Linda Maye Adams's Blog, page 87
June 22, 2016
She-Ra and the Action Heroine
I do a lot of women characters in my stories. When I was growing up, there wasn’t much representation for women in books, film, or TV. Especially not for the kind of stories I liked: Action and adventure.
I wanted my characters to be part of the adventure – beyond being a victim to be rescued. She-Ra was great for that, but there’s still been far too few of anything for women. She-Ra was 30 years ago!
But it seems like every time the women get any of the action, the men complain, like for the upcoming Ghostbusters:
This echoes what many detractors have been saying about the film: This isn’t about misogyny, they say. Ghostbusters was my childhood. Indeed it was—but one based on a model that snuffed out alternatives in which women, just like men, could lead, fight, and prevail.
I’d tell other writers that I was writing action and adventure for women. The women writers were all like “Cool!” The male writers were not only derogatory; they were way over the top. It was like it was deeply offensive that women might actually want to read about other women having adventures.
Why can’t women have action and adventure in fiction, too?
Rogue God
Anton Keymas is part of a magical Special Forces, the Vai, and blessed by a party goddess. His mission? Hunt monsters that no one believes in any more and try not to get killed.
But this new monster has killed two soldiers. Now that it’s gotten a taste of human flesh, it will be back for more.
Keymas has little time to stop a monster that is intelligent and cunning. He may have to do the one thing he has refused to do, and even that has a cost, especially when gods get involved.
** He has a woman side kick to help him with his adventuring.
Filed under: Entertainment, Writing Tagged: Action Heroine, action-adventure, Ghostbusters, She-Ra, She-Ra Princess of Power, Women and adventure
June 21, 2016
Calling Women Sir
Last week, I watched the Star Trek the Next Generation episode, Disaster. The Enterprise has a collision, and is severely damaged. Captain Picard is trapped in the turbo lift, Riker and Data in Ten-Forward, which leaves Deanna Troi as the senior officer on the bridge.
Chief O’Brien (who appears to be the only enlisted person on the entire ship) calls her “Sir.”
Which has me scratching my head. Where did that come from?
At my first duty station, we had a woman officer, a West Point graduate who looked like Princess Di. She was ma’am.
And I’ve since met women flag officers—that’s any officer with stars, like admirals and generals, and they were all ma’ams (and I was petrified that my clothes were going to break out in wrinkles at any moment).
Seriously, would you call a man a “ma’am”? I’m sure someone on TV thought it was a cool idea, but no, so no. Devalued the character.
Filed under: Entertainment, Military Tagged: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation
June 20, 2016
Noticing Women in the Military
I’m in Washington DC, so I see a lot of articles turn up in the newspapers about the military—this area probably has the most military in the country. The articles might describe the VA problems, and go into many pages with interviews with veterans. Or it might describe the experiences of soldiers overseas, again with more interviews.
Women soldiers are rarely in these articles.
If women soldiers show up in an article, it’s about a specific woman’s issue—and usually a negative one, like sexual harassment, so the women is portrayed as a victim.
3 Myths about Women in Combat has this quote about military women:
While some have argued that America is not ready to lose women to war, the reality is we already have, with precious few Americans paying attention.
How can we pay attention when the media pretends like military women don’t exist?
Filed under: Military Tagged: Military Women
June 19, 2016
Cats and Physics – Who Knew?
June 18, 2016
Quote about Time Management
I think I’ve read about a zillion books on time management. Partially due to work, because work is sometimes like getting bludgeoned with everything all at once.
I found this quote on Cal Newport’s blog, and it really fits:
At some point, however, you have to put a stake in the ground and say: I know I have a never-ending stream of work, but this is when I’m going to face it. If you don’t do this, you let the never-ending stream of work push you around like a bully.
Filed under: productivity, quotes Tagged: overwhelm, time management
June 17, 2016
Otters for your viewing pleasure
Just passing along some photos of otters for Friday, Courtesy of Mike Schulenberg
Enjoy!
Filed under: Photos Tagged: cute, otters, Photos
June 16, 2016
Not writing for free
There still is a persistent attitude that writers should not be paid for their time and effort. That somehow, we should be apologetic for even writing—and I see this even on the indie book covers, where the writers put their names in teeny-tiny letters, like they’re whispering, “I wrote this.”
From the New York Times:
“Maybe what’s behind the inequity isn’t just a lack of opportunity, but a lack of confidence, an inability among women, or just me, to step up and say My work matters, and to really, truly believe it.”
Not only does the work matter, our time does, too. We wouldn’t tell a metal worker he should make fences for free. We wouldn’t tell a wood carver he has to make his chairs for free. Yet, writers are told all the time that they should write for free.
And too many of us believe it.
Non-paying it is not worth what it costs. To our confidence, to our writing quality, to ourselves.
—
“Anton Keymas is part of a magical Special Forces, the Vai, and blessed by a party goddess. His mission? Hunt monsters that no one believes in any more and try not to get killed.
“But this new monster has killed two soldiers. Now that it’s gotten a taste of human flesh, it will be back for more.
“Keymas has little time to stop a monster that is intelligent and cunning. He may have to do the one thing he has refused to do, and even that has a cost, especially when gods get involved.
Filed under: Writing Tagged: confidence, indie, writing for free
June 15, 2016
Respecting the characters
I was watching a fourth season episode of NCIS, and it struck me how Michael Weatherly’s departure from the series last month fit right in with the entire arc of the series.
They respected the character, and the viewers.
Then there’s Criminal Minds, which had the departure of Shemar Moore, who played Derrick Morgan. Also a very popular character. The show has run nearly as long as NCIS, and like Michael Weatherly, he’s had a lot of really good character development over the years.
And the writers totally botched the departure.
It was like they just threw it out there, trying to get some ratings. In the first of the two episodes, the character is kidnapped and tortured. The torture was the kind you should never ever do to the character because it was at the point anyone wouldn’t survive whole, and you want your characters to survive whole. Even if they’re leaving, you want to feel like they’re going to live happily ever after. Severe PSTD is not happily ever after.
Story-wise, it felt like the actor decided at the last minute he wasn’t returning, so the writers scrambled to come up with a script to get ratings. But it sure didn’t respect the character we’d come to enjoy.
—
I just bought a Gibbs’ rules t-shirt, in Navy blue. The “rules” are one of those things where once you find out where they originated, it’s wonderful bit about the character.
Filed under: Entertainment, Writing Tagged: characterization, Criminal Minds, Gibb's Rules, NCIS, PTSD, Television
June 14, 2016
Women on subs
I grew up watching reruns of Sea Hunt with Lloyd Bridges, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, with David Hedison. I managed David’s website for about 10 years.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was set on board a futuristic submarine with these awesome front windows so you could see what was going on outside. The first season started out with spies, which were hot everywhere, and then abruptly the trend died, so they went to science fiction and monsters with the change to color.
And the show lacked women. The producer, Irwin Allen, thought women were too expensive because their make up took longer, so the show had so few women in the later years you could count them on one hand. It was a shame, because the Seaview was set up as a private research submarine, and they could have easily added a woman or two to the cast.
But now real submarines are going to have women. That is something I might have tried. Aside from being in the wrong service, but still … submarines.
—
Required submarine reading:
Up Periscope, by Robb White
Some way awesome fan images of the Seaview. Submarines!
Filed under: Entertainment, Military, Thoughts Tagged: David Hedison, Navy, Sea Hunt, Submarines, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
June 13, 2016
Navy and Marine Corps changing gender-based job titles
It’s been—must be decades now—since I had anyone call a flight attendant a stewardess or steward. It never made sense to me. Why did we need to identify in the job title that the person was male or female?
Now the Marine Corps and the Navy are changing their job titles, like corpsman, to be more gender-neutral, and in my opinion, probably more accurate. When I watched Star Trek, my first reaction to hearing Yeoman Janice Rand’s job title was, “What the heck is that?!” According to Oxford Dictionary, it’s “A petty officer in the US Navy or Coast Guard performing clerical duties on board ship.” Not intuitive to the non-Navy types!
Worse though is that the gender naming treated women as if they were going to get over this silly thing of working and go back home. So it’s about time and probably way too late. Army and Air Force, it’s your turn.
Filed under: Military Tagged: Marine Corps, Navy, Star Trek
