Way of the Shield, and the Geena Davis Rule: 2013 in Review, Part Two

The next big milestone of accomplishments in 2013 as finishing the draft of Way of the Shield, cleaning it up and sending it off to the agent.  He just recently sent it back to me, so now I've got a last round of tweaks and polishes to put on it before sending it back to him to put out into the world.

Long time readers will be aware that Way of the Shield was something of an albatross around my neck for much of 2012.  I was working on it and it simply wasn't coming together at all.  I had actually decided to put it to the side and focus on other things early this year, but it kept poking at me until I cracked the problem I had been having with the antagonists.  It actually came together when my beta reader/sounding board guy asked me a simple question regarding Way of the Shield, and that brought about a breakthrough in writing out a long and complicated response.  Doing that brought me from a manuscript languishing at around a third of the way done to complete in two months.

Breakthroughs can work like that.

The other thing I did with Shield, both in the original draft and again in the current clean-up, was confound the gender expectations of the old knightly orders that Dayne is a part of.  Druthal and Maradaine are hardly a paradise of gender equality, but I wanted the Orders to reflect the idea that anyone who gets through the training process is considered an equal.

But my first chapter had no female characters. 

Then I was thinking about this bit of advice Geena Davis recently gave regarding female characters in Hollywood movies, advice I think can easily apply to genre fiction as well:

Go through the projects you're already working on and change a bunch of the characters' first names to women's names. With one stroke you've created some colorful unstereotypical female characters that might turn out to be even more interesting now that they've had a gender switch. What if the plumber or pilot or construction foreman is a woman? What if the taxi driver or the scheming politician is a woman? What if both police officers that arrive on the scene are women — and it's not a big deal?

And it stuck me, if I've already established this idea that the Orders have more gender equality than the culture at large, then why not just have Dayne's chapterhouse master in Lacanja (the city Way of the Shield starts in before Dayne returns to Maradaine) be a woman?  I never gave Master Thall a given name, male or female, to begin with, so rewriting the scene involved little more than some pronoun switching.  But, I think, it will have a strong effect on the worldbuilding of the Orders, which will ripple through the rest of the book-- which already has many female characters in a variety of roles.

Regardless, as I mentioned back in May when I finally finished the draft, it felt very good to get this particular project out of its long, slow, "work-in-progress" state.

So, Some Books Are "Girl Books"? I don't get that.

I work with children during the summer, and it's always fascinating to see the natural patterns of how children behave.  Some things are very common amongst any group of children.  For example, teams.  Children can be obsessed with teams, in almost any activity where some level of competition comes into play.  They want to make it absolutely clear who is on their team, or whose team they are on, and what the teams are.  They will announce these points, multiple times.*  And young kids will divide themselves into Boys and Girls, without any sort of prompting.  Even despite prompting to the contrary. 

So if your goal is to convince a young boy that a certain book or story "is for girls" and he shouldn't try it, sadly, you won't have work very hard.

However, I have absolutely no clue why you would ever have this goal.

I mean, even as a kid, neither a female author nor a female protagonist would keep me from reading something.  Perhaps this came from the fact that one of my bigger literary influences in my childhood was my older sister.  She would read something and then pass it off to me.  So that would include things like Are You There God? It's Me Margaret or the Flowers In The Attic and its many sequels. 

I don't think it ever occurred to me that I "shouldn't" read any of those things, and that carried through with me to this day. I can't imagine limiting what I would read based on such a thing.  Are there really sci-fi fans who've skipped, say Xenogenesis or Parable of the Sower because Octavia Butler and her female protagonists might give them cooties? 

A few months ago Maureen Johnson put together a series of how covers of certain classics
might look if the gender of the author had been flipped.  Sadly... it looks pretty accurate.  And covers can easily influence if people will read a book or not.**

Same goes for movies or television.  Two of the best new shows I saw in 2013 were Orphan Black and Orange is the New Black***, both shows dominated by female characters.  I never once felt like these shows "weren't for me" or some nonsense like that.  They were amazing work and I cannot imagine ignoring it because a women were at the center.

So, I'm really, honestly curious: who out there is honestly not reading or watching something because of the gender of the author or the main character?  And if so, why? 

I really want to know.



--
*- Also: kids repeat themselves.  A lot.
**- I'm not immune.  Heck, I love Julie Kenner's Demon Hunting Soccer Mom books-- not to mention Julie Kenner personally, as she is one of my heroes-- but I don't think I can get myself to read her Shadow Keeper books with covers that are all faceless, shirtless men. 
***- I claim no credit for this, as I read it elsewhere, but if Orphan Is The New Black -- a show in which Tatiana Maslany plays every character in a women's prison -- was something that could exist, I would think it was the best show ever.

Orson Scott Card and Tolerating Intolerance

One of the things circulating the genre-fan news is how Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game and noted anti-gay crusader, has recently put out a plea for "tolerance" of his intolerant behavior, and that people shouldn't picket or boycott the upcoming Ender's Game movie on his account.

I'm not sure where I stand on all this yet, though I'm a believer in separating the art from the artist if that's possible, but I thought I'd hand the mike over to a friend--who wishes to remain anonymous-- who makes his stance on this quite eloquently:

------

I found this discussion particularly interesting since I am gay, and I grew up Mormon and my whole family is still Mormon. I was also a huge fan of Card growing up and Enders Game is one of the defining novels of my childhood. I won't be boycotting the movie, and I probably wouldn't boycott anything he's done actually.

I think my "tolerance" (bad word choice) comes from a place of understanding. My parents have said things just as bad, if not worse then the things Card has said in his press releases and comments. But I have not boycotted my parents. We actually get along really well and have a better relationship then we have in a long time. They know I am gay and I know they don't like it but we focus on what is good for both of us.

Now the situation between my parents and me is possible because, when I was Mormon, I believed all the things that they believed and I can remember what it is like to be a slave to those beliefs. You know you are being cruel, you know you are insulting people, but it seems like the right thing to do because you are standing up for truth. It's like the Steven Weinberg quote. "For good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

Orson Scott Card is not a monster. He's probably a good father and a great member of his community. I have friends who have met him and say he is very nice. I had one friend who met him and when he found out she wrote poetry he demanded that she read some for him and he gave her a lot of nice attention and feedback. It was an inconvenience for him that meant a lot to her and was very kind.

Now does that mean I agree with his views on homosexuality? Absolutely not. The guy's insane. But so are my parents and all of my extended family and so was I until the age of twenty four. And the process of changing my mind was the most depressing, disillusioning one of my entire life. I am glad to be on the other side of it, but it was not a fun journey.

I think I have a degree of sympathy for people like him, and I don't feel a need to boycott him, or harass him with letters or call him names because, for one thing, fighting fire with fire always seemed foolish to me. And second, the world is changing without them. They are being left behind and in some ways their hatred will be a self inflicted punishment as they are abandoned by more and more people as the crack pots they are. I don't believe in god, but I do believe in Karma.

So in conclusion, I will go see the movie. I'm a big fan of many of the people working on it and a movie is such a big family to punish. As for Card, I don't feel like I have to do anything. I am totally content to wait patiently and allow him the right to destroy himself. Or maybe, some day change his mind.

Independence Day Writing Pledge

Today's post is quick, because for the holiday I'm going to be prepping in the kitchen, then off to an event, so opportunity to post will be minimal. 

However, I've been thinking about what I wrote on Monday and my future writing plans.  See, once I finish cleaning up Way of the Shield, I'll start working on Banshee in earnest.  The protagonist of Banshee is Lt. Samantha Kengle.

Right here, I'm going to make this pledge regarding the writing of Lt. Samantha Kengle:

• At no point will she be called a "bitch" or a "whore".  Or cunt, strumpet, floozy, slut or quim.  
• At no point will her competence or ability to do her job be called into question on account of her gender.
• At no point will rape or sexual violence be visited upon her.  Nor will it play any role in her backstory or motivation.
• At no point will the reader be subjected to lurid descriptions of her physicality.
• Her uniform will be identical to every other officer's in the fleet. 
• She will be a complex, vibrant and engaging protagonist.  Given that I don't screw up in writing her.  If I do screw up, reader, hold my feet to the fire.

Conventions and Harassment

If you've been paying to the SFF Writer/Fan blogosphere of late, you're aware that sexual harassment has become a topic of discussion.  Again. 

Because the people who pull this shit at conventions don't seem to ever get it.

Look, I rarely use profanity on this blog, so hopefully the impact I'm going for here will sink in: what the fuck is wrong with you people?!?!?

I mean, really, the number of times this has come up, and keeps coming up, and the people who harass their fellow con-goers seem to think, "Hey, that's just how Chad* is.  It's harmless."  Yeah, that's not harmless. 

And the defense of this behavior is appalling.  "Oh, but if you censor us like this, we can't talk to women!"  No, you don't know how to talk to women.  Let's take a quick quiz of Convention Behavior.

1. At a convention, you see an attractive fellow con-goer wearing a low-cut sundress that displays ample cleavage.  Do you:
   A. Say, "Wow, that's quite a rack you've got there."
   B. Say, "That's a great dress.  It would look better on my hotel room floor."
   C. Not say anything.  Just stare at it.
   D. Say, "Hi, my name's Chad.  What's yours?"

2. At a convention, you see an attractive fellow con-goer wearing a Doctor Who T-Shirt.  Do you:
   A. Say, "That's a great shirt.  What do you have under there?"
   B. Say, "Hey, do you wanna know what's bigger on the inside... OF MY PANTS?"
   C. Quiz her on her knowledge of Doctor Who minutiae to prove she's not a real fan.
   D. Say, "Cool shirt.  I love that show."

3. At a convention, you see an attractive fellow con-goer with long blue hair.  Do you:
   A. Walk up and smell her hair.
   B. Walk up and stroke her hair.
   C. Ask her, "Does your hair color have a sexual meaning?"
   D. Talk to her like you would any other human being anywhere ever.

4. At a convention, you see an attractive fellow con-goer in a Supergirl costume, with short skirt and bare midriff.  Do you:
   A. Say, "I think you should kneel before Zod.  And by 'Zod', I mean my penis."
   B. Put your arm around her waist so your buddy can get a picture of you with her.
   C. Quiz her on her knowledge of DC Comics minutiae to prove she's not a real fan.
   D. Say, "That's a great costume.  Would you mind if I took a picture?"

SCORING: For every "D" answer, give yourself one point.  For every other answer subtract five points and re-evaluate your role in society.

To put it bluntly: if you are going to a SF/F Convention with the primary goal of finding exciting new places to put your penis, you are doing it wrong.  There literally are conventions where that is the point, and perhaps you should consider attending one of those instead.**



--

*- Not to specifically disparage guys named Chad.  But our hypothetical harasser will be named Chad.
**- I am given to understand there is a degree of crossover amongst the crowd.  I understand that may generate some confusion.  Either way: learn to read the room.