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Clea Simon |
Today's guest is Clea Simon, the author of 13 mysteries in the Theda Krakow, Dulcie Schwartz, and
Pru Marlowe pet noir series. The latter two are ongoing, and include her most
recent books, Grey Dawn (Severn
House) and Parrots Prove Deadly (Poisoned
Pen Press). A former journalist and nonfiction author, she lives in Somerville,
Mass., with her husband, the writer Jon Garelick. She may be reached on
Facebook, Twitter (@Clea_Simon), or at www.cleasimon.com.
Jumping genres to support our SF/F sisters
Call it dueling
futures. Because the battle for the soul of the science fiction and fantasy
community is about nothing less, and even if we in the mystery community never
considered the impact of a chainmail bikini, you may want to sharpen your
broadsword.
This squabble
follows hard on the heels of closely related explosion of bad boy behavior.
SF/F conventions, or “Cons,” are where authors and readers meet and literary
prizes are awarded. Because of the highly interactive nature of SF/F, there’s
also a huge overlap with gamers, online forums, films, etc., and big deals –
real money – are made. It’s become an open secret that many cons are unsafe for
women, with groping, stalkers, and inappropriate behavior as rife as, well,
those damned bikinis.
Increasingly,
women in the genre – dues-paying, book-writing, comics-illustrating humans – are
speaking out. But when they do, they have been viciously attacked with language
that would appall the Texas legislature. “If the bitches don’t like it they can
leave,” reads one comment on the blog Gorgonmilk, referring to the SFWA fight. “We Y-chromosome boys were in this
hobby before it became cool and the vaginas started joining.” And that’s some
of the more printable language. Rape and death threats are not uncommon.
Nor is the
hatred aimed simply at women. There’s the open homophobia of SF author Orson
Scott Card, for example, which has resulted in a call for a boycott of the upcoming film of his book Ender’s Game. For
women of color – hell, for SF/F professionals of any gender of color – the
issues multiply.
But the
tide may be turning: Author Genevieve Valentine blogged about being harassed last summer at ReaderCon, a
Massachusetts-based con, which she attended as a nominee for the prestigious
Shirley Jackson award. After much back and forth, the offender was banned for
life and the entire board resigned. In May, author Elise Matthesen formally reported an editor – an editor – for sexual harassment at WisCon, in Madison, and as of
July 7, he is no longer with his publishing house. Meanwhile, the (female) editor of the SFWA bulletin, Jean Rabe, has resigned, and the publication is on hiatus while the board reviews its policies. And though recent SFWA president John Scalzi, whose three-year term ended July 1, has declared a policy of not speaking about the controversy for at least one year, he did apologize to the membership. He has also, and more importantly, spearheaded a campaign to boycott any conventions that do not have a stated anti-harassment policy.
But it is exhausting to have to continually re-fight this battle. In a professional arena, we want to be treated professionally. That means nobody has the the right to comment on our looks, our sexuality, or our apparent level or lack of sexual activity. (And, believe me, if the tables were turned, so many of these trolls would understand: fat, balding, and effectively impotent as so many may be.)
And this isn’t simply a tempest in a teapot, not even a futuristic one. Because while in the public imagination, SF/F may summon images of socially inept males, the field has always been more than nerd boys tugging one off to rocket-fueled fantasies. Despite the bikinis, SF/F has also always been the home of progressive thought. Back in 1969, Ursula K. LeGuin wrote of gender-fluid characters in a bisexual world in her brilliant The Left Hand of Darkness, which won virtually all the genre’s top awards. Since then, writers like Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisen, Ellen Kushner, and others have explored class and race as well as gender. In general, says the marvelously outspoken author/blogger Foz Meadows, this is a community “actively concerned with questions of representation and diversity.”
That’s because, at heart, SF/F is populated by dreamers. That is the nature of fantasy. And while some fantasy is “forward-looking technologically and backward-looking socially,” in the words of Kushner (whose 1987 breakthrough, Swordspoint, featured a gay male couple), not all of it is. “When you’re dealing with SF, you’re dealing with possibilities and possible futures,” she says. “Until you can envision it, you can’t start trying to create it.”
Which is why the women of SF/F are taking up the sword, and why we in the crime fiction community should support them. If only to win better armor.
Clea
Simon, author of 13 mysteries, knows that good books defy genre. She may be
reached at http://www.cleasimon.com
8 comments:
John Scalzi is a voice of snarky, smart reason on this subject -- his"How Not To Be Creepy" essay is a classic.
I also appreciate what Mary Robinette Kowal has been adding to the discussion, especially this post: http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/my-very-complicated-reaction-to-issue-202-of-the-bulletin/?fb_source=pubv1
Thank you for explaining what's been going on so well, Clea. Links were really helpful.
Thanks Frankie and Tina. Thanks for adding another link, too, Tina. I've read so many great writers on this and tried to link to as many as I could - and one more is welcomed!
Thanks for the great post Clea.
Ms. Simon: Who are these troglodytes to which you refer? Who obviously no nothing of the history of SF&F. They probably guessed Andre Norton was one of them. Wonder what they think about other predecessors such as Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein? Those two created believable other worlds with a set of mores much altered, or evolved, from those we accept today. And guess what? They never avoided the sexual aspect of our human natures. Their female characters were always equal to the men, one way or another. As we're starting to see in most societies today. Some are just more advanced than others. Yours truly, Toe.
This is appalling, and terribly sad. Women writers have struggled for equality in the crime fiction world, but we've never faced such blatant and pervasive degradation. Today many of the most successful and respected mystery/thriller authors are female, and that is as it should be. Thank you, Clea, for writing so honestly about what our sisters in SF have been going through.
Nice layout of the controversy, Clea. I've been following all this mess since the flap over issue #200 with amazement and disgust and, yet, I am not TRULY surprised.
As a former bookseller, I was affiliated with a SF/F con in Richmond and, several years ago, we had a huge brouhaha over a big name SF author's treatment of women on his panels and in his audience. That was bad enough but what's worse is the mostly-male board did nothing about it and I suspect he would be welcome again if it weren't for the fact he ranted in a 30-page diatribe blog about how awful the con was. Unfortunately, he is not alone in his opinions about women.
Lelia Taylor
Excellent blog post. You've synopsized the ferment nicely, and I'll be passing this one on to writer friends of mine in both MWA, RWA, and SCBWI; the entire community of professional writers should be aware of what's going on in the SF/F world, because sexist bad behavior can--and, sadly, will--rear it's head anytime, anywhere.
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