Outer Alliance Spotlight #61: Gender Identity & Expression Book Challenge December 31, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : announcements, interviews , 6commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #61. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week our guest is Sally Sapphire, host of Bibrary.com and the 2011 Gender Identity & Expression Book Challenge.
Before we get started, I’d like to take a moment to recognize Sandra McDonald‘s Rainbow Award for Best Bisexual, Transgender and Lesbian Fantasy. I had this prickly sensation I was forgetting something important when I congratulated OA members on their wins in the second podcast episode, but I didn’t realize why that was until a few days after the podcast went live. So, congratulations, Sandra! Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories would be an excellent reading choice for the Gender Identity & Expression Book Challenge.
Sally Sapphire is a bisexual transgender gurl, who has spent 5 years maintaining the Bibrary, an index of LGBTQI books in a variety of genres. She also reviews LGBTQI books at the Bibrary Bookslut blog, and blogs about her personal experiences with gender identity at TGirl Revelations. When Sally isn’t busy reading or writing, she likes to go on long, solitary hikes, preferably in really cute hiking outfits.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #60: OA Podcast #2 December 17, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : interviews, links, news, Outer Alliance Podcast, publications , 4commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #60. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week we’ve got the second Outer Alliance Podcast episode for you!
In this episode, Natania Barron talks about her work and how she started the Outer Alliance, Lynn Flewelling talks about writing sex scenes and teaching a writing workshop on a cruise ship, and we have an excerpt of Georgina Bruce’s story from Aether Age: Helios.
You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing.
Notes:
Gender Playful Marketplace is collecting startup funds over here.
Elisa Rolle hosted the 2010 Rainbow Awards, which recognized works by several Outer Alliance members. Congratulations, winners!
Hayden Thorne’s historical fantasy comedy (not a problem novel!) Desmond and Garrick Book One is available now at Prizm books.
Natania Barron’s website has all kinds of info about her fiction and non-fiction. Go there to find out all about stories available now and coming soon.
Lynn Flewelling has links to signups for the cruise workshop and place to buy her work (including the sexy Nightrunner short story collection that flustered prim and proper me in the interview) over on her website.
Aether Age: Helios is out now. You can find out more at Aether-Age.com. Author Georgina Bruce maintains a blog at thebeardedlady.wordpress.com, and you can learn more about narrator T.C. Parmalee at Aural Spice.
Thanks for listening, and please do feel free to leave feedback here, on the google group, or by e-mailing me at julia@juliarios.com. I’d love to hear from you.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #59: Gender Playful December 10, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : links, news , 4commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #59. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week our focus is on gender, and the ways people out there are trying to subvert expectations.
Jedi Girls and Princess Boys
If your internet reading list is anything like mine, you’ve probably heard all about the first grader named Katie who got bullied for carrying a Star Wars water bottle to school (the other kids told her it was “for boys”). In the few weeks since that essay was posted, people have poured virtual love all over that little girl, which is awesome. I fully support Katie’s choice to accessorize with whatever she likes, and not to conform to societally imposed gender norms. That she’s a fellow SF-lover is an added bonus.
Another kid whose fashion choices have garnered some attention lately is a little boy named Dyson, who likes to dress up as a princess. If you watch some of the videos linked from that page, you’ll see that Dyson’s family and school are supporting him on this, which is fantastic. One thing that caught my attention, though, was that although all the adults involved are trying to be openminded about things, at least at first they do seem to find it strange and to be a bit uncomfortable with it. It’s easier in mainstream USian culture to support a girl’s love of Star Wars than to support a boy’s love of tulle and satin because to some extent we’ve all internalized some majorly prescriptive ideas about gender roles.
As a kid, I was a lot like Katie. I wore glasses and had a lazy eye, which sometimes required me to wear a patch, and like Katie, I was acutely aware of how those thing marked me as different. I also really wanted to do “boy” stuff. I asked for things like constructions sets for Christmas, and played a lot of things like war games and yes, Star Wars (we’d pretend flashlights were lightsabers). I think at one point I even had a Return of the Jedi lunchbox. But I wasn’t just a tomboy. I was also into “girly” stuff, only I felt it wasn’t worth it unless I went all out. I had two preferred modes of dress: corduroy pants and shapeless tops, and OMG Ruffles! Unfortunately, ruffly things with iridescent beads and a thousand petticoats weren’t to my mother’s taste. She wanted to put me in simple sweet dresses, which usually had itchy smocking all over the front. I hated them, and fought really hard not to have to dress up even while I looked for every opportunity to wear costumes incorporating fluffy tutus. No one thought twice about a little girl liking to dress like a ballerina, though–even if I was about as coordinated as a drunken lemming.
But what does all that personal background have to do with LGBTQI speculative fiction? Well, it kind of doesn’t. Except it also kind of does. I’ve noticed speculative fiction is one of the genres where girls can dress like boys and boys can wear things like flowing robes with impunity, and that’s part of what drew me to it when I was young (of course the magic and super cool space travel and stuff also helped). Speculative fiction authors have been known to play with gender, alternative relationship formats, and even one of the things we often don’t talk a lot about, which is also part of the spectrum: asexuality. One of the things which first drew me to The Outer Alliance was the all inclusive attitude I encountered among the founding members. They wanted to support and celebrate the individual choices each person makes about sexuality and gender expression. I can really get behind that, because you know, I still like the iridescent ruffles, and I would like to live in a world where anyone could wear them without other people judging them for betraying their gender. I also sometimes like to shop in the men’s department (where denim isn’t stretchy and the sizes are measured in inches instead of obscure code), and I’d like that kind of behavior to be equally acceptable for everyone, too. Which is why this next thing is so exciting to me.
Genderplayful Marketplace
Sarah Dopp of Genderfork.com would like to start an ebay or etsy style marketplace specifically for clothing sold by and for people who want to play with gender norms. Here’s a video in which she explains the idea with visual aids. If you think this is an awesome thing, consider making a video or sharing a written testimonial to explain why. Sarah gives more info about where to post your feedback here.
For my part, I think it could be an excellent resource for everyday clothes, and for killer costume items for the times when I really want to be a dashing male character like Captain Jack Harkness. And I think if this exists and takes off and is successful, it’ll help kids like Katie and Dyson be more confident in expressing their genders as they see fit. What do you think? Tell me in the comments here, or make your own video, and definitely send me the link. I’d love to hear from you.
That’s all I’ve got for now, but join us next week for Outer Alliance Podcast episode #2!
Outer Alliance Spotlight #58: Delicious Link Soup December 3, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : links, news , 9commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #58. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. It’s chilly in the Northern Hemisphere, so this week, we’ve got delicious link soup to keep you warm.
Wednesday was World AIDS Day
Treatment, awareness, and acceptance have come a long way in the past 25 years, but AIDS is still a major problem worldwide. YA author Libba Bray posted a thoughtful essay about her own experiences losing loved ones to the disease. I’ll warn you right now that it made me tear up in a coffee shop, but it was worth the chagrin.
If you’re unfamiliar with Libba’s work, and are interested in reading YA speculative fiction with queer content, you might check out her short story, “Primate the Prom” in 21 Proms, the Gemma Doyle trilogy (which starts with A Great and Terrible Beauty), or her latest novel, Going Bovine.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards Fundraiser
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards aim to recognize the hard work and talent of translators who bring us stories we might not otherwise be able to read. They’re hoping to raise $2,000 to use as prize money. Anyone who makes a donation between now and the 14th of January will be entered into a drawing to win books and other exciting prizes.
A Few Exciting New Releases This Week
*Zombiality: a queer bent on the undead is edited by Bill Tucker, and contains a story by Angelia Sparrow.
*Crossed Genres released their first novel this week. R. J. Astruc’s A Festival of Skeletons is available in print and e-book formats.
*Monday was the release day for Aether Age: Helios, edited by Chris Fletcher and Brandon Bell. Chris is also one of the people behind the newly released 2020 Visions anthology.
Awesome Queer Content in Comics
And finally, here’s something to spark some conversation here in the comments, or over dinner tonight with your non-virtual friends. Neo_Prodigy has made a list of 25 awesome queer comics characters, which is great, but non-exhaustive. What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Have additional favorites? And can anyone out there think of any trans, intersex, or asexual comic book characters?