Am I A Feminist?

[lydamorehouse]

So, I’m looking through the list of panels I’ll be on at WisCON 30 and two-thirds of them have the word “feminist” in them. I am on –

Cross-Genre Fantasy (Writing SF – The Business) Saturday, 8:30-9:45 am
Feminist Fiction is So Five Minutes Ago (Feminism, Sex and Gender) Saturday, 2:30 – 3:45 pm
Feminist Romance (Writing SF – The Business) Sunday, 2:30-3:45 pm

I’m not complaining because, given the caliber of guests attending this year, I’m grateful to be so many panels. Three is a lot, considering Ursula K. LeGuin will be there, and probably most people would rather hear her talk about her grocery list than listen to me expound on just about anything.

So, WisCON concom, thank you. Sincerely – thank you very, very much.

Now back to the bitching.

Is there anything about me that says raving feminist? Okay, yeah, I could see how you could think so. Yes, I am a woman. Yes, that’s me in my senior year at high school being voted “Biggest Women’s Libber” (no joke.) And, yes, okay, I am a lesbian.

But does that really qualify?

I think the only manifesto of the feminist variety I’ve read was “Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Wolfe, and, to be quite perfectly honest, I don’t remember it and it was not something I read voluntarily (it was an English assignment in college.) It might actually be helpful to revisit now that I’m a mom, but normally I find Wolfe tedious (preferring, as I do, space ships and laser guns), so maybe not.

I have never written anything I consider to be feminist. My first novel has a female protagonist, who is capable and carries a big gun, but come on. Is that really ground breaking any more? Please tell me it’s not. I guess, therein lies the problem, doesn’t it? I got very distracted the other day following some links to a fantastic discussion about women in comic book art. (It should be noted that I am a Marvel grrl, and have been since my cousin Laun introduced me to X-Men back in 1970-whatever.) Anyway, there’s a bit of fervor over the new Frank Miller cover for Wonder Woman. And, looking at that made me realize that women can kick butt in a “man’s world,” but so many of them still can’t do it without being objectified. (If you’re curious about this, you simply must check out this http://odditycollector.livejournal.com/97166.html

And I guess that ticks me off, which, at the end of the day, qualifies probably a lot more than whether or not I’m a grrl, queer, or well-read.

Comments

[naomikritzer]

You're a feminist because you're at Wiscon, Lyda. It's the default assumption. :-)

at Wiscon...

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Well, at least interested in it, and willing and able to discuss it. Then there's the classic minimal definition of feminism, having [the attitude that] women are people. I'd certainly say that your SF books fall into that category.

Then there's the whole range of conversations about self-definition and inclusion, which are fine traditions in both fandom and feminism. So I can see how someone might get that idea even from this post of yours.

random fangirling from a stranger

[loligo.livejournal.com]

and probably most people would rather hear her talk about her grocery list than listen to me expound on just about anything.

Having seen two of your panels (the Feminist Romance one and the Slash one), I can say that I would happily listen to *you* expound on your grocery list, too -- you were definitely the most entertaining panelist I saw the whole time I was there.

(Though Ursula herself turned out to be surprisingly pithy and sassy, too, which I wasn't expecting, based on my rather ambivalent reactions to her recent works....)

Re: random fangirling from a stranger

[lydamorehouse]

Here's my deeply clever and sassy response: cool!