It was 1912. Women didn’t have the vote yet. That wouldn’t happen until 1918 for Britain and 1920 for America. And even then it wasn’t all women. To put it bluntly, it was a terrible time to be female…
…unless you were in one very specific scenario: on board an ocean liner about to sink with limited space on the lifeboats.
Come read my newest article! I’ve always been fascinated by Titanic history.
I am distracting myself from this terrible timeline with Frankenstein, my first new fandom in a while. I can’t believe such a great book was sitting out there all this time and I never read it! And that I probably wouldn’t have seen the movie if I wasn’t leeching off someone else’s Netflix!
I still write articles from time to time, contributing to the websites of folks I already know, even though obviously I don’t write for a living anymore. Here’s one I wrote about Frankenstein, book and movie. (Can’t embed it because WordPress still lacks that very basic functionality).
“After all, when the Creature rages and murders he’s only doing what monsters are supposed to do, but Victor very much wasn’t doing what humans are supposed to do when he made a living being out of corpses.”
Whovengers
Fury = The Doctor: Both look after their bands of misfits, and defend the Earth.
Tony = Jack: International/intergalactic playboys willing to die for the greater good. Many times over in Jack’s case.
Steve = Martha: Underdogs who became heroes, fighting tyrants for freedom and justice.
Bruce = Donna: Both forced to embrace a personality they didn’t want. The only difference is, Donna no longer remembers what it was like to be fully her.
Natasha = Amy: Both badass redheads with pasts they tend to run from.
Clint = Rory: Soldier types who always come as a package deal with their badass redhead.
Phil = Mickey: Both The Man In Havana, both eventually drawn to Big Fucking Guns.
Maria = River: The capable second-in-command.
Thor = Rose: Both channel godlike powers (that they had to prove themselves worthy of.) Also, both blonde.
Loki = The Master: These two would get on like a house on fire…no survivors.Thor is Rose
I quit life this is the best thing I’ve ever seen
Oh my god, Martha as Cap. MY CREYS.
Martha as — yes, what you said exactly.
Best ever.
I approve of everything this post chooses to be.
It all makes perfect sense. Seriously… it’s all perfect.
Oh my gosh, if Loki and The Master teamed up… END OF THE WORLD.
SO MUCH SENSE ALL OF THE SENSE
SERIOUSLY PERFECT
I made this back in 2012! It was one of the first things I did on tumblr that really took off. Some memories:
-some of the images being all squished because this was before tumblr had the sensible options for imagesets
-someone complaining that Natasha wasn’t included in this gifset ???
-MULTIPLE people reblogging to bitch about Martha being compared to Cap :/ Martha hate was really rampant in 2012. It was racism, of course.
-People commenting instead of putting their thoughts in the tags, something folks just don’t do anymore (except me)
It’s a little time capsule of 2012 tumblr, I’m so glad I found it again.
ot3:
part of the fun of the does it like women polls is that everyone sets their own criteria for what that question actually means to them. and i think it says a lot about how devalued womens’ narratives are that “are the incredibly few women in this narrative written with a baseline level of competence” and “does this narrative avoid being explicitly hostile to its female characters” are enough for people to view something as being actively pro women. its the media equivalent of that phenomenon where men view women as having spoken an equal amount when they have in fact spoken far far less. imagine if we used criteria this nothingburger for gauging literally anything else. youre like ‘does this piece of work like it’s characters’ and someone else says ‘yeah they have character arcs and everything. the narrative doesnt even punish them for existing.’ you just have to be like. okay but is it good though. are those character arcs meaningful? compelling? well executed? thematically resonant? the bar is low people it is loooooow
#also leads to stories that have really interesting and well-written female characters being judged as bad#just because bad things happen to the women in them
never forgiving that blog’s voters for how they judged mary jane watson
Thoughts will not leave me alone – I do take does-it-hate-women and similar blogs/articles/etc rather seriously, to my own detriment. But I think “Is it feminist? Does it hate women?” are questions that answer nothing. Because what’s feminist? What’s hate? What’s it?
What’s feminist? I’m reminded of this very good post which points out that feminism means different things to different people depending on how you were socialized, and what traumas you’ve suffered. One woman might appreciate a fictional rape victim being shown to have a complete messy breakdown after their assault while a different woman might appreciate that a fictional rape victim immediately turns into a stone cold badass and kills her rapist. It depends if you want realism or a power fantasy. Both women are right.
What’s hate? Steven Moffat always got a lot of flak for his female characters (all of whom I love) but has never been accused of harming a real woman. Neil Gaiman was lauded as a feminist, a lover of women and advocate of girls and we now know he’s a rapist. It’s clear from his actions that Joss Whedon hates women, but did he create Buffy Summers or did Sarah Michelle Gellar? Does the love Gellar put in negate the hate Whedon put in?
What’s it? Let’s say the It is a long-running franchise like Batman or Doctor Who that’s been going since the 60s or earlier. Does it hate women? It’s had hundreds of writers, directors and producers, statistics are not on my side here, some of them definitely hated women. You can always point to one panel or scene from 1969 and say, “This is proof that this franchise hates women” but then a female writer or showrunner shows up and attempts to put all that in the past. Do we forgive? Is the It absolved?
Can a TV show be considered feminist if even one woman was harmed in all 60+ years of it, even if the perpetrator is dead?
There’s more! There was a debate once as to whether Pacific Rim was feminist – Travis Beacham and Guillermo del Toro definitely seemed to love Mako Mori, but she’s the only woman in the film with lines. Then the franchise went to different people and Mako was fridged. When Black Panther came out it was lauded as the MCU’s most feminist film, but Disney are involved, and Disney have mistreated countless real women. But on the other hand, how much creative control do Disney have over the franchises they suck up like leeches? I love the show Gravity Falls and don’t consider it Disney, just something Disney bought, but Disney was dictating what made it into the show while at the same time women who worked at Disneyland were sleeping in their cars.
The subject of this very blog, the Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, was directed by Sam Raimi, and Sam Raimi has in the past donated money to the Republican party. What 16-year-old me spent on my movie ticket for Spider-Man 2, some of that could well have gone on preventing teengers just like me from getting abortions.
If I (a woman) love it, is it feminist?
I really want answers.
It is one year since I finished and published the last chapter of The Final Act, a Mary Jane-centric Parksborn fanfic. Actually it can’t be a Parksborn fic, because one of them is dead and remains dead. In my heart and soul of course it’s a Parksborn fic (love transcends death easily), but it’s – well –
It’s really about growing up in the 00s. It’s really about me growing up in the 00s. And it was written in a different time, a less painful time. The finale makes my heart hurt now. I suppose it should.
I hope my fellow Peter, Mary Jane, Harry, and Spider-Man lovers can get something out of it. It’s hands down the best thing I’ve ever written.
The Final Act – Chapter 1 – PanicPixieDreamGirl – Spider-Man (Movies – Raimi) [Archive of Our Own]
It’s been a year! God, so much has happened.
