Why I Write Women
May. 3rd, 2014 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
violsvaLet's put this up here as well.
Apparently I do have things to say! (in response to this) Mostly in Holmesfic, because that’s mostly what I write. Mostly exceptionally specific.
To start with, because people dealing with unpleasant circumstances is pretty much the basic stuff of narratives, and if we’re talking Victorians then you have a full supply of unpleasant circumstances as soon as you use a female pronoun. But they were there, they were doing things anyway.
And because people ask for them, for Yuletide and other challenges and Rarewomen (which I should be finishing now instead of writing this).
It’s not because there isn’t enough of it in fandom, because I’m pretty sure that if there was I would still be writing it. But there certainly isn’t enough of it.
Or maybe it is: because I’m interested in things on the margin of stories and teasing out characters and ideas that are only implied, and a lot of those characters are women.
And because media gets it wrong. Because people (men) spend all their time talking about Irene Adler and warping her beyond recognition and basically talking as if she’s the only woman Sherlock Holmes ever spoke to, and this is wrong. Like, factually incorrect. So I write about other women, instead, in hopes someone else will too.
And that Rex Stout thing is going around and man that makes me angry. It’s just full of a nasty mid 20thC misogyny that I can’t stand. And if you get women wrong you get marriage wrong, you get human relationships wrong, if you write women as aliens then eventually all your characters become aliens.
And because it’s so easy not to, it’s really easy to write stories with no named female characters and way too easy to write stories that don’t pass the Bechdel Test and this is actually really scary, that you can just accidentally not have any women in a story and not notice.
But mostly because women are sexy and women on top of each other are sexy and women are adorable and women having sweet lesbian crushes on each other are adorable and women are awesome and women whacking people with pokers in defense of their loved ones are awesome.
And because if a character just starts creating herself in my head it will be her. That’s just how it seems to work. And I have no problems with this.
Apparently I do have things to say! (in response to this) Mostly in Holmesfic, because that’s mostly what I write. Mostly exceptionally specific.
To start with, because people dealing with unpleasant circumstances is pretty much the basic stuff of narratives, and if we’re talking Victorians then you have a full supply of unpleasant circumstances as soon as you use a female pronoun. But they were there, they were doing things anyway.
And because people ask for them, for Yuletide and other challenges and Rarewomen (which I should be finishing now instead of writing this).
It’s not because there isn’t enough of it in fandom, because I’m pretty sure that if there was I would still be writing it. But there certainly isn’t enough of it.
Or maybe it is: because I’m interested in things on the margin of stories and teasing out characters and ideas that are only implied, and a lot of those characters are women.
And because media gets it wrong. Because people (men) spend all their time talking about Irene Adler and warping her beyond recognition and basically talking as if she’s the only woman Sherlock Holmes ever spoke to, and this is wrong. Like, factually incorrect. So I write about other women, instead, in hopes someone else will too.
And that Rex Stout thing is going around and man that makes me angry. It’s just full of a nasty mid 20thC misogyny that I can’t stand. And if you get women wrong you get marriage wrong, you get human relationships wrong, if you write women as aliens then eventually all your characters become aliens.
And because it’s so easy not to, it’s really easy to write stories with no named female characters and way too easy to write stories that don’t pass the Bechdel Test and this is actually really scary, that you can just accidentally not have any women in a story and not notice.
But mostly because women are sexy and women on top of each other are sexy and women are adorable and women having sweet lesbian crushes on each other are adorable and women are awesome and women whacking people with pokers in defense of their loved ones are awesome.
And because if a character just starts creating herself in my head it will be her. That’s just how it seems to work. And I have no problems with this.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-04 05:59 am (UTC)