories.
Paul Cornell was very complimentary about the weekend as well, so I guess it will be with us for a few years yet. I can’t see me going, because the sheer horror of spending a weekend in a Pontins holiday camp will take a lot of getting over. The Tor UK people obviously had the right idea. But it is good to see a decent-sized UK convention being well run, and heartwarming to hear (from the podcast) how good the costuming was.
At this point I’d be very happy to say nice things about SFX, except today I also saw this. Yes, it is sadly predictable. Let a bunch of men to talk about a literary field, and they’ll completely forget that any women are involved, except of course to gawp at and be murdered in all sorts of horrible ways for the “entertainment” of readers.
Cheryl, I can’t explain the sheer *fury* I felt as I read the magazine and realised that once again women were being completely sidelined.
Sometimes I feel like I’m living in an alternate dimension. This is 2010, right?
Based on James B’s prompting I’ve emailed SFX with a query about the omission.
And being told “what did you expect, it’s SFX?” is not improving my mood. I expected that we’d get some kind of fair representation.
Why is that so much to ask?
WHY?
(And yes, if you saw some of the “gems” being recommended in that article I mentioned no one would be surprised why women sometimes feel horror is not a welcoming field for their gender.)