Opinion: Yes, Beyoncé Can Be A Feminist

Picture of a tortoiseshell cat. — Taco, as often happens, agrees with me.

So Beyonce appeared at the VMAs and called herself a feminist. More than that, she stood in front of an enormous glowing sign saying “Feminist” in an image that’s exploded across the Internet.

I think that’s pretty darn cool. Because I am so tired of what’s been done to the word feminist by those who oppose it, the redefinition of it to a hateful caricature. I taught Women’s Studies for a while and time after time, smart, fierce, wonderful young women would say to me, “I’m not a feminist, but…” and then something aligned with feminism would come out of their mouth. And it made me want to weep, every time, that the word had been recast to the point where they did not want to be identified by it.

I read a piece today that said, “Before you call her a feminist, know she’s voted Republican!”

So what? Does that author really think there aren’t Republicans who are feminists? Another piece said OMG she poledanced in a music video. Again, so what?

Feminism isn’t about policing other people’s expressions of sexuality. It’s about being able to make choices. It’s about a view of the world that says women are human beings as much as men are (which sometimes hasn’t been the case in the past, and which, sadly, some people still believe today). It’s about being able to fuck if you want and not be labeled a slut just as much as it’s about being able to choose not to fuck and not be labeled frigid or aberrant. It’s about neither gender getting relegated to pink or blue, but being able to choose whatever they want, including pink and blue and purple and black and white and whatever shade you like. It’s about getting out of all the sad and narrow little boxes that our world tries to shove us into on a constant basis.

It’s about saying yes. Not saying no. Unless you want. Or maybe you say maybe. That’s okay. It’s about women being able to make a choice.

Here’s a useful passage from the Geek Feminism Wiki:

Feminists come in all shapes, sizes, colours, and genders. There is likewise a wide range of political thought and ways of expressing feminism. Not all feminists think alike, but if you support the idea of respect and equality for women, then you are a feminist.

I believe that’s what Beyoncé is promoting. And I admire her for it, and I rejoice that a little of the stigma may get stripped away as a result of that. And if you want to argue about that, do me a favor and make sure you’re talking from a position where you’ve done some research, rather than a kneejerk reaction or trolling.

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Five (More) Gifts for Speculative Fiction Writers

December 20, 2013

Christmas illustration — Often thinking what you might like will lead to a present another person will enjoy. You do want to take their tastes and needs into account, though - don't buy your lactose intolerant friend a big bar of chocolate!

A couple of days, I blogged with five gifts for speculative fiction writers. Here’s an additional five, which you can get in time for the holidays still.

Help them exercise their creativity. Provide them with clay, paints, fabric, glitter glue, sketchbooks, pens of magnificent and splendid color. Try Daniel Smith or the U. Bookstore for great selections.

A donation in their name to an appropriate charity. I like Heifer.org, Kids Need to Read, and Kiva.

For the power traveler perpetually on publicity tour, an Aerotray, a solar phone charger, a Tom Bihn bag, or a set of GoGear travel bottles.

Time. Either spend some time with them (take them out for lunch, dinner, to the zoo, up in a balloon, out for coffee and chat, on a cruise) or save them some time (sign them up for a delivery service, offer to baby-sit, help out with errands or household work). Or offer them proof-reading/copy-editing time.

Learning, via a gift certificate for my online classes. Right now through January 1st, 2014, mention this post on social media or in a blog (or spread the word some other way) and you’re entitled to a special deal. Buy two, get one free (one day workshops only) OR enroll in Writing F&SF or Advanced and get a free one day workshop.

Upcoming classes include the six week workshops Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction and Advanced Workshop and these one day workshops: Building an Online Presence for Writers, Character Building, Editing 101, First Pages Workshop, Flash Fiction Workshop, Literary Techniques for Genre Fiction, Moving Your Story from Idea to Finished Draft, and Podcasting 101. See here for dates.

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My Theories About Series and Self-Publishing

January 1, 2015

Cover of Events at Fort Plentitude — An exiled soldier tries to wait out a winter in a fort beleaguered by fox-spirits and winter demons.

Happy New Year, one and all! I thought I’d start the New Year talking about what I’m working on at the moment, putting individual stories up on Amazon and Smashwords. Between publications and backlog, I’ve got about 200 to play with, so it’s a pretty big task, given that I’d like to have almost all of them up by the end of the month. But if I consider that some are flash, which I’ll put up individually on QuarterReads and release in a compendium, it becomes less daunting.

I’m getting faster at the process as I go, and I’m also refining it, which unfortunately means I need to go back over some of the earlier releases, just to make them all look the same as far as prettiness and completeness goes.

Would it be better to space releasing the stories out over the course of a year? Probably. But I’d like to get this all set up and done so I can move onto other things. I have enough stories that will be added over the course of the year as I write them or their rights become available that there will be plenty of additions as is.

What I’ve done with the stories is split them up into series. This is an easy enough task because I’ve got plenty of clusters of stories where characters or locations repeat, as with Twicefar Station, which is the backdrop for “Amid the Words of War,” “Kallakak’s Cousins,” and “On TwiceFar Station, As the Ships Come and Go.” It’s also the same world as “TimeSnip,” whose main character appears in “On TwiceFar Station, As the Ships Come and Go.”

Why I’m doing this:

This allows me to provide readers who like a particular story with a way to find similar ones. If they read “Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart,” for instance, and want to find other steampunk stories by me, they can look at the others in the Altered America series.
This lets me play with KDP in a meaningful way. If I make the first book Kindle only for at least the first year, I can use the Kindle Select promotional tools and get readers to sample a story by giving it to them free.

Here’s what I’ve got sorted of the series so far, with a description of each.

Altered America (steampunk)
Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart
Rappacini’s Crow

Closer Than You Think (near future SF)
All the Pretty Little Mermaids
Tortoiseshell Cats Are Not Refundable
Zeppelin Follies
English Muffin, Devotion on the Side
Memories of Moments, Bright as Falling Stars
Therapy Buddha

Farther Than Tomorrow (slipstream & space opera)
Bus Ride to Mars
Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain
Grandmother
Elsewhen, Within, Elsewhen

Superlives (superheroes)
Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut
Acquainted with the Night

Tales of Tabat (secondary world fantasy)
Narrative of a Beast’s Life
How Dogs Came to the New Continent
Events at Fort Plentitude
Sugar
Love, Resurrected
In the Lesser Southern Isles

Twicefar Station (far future SF)
Kallakak’s Cousins
On TwiceFar Station, As the Ships Come and Go
Amid the Words of War
I Come From the Dark Universe

Villa Encantada (urban fantasy/horror)
Eagle-haunted Lake Sammammish
Villa Encantada
Crowned with Antlers Comes the King

Women of Zalanthas (secondary world fantasy)
Aquila’s Ring
Mirabai the Twice-lived
Karaluvian Fale

The World Beside Us (urban fantasy/horror)
Jaco Tours
Magnificent Pigs
Heart in a Box
Can You Hear the Moon?
Of Selkies, Disco Balls, and Anna Plane

So far, after approximately a month of getting stuff up there, I’m seeing some small sales, but also a tiny uptick in my collections that could be due to something else entirely. (Self-publishing is such a mysterious process!) So over the course of the year, I’ll be tracking the results.

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Opinion: Yes, Beyoncé Can Be A Feminist

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