My body-posi CV
Surprise! Holly here as Becca has been fighting the forces of patriarchy all day over at our tumblr (link below). This is just a little story of how I got to where I am now. Where I am now is sort of okay but I’m still trying.
Links!
Killing us softly 4, a lecture that you have to watch: http://www.riseupfilms.com/1/post/2012/03/killing-us-softly-4-advertisings-im…
This Dame:
Tumblr: http://tgandthetwins.tumblr.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/missraaae
…mostly because the two intersect so rarely. Sure, there are a fair few niche communities where the two get on fabulously but my experiences of mainstream geek culture have been unyieldingly sexist and anti-feminist and that hurts.
I’m sorry to hear you’ve had such negative experiences in geek culture as a feminist, but with all respect I have to say I’m surprised that you’ve struggled to find places where feminism and geek culture overlap. Perhaps it’s one of those things where you have to find the door, but I have found that women have carved out a lot of spaces for themselves in geek culture and that those spaces are almost without exception overtly feminist largely because women face such hostility within more mainstream geek culture. While I can’t speak much for the gaming community as it isn’t my purview my last uni essay was about the feminist movement within the comic book community, which has been extremely active this last year. May I suggest you perhaps check http://www.themarysue.com/ which is a feminist geek site that’s been gaining popularity recently.
Funny enough, most of the self-identified geek women I follow on tumblr are also self-identified feminists (or if not ready to take on that mantle, feminist-friendly and queer-friendly and race-friendly). The Mary Sue and it’s women contributors (Jill Pantozzi in particular) are a great place to start. Geekfeminism.com is more about the tech side (computers, programming, hacker culture, etc).
On tumblr I suggest:
thebirdandthebat (Jill Pantozzi)
marvelwomenkickingass (self-explanatory)
dcwomenkickingass (self-explanatory, also a website)
geekquality (focuses on all equality not just “women’s issues”)
kateordie (webcomics by queer, sex-positive artist/comic book fan Kate Leth)
themarysue (on tumblr and as website)
beatonna (Kate Beaton, webcomic artist and she posts a lot about being a woman in the comics industry and helped create parody comic ”Strong Female Characters”)
ladiesmakingcomics (promotes women who make comics)
girlslovesuperheroes (pictures of little girls who love superheroes, not overtly feminist but feminist in that people need to be reminded that all children should be encouraged to read comics.)
geekyjessica (actress and web series creator Jessica Mills, very feminist)
and many more but I’ve run out of time and have to go to work now.
Reblogging for commentary and recommendations. - Becca
…mostly because the two intersect so rarely. Sure, there are a fair few niche communities where the two get on fabulously but my experiences of mainstream geek culture have been unyieldingly sexist and anti-feminist and that hurts.
My very first encounter with sexism came during my first Dungeons and Dragons game, I was told by another 10 year old that I couldn’t have high strength stats because I was a girl and that I wasn’t allowed to roll the die.
I remember someone telling me that I should dress as a Repentia Sister from 40K (space nuns who have fallen from grace and seek to repent by self harming and seeking a glorious death while wearing hoods that conceal their faces but not much else) on the way back from a Games Workshop con which, considering that I was 15, is overwhelmingly creepy. Not to mention the countless amount of times that I go to buy games or comics and get told by clerks to consider games that have slower action or fluffier comics. Then there’s the persistent internet bloc that scream until blue in the face every time a feminist criticises or even just points out sexism within films, games, comics or tv. And every character that I’m supposed to be able to relate to as a woman is either a sex doll or an emotionless robot or, most commonly, a problematic combination of both. Or they are Sigourney Weaver, which I can kind of deal with.
I have never been a part of a community that is so devastatingly misogynistic and it sucks because I adore just about everything else there is about the culture. So, yeah, sorry that I didn’t get a video up despite having lots to say. Can anyone recommend me something good to read where the artist has respect for women’s spines, please?
Ta muchly, I’m off to play Skyrim, loves ~Holly
For anyone who loves a bit of radio: ya’ll should tune into Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 or iPlayer on Monday morning. Cherry Healey is gonna be on there talking about our show on Wednesday (Ahh!). They even asked me to be on it (very, very exciting and lovely of them!) but in the end we got squeezed out due to timing issues. Nevermind! You should all tune in anyway ‘cause Woman’s Hour is normally pretty cool. Much love! ~Holly ♥
Here’s a few more cheeky screengrabs of our episode of Cherry Healey: How to Get a Life from last night’s trailer!
Make sure you tune in next week to catch Those Pesky Dames Grand Televisual Début! 9pm - 4th July - BBC3
catching up on cherry healey’s ‘How to get a life’ and spied these beauties at the end, can’t wait for next week :D
SCREEN SHOTS OF OUR EPISODE!!! Thank you! <3
If you’ve not already, make sure you join the Facebook Event and tune in to BBC3 July 4th at 9pm!
#Barefacedcheek! In yesterday’s video Holly-Rae said she wanted to start a confidence building barefaced photo collection of beautiful faces without make-up, so let’s do that.
I thought I’d start us off with my beaming face plus exciting new hair! Post your barefaced photos with the #barefacedcheek tag and we’ll reblog as many as we can today. - Becca ^_^
Make up: good for the puns, bad for the ethics
Make up! Puns! Evil companies being shits! Also, let’s start a bareface page so I can see everyone with no make up on being fierce as fuck! ~Holly xxx
This Dame:
Tumblr: http://tgandthetwins.tumblr.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/missraaae
Advertising Dads
All I want is to see a Dad do the washing up, is that so hard you guys?! In other news, y’know that song about the kid in his dad’s JCB? That’s basically how I feel about my padre, love you Dog!
This Dame:
Tumblr: http://tgandthetwins.tumblr.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/missraaae
Holly gets class-y
No, really, stop using the term ‘classy’, it’s really horrid and classist. I mean it. Yes, I know I just used it in the title but I was being ironic. Yeah. Smooth.
This was really difficult for me to make, so please forgive it being a bit choppy. Let’s talk more, yeah?
(I wasn’t here when this got uploaded, but it’s been pointed out that no-one blogged it. So here, go watch now because it’s important stuff! - Becca)
