WisCON schedule

Even though I posted this once before, I thought it would be good to repeat it now that WisCON is immenent.  

Please Explain Slash To Me (Reading, Viewing, and Critiquing SF&F)
Saturday, 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Slash fans and authors explain the appeal of their chosen pastime. Why are women in particular so drawn to this form of expression, as readers and writers? What's so special about mucking around in someone else's fictional world?
JJ Pionke, M: Sharyn November, Rebecca Marjesdatter, Lyda Morehouse, Yoon Ha Lee

Sexism: A Spotter's Guide (Feminism, Sex, and Gender)
Saturday, 1:00-2:15 p.m.
It's relatively clear what makes a work feminist...relatively... but in these days of more subtle sexism, and required at least lip service to equality, what makes a work non-feminist, or antifeminist?
Graham Sleight, M: Lyda Morehouse,Betsy Lundsten,M. J. Hardman, Lee Abuabara

Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading (Readings)
Saturday, 4:00-5:15 p.m.in Assembly
Members of Broad Universe read very short selections from their work. (Note: 10-15 members of Broad Universe will read. The group usually includes both well known and beginning writers. This program usually runs about an hour.
Kristine Smith, Jennifer Pelland, Katherine Mankiller, Lyda Morehouse, Sue Lange, Anne Harris, Rina Elson, Jennifer Dunne, Leah Rose Cutter

Transsexuality as Trope (Feminism, Sex, and Gender)
Sunday, 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Much science fiction and fantasy of recent years deals with changing sex. But it treats it as a trope rather than a process: LARQUE ON THE WING, I WILL FEAR NO EVIL, "Changes," the work of John Varley. While there is no denying the usefulness of transsexuality as a trope in discussing the social construction of gednder, what are we missing by eliding transsexuality's nature as a process?
Jennifer Pelland, M: Lyda Morehouse, BC Holmes, Elizabeth Bear, Charlie Anders

Battlestar Galactica: The Debate (Reading, Viewing, and Critiquing SF&F)
Sunday, 2:30-3:45 p.m. in Senate A
Is the new BSG the most pro-feminist SF show ever, or is it a secret sexist scourge? Opinions differ -- markedly. So, let's debate! Instead of a panel, this programming item will consist of one pro-BSG representative, one anti-BSG representative, and one moderator.
Jef a. Smith, Annalee Newitz, M: Lyda Morehouse

 

Apparently, I'm also doing a mid-career writers' reception on Friday afternoon (2:30 pm) with Naomi Kritzer.  

I'm very excited by the BSG panel, but the others are a bit frustrating to me.  I always end up on the T panel, and while I'm very keen on the subject, as I've said here before I'm hardly and expert.  And moderating it?  Really?  Couldn't they have found someone who identifies as T?  Having me moderate is a little like asking the one white person to moderate the panel on African-Americans in SF (which they almost did, btw, as I was listed as the moderator on "What These People Really Need is a Honky" which I assumed must have been some kind of irony, but I'm not sure.  I notice that in the final listing I didn't get to be on that panel at all.) 
 
And again with the slash panel? I'm hardly an expert in slash either, though I've read some of it.  It's another panel that apparently people assume I'm good at -- perhaps because I blush easily and have been known to say wildly inappropriate things at slash panels, and that makes good con entertainment.  I don't know.  I just notice that T and slash are the two subjects I always get tapped for... and it makes me wonder if I've gotten kind of typecast in these subjects.

Plus, I'll be completely honest.  I don't even know what to do with the spotter's guide to sexism.  I'm a lesbian, yeah, but I hardly think that qualifies me as a feminist sexist spotter.  

*grumble*

Everyone else has all the cool panels