rose_griffes | another untitled post

Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: Andrea Echeverri

Entry tags:

bsg,
music

another untitled post

Being introduced to fanfic via Battlestar Galactica meant that it took me a while to realize that there's a lack of fanfiction with female characters in some fandoms. Huh. I never would've guessed that could be an issue--I just figured that since most fanfic is written by women, we'd all be writing awesome stories about/including these awesome female characters on our TV screens, movie screens and in our favorite books.

Anyway, I was thinking about making a list of some of of my own fic that feature women, inspired by the

halfamoon comm mentioned by

siljamus. To confirm that I had the name right I went and looked at the comm... and Silja just posted a list of BSG fic recs about women. Including lots of my stuff.
*feels important*
(psst, Allie, she recced your Cally/Tyrol fic.)

So here are two more. (Honestly, she listed more than I would've had nerve to mention... but I like these two a lot.)

My favorite fic of my own stuff (so far, anyway): Nemesis, with Jean Barolay meeting a copy of Leoben on Caprica. Shoot first, ask questions later.

Fairy Tale, Ending, Cally/Tyrol, spoilers through the season three finale.

eta: I really don't get it. It's not like it's hard to write a female POV--at least, not any harder than writing any other character that already 'exists' in some form. What's difficult is making the character true to what we've already seen or read. BSG does have an excellent variety of interesting women on the show, though. Okay, I'm going to shut up about this now. /eta

On a ~~totally~~ mostly unrelated note, Andrea Echeverri has the most amazing voice and musical style. (Also a singer in the group Aterciopelados, for whatever that's worth.) I'm listening to her self-titled album. It's all about being a mother, something she once said she'd never do. The fiery nature of her music makes me curious about the lyrics. I don't understand most of what she's singing (my Spanish is really not that good), but the sound is so unique, I love it. Her solo album and the most recent album by Aterciopelados are available through emusic.com and amazon.com (mp3 or cd).

So: got any favorite offbeat music loves?

*sigh* time to stop procrastinating and go do some work

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

there's a lack of fanfiction with female characters in some fandoms. Huh. I never would've guessed that could be an issue--I just figured that since most fanfic is written by women, we'd all be writing awesome stories about/including these awesome female characters on our TV screens, movie screens and in our favorite books

I wish.

Heh, I just did a small ETA in which I proclaimed my lack of understanding about this. Why not more cool women? If anything, being female, I find it easier to write women than men.

*sigh* I probably don't want to start speculating about why because then I'll just say things I'll feel bad about later.

*thinks them instead*
*grr*

grr indeed!

Thanks for pointing out that list of female character fic. It is nice to see that.

I would say though that one of the reasons that there is more fic about male then females characters is that it often seems there are more males then females on some shows. (I'm thinking of Lost, Supernatural and Heroes.)

BSG is blessed to be so well balanced with rich characters of both sexes.

BTW - Fairy Tale, Ending is one of my very favorite BSG fanfics, like ever. :D

I would say though that one of the reasons that there is more fic about male then females characters is that it often seems there are more males then females on some shows. (I'm thinking of Lost, Supernatural and Heroes.)

I'll give SPN a pass, since it's all about the two brothers from what I hear. I watch Lost and saw part of Heroes (seaon one)... there are definitely some interesting female characters. However this particular not-much-of-a-rant is pretty general. I'm not really interesting in fanfic for any of those shows. *shrug* It's curious that some of the shows I enjoy watching don't interest me at all for much beyond the show. Lost certainly has lots of fill-in-the-gap spaces, but I really don't care about them.

BTW - Fairy Tale, Ending is one of my very favorite BSG fanfics, like ever. :D
Oh, thanks!

Wow, I had no idea that there was a dearth of fanfiction about women. My fandoms are Buffy, Firefly, and BSG (in that order) pretty exclusively, so maybe that has something to do with it...reminds me of that Joss Whedon Equality Now video. Even if you're not into the Whedonverse, I'd recommend checking it out. It's pretty awesome. It's about why he writes about strong women.

Yeah, I tend to stay in my own little circle for fanfiction (it's similar to yours, heh), but stumbling around online one sees lots of rants from other fandoms about lack of women in fic/poorly written women in fic.

That video was quite interesting, I hadn't watched it before.

OMG OMG OMG I got recced! EEEE!

Okay, I realize that there aren't many Cally-fics to choose from. *comes back down to earth* But that still makes me smile. And congratulations on all your recs - though I'm hardly surprised!

*sigh* I probably don't want to start speculating about why because then I'll just say things I'll feel bad about later.

*perks up*

Yeah, I am SO glad BSG isn't a slash-heavy fandom, unlike most. From what I've seen and heard it just becomes an excuse to ignore or demonize the female characters for "getting in the way" of the female relationships. (I do have a couple of bitter, bitter Stargate and Smallville fans on my flist. ;)*

You got recced, yay! It's so cool, isn't it! (I still don't feel blasé about it.)

(I do have a couple of bitter, bitter Stargate and Smallville fans on my flist. ;)*

Yeah, and the complaints aren't just 'why no women' but also 'why such badly-written women' in the fanfic. Ugh. I don't know enough about the shows to blame the source material versus the fic writers.

Well, as someone who enjoys slash quite a bit (and incidentally, never ever expected that her first successful introduction to fanfic would be slash), I can say that like every genre, it's got some repeated conventions, but I don't think all slash is about eliminating the women.

I don't really know why so many women write slash. I'm sure there are wonderfully thoughtful essays out there trying to explain it. But a lot of slash does seem to make the men in them more "feminine," which is a shorthand and imperfect way of meaning - more aware of their feelings, more interested in exploring the dynamics of interpersonal connection, and more verbal. This is not a bad thing in of itself. Writing that demonizes *any* character - male or female - isn't exclusive to one genre, it's just *bad writing*. And yes, in slash there often aren't necessarily tons of women, but that's usually because there usually aren't tons of other people in general in slash other than the two central characters. This is because in slash, they're usually having sex, and well, that's between two people; there just isn't much room for women or anyone else.

I for one, tend to slash Gaeta, and one of the things I love writing about in my stories, is his friendship with Dee. Whenever I can get it in, I do. But sometimes, the structure of the stories just doesn't accommodate anyone else besides Gaeta and his sexual partner.

Frankly, I think you see more women in slash than you see men appearing in the femmeslash genre. I'm not particularly advocating for the inclusion of men in femmeslash, I'm just saying, I think it's difficult to mix the sexin' with all the other dimensions of a character's life, especially if you're trying to keep it all within a readable amount of writing.

As for women in general as lead characters, BSG is one of the better shows for this, I agree. Kara is a compelling female character that inspires a lot of stories, obviously. Roslin too. And I find Caprica fascinating, but also hard to write. I've only tried one story with her. D'Anna also interests me because she doesn't take crap from almost anyone. I have to admit, I'm guilty of writing women less than I write men, and now that I think about it, I guess I do often write them from men's POV, even though I absolutely adore all these women characters on BSG. I should probably work on that. I don't know why I find them harder to write sometimes, but I do. :)

Btw, I hope this doesn't come across as harshing on you. You just got me thinking about this and it all sorta spilled out. Please take it in that spirit, and I'll even go read your fic!

Btw, I hope this doesn't come across as harshing on you. You just got me thinking about this and it all sorta spilled out.

It was interesting, so thanks for commenting! I wasn't thinking about slash in particular when I wrote this. (Okay, I wasn't thinking much at all beyond: look, I got recced and look, a nice rec list!) For me it's a combination of the overuse of "Mary Sue" labels for canon characters plus the complaints of other fandom, um... fans about lack of fic/badly written fic for female characters. Maybe some of their rants were brought on by how much slash is written for their fandoms, but I'm guessing that not all their protests come from that. I haven't had much personal experience, though: my little toe-dips into Harry Potter fandom are enough to keep me away from it most of the time and the other fandoms I peek at are from Joss Whedon shows, so... (

shah_of_blah pointed out (http://rose-griffes.livejournal.com/59529.html?thread=305801#t305801) earlier that staying in Whedon-based fandoms means this dearth of good female-centric fic isn't as much of an issue. I'd agree with that statement.)

I don't think all slash is about eliminating the women.
I wouldn't have guessed that either. Though I have seen that given as a reason by one slash writer. (The statement really made me twitchy; I thought about saying something but since I'm not interested in slash I figured I'd just stay out of it. Hopefully others made intelligent, pointed comments to that particular post. Grrr.)

I have to admit, I'm guilty of writing women less than I write men, and now that I think about it, I guess I do often write them from men's POV, even though I absolutely adore all these women characters on BSG. I should probably work on that. I don't know why I find them harder to write sometimes, but I do. :)

That's so interesting. Since I'm still considering myself new at the fanfic stuff I hadn't gotten around to analyzing my own writing much until

prolix_allie signed up for the

femme_fic writing comm and

siljamus started mentioning

halfamoon and

14valentines as female-centric comms... I signed up for the fic writing just because, well, why wouldn't I? I write plenty of female characters (er, in my vast fourteen months of experience writing fanfic, heh). Then I started thinking about why is there a comm devoted to this, and noticing the complaints about fewer female-centered fics... You're getting my brand-new thoughts on the issue.

As for the female characters being harder to write, for me my difficulties are more character-centered than gender-centered. I don't think I could write something from Lee Adama's POV well at all, but I'd say the same for Caprica and Laura Roslin. Even though I really enjoy them on the show, and love reading good fics about them, I just can't get in their heads somehow. (Yeah, you're definitely not alone in finding Caprica hard to write.)

Writing that demonizes *any* character - male or female - isn't exclusive to one genre, it's just *bad writing*.

That's very true. A lot of het fic does the same thing - look at the portrayal of Dee and Anders in Kara/Lee fic, for example. Or Kara in some Lee/Dee fic. Not all of it, certainly, but a good portion. So I think the tendency to portray anyone who's "in the way" of the preferred pairing as an evil bimbo who needs to be shunned and set on fire is pretty universal, it's just that in slash, that character is always going to be a woman. And since there's never enough good writing in any genre...

now that I think about it, I guess I do often write them from men's POV, even though I absolutely adore all these women characters on BSG.

Okay, so

rosegriffes already pointed out to me that having written all of three fics (or 2.5 really), I'm a little early on the guilt complex, but I know what you mean! Ironically I think it's because I tend to be more into the female characters, and I can be very critical of the way they're written. So I'd be really intimidated to try to write Kara - instead I'll write male-pov fic where the guy is just thinking about her all the time ~~and fangirling her the way I do~~. I'm really nervous because I have to write a Kara & Roslin fic next and they are my two heroes, and I'll have to actually try to get inside their heads. eeep!

FWIW, I've only read a couple slash stories for BSG, but they were both excellent. :)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

another untitled post

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject