Feminist SF Wiki - User contributions [en]

Teresa Nielsen Hayden

2009-02-06T11:27:43Z

Yonmei: added link to BoingBoing and RaceFail 09 page

'''Teresa Nielsen Hayden''' is an editor, blogger, and critic. She invented "disemvowelling" as a response to trollish behavior. She blogs at [http://www.nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/ Making Light], and is employed as a moderator at [http://boingboing.net/ Boing Boing]. Participated in [[RaceFail 09]].

* see also [[Patrick Nielsen Hayden]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen Hayden, Teresa}}
[[Category:Editors]]
[[Category:Critics]]
[[Category:Bloggers]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1956 births]]
{{stub}}

Organisation for Transformative Works

2008-01-15T07:46:44Z

Yonmei:

The '''Organisation for Transformative Works''' (OTW) was founded by a small group of fans on Livejournal in May 2007, in reaction to [[Strikethrough 2007]].

OTW says of itself that it is "a nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of [[fanworks]] and fan culture in its myriad forms".

The board of OTW is [[Francesca Coppa]], [[Cathy Cupitt]], [[Susan Gibel]], [[Naomi Novik]], [[Michele Tepper]], [[Rebecca Tushnet]].

== OTW projects ==

Planned projects announced by OTW (January 2008)

* Open-source software package for archiving fanfiction and social networking
* Hosting a noncommercial and nonprofit fanfiction archive
* Providing legal assistance to protect and defend fanworks from commercial exploitation and legal challenge
* A peer-reviewed academic journal called ''Transformative Works and Cultures''
* A wiki about fandom aimed at the general public

== External Links ==
* [http://transformativeworks.org/ Organisation for Transformative Works website]
* [http://community.livejournal.com/otw_news Organisation for Transformative Works livejournal]
* [http://www.fanhistory.com/index.php/OTW FanHistory OTW]
* [http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/12/organization-for-tra.html Boing!Boing!: Organization for Transformative Works: defend fandom!]

Strikethrough 2007

2008-01-15T07:45:05Z

Yonmei:

On 30th May 2007, Six Apart permanently suspended hundreds of Livejournal accounts under pressure from a Christian right-wing pressure group '''Warriors for Innocence''', which claims to have the goal of protecting children from online predators. Many journals and communities apparently were suspended because they included words on their list of interests such as '''incest''': this included support communities for incest survivors and many fanfiction communities.

Barak Berkowitz, chairman and chief executive of Six Apart, said in a telephone interview with CNET: "We did a review of our policies related to how we review those sites, those journals, and came up with the fact that we actually did have a number of journals up that we didn't think met our policies and didn't think they were appropriate to have up."

Many of the journals and communities were later unsuspended. The lack of clarity and communication during the process inspired the formation of what became the [[Organisation for Transformative Works]].

== External links ==

* [http://www.news.com/Mass-deletion-sparks-LiveJournal-revolt/2100-1025_3-6187619.html Mass deletion sparks LiveJournal revolt]
* [http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/241884.html LJ Biz: Illegal and Harmful Content Policy Clarifications]
* [http://www.fanhistory.com/index.php/Strikethrough FanHistory Strikethrough]

Organisation for Transformative Works

2008-01-15T07:42:50Z

Yonmei: /* External Links */

The '''Organisation for Transformative Works''' (OTW) was founded by a small group of fans on Livejournal in May 2007, in reaction to [[Strikethrough 2007]].

OTW says of itself that it is "a nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of [[fanworks]] and fan culture in its myriad forms".

The board of OTW is [[Francesca Coppa]], [[Cathy Cupitt]], [[Susan Gibel]], [[Naomi Novik]], [[Michele Tepper]], [[Rebecca Tushnet]].

== OTW projects ==

Planned projects announced by OTW (January 2008)

* Open-source software package for archiving fanfiction and social networking
* Hosting a noncommercial and nonprofit fanfiction archive
* Providing legal assistance to protect and defend fanworks from commercial exploitation and legal challenge
* A peer-reviewed academic journal called ''Transformative Works and Cultures''
* A wiki about fandom aimed at the general public

== External Links ==
* [http://transformativeworks.org/ Organisation for Transformative Works website]
* [http://community.livejournal.com/otw_news Organisation for Transformative Works livejournal]
* [http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/12/organization-for-tra.html Boing!Boing!: Organization for Transformative Works: defend fandom!]

Strikethrough 2007

2008-01-15T07:41:30Z

Yonmei: New page: On 30th May 2007, Six Apart permanently suspended hundreds of Livejournal accounts under pressure from a Christian right-wing pressure group '''Warriors for Innocence''', which claims to h...

On 30th May 2007, Six Apart permanently suspended hundreds of Livejournal accounts under pressure from a Christian right-wing pressure group '''Warriors for Innocence''', which claims to have the goal of protecting children from online predators. Many journals and communities apparently were suspended because they included words on their list of interests such as '''incest''': this included support communities for incest survivors and many fanfiction communities.

Barak Berkowitz, chairman and chief executive of Six Apart, said in a telephone interview with CNET: "We did a review of our policies related to how we review those sites, those journals, and came up with the fact that we actually did have a number of journals up that we didn't think met our policies and didn't think they were appropriate to have up."

Many of the journals and communities were later unsuspended. The lack of clarity and communication during the process inspired the formation of what became the [[Organisation for Transformative Works]].

== External links ==

[http://www.news.com/Mass-deletion-sparks-LiveJournal-revolt/2100-1025_3-6187619.html Mass deletion sparks LiveJournal revolt]
[http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/241884.html LJ Biz: Illegal and Harmful Content Policy Clarifications]

Organisation for Transformative Works

2008-01-15T07:27:32Z

Yonmei: New page: The '''Organisation for Transformative Works''' (OTW) was founded by a small group of fans on Livejournal in May 2007, in reaction to Strikethrough 2007. OTW says of itself that it i...

Slash

2007-05-10T22:33:39Z

Yonmei: /* First wave: Character-based stories with slash */

'''Slash''' is a [[fan fiction]] term designating romantic and/or erotic (and/or [[pornography|pornographic]]) [[same-sex]] relationships between [[fictional characters]].

The term comes from the typographical "slash" character: "/", placed between the names or initials of the characters paired in such a relationship, e.g.: "Kirk/Spock" or "[[K/S]]", after one of the early popular slash pairings.

== Vocabulary ==

* '''Slash ''fiction''''' is also referred to as '''slash''', in an abbreviated way, or "'''slash fic'''".

* The verb '''''to slash''''' derives from the noun. [[Fan]]s use it to designate the ''writing'' of slash fiction, the practice of [[reading]] same-sex relationships in a text, or the making of implications about such relationships (for instance, in fannish conversations about a fandom).

*'''Slash fan''': someone who writes or enjoys slash. Also, '''slasher''', though this is less common.

*'''Slashy''', adj., something that has '''slash'''-like qualities. Often refers to [[subtext]] in the source material, notably in acting performances or in the writing. Also designates [[fan]] productions that involve slash, e.g., slashy artwork.

*'''Saffic''': alternative name for slash fiction concerning female character. (It's a pun on "sapphic".) It is sometimes favoured over the term '''femmeslash''', because the construction of the word "femmeslash" carries the implication that '''slash''' is only about ''male'' same-sex relationships.

===Translations of the term "slash"===
*In French:
**'''Biaiser''', verb, meaning "to slash"
*(Insert other translations)

== Practice and Theory of Slash ==

=== Practice ===

;The inventors of slash are [[women]].

[[Women]] have created, named, and driven the '''slash''' phenomenon, and are still the primary producers and consumers of slash.

The position of [[women]] as [[fans]] in a [[male-dominated]], [[heterosexism|heterosexist]] [[popular culture]] is intimately linked to the production of slash, and the [[relations of production]] of slash.

=== Theory ===

There is some controversy over the definition of '''slash''', particularly concerning the requirement of non-[[canon]]icity in slash relationships. This is because the term '''slash''' emerged in a context where [[canon]]ical erotic and/or romantic same-sex relationships were rare to non-existent: products of (primarily) North American and British popular culture in the 1970s, especially on [[television]] and in the [[movies]]. Therefore, in the absence of overt homoerotic material, the distinction between canon and non-canon same-sex relationships became moot.

Since the emergence of canonical same-sex relationships and their increasing overtness in Western popular culture, it has been suggested that the term [[homoerotic]] could usefully co-exist with '''slash''' to designate, respectively, canonical and non-canonical same-sex relationships. However, this suggestion is not standard usage.

Earlier references to '''slash''' also tended to designate only, or primarily, ''male'' same-sex relationships. This is due at least in part to the prevalence of [[male characters]] over female characters onscreen, and the increased importance accorded to them by the producers of popular culture.

==== The Four Waves Theory of Slash ====

This theory was outlined by [[Lezlie Shell]] on the [[Virgule-L]] mailing list in 1993, and later published in [[slash apas|Strange Bedfellows]].

Slash fan fiction has four waves. Every wave has quality stories and writers. Every wave has bad stories and poor writers. What you consider good and bad depends on which wave you rode in on.

Lezlie Shell identified herself as a second wave reader and writer, who enjoys some third wave stories and fewer fourth wave stories.

===== First wave: Character-based stories with slash =====

A. The relationship between the characters is the point of the story. Slash is a means to intensify that relationship.

B. These stories are almost exclusively set in the "real" broadcast universe as the writers' love of the show/characters as presented got them into fandom.

C. The writer invests a great deal of time making characters presented as heterosexual having sex with each other "believeable". In these stories this relationship is not "homosexual" in the political or social sense. The sex acts are between two people of the same sex, but are not "realistic" in relation to the lives of homosexual men.

D. The writers are in fandom (in contact with other fans) and already writing non/slash stories. They view slash as the end of a progression. Would have no trouble classifying a sexless story as slash.

Writers: [[Sebastian]]

===== Second wave: Character-based slash =====

A. Stories about the characters involved in a slash relationship. The slash characterizations are still tied to the aired ones, but the writers do more extrapolation without looking for "proof" in the aired episodes. Certain aspects of the first-wave characterizations
are accepted on equal footing as aired source material.

B. The majority of the stories are still in the "real" world, but it is a broader world. The few a/u stories are the "real" characters in another time. The reader has no trouble recognizing "aired" characters in these stories.

C. The sex in these stories is more realistic in that the writers have probably read '''The Joy of Gay Sex''', but the sex is still female-oriented.

D. Second wave writers are already a part of fandom and are readers of non/slash fan lit, but there is no doubt that reading slash gave them the impetus to write.

Writers: [[Pam Rose]]

===== Third Wave: Slashing the characters =====

A. The slash relationship is central to the story. Without it, there would be no story. But there is a story complete with plot.

B. No emphasis on trying to convince the readers that these characters are having sex. The characterizations are based on 1st and 2nd wave stories as much if not more than the episodes.

C. Sex is more realistic in regards to actual homosexual practices. In these stories, one or both of the characters has experience with the same sex (other than the kind of straight-panic male rape experience typical of first wave stories).

D. The writers were drawn into fandom by the slash. To them, there is no such thing as a sexless slash story.

E. Alternate Universe stories come into their own. The A/U is used to remove the characters from the strictures of the "real" world, or to let the characters be out of character.

Writers: [[Ellis Ward]].

===== Fourth Wave: Multimedia slash =====

A. Slash goes multi-media. It is commonly accepted that the only admission requirement for a male TV character is a penis. The notion that there was something "special" about K&S or B&D, etc. that made them slashable is viewed with tolerant amusement by the 4th wavers.

B. The characterizations in multimedia are, for the most part, composite slash characterizations built from fan fiction in other fandom. It takes a VERY VERY good writer to do character-
based slash for a show that has a limited audience because the readers buy-in is limited.

C. Fourth wave sex, particularly for shows set in present-day America, is more sophisticated. Some stories have one or both characters being bi or homosexual.

D. While the writer will be drawn into fandom by the virtue of writing, the readers may remain fans outside of fandom.

Writers: [[M. Fae Glasgow]] and [[Melody Clark]].

== Further reading ==
* Joanna Russ, [[Pornography By Women For Women, With Love]]
* [http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/bonking.html "Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking": Selections from The Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows], edited and introduced by Shoshanna Green, Cynthia Jenkins and Henry Jenkins.
* [http://www.trickster.org/symposium/coltopic.html#gslash The Fanfic Symposium: Columns by Topic: Slash], a collection of essays at The Fanfic Symposium
* [http://www.trickster.org/symposium/symp139.html "What Is Slash?"], essay at The Fanfic Symposium
* [http://flambeau.livejournal.com/120493.html?replyto=1576109 Wave Theory of Slash], [http://flambeau.livejournal.com/120493.html?replyto=1576621 part 2], [http://flambeau.livejournal.com/120493.html?replyto=1576621 part 3]
* [http://flambeau.livejournal.com/153618.html, Pairings, wave theory, interpretive communities], an essay by [[Torch]].

[[category:Theory]]
[[category:Genres]]
[[category:Fan fiction]]
[[Category:Fandom]]
[[Category:Slash| ]]
[[Category:Queer]]

Talk:Slash

2007-05-10T22:32:58Z

Yonmei: /* Material from elsewhere */

Hi Ide Cyan -- Would you explain what you mean by "It's not JUST fan fiction." in replacing the category "fandom"? --[[User:Lquilter|LQ]] 09:31, 6 May 2007 (PDT)

:Slash Is A Way Of Life. It's an attitude. It's an approach to viweing and reading texts. It's critical essays, conventions, artwork, communities, in-jokes and flamewars and broccoli and green sweaters, oh my! --[[User:Ide Cyan|Ide Cyan]] 10:55, 6 May 2007 (PDT)

:: It's not JUST fanfiction, but it is primarily fanfiction. Without the fanfiction, slash fandom wouldn't exist: but slash fandom is more than just fanfiction. (Ide Cyan forgot to mention the music vids!) [[User:Yonmei|Yonmei]] 02:59, 7 May 2007 (PDT)

: It would be awesome if someone could write about the slash approach to viewing & reading texts, as well as other slash community stuff. --[[User:Lquilter|LQ]] 07:07, 7 May 2007 (PDT)
:: How many other slash fans edit here, though? Because there '''is''' no one "slash approach"... I know about the articles '''I've''' read, here and there: other slash fans would know different articles, no doubt. [[User:Yonmei|Yonmei]] 11:39, 8 May 2007 (PDT)
: Any approaches you know about would be helpful ... I just think it would be helpful to explain this broader use of slash that Ide Cyan mentioned, and then I or some other category-cleaner-upper will be more disinclined to remove [[:category:Fandom]] the next time they think about it. --[[User:Lquilter|LQ]] 12:05, 8 May 2007 (PDT)

== The Great Canon Debate ==

;So here's a section to discuss the Great Canon Debate!

My reason for including "non-canon" (relationships) in the definition is/was that: while it had simply been ''unnecessary'' to include this clause prior to the appearance of openly queer characters in relationships in significant roles onscreen, their appearance made it necessary to distinguish between a normative continuation of those relationships in fic and the slashing of uncanonical pairings. I'm reading Yonmei's entry on slash on the blog right now, though, and strongest argument for not including "non-canon" within a definition of slash I can think of is: because slash is about what the women who write it want, and not about the normative continuation of the text we're working from, whether or not those texts do happen to include canonical queer pairings. Which would work for me. And that's my 2¢ (Canadian), for now. --[[User:Ide Cyan|Ide Cyan]] 14:21, 8 May 2007 (PDT)

== Material from elsewhere ==

The problem with providing Slash Theory is not that it doesn't exist, but that there's so bloody much of it!

The Four Waves theory, presented by Lezlie Shell 14 years ago and still cited / recognized / argued about, seems like a good place to start. I haven't edited it much: will try to tweak it some more. [[User:Yonmei|Yonmei]] 15:32, 10 May 2007 (PDT)

Slash apas

2007-05-10T22:30:44Z

Yonmei: New page: An Amateur Press Association or APA is a group of people who produce individual pages or magazines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the gr...

An Amateur Press Association or APA is a group of people who produce individual pages or magazines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group.

==Terra Nostra Underground==

The Terra Nostra Underground (TNU) was founded in the fall of 1989 as a quarterly apa for discussion among slash fans; it began with eight members, and its membership had reached twenty-three when it folded in summer 1993.

==Strange Bedfellows==

Strange Bedfellows (SBF) was founded as a successor to the TNU, and at its peak its membership was 37. It folded in summer 1998, largely due to the impact of the Internet on slash fandom.

Slash

2007-05-10T22:23:59Z

Yonmei: /* The Four Waves Theory of Slash */

Slash

2007-05-10T22:22:20Z

Yonmei: /* Further reading */

'''Slash''' is a [[fan fiction]] term designating romantic and/or erotic (and/or [[pornography|pornographic]]) [[same-sex]] relationships between [[fictional characters]].

The term comes from the typographical "slash" character: "/", placed between the names or initials of the characters paired in such a relationship, e.g.: "Kirk/Spock" or "[[K/S]]", after one of the early popular slash pairings.

== Vocabulary ==

* '''Slash ''fiction''''' is also referred to as '''slash''', in an abbreviated way, or "'''slash fic'''".

* The verb '''''to slash''''' derives from the noun. [[Fan]]s use it to designate the ''writing'' of slash fiction, the practice of [[reading]] same-sex relationships in a text, or the making of implications about such relationships (for instance, in fannish conversations about a fandom).

*'''Slash fan''': someone who writes or enjoys slash. Also, '''slasher''', though this is less common.

*'''Slashy''', adj., something that has '''slash'''-like qualities. Often refers to [[subtext]] in the source material, notably in acting performances or in the writing. Also designates [[fan]] productions that involve slash, e.g., slashy artwork.

*'''Saffic''': alternative name for slash fiction concerning female character. (It's a pun on "sapphic".) It is sometimes favoured over the term '''femmeslash''', because the construction of the word "femmeslash" carries the implication that '''slash''' is only about ''male'' same-sex relationships.

===Translations of the term "slash"===
*In French:
**'''Biaiser''', verb, meaning "to slash"
*(Insert other translations)

== Practice and Theory of Slash ==

=== Practice ===

;The inventors of slash are [[women]].

[[Women]] have created, named, and driven the '''slash''' phenomenon, and are still the primary producers and consumers of slash.

The position of [[women]] as [[fans]] in a [[male-dominated]], [[heterosexism|heterosexist]] [[popular culture]] is intimately linked to the production of slash, and the [[relations of production]] of slash.

=== Theory ===

There is some controversy over the definition of '''slash''', particularly concerning the requirement of non-[[canon]]icity in slash relationships. This is because the term '''slash''' emerged in a context where [[canon]]ical erotic and/or romantic same-sex relationships were rare to non-existent: products of (primarily) North American and British popular culture in the 1970s, especially on [[television]] and in the [[movies]]. Therefore, in the absence of overt homoerotic material, the distinction between canon and non-canon same-sex relationships became moot.

Since the emergence of canonical same-sex relationships and their increasing overtness in Western popular culture, it has been suggested that the term [[homoerotic]] could usefully co-exist with '''slash''' to designate, respectively, canonical and non-canonical same-sex relationships. However, this suggestion is not standard usage.

Earlier references to '''slash''' also tended to designate only, or primarily, ''male'' same-sex relationships. This is due at least in part to the prevalence of [[male characters]] over female characters onscreen, and the increased importance accorded to them by the producers of popular culture.

==== The Four Waves Theory of Slash ====

This theory was outlined by [[Lezlie Shell]] on the [[Virgule-L]] mailing list in 1993, and later published in [[Strange Bedfellows]].

Slash fan fiction has four waves. Every wave has quality stories and writers. Every wave has bad stories and poor writers. What you consider good and bad depends on which wave you rode in on.

Lezlie Shell identified herself as a second wave reader and writer, who enjoys some third wave stories and fewer fourth wave stories.

===== First wave: Character-based stories with slash =====

A. The relationship between the characters is the point of the story. Slash is a means to intensify that relationship.

B. These stories are almost exclusively set in the "real" broadcast universe as the writers' love of the show/characters as presented got them into fandom.

C. The writer invests a great deal of time making characters presented as heterosexual having sex with each other "believeable". In these stories this relationship is not "homosexual" in the political or social sense. The sex acts are between two people of the same sex, but are not "realistic" in relation to the lives of homosexual men.

D. The writers are in fandom (in contact with other fans) and already writing non/slash stories. They view slash as the end of a progression. Would have no trouble classifying a sexless story as slash.

Writers: [[Sebastian]]

===== Second wave: Character-based slash =====

A. Stories about the characters involved in a slash relationship. The slash characterizations are still tied to the aired ones, but the writers do more extrapolation without looking for "proof" in the aired episodes. Certain aspects of the first-wave characterizations
are accepted on equal footing as aired source material.

B. The majority of the stories are still in the "real" world, but it is a broader world. The few a/u stories are the "real" characters in another time. The reader has no trouble recognizing "aired" characters in these stories.

C. The sex in these stories is more realistic in that the writers have probably read '''The Joy of Gay Sex''', but the sex is still female-oriented.

D. Second wave writers are already a part of fandom and are readers of non/slash fan lit, but there is no doubt that reading slash gave them the impetus to write.

Writers: [[Pam Rose]]

===== Third Wave: Slashing the characters =====

A. The slash relationship is central to the story. Without it, there would be no story. But there is a story complete with plot.

B. No emphasis on trying to convince the readers that these characters are having sex. The characterizations are based on 1st and 2nd wave stories as much if not more than the episodes.

C. Sex is more realistic in regards to actual homosexual practices. In these stories, one or both of the characters has experience with the same sex (other than the kind of straight-panic male rape experience typical of first wave stories).

D. The writers were drawn into fandom by the slash. To them, there is no such thing as a sexless slash story.

E. Alternate Universe stories come into their own. The A/U is used to remove the characters from the strictures of the "real" world, or to let the characters be out of character.

Writers: [[Ellis Ward]].

===== Fourth Wave: Multimedia slash =====

A. Slash goes multi-media. It is commonly accepted that the only admission requirement for a male TV character is a penis. The notion that there was something "special" about K&S or B&D, etc. that made them slashable is viewed with tolerant amusement by the 4th wavers.

B. The characterizations in multimedia are, for the most part, composite slash characterizations built from fan fiction in other fandom. It takes a VERY VERY good writer to do character-
based slash for a show that has a limited audience because the readers buy-in is limited.

C. Fourth wave sex, particularly for shows set in present-day America, is more sophisticated. Some stories have one or both characters being bi or homosexual.

D. While the writer will be drawn into fandom by the virtue of writing, the readers may remain fans outside of fandom.

Writers: [[M. Fae Glasgow]] and [[Melody Clark]].

== Further reading ==
* Joanna Russ, [[Pornography By Women For Women, With Love]]
* [http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/bonking.html "Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking": Selections from The Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows], edited and introduced by Shoshanna Green, Cynthia Jenkins and Henry Jenkins.
* [http://www.trickster.org/symposium/coltopic.html#gslash The Fanfic Symposium: Columns by Topic: Slash], a collection of essays at The Fanfic Symposium
* [http://www.trickster.org/symposium/symp139.html "What Is Slash?"], essay at The Fanfic Symposium
* [http://flambeau.livejournal.com/120493.html?replyto=1576109 Wave Theory of Slash], [http://flambeau.livejournal.com/120493.html?replyto=1576621 part 2], [http://flambeau.livejournal.com/120493.html?replyto=1576621 part 3]
* [http://flambeau.livejournal.com/153618.html, Pairings, wave theory, interpretive communities], an essay by [[Torch]].

[[category:Theory]]
[[category:Genres]]
[[category:Fan fiction]]
[[Category:Fandom]]
[[Category:Slash| ]]
[[Category:Queer]]

Slash

2007-05-10T22:17:14Z

Yonmei: /* Theory */ The four wave theory of slash

'''Slash''' is a [[fan fiction]] term designating romantic and/or erotic (and/or [[pornography|pornographic]]) [[same-sex]] relationships between [[fictional characters]].

The term comes from the typographical "slash" character: "/", placed between the names or initials of the characters paired in such a relationship, e.g.: "Kirk/Spock" or "[[K/S]]", after one of the early popular slash pairings.

== Vocabulary ==

* '''Slash ''fiction''''' is also referred to as '''slash''', in an abbreviated way, or "'''slash fic'''".

* The verb '''''to slash''''' derives from the noun. [[Fan]]s use it to designate the ''writing'' of slash fiction, the practice of [[reading]] same-sex relationships in a text, or the making of implications about such relationships (for instance, in fannish conversations about a fandom).

*'''Slash fan''': someone who writes or enjoys slash. Also, '''slasher''', though this is less common.

*'''Slashy''', adj., something that has '''slash'''-like qualities. Often refers to [[subtext]] in the source material, notably in acting performances or in the writing. Also designates [[fan]] productions that involve slash, e.g., slashy artwork.

*'''Saffic''': alternative name for slash fiction concerning female character. (It's a pun on "sapphic".) It is sometimes favoured over the term '''femmeslash''', because the construction of the word "femmeslash" carries the implication that '''slash''' is only about ''male'' same-sex relationships.

===Translations of the term "slash"===
*In French:
**'''Biaiser''', verb, meaning "to slash"
*(Insert other translations)

== Practice and Theory of Slash ==

=== Practice ===

;The inventors of slash are [[women]].

[[Women]] have created, named, and driven the '''slash''' phenomenon, and are still the primary producers and consumers of slash.

The position of [[women]] as [[fans]] in a [[male-dominated]], [[heterosexism|heterosexist]] [[popular culture]] is intimately linked to the production of slash, and the [[relations of production]] of slash.

=== Theory ===

There is some controversy over the definition of '''slash''', particularly concerning the requirement of non-[[canon]]icity in slash relationships. This is because the term '''slash''' emerged in a context where [[canon]]ical erotic and/or romantic same-sex relationships were rare to non-existent: products of (primarily) North American and British popular culture in the 1970s, especially on [[television]] and in the [[movies]]. Therefore, in the absence of overt homoerotic material, the distinction between canon and non-canon same-sex relationships became moot.

Since the emergence of canonical same-sex relationships and their increasing overtness in Western popular culture, it has been suggested that the term [[homoerotic]] could usefully co-exist with '''slash''' to designate, respectively, canonical and non-canonical same-sex relationships. However, this suggestion is not standard usage.

Earlier references to '''slash''' also tended to designate only, or primarily, ''male'' same-sex relationships. This is due at least in part to the prevalence of [[male characters]] over female characters onscreen, and the increased importance accorded to them by the producers of popular culture.

==== The Four Waves Theory of Slash ====

This theory was outlined by [[Lezlie Shell]] on the [[Virgule-L]] mailing list in 1993, and later published in [[Strange Bedfellows]].

Slash fan fiction has four waves. Every wave has quality stories and writers. Every wave has bad stories and poor writers. What you consider good and bad depends on which wave you rode in on.

Lezlie Shell identified herself as a second wave reader and writer, who enjoys some third wave stories and fewer fourth wave stories.

===== First wave: Character-based stories with slash =====

A. The relationship between the characters is the point of the story. Slash is a means to intensify that relationship.

B. These stories are almost exclusively set in the "real" broadcast universe as the writers' love of the show/characters as presented got them into fandom.

C. The writer invests a great deal of time making characters presented as heterosexual having sex with each other "believeable". In these stories this relationship is not "homosexual" in the political or social sense. The sex acts are between two people of the same sex, but are not "realistic" in relation to the lives of homosexual men.

D. The writers are in fandom (in contact with other fans) and already writing non/slash stories. They view slash as the end of a progression. Would have no trouble classifying a sexless story as slash.

Writers: [[Sebastian]]

===== Second wave: Character-based slash =====

A. Stories about the characters involved in a slash relationship. The slash characterizations are still tied to the aired ones, but the writers do more extrapolation without looking for "proof" in the aired episodes. Certain aspects of the first-wave characterizations
are accepted on equal footing as aired source material.

B. The majority of the stories are still in the "real" world, but it is a broader world. The few a/u stories are the "real" characters in another time. The reader has no trouble recognizing "aired" characters in these stories.

C. The sex in these stories is more realistic in that the writers have probably read '''The Joy of Gay Sex''', but the sex is still female-oriented.

D. Second wave writers are already a part of fandom and are readers of non/slash fan lit, but there is no doubt that reading slash gave them the impetus to write.

Writers: [[Pam Rose]]

===== Third Wave: Slashing the characters =====

A. The slash relationship is central to the story. Without it, there would be no story. But there is a story complete with plot.

B. No emphasis on trying to convince the readers that these characters are having sex. The characterizations are based on 1st and 2nd wave stories as much if not more than the episodes.

C. Sex is more realistic in regards to actual homosexual practices. In these stories, one or both of the characters has experience with the same sex (other than the kind of straight-panic male rape experience typical of first wave stories).

D. The writers were drawn into fandom by the slash. To them, there is no such thing as a sexless slash story.

E. Alternate Universe stories come into their own. The A/U is used to remove the characters from the strictures of the "real" world, or to let the characters be out of character.

Writers: [[Ellis Ward]].

===== Fourth Wave: Multimedia slash =====

A. Slash goes multi-media. It is commonly accepted that the only admission requirement for a male TV character is a penis. The notion that there was something "special" about K&S or B&D, etc. that made them slashable is viewed with tolerant amusement by the 4th wavers.

B. The characterizations in multimedia are, for the most part, composite slash characterizations built from fan fiction in other fandom. It takes a VERY VERY good writer to do character-
based slash for a show that has a limited audience because the readers buy-in is limited.

C. Fourth wave sex, particularly for shows set in present-day America, is more sophisticated. Some stories have one or both characters being bi or homosexual.

D. While the writer will be drawn into fandom by the virtue of writing, the readers may remain fans outside of fandom.

Writers: [[M. Fae Glasgow]] and [[Melody Clark]].

== Further reading ==
* Joanna Russ, [[Pornography By Women For Women, With Love]]
* [http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/bonking.html "Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking": Selections from The Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows], edited and introduced by Shoshanna Green, Cynthia Jenkins and Henry Jenkins.
* [http://www.trickster.org/symposium/coltopic.html#gslash The Fanfic Symposium: Columns by Topic: Slash], a collection of essays at The Fanfic Symposium
* [http://www.trickster.org/symposium/symp139.html "What Is Slash?"], essay at The Fanfic Symposium

[[category:Theory]]
[[category:Genres]]
[[category:Fan fiction]]
[[Category:Fandom]]
[[Category:Slash| ]]
[[Category:Queer]]

Slash

2007-05-08T18:57:20Z

Yonmei: /* Further reading */

Talk:Slash

2007-05-08T18:39:29Z

Yonmei:

User:Yonmei

2007-05-08T15:04:41Z

Yonmei:

I blog at [http://yonmei.greatestjournal.com greatestjournal], but most of what I write there is friends-only (except for purely political rants and utterly frivolous trivia).

I also blog at [http://blogs.feministsf.net/ FeministSF - the blog].

I occasionally edit at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Yonmei wikipedia], though I came to the conclusion that a Scot editing an American encyclopedia is largely wasting her time.

I still have a [http://yonmei.livejournal.com/profile permanent account at livejournal], but have been banned from there since June 2006. During the [http://ljabuse.blogspot.com/2006/06/nipplegate-summary.html breastfeeding controversy] I used a default icon of a [http://www.promom.org/gallery/banned_icons/yonmei baby breastfeeding] and since LJ Abuse had taken the stance (in which they were supported by Livejournal's owner, [http://www.sixapart.com/ Six Apart]) that breastfeeding is obscene and depictions of it in default icons are banned by the Terms of Service, LJ Abuse eventually suspended my journal.

Talk:Slash

2007-05-07T09:59:02Z

Yonmei:

Slash

2007-05-07T09:56:19Z

Yonmei: Sorry, the last edit was me - wiki logged me out.

Breastfeeding on LiveJournal

2006-09-14T18:27:50Z

Yonmei:

In June 2006, a number of users were suspended from LiveJournal because their default user icons showed pictures of a baby breastfeeding.

A user icon on LiveJournal is an image (100 by 100 pixels) which the user may associate with a post or a comment. The default user icon appears on some searches, on some lists, on the user info page, and when the user makes a comment or a post without specifically selecting an icon.

Some time before the middle of May 2006, a livejournal user '''Hardvice''' set his default icon to a piece of art showing Bea Arthur topless. This default icon was reported to LJ Abuse.

LJ Abuse are the group of people, mostly volunteers, who enforce the rules set down in the FAQ and the TOS. The team leader of LJ Abuse, '''Rahaeli''', is an employee of SixApart (the company that owns LiveJournal).

LJ Abuse notified '''Hardvice''' that he could not use a picture of a bare-breasted woman as his default icon. '''Hardvice''' produced a replacement version of the picture with cups over the nipples. It is reported that LJ Abuse first said that this wasn't acceptable, and then changed their position and said that it was.

'''Hardvice''' says he then decided to test the rule by reporting other icons with bare-breasted women, including some of mothers breastfeeding their babies.

Breastfeeding on LiveJournal

2006-09-14T18:27:19Z

Yonmei: Beginnings of article. Will add more later.

In June 2006, a number of users were suspended from LiveJournal because their default user icons showed pictures of a baby breastfeeding.

A user icon on LiveJournal is an image (100 by 100 pixels) which the user may associate with a post or a comment. The default user icon appears on some searches, on some lists, on the user info page, and when the user makes a comment or a post without specifically selecting an icon.

Some time before the middle of May 2006, a livejournal user ('''Hardvice''') set his default icon to a piece of art showing Bea Arthur topless. This default icon was reported to LJ Abuse.

LJ Abuse are the group of people, mostly volunteers, who enforce the rules set down in the FAQ and the TOS. The team leader of LJ Abuse, '''Rahaeli'', is an employee of SixApart (the company that owns LiveJournal).

LJ Abuse notified '''Hardvice''' that he could not use a picture of a bare-breasted woman as his default icon. '''Hardvice''' produced a replacement version of the picture with cups over the nipples. It is reported that LJ Abuse first said that this wasn't acceptable, and then changed their position and said that it was.

'''Hardvice''' says he then decided to test the rule by reporting other icons with bare-breasted women, including some of mothers breastfeeding their babies.

User:Yonmei

2006-09-13T00:06:22Z

Yonmei:

I blog at [http://yonmei.greatestjournal.com greatestjournal], but most of what I write there is friends-only (except for purely political rants and utterly frivolous trivia).

I also edit at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Yonmei wikipedia].

I still have a [http://yonmei.livejournal.com/profile permanent account at livejournal], but have been banned from there since June 2006.

User:Yonmei

2006-09-13T00:05:16Z

Yonmei:

I blog at [http://yonmei.greatestjournal.com greatestjournal], but most of what I write there is friends-only (except for purely political rants and utterly frivolous trivial).

I still have a [http://yonmei.livejournal.com/profile permanent account at livejournal], but have been banned from there since June 2006.

User:Yonmei

2006-09-13T00:04:00Z

Yonmei:

User:Yonmei

2006-09-13T00:02:52Z

Yonmei:

Charlotte Brontë

2006-09-12T23:59:22Z

Yonmei:

'''Charlotte Bronte''' (April 21, 1816 – March 31, 1855) wrote stories and poems about an imaginary country named Angria, with her brother Branwell. From a list that Charlotte Bronte made which was recorded in Elizabeth Gaskell's biography, we know that by August 1830, she had written 22 "volumes" - small books in minute script.

Elizabeth Gaskell writes:
:It will be interesting to some of my readers to know what was the character of her purely imaginative writing at this period. While her description of any real occurrence is, as we have seen, homely, graphic, and forcible, when she gives way to her powers of creation, her fancy and her language alike run riot, sometimes to the very borders of apparent delirium. Of this wild weird writing, a single example will suffice. It is a letter to the editor of one of the "Little Magazines."
::"Sir,--It is well known that the Genii have declared that unless they perform certain arduous duties every year, of a mysterious nature, all the worlds in the firmament will be burnt up, and gathered together in one mighty globe, which will roll in solitary grandeur through the vast wilderness of space, inhabited only by the four high princes of the Genii, till time shall be succeeded by Eternity; and the impudence of this is only to be paralleled by another of their assertions, namely, that by their magic might they can reduce the world to a desert, the purest waters to streams of livid poison, and the clearest lakes to stagnant waters, the pestilential vapours of which shall slay all living creatures, except the blood-thirsty beast of the forest, and the ravenous bird of the rock. But that in the midst of this desolation the palace of the Chief Genii shall rise sparkling in the wilderness, and the horrible howl of their war-cry shall spread over the land at morning, at noontide and night; but that they shall have their annual feast over the bones of the dead, and shall yearly rejoice with the joy of victors. I think, sir, that the horrible wickedness of this needs no remark, and therefore I haste to subscribe myself, &c.
::"July 14, 1829."
:It is not unlikely that the foregoing letter may have had some allegorical or political reference, invisible to our eyes, but very clear to the bright little minds for whom it was intended. (Chapter 5, ''The Life of Charlotte Brontë'', Elizabeth Gaskell, 1857)

==Bibliography==

* ''Jane Eyre'', published 1847, under the name Currer Bell
* ''Poems'', published 1848, under the name Currer Bell
* ''Shirley'', published 1849, under the name Currer Bell
* ''Villette'', published 1853
* ''The Professor'', posthumously published 1857

==External links==

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Bront%C3%AB Charlotte Bronte in Wikipedia]
*[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1019 Poems by Currer. Ellis, and Acton Bell]
*[http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EG-Charlotte-1.html Mrs Gaskell's ''Life'']

[[category:1816 Births|Bronte, Charlotte]]
[[category:Women writers adopting neuter names|Bronte, Charlotte]]

Charlotte Brontë

2006-09-12T23:58:36Z

Yonmei: added booklist, biographical material, and Angria quote

'''Charlotte Bronte''' (April 21, 1816 – March 31, 1855) wrote stories and poems about an imaginary country named Angria, with her brother Branwell. From a list that Charlotte Bronte made which was recorded in Elizabeth Gaskell's biography, we know that by August 1830, she had written 22 "volumes" - small books in minute script.

Elizabeth Gaskell writes:
:It will be interesting to some of my readers to know what was the character of her purely imaginative writing at this period. While her description of any real occurrence is, as we have seen, homely, graphic, and forcible, when she gives way to her powers of creation, her fancy and her language alike run riot, sometimes to the very borders of apparent delirium. Of this wild weird writing, a single example will suffice. It is a letter to the editor of one of the "Little Magazines."
::"Sir,--It is well known that the Genii have declared that unless they perform certain arduous duties every year, of a mysterious nature, all the worlds in the firmament will be burnt up, and gathered together in one mighty globe, which will roll in solitary grandeur through the vast wilderness of space, inhabited only by the four high princes of the Genii, till time shall be succeeded by Eternity; and the impudence of this is only to be paralleled by another of their assertions, namely, that by their magic might they can reduce the world to a desert, the purest waters to streams of livid poison, and the clearest lakes to stagnant waters, the pestilential vapours of which shall slay all living creatures, except the blood-thirsty beast of the forest, and the ravenous bird of the rock. But that in the midst of this desolation the palace of the Chief Genii shall rise sparkling in the wilderness, and the horrible howl of their war-cry shall spread over the land at morning, at noontide and night; but that they shall have their annual feast over the bones of the dead, and shall yearly rejoice with the joy of victors. I think, sir, that the horrible wickedness of this needs no remark, and therefore I haste to subscribe myself, &c.
"July 14, 1829."
:It is not unlikely that the foregoing letter may have had some allegorical or political reference, invisible to our eyes, but very clear to the bright little minds for whom it was intended. (Chapter 5, ''The Life of Charlotte Brontë'', Elizabeth Gaskell, 1857)

==Bibliography==

* ''Jane Eyre'', published 1847, under the name Currer Bell
* ''Poems'', published 1848, under the name Currer Bell
* ''Shirley'', published 1849, under the name Currer Bell
* ''Villette'', published 1853
* ''The Professor'', posthumously published 1857

==External links==

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Bront%C3%AB Charlotte Bronte in Wikipedia]
*[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1019 Poems by Currer. Ellis, and Acton Bell]
*[http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EG-Charlotte-1.html Mrs Gaskell's ''Life'']

[[category:1816 Births|Bronte, Charlotte]]
[[category:Women writers adopting neuter names|Bronte, Charlotte]]

Talk:Commenting Rules for the FSF Blog

2006-09-12T17:22:09Z

Yonmei: Removed broken link "* Granny Gets a Vibrator: "Defensiveness"" This list seems to have been c&p'd in without anyone checking if the links still worked.

==Should there be a set of guidelines that apply to all?==

One thing that several people came up with was "should there be a set of guidelines that apply to all?" rather than identifying a set of problems as "male behaviour" and identifying a set of problems as "non-feminist behaviour". Thoughts? [[User:Yonmei|Yonmei]] 06:46, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

* I reiterate my opinion that rules are a dangerous substitute for political action. Rules must be universal and indiscriminately applicable to be considered fair. If they require exceptions, those exceptions must be codified, otherwise their enforcers rightfully face charges of hypocrisy. Political action must adapt to the circumstances. For instance, identical treatment of unequals may perpetuate inequality, because the baseline's situation relative to each party may differ. (Taxing the rich and the poor by the same amount still leaves the rich much more money than the poor.) Yet preferential treatment, or favouritism, can either further unbalance the power relationship between people, or rectify it. ''Who'' benefits, in order to achieve one outcome or the other, is a question of politics. Anti-feminists claim that women who favour women are selfish, and that this is ''wrong''. (Unfeminine. Lesbians. Man-haters. Separatists. And so forth.) This tactic discourages and vilifies women's liberation, and it is one of the most important forms of anti-feminist propaganda, because women favouring women jeopardises the fundation of patriarchy, which men's unrecompensed and unreciprocated access to women's time, labour and resources. On a feminist blog, what would be "fair" because it is equally applied to all can prove politically disastrous. (If you establish a rule to ban any poster for flaming someone else, you might keep "polite" anti-feminists and drive away justly infuriated feminists.) Civility is a product of political circumstances. Any change in politics will therefore entail a change in the nature of civility, and the rules of good behaviour have to be rewritten in consequence. The differences in case-by-case politics would make this unworkable, even for a tool as suited to frequent revisions as a Wiki entry. --[[User:Ide Cyan|Ide Cyan]] 07:44, 12 September 2006 (PDT) ''(NB: I started writing this before you outlined the Talk page.)''

: The original problem identified by me, Debbie, Pam, and others is that identifying the category "male", "feminist", "nonfeminist", etc., is difficult and won't necessarily reach the problem that we're trying to reach. For instance, guidelines for men/women references a binary that many feminist/queer activists are actively trying to question. Guidelines for "feminists" are appealing to those of us who adopt the term "feminist" to describe our views, but some people with similar views don't adopt the term "feminist" for various reasons; see, e.g., Alice Walker and "womanist". The "I'm not a feminist but..." information is great for trying to recapture and reclaim the term feminist, but I personally do not want people to segregate themselves based on a label that has come, unfortunately, to be problematic for people of color, young people, and other people for various historical and political reasons.

: Hence, the suggestion that we address behaviors rather than addressing identity labels. --[[User:Lquilter|LQ]] 08:31, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

::: And I'm not suggesting we make decisions based ''only'' on the identity of commenters. I'm saying that their behaviour must be evaluated in light of their political status, otherwise the inter-poster dynamics will be too abstracted for arbitration purposes. --[[User:Ide Cyan|Ide Cyan]] 09:03, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

:: And furthermore, the elaboration of _rules_ tailored for various political categories was '''not''' ''my'' idea, so don't blame me for its failings, ''which I keep pointing out''. --[[User:Ide Cyan|Ide Cyan]] 10:11, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

: As for Ide's comment, I don't disagree; but I would say, let us see where we get. Properly constructed "guidelines" should distinguish between feminist or political rage, or intemperate speech that furthers a useful political point; and hate speech, speech aimed at derailing conversations (trolls), speech unintentionally derailing conversations thru cluelessness, etc. --[[User:Lquilter|LQ]] 08:31, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

:: (Not to get pedantic about this from layperson to lawyer, but...) Properly constructed guidelines can explain what types of behaviour fall under our scrutiny, but distinguishing the nature of a given speech is something people do. --[[User:Ide Cyan|Ide Cyan]] 10:20, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

* Really great idea to move the discussion here rather than email.

I liked what Kameron said: "Trolls get deleted; asshats who are just derailing conversations can be reeled in. If they refuse, shut them down. I suppose I'd just assumed this was what everybody was doing in the first place. And again: if you don't
want to engage with somebody, don't." It can't actually be assumed, which is why we're talking about it.

My preference is that trolls don't get deleted; they get left up , and disemvoweled. That way we all know who the trolls are, it serves as a warning, it doesn't erase the publicness of the fact that we got attacked, and it can function as public shaming.

The fuzzy area is "asshats who are just derailing". I tend to act on the side of engaging with them for a bit, before I put in that "just" in front of derailing. I understand there are problems with that. I'm in the middle of a nasty situtaion myself where a hostile divisive guy is targeting me and one of my communities; in fact I have been warned that the guy has made nice to my friends and tried to appear reasonable to them, in order to isolate me. So, if that happens here, we need to be on the alert for it. So that the moderates, or engage-the enemy-more-closely-ites, remember to watch our backs.

I like the idea of emphasizing "feminisms" and the positive slant on things. I am agreeing with Debbie, Pam, Kameron, basically. I think we have Ide and yonmei on the side of heavy moderation and banning. And pretty much the rest of us trying to figure out how to say that if anyone becomes a huge problem, we will deal with it when it comes, and till then we have "guidelines". One problem with that is that we all have different threshholds of "huge problem". For example Debbie's teachable moment person making Ide exasperated. Or -- worse -- putting another of us in the position of being The Unreasonable One. (See the "rewards for placating men" section of Tia's post on unfoggged.) I appreciate Ide's alertness to derailing, etc. and am learning a lot from it. a LOT. (Were we an actual guerrilla movement engaged in revolutionary politics or violence, instead of a blog, I would probably be right behind her. Ide, you are suited to be a feminist Che Guevara.) But I think we can and will outweigh any crap from commenters, by the sheer force of our engagement with ideas and with each other. For me the crucial line in the sand not to cross is not to let men be original posters here. --[[User:Liz Henry|Liz Henry]] 08:56, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

:: Does ''nobody'' remember the Pankhursts?! Also: I created a [[FSF Blog Moderation Log]]. By all means, let's keep a public record of offenders and our handling of them. --[[User:Ide Cyan|Ide Cyan]] 10:11, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

==Disruptive behaviour==

People asking the same-old same-old questions, disrupting an interesting thread by challenging a basic point of feminism: do we want to point them at the guidelines and tell them "go read" or allow them to disrupt the thread further by responding to their points at length? [[User:Yonmei|Yonmei]] 06:46, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

: Yes, any of us should be able to point someone to those guidelines (rules, readings, whatever) when inspired to do so. That could be out of a spirit of frustration ("you're wasting my time; go read this"), encouragement ("you've got some good ideas or a good point but you're missing some critical analyses; go read this"), or any other reason or combination of reasons. It's not a "do we want" because we are all individuals, ultimately, and if we're engaging in conversations as individuals, we will have our own levels, thresholds, and reasons for referring people to the guidelines. -- [[User:Lquilter|LQ]] 08:19, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

==Tone, Format, Structure==

Good writing should engage the reader. Ideally, I would think that the "guidelines" would be friendly, humorous, & brief, with links to more pages that include examples, etc. In practice, it might work this way: A conversation on a blog posting is progressing at a fairly high level of analysis with a lot of interesting feminist disagreement. A newbie comes along, and, in a non-hostile but clueless fashion, asks some fairly silly question. One of the bloggers who has been participating in the discussion shakes her head, rolls her eyes, and posts a response that says, "The current discussion is way beyond the issue you raise here. You should start by reading the Guidelines; see particularly #5, and the links that explain in detail." The guidelines are a fairly short rules-of-the-road kind of document that list w/ brief description common problems to avoid, common fallacies, basic behavioral & communication guidelines; whatever. Each includes links to a page with a lot more information. These pages can even have their own discussion threads which could remain open. -- [[User:Lquilter|LQ]] 08:37, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

Fuck it, I guess I'm not going to get *any* work done today. What about a structure like:

# Critical thinking / reading / Communications 101
# Feminism 101
# Check Your Privilege
# Common Issues in Feminist SF Criticism: Educate yourself
# No hate speech (this can be outright negative language)

* Most of these can be styled with positive language, not negative language, although I think that the "no hate speech" is fine to do in outright negative language; it *is* a prohibition, a rule.
* Each of these could be a short blurb or paragraph, with sublists of issues where appropriate, and links, always, to pages that have more detailed, discursive guidelines and discussions (if appropriate).

-- [[User:Lquilter|LQ]] 09:00, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

How about a section called "We've heard that one before." This is where we could list things like "I'm not a feminist, I'm a humanist," and "Sexism hurts men, too," with a discussion of what is wrong (or point-missing) about these statements.

-- [[User:Janet Lafler|JL]]

==Additional resources==

* Guidelines for Participation (FSF Blog) draft - http://blogs.feministsf.net/?page_id=19
* Call for Participants (FSF Blog) http://blogs.feministsf.net/?page_id=18
* Communications 101: How to Argue Effectively & Respectfully http://blogs.feministsf.net/?page_id=33
* Communication Guidelines (FSF wiki) http://wiki.feministsf.net/index.php?title=Communication_Guidelines
* Ginmar on invalidating women by telling them they're too angry, too crazy http://ginmar.livejournal.com/873536.html?nc=6
* Unfogged : for men on how to talk about/to feminists http://www.unfogged.com/archives/week_2006_09_03.html#005405
* The WisCon moderators' rules might be of use.
* Something to be gleaned from [http://roar-of-comics.blogspot.com/2006/06/flame-on.html this analysis] of weird & inappropriate communications on the part of commenter?
* How Not To Be Insane When Accused of Racism: A Guide for White People http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2005/12/02/how-not-to-be-insane-when-accused-of-racism/
* How to Repress Discussions of Racism http://coffeeandink.livejournal.com/607897.html
* 12 Helpful Suggestions for Men Regarding Conduct in Feminist Spaces http://community.livejournal.com/feminist/1362470.html
* Male Privilege Checklist http://colours.mahost.org/org/maleprivilege.html
* Yes, You Are (a feminist) essay http://www.tomatonation.com/youare.shtml

Ursula K. Le Guin

2006-09-12T14:38:34Z

Yonmei: /* Categories */

'''Ursula Kroeber Le Guin''' (born [[October 21]] [[1929]] in Berkeley, California) is an [[American]] author of [[science fiction]], [[fantasy]], realistic fiction and poetry.

She won four [[Hugo Award]] and three [[Nebula Award]].

== Bibliography ==

=== Novels ===

*''[[Always Coming Home]]'' ([[1985]], Harper & Row)
*''[[The Beginning Place]]'' ([[1980]], Harper & Row; UK title: Threshold)
*''[[City of Illusions]]'' ([[1967]], Ace) [[Ekumen]]
*''[[The Dispossessed|The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia]]'' ([[1974]], Harper & Row) [[Ekumen]]
*''[[The Eye of the Heron]]'' ([[1982]], Victor Gollancz)
*''[[The Farthest Shore]]'' ([[1972]], Atheneum) [[Earthsea]], book 3
*''[[Gifts]]'' ([[2004]], Harcourt) [[Western Shore]], book 1
*''[[The Lathe of Heaven]]'' ([[1971]], Scribner)
*''[[The Left Hand of Darkness]]'' ([[1969]], Ace) [[Ekumen]]
*''[[Malafrena]]'' ([[1979]], Putnam)
*''[[The Other Wind]]'' ([[2001]], Harcourt) [[Earthsea]], book 6
*''[[Planet of Exile]]'' ([[1966]], Ace Double) [[Ekumen]]
*''[[Rocannon's World]]'' ([[1966]], Ace Double) [[Ekumen]]
*''[[Tehanu|Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea]]'' ([[1990]], Atheneum) [[Earthsea]], book 4
*''[[The Telling]]'' ([[2000]], Harcourt) [[Ekumen]]
*''[[The Tombs of Atuan]]'' ([[1971]], Atheneum) [[Earthsea]], book 2
*''[[Very Far Away from Anywhere Else]]'' ([[1976]], Atheneum; UK title: A Very Long Way from Anywhere Else)
*''[[Voices]]'' (forthcoming, [[2006]], Harcourt) [[Western Shore]], book 2
*''[[A Wizard of Earthsea]]'' ([[1968]], Parnassus Press) [[Earthsea]], book 1
*''[[The Word for World Is Forest]]'' ([[1976]], Berkley) [[Ekumen]]

=== Short Story Collections ===
*''[[The Birthday of the World]]'' ([[2002]], HarperCollins) [[Ekumen]]
*''[[Buffalo Gals, and Other Animal Presences]]'' ([[1987]], Capra Press)
*''[[Changing Planes]]'' ([[2003]], Harcourt)
*''[[The Compass Rose]]'' ([[1982]], Harper & Row)
*''[[A Fisherman of the Inland Sea]]'' ([[1994]], HarperPrism) [[Ekumen]]
*''[[Four Ways to Forgiveness]]'' ([[1995]], HarperPrism) [[Ekumen]]
*''[[Orsinian Tales]]'' ([[1976]], Harper & Row)
*''[[Searoad|Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand]]'' ([[1991]], HarperCollins)
*''[[Tales from Earthsea]]'' ([[2001]], Harcourt) [[Earthsea]], book 5
*''[[The Wind's Twelve Quarters]]'' ([[1975]], Harper & Row) [[Earthsea]] and [[Ekumen]]
*''[[Unlocking the Air and Other Stories]]'' ([[1996]], HarperCollins)

=== Children's Books ===
*''[[Catwings]]'' ([[1988]], Orchard)
*''[[Catwings Return]]'' ([[1989]], Orchard)
*''[[The Adventure of Cobbler's Rune]]'' ([[1982]], Cheap Street)
*''[[Fire and Stone]]'' ([[1989]], Atheneum)
*''[[Fish Soup]]'' ([[1992]], Atheneum)
*''[[Jane on her Own]]'' ([[1999]], Orchard)
*''[[Leese Webster]]'' ([[1979]], Atheneum)
*''[[A Ride on the Red Mare's Back]]'' ([[1992]], Orchard)
*''[[Solomon Leviathan's Nine Hundred and Thirty-First Trip Around the World]]'' ([[1984]], Cheap Street)
*''[[Tom Mouse]]'' ([[2002]], Roaring Brook)
*''[[A Visit from Dr. Katz]]'' ([[1988]], Atheneum)
*''[[Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings]]'' ([[1994]], Orchard)

=== Poetry Collections ===
*''[[Going Out with Peacocks]]'' ([[1994]], HarperCollins)
*''[[Hard Words and Other Poems]]'' ([[1981]], Harper & Row)
*''[[No Boats]]'' ([[1991]], Ygor and Buntho Make Books)
*''[[Sixty Odd]]'' ([[1999]], Shambhala)
*''[[Tillai and Tylissos]]'' (with Theodora Kroeber, [[1980]], Red Bull)
*''[[Wild Angels]]'' ([[1974]], Capra)
*''[[Wild Oats and Fireweed]]'' ([[1988]], Harper & Row)

=== Non-Fiction ===
*''[[Dancing at the Edge of the World|Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places]]'' ([[1989]], Grove Press)
*''[[The Language of the Night|The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction]]'' ([[1979]], G.P. Putnam; 1989, Women's Press; 2nd edition published in [[1992]] by HarperCollins)
*''[[Steering the Craft|Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew]]'' ([[1998]], Eight Mountain)
*''[[The Wave in the Mind|The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination]]'' ([[2004]], Shambhala)

=== Translations ===
*''[[Kalpa Imperial]]'' (Angélica Gorodischer, [[2003]], Small Beer Press)
*Lao Tzu: ''[[Tao Te Ching|Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way]]'' ([[1997]], Shambhala)
*Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral (Gabriela Mistral), University of New Mexico Press, 2003)

=== Collaborations ===
*''[[Blue Moon over Thurman Street]]'' (with Roger Dorband, photographer, [[1993]], New Sage)
*[[Music and Poetry of the Kesh]] (with Todd Barton, composer, [[1985]], Valley Productions)
*''[[Rigel Nine]]: An Opera'' (with David Bedford, composer, [[1985]], Charisma)
*''[[The Twins, The Dream]]'' / Las Gemelas, El Sueño (with Diana Bellessi, poet & translator, [[1997]], Arte Público)
*[[Uses of Music in Uttermost Parts]] (with Elinor Armer, composer, [[1996]], Koch)

=== Edited Anthologies ===
*''[[Edges]]'' ([[1980]], Pocket)
*''[[Interfaces]]'' ([[1980]], Ace)
*''[[Nebula Award Stories XI]]'' ([[1977]], Harper & Row)
*''[[The Norton Book of Science Fiction]]'' (with [[Brian Attebery]] & [[Karen Joy Fowler]], [[1993]], Norton)

=== Uncollected Stories and Essays ===
*"Along the River" ([[1993]], Omni Best Science Fiction Three)
*"Earthsea Revisioned" ([[1993]], Green Bay booklet)
*"The Lost Children" ([[1996]], Thirteenth Moon)
*"The Ursula Major Construct: or, A Far Greater Horror Loomed" ([[1973]], Clarion III)
*"The Wild Girls" ([[2002]], Asimov's)

==Adaptations of Works==
*[[The Lathe of Heaven (1980; PBS)]]
*[[The Lathe of Heaven (2002; A&E)]]
*[[Earthsea (2004; Sci-Fi)]]
*[[Tales of Earthsea (Studio Ghibli)]]
*[[The Left Hand of Darkness (1994-95; Lifeline Theater, Chicago, IL)]]

== Intertextual References ==

Le Guin's [[ansible]] technology (from the [[Ekumen]] universe) has been referenced in [[Orson Scott Card]]'s [[Ender's Game]].

== External Links ==

*(en) [http://www.ursulakleguin.com Her Site]
*(it) [http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin Her page in Italian Wikipedia.org]

== Categories ==

[[category:1929 Births|Le Guin, Ursula K.]]
[[category:Female Writers|Le Guin, Ursula K.]]
[[category:Hugo Award winning authors|Le Guin, Ursula K.]]
[[category:Nebula Award winning authors|Le Guin, Ursula K.]]
[[category:Translators|Le Guin, Ursula K.]]
[[category:Tiptree Award Winning Authors|Le Guin, Ursula K.]]
[[Category:Poets|Le Guin, Ursula K.]]
[[Category:Writers|Le Guin, Ursula K.]]
[[Category:Women writers adopting neuter names|Le Guin, Ursula K.]]

Charlotte Brontë

2006-09-12T14:37:32Z

Yonmei:

[[category:1816 Births|Bronte, Charlotte]]
[[category:Women writers adopting neuter names|Bronte, Charlotte]]

J.K. Rowling

2006-09-12T14:36:33Z

Yonmei: /* External Links */

'''Joanne Rowling''' (born 31 July [[1965]]) is an English writer and one of the most popular authors in the world.

Her books appear under the name "J.K. Rowling" because her publisher, Bloomsbury, felt that [[initials]] would be more likely to appeal to a male readership than a female name. (The K stands for "Kathleen", her grandmother's name, as Rowling has no middle name.) This is an effect of [[sexism]] in publishing.

Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series is a world-wide best-seller, which has been translated in dozens of languages, adapted into audiobooks and blockbuster movies, turned into a profitable merchandising franchise, and has inspired millions of [[fan fiction]] stories.

== Bibliography ==

=== Novels ===
* ''Harry Potter'' series
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]'' ([[1997]])
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]]'' ([[1998]])
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban]]'' ([[1999]])
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire]]'' ([[2000]])
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]]'' ([[2003]])
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]]'' ([[2005]])
** (seventh book, title as yet unknown) (forthcoming)

=== Booklets ===
Non-profit ''Harry Potter'' tie-in books whose proceeds went to a charitable organisation:
* ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'' ([[2001]]) as "Newt Scamander" (fictional character)
* ''Quidditch Through the Ages'' ([[2001]]), as "Kennilworthy Whisp" (fictional character)

== External Links ==
* [http://www.jkrowling.com/ JKRowling Official Site - Harry Potter and more]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling J.K. Rowling - Wikipedia]
* [http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0746830/ J.K. Rowling filmography at the Internet Movie Database]

[[category:1965 Births|Rowling, J.K.]]
[[category:Hugo Award winning authors|Rowling, J.K.]]
[[category:Women writers adopting neuter names|Rowling, J.K.]]

C.J. Cherryh

2006-09-12T14:36:00Z

Yonmei:

'''C.J. Cherryh''' is the pseudonym of Carolyn Janice Cherry (born 1942). She amended her name because her first editor (Donald A. Wollheim) told her that "Cherry" sounded too much like a romance writer. She used her initials rather than her full name to create a neuter name.

==Partial bibliography==

* Faded Sun: Kesrith (1978), Shon'Jir (1979), Kutath (1980)
* Serpent's Reach (1980)
* Merchanter's Luck (1982)
* Cuckoo's Egg (1985)
* Rimrunners (1989)
* Cyteen (1989)
* Heavy Time (1991)
* Hellburner (1992)
* Tripoint (1994)

==External links==

* [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/c-j-cherryh/ Complete bibliography]

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._J._Cherryh Wikipedia on Cherryh]

[[Category: women writers adopting neuter names|Cherryh, C.J.]]
[[category:1942 Births|Cherryh, C.J.]]
[[category:Hugo Award winning authors|Cherryh, C.J.]]

Emily Brontë

2006-09-12T14:35:14Z

Yonmei:

[[category:1818 Births|Bronte, Emily]] [[category:1848 Deaths|Bronte, Emily]]
[[Category:women writers adopting neuter names|Bronte, Emily]]

C.J. Cherryh

2006-09-12T14:34:26Z

Yonmei: /* External links */

'''C.J. Cherryh''' is the pseudonym of Carolyn Janice Cherry (born 1942). She amended her name because her first editor (Donald A. Wollheim) told her that "Cherry" sounded too much like a romance writer. She used her initials rather than her full name to create a neuter name.

==Partial bibliography==

* Faded Sun: Kesrith (1978), Shon'Jir (1979), Kutath (1980)
* Serpent's Reach (1980)
* Merchanter's Luck (1982)
* Cuckoo's Egg (1985)
* Rimrunners (1989)
* Cyteen (1989)
* Heavy Time (1991)
* Hellburner (1992)
* Tripoint (1994)

==External links==

* [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/c-j-cherryh/ Complete bibliography]

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._J._Cherryh Wikipedia on Cherryh]

[[Category: women writers adopting neuter names]]
[[category:1942 Births]]
[[category:Hugo Award winning authors|Cherryh, C.J.]]

J.K. Rowling

2006-09-12T14:33:10Z

Yonmei:

J.K. Rowling

2006-09-12T14:31:40Z

Yonmei: /* External Links */ ed cat

'''Joanne Rowling''' (born 31 July [[1965]]) is an English writer and one of the most popular authors in the world.

Her books appear under the name "J.K. Rowling" because her publisher, Bloomsbury, felt that [[initials]] would be more likely to appeal to a male readership than a female name. (The K stands for "Kathleen", her grandmother's name, as Rowling has no middle name.) This is an effect of [[sexism]] in publishing.

Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series is a world-wide best-seller, which has been translated in dozens of languages, adapted into audiobooks and blockbuster movies, turned into a profitable merchandising franchise, and has inspired millions of [[fan fiction]] stories.

== Bibliography ==

=== Novels ===
* ''Harry Potter'' series
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]'' ([[1997]])
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]]'' ([[1998]])
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban]]'' ([[1999]])
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire]]'' ([[2000]])
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]]'' ([[2003]])
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]]'' ([[2005]])
** (seventh book, title as yet unknown) (forthcoming)

=== Booklets ===
Non-profit ''Harry Potter'' tie-in books whose proceeds went to a charitable organisation:
* ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'' ([[2001]]) as "Newt Scamander" (fictional character)
* ''Quidditch Through the Ages'' ([[2001]]), as "Kennilworthy Whisp" (fictional character)

== External Links ==
* [http://www.jkrowling.com/ JKRowling Official Site - Harry Potter and more]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling J.K. Rowling - Wikipedia]
* [http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0746830/ J.K. Rowling filmography at the Internet Movie Database]

[[category:1965 Births|Rowling, J.K.]]
[[category:Hugo Award winning authors|Rowling, J.K.]]
[[category:DeGendered Pen Names]]
[[category:Women writers adopting neuter names]]

Category:Women writers adopting neuter names

2006-09-12T14:29:45Z

Yonmei:

Many writers have adopted a neuter name, either by using their initials only or by some other method. This is generally done by women wishing to avoid being categorised as "women writers", or sometimes by publishers on a woman's behalf deciding that her real name is not appropriate.

C.J. Cherryh

2006-09-12T14:27:36Z

Yonmei:

'''C.J. Cherryh''' is the pseudonym of Carolyn Janice Cherry (born 1942). She amended her name because her first editor (Donald A. Wollheim) told her that "Cherry" sounded too much like a romance writer. She used her initials rather than her full name to create a neuter name.

==Partial bibliography==

* Faded Sun: Kesrith (1978), Shon'Jir (1979), Kutath (1980)
* Serpent's Reach (1980)
* Merchanter's Luck (1982)
* Cuckoo's Egg (1985)
* Rimrunners (1989)
* Cyteen (1989)
* Heavy Time (1991)
* Hellburner (1992)
* Tripoint (1994)

==External links==

[http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/c-j-cherryh/ Complete bibliography]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._J._Cherryh Wikipedia on Cherryh]

[[Category: women writers adopting neuter names]]
[[category:1942 Births]]
[[category:Hugo Award winning authors|Cherryh, C.J.]]

C.J. Cherryh

2006-09-12T14:26:33Z

Yonmei: Booklist and biographical details

''C.J. Cherryh'' is the pseudonym of Carolyn Janice Cherry (1942 - ). She amended her name because her first editor (Donald A. Wollheim) told her that "Cherry" sounded too much like a romance writer. She used her initials rather than her full name to create a neuter name.

==Partial bibliography==

* Faded Sun: Kesrith (1978), Shon'Jir (1979), Kutath (1980)
* Serpent's Reach (1980)
* Merchanter's Luck (1982)
* Cuckoo's Egg (1985)
* Rimrunners (1989)
* Cyteen (1989)
* Heavy Time (1991)
* Hellburner (1992)
* Tripoint (1994)

==External links==

[http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/c-j-cherryh/ Complete bibliography]

[[Category: women writers adopting neuter names]]
[[category:1942 Births]]
[[category:Hugo Award winning authors|Cherryh, C.J.]]

Talk:Commenting Rules for the FSF Blog

2006-09-12T13:46:02Z

Yonmei:

Commenting Rules for the FSF Blog

2006-09-11T20:18:05Z

Yonmei:

This is a first draft of the posting rules for [http://blogs.feministsf.net/ FeministSF - The Blog!]

==Posting rules for non-feminists==

This is a feminist sf blog. The people who have posting privileges here are all feminist SF fans. We are here to discuss feminism/sf/feminist sf/sf and feminism. We are not here to educate you about feminism. If, as a result of reading this blog, you ''are'' educated about feminism, we're happy for you: but it's not our primary purpose in life to do so.

You are most likely to have been directed here because you asked a question or made a comment indicating that you are a non-feminist in need of reading these guidelines in order to be allowed to continue to participate on this blog. If you decide you'd rather not participate, the door is that way, and you can be on the other side of it.

1. You may in fact be a feminist, even if you prefer not to identify as one. If you find yourself formulating statements on the lines of "I'm not a feminist, but - " you should go read the essay [http://www.tomatonation.com/youare.shtml Yes, you are]. And then you should think about why endorsing feminist values is okay, but it feels scary or wrong to identify as a feminist.

2. Don't come back to us and say "Feminism is putting women first: I am a humanist, I put human beings first". Women are human beings: feminists put human beings first. Do not, also, come back to us and say "How can you care about X" where X is a feminist value, "when thisshit is happening?" It is not impossible that some of the feminists you are talking to are also passionately involved in actually ''doing'' something about thisshit: activists tend to care passionately about a ''lot'' of things, and you will look like a fool. But also, this is a feminist sf blog. Do not presume that because people here are not talking, here, about thisshit, and won't let you talk, here, about thisshit, that it's something they don't care about: it just means that we won't let you morph a feminist sf blog into a generalist all-issues blog.

3. Feminism cannot be packed into a short set of rules. At the end of this post, you'll find a short reading list, of books we all agree are essential to feminist sf, and a long reading list, of books all of us have agreed are good background reading for feminist sf. If you're truly interested in learning more about feminism/feminist sf, those book lists are a good starting point.

4. We live in a patriarchal society. Patriarchy is the anthropological term used to define the sociological condition where male members of a society tend to predominate in positions of power; with the more powerful the position, the more likely it is that a male will hold that position. Some non-feminists assume that when they hear feminists talking about the patriarchy, this means we're blaming "all men" or we're claiming that "all men are better off in this culture than any woman" or some other confusion of "all men" with the patriarchy. This is a common, and completely wrong, confusion. We won't bother telling you twice.

5. You may well see feminists disagreeing with each other in discussion. Don't think that "because X disagrees with Y about what the feminist position is on Z, either X is not a feminist or Y is not a feminist. Feminism is not monolithic. Though X and Y disagree in this instance, they probably agree with each other on many other issues.

6. Abusive or sexist language will not be tolerated.
What does that mean?
Means if you call people names, or abuse them, instead of arguing civilly, we'll ban you. Means if you try to denigrate a person because she's female or an idea because it's a feminist one, we'll warn you and then ban you. We don't like racist or homophobic or any other kind of abusive or denigratory language, either.

7. We're not here to argue with anti-feminists or misogynists about our basic values, or even to explain to you what our basic values are. We do not feel the need to defend feminism to you, or to explain to you what we mean by feminism, or to argue the case for our being feminists. We might be interested in doing that on other forums, but not here.

:* Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority. Mary Wollstonecraft
:* Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less. Susan B. Anthony
:* I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute. Rebecca West
:* What I am proud of, what seems so simply clear, is that feminism is a way to fight for justice, always in short supply. Barbara Strickland
:* I became a feminist as an alternative to becoming a masochist. Sally Kempton
:* Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings. Cheris Kramerae

8. There's a moment in [[C.J. Cherryh]]'s ''Cuckoo's Egg'' where the adult trainer (who comes from a species with no handedness) says to his human student, "You feinted left, went right," and the student says defensively "I thought this time I'd surprise you!" and his teacher retorts, "Not when you do it every time!" Some tropes in fiction - women being raped - girl children being sexually abused - women submitting themselves to men, women finding joy and satisfaction in becoming a good wife and mother and giving up independence - are like that: they aren't "surprising", or "interesting", or "revolutionary", and it makes no difference if the incident is presented positively or negatively: they're just another patriarchal trope in fiction.

9. Related to the latter: it is a standard patriarchal trope that men's bodies just are, and women's bodies are overtly sexual. That's why Frank Miller draws drooling pictures of Wonder Woman's butt for front covers, but not [http://odditycollector.livejournal.com/97166.html Superman's crotch or Batman's butt]. This is a given value for the patriarchy: it is not just something "natural" or "how women are".

10. Do not try to tell '''us''' "what feminists believe".

==Posting rules for men==

"The exclamation [of my friend] ... was not merely the cry of wounded vanity; it was a protest against some infringement of his power to believe in himself. Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice his natural size." - Virgina Woolf

You are most likely to have been directed here because you asked a question or made a comment indicating that you are a man in need of reading these guidelines in order to be allowed to continue to participate on this blog. If you decide you'd rather not participate, the door is that way, and you can be on the other side of it.

1. Because you are a man, you have male privilege in this society. You are most likely unaware of how male privilege has eased your way, and in an environment where you will not be allowed to exercise male privilege, such as this blog, you will probably find yourself thinking "That's not fair!" and "Why am I being treated like that?" because that's how privileged people tend to react when privileges are removed that they are so accustomed to, they think of them as rights. Go read [http://colours.mahost.org/org/maleprivilege.html The Male Privilege Checklist]. We are not interested in arguing with you about whether or not you have male privilege, or how that concept works in real life: we just want you to understand that here, on this blog, you are not permitted the status your male privilege gives you in the wider world.

2. In general, don't try to turn a conversation about how women experience the world into a conversation about how you, a man, experience the world. If you have nothing to contribute to any particular discussion because its focus is entirely on women's experience, read without commenting. In particular, do not attempt to derail discussions about rape with comments like "But men get raped too!", or to derail any similar discussion with equivalent attempts to turn the discussion from violence by men against women to violence where men are the victims.

3. In general, if someone makes a point about male behaviour, don't try to turn the conversation by arguing that ''you're'' not like that, or ''you'' don't do that. Maybe you aren't and you don't, but you know what? It's really not all about you. Furthermore, you may find - if you let yourself know it - that behaviour you took for granted looked very different from a woman's perspective. But, mainly: conversation about how male behaviour looks to women is not assisted by men explaining how men think of male behaviour. We already know: it's not as if men keep it a secret.

4. Do not try to excuse bad behaviour from men because "that's how men are", or trying to justify it in terms of evolutionary theory or any other BS is just another way of endorsing patriarchal values and male privilege. (If you don't grok "patriarchy", go read the posting rules for non-feminists.)

5. If someone makes a comment that assumes all the readers are women, or that everyone in a particular group is a woman, take it as an educational experience: this kind of thing happens to women all the time. Don't derail the conversation by piping up "Hey, I'm a man!"

6. Do not assume that women will be flattered by being told "You've really got balls!" or won't mind some man being denigrated by being referred to as "a pussy" or "a girl". It is not flattering to be told that a man assumes his genitals are a synonym for courage, and insulting to have a man insult another man by comparing him to a woman or a woman's genitals.

7. In general, do not use endearments such as "honey" or "sweetie" when in hot disagreement with someone. That's condescending and infuriating, as it strongly implies that you don't take that person's views seriously.

8. Sometimes women will make jokes about men or male behaviour that you don't think are funny. Think of this as an educational experience: don't interrupt to tell us you think that joke's not funny, or that it degrades men AND women for women to talk about men like that.

9. If you don’t understand what women are saying to each other, but the people involved in the conversation clearly understand each other perfectly well, you have three legitimate options: (1) Continue to read the conversation, and try to understand without derailing it. (2) E-mail one of the people offblog and ask - politely - for clarification. She may or may not choose to explain. (3) Stop reading the conversation. Do not interrupt the conversation to demand clarification.

10. If you make a comment and are told you have misunderstood, accept that you have misunderstood; don't derail the discussion by arguing at length that your interpretation is right and theirs is wrong.

11. Do not try to tell '''us''' "what women want".

Commenting Rules for the FSF Blog

2006-09-11T20:14:20Z

Yonmei:

This is a first draft of the posting rules for [http://blogs.feministsf.net/ FeministSF - The Blog!]

==Posting rules for non-feminists==

This is a feminist sf blog. The people who have posting privileges here are all feminist SF fans. We are here to discuss feminism/sf/feminist sf/sf and feminism. We are not here to educate you about feminism. If, as a result of reading this blog, you ''are'' educated about feminism, we're happy for you: but it's not our primary purpose in life to do so.

You are most likely to have been directed here because you asked a question or made a comment indicating that you are a non-feminist in need of reading these guidelines in order to be allowed to continue to participate on this blog. If you decide you'd rather not participate, the door is that way, and you can be on the other side of it.

1. You may in fact be a feminist, even if you prefer not to identify as one. If you find yourself formulating statements on the lines of "I'm not a feminist, but - " you should go read the essay [http://www.tomatonation.com/youare.shtml Yes, you are]. And then you should think about why endorsing feminist values is okay, but it feels scary or wrong to identify as a feminist.

2. Don't come back to us and say "Feminism is putting women first: I am a humanist, I put human beings first". Women are human beings: feminists put human beings first. Do not, also, come back to us and say "How can you care about X" where X is a feminist value, "when thisshit is happening?" It is not impossible that some of the feminists you are talking to are also passionately involved in actually ''doing'' something about thisshit: activists tend to care passionately about a ''lot'' of things, and you will look like a fool. But also, this is a feminist sf blog. Do not presume that because people here are not talking, here, about thisshit, and won't let you talk, here, about thisshit, that it's something they don't care about: it just means that we won't let you morph a feminist sf blog into a generalist all-issues blog.

3. Feminism cannot be packed into a short set of rules. At the end of this post, you'll find a short reading list, of books we all agree are essential to feminist sf, and a long reading list, of books all of us have agreed are good background reading for feminist sf. If you're truly interested in learning more about feminism/feminist sf, those book lists are a good starting point.

4. We live in a patriarchal society. Patriarchy is the anthropological term used to define the sociological condition where male members of a society tend to predominate in positions of power; with the more powerful the position, the more likely it is that a male will hold that position. Some non-feminists assume that when they hear feminists talking about the patriarchy, this means we're blaming "all men" or we're claiming that "all men are better off in this culture than any woman" or some other confusion of "all men" with the patriarchy. This is a common, and completely wrong, confusion. We won't bother telling you twice.

5. You may well see feminists disagreeing with each other in discussion. Don't think that "because X disagrees with Y about what the feminist position is on Z, either X is not a feminist or Y is not a feminist. Feminism is not monolithic. Though X and Y disagree in this instance, they probably agree with each other on many other issues.

6. Abusive or sexist language will not be tolerated.
What does that mean?
Means if you call people names, or abuse them, instead of arguing civilly, we'll ban you. Means if you try to denigrate a person because she's female or an idea because it's a feminist one, we'll warn you and then ban you. We don't like racist or homophobic or any other kind of abusive or denigratory language, either.

7. We're not here to argue with anti-feminists or misogynists about our basic values, or even to explain to you what our basic values are. We do not feel the need to defend feminism to you, or to explain to you what we mean by feminism, or to argue the case for our being feminists. We might be interested in doing that on other forums, but not here.

:* Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority. Mary Wollstonecraft
:* Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less. Susan B. Anthony
:* I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute. Rebecca West
:* What I am proud of, what seems so simply clear, is that feminism is a way to fight for justice, always in short supply. Barbara Strickland
:* I became a feminist as an alternative to becoming a masochist. Sally Kempton
:* Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings. Cheris Kramerae

8. There's a moment in [[CJ Cherryh]]'s ''Cuckoo's Egg'' where the adult trainer (who comes from a species with no handedness) says to his human student, "You feinted left, went right," and the student says defensively "I thought this time I'd surprise you!" and his teacher retorts, "Not when you do it every time!" Some tropes in fiction - women being raped - girl children being sexually abused - women submitting themselves to men, women finding joy and satisfaction in becoming a good wife and mother and giving up independence - are like that: they aren't "surprising", or "interesting", or "revolutionary", and it makes no difference if the incident is presented positively or negatively: they're just another patriarchal trope in fiction.

9. Related to the latter: it is a standard patriarchal trope that men's bodies just are, and women's bodies are overtly sexual. That's why Frank Miller draws drooling pictures of Wonder Woman's butt for front covers, but not [http://odditycollector.livejournal.com/97166.html Superman's crotch or Batman's butt]. This is a given value for the patriarchy: it is not just something "natural" or "how women are".

10. Do not try to tell '''us''' "what feminists believe".

==Posting rules for men==

"The exclamation [of my friend] ... was not merely the cry of wounded vanity; it was a protest against some infringement of his power to believe in himself. Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice his natural size." - Virgina Woolf

You are most likely to have been directed here because you asked a question or made a comment indicating that you are a man in need of reading these guidelines in order to be allowed to continue to participate on this blog. If you decide you'd rather not participate, the door is that way, and you can be on the other side of it.

1. Because you are a man, you have male privilege in this society. You are most likely unaware of how male privilege has eased your way, and in an environment where you will not be allowed to exercise male privilege, such as this blog, you will probably find yourself thinking "That's not fair!" and "Why am I being treated like that?" because that's how privileged people tend to react when privileges are removed that they are so accustomed to, they think of them as rights. Go read [http://colours.mahost.org/org/maleprivilege.html The Male Privilege Checklist]. We are not interested in arguing with you about whether or not you have male privilege, or how that concept works in real life: we just want you to understand that here, on this blog, you are not permitted the status your male privilege gives you in the wider world.

2. In general, don't try to turn a conversation about how women experience the world into a conversation about how you, a man, experience the world. If you have nothing to contribute to any particular discussion because its focus is entirely on women's experience, read without commenting. In particular, do not attempt to derail discussions about rape with comments like "But men get raped too!", or to derail any similar discussion with equivalent attempts to turn the discussion from violence by men against women to violence where men are the victims.

3. In general, if someone makes a point about male behaviour, don't try to turn the conversation by arguing that ''you're'' not like that, or ''you'' don't do that. Maybe you aren't and you don't, but you know what? It's really not all about you. Furthermore, you may find - if you let yourself know it - that behaviour you took for granted looked very different from a woman's perspective. But, mainly: conversation about how male behaviour looks to women is not assisted by men explaining how men think of male behaviour. We already know: it's not as if men keep it a secret.

4. Do not try to excuse bad behaviour from men because "that's how men are", or trying to justify it in terms of evolutionary theory or any other BS is just another way of endorsing patriarchal values and male privilege. (If you don't grok "patriarchy", go read the posting rules for non-feminists.)

5. If someone makes a comment that assumes all the readers are women, or that everyone in a particular group is a woman, take it as an educational experience: this kind of thing happens to women all the time. Don't derail the conversation by piping up "Hey, I'm a man!"

6. Do not assume that women will be flattered by being told "You've really got balls!" or won't mind some man being denigrated by being referred to as "a pussy" or "a girl". It is not flattering to be told that a man assumes his genitals are a synonym for courage, and insulting to have a man insult another man by comparing him to a woman or a woman's genitals.

7. In general, do not use endearments such as "honey" or "sweetie" when in hot disagreement with someone. That's condescending and infuriating, as it strongly implies that you don't take that person's views seriously.

8. Sometimes women will make jokes about men or male behaviour that you don't think are funny. Think of this as an educational experience: don't interrupt to tell us you think that joke's not funny, or that it degrades men AND women for women to talk about men like that.

9. If you don’t understand what women are saying to each other, but the people involved in the conversation clearly understand each other perfectly well, you have three legitimate options: (1) Continue to read the conversation, and try to understand without derailing it. (2) E-mail one of the people offblog and ask - politely - for clarification. She may or may not choose to explain. (3) Stop reading the conversation. Do not interrupt the conversation to demand clarification.

10. If you make a comment and are told you have misunderstood, accept that you have misunderstood; don't derail the discussion by arguing at length that your interpretation is right and theirs is wrong.

11. Do not try to tell '''us''' "what women want".

Commenting Rules for the FSF Blog

2006-09-11T20:11:44Z

Yonmei:

This is a first draft of the posting rules for [http://blogs.feministsf.net/ FeministSF - The Blog!]

==Posting rules for non-feminists==

This is a feminist sf blog. The people who have posting privileges here are all feminist SF fans. We are here to discuss feminism/sf/feminist sf/sf and feminism. We are not here to educate you about feminism. If, as a result of reading this blog, you ''are'' educated about feminism, we're happy for you: but it's not our primary purpose in life to do so.

You are most likely to have been directed here because you asked a question or made a comment indicating that you are a non-feminist in need of reading these guidelines in order to be allowed to continue to participate on this blog. If you decide you'd rather not participate, the door is that way, and you can be on the other side of it.

1. You may in fact be a feminist, even if you prefer not to identify as one. If you find yourself formulating statements on the lines of "I'm not a feminist, but - " you should go read the essay ''Yes, you are''<ref>http://www.tomatonation.com/youare.shtml</ref>. And then you should think about why endorsing feminist values is okay, but it feels scary or wrong to identify as a feminist.

2. Don't come back to us and say "Feminism is putting women first: I am a humanist, I put human beings first". Women are human beings: feminists put human beings first. Do not, also, come back to us and say "How can you care about X" where X is a feminist value, "when thisshit is happening?" It is not impossible that some of the feminists you are talking to are also passionately involved in actually ''doing'' something about thisshit: activists tend to care passionately about a ''lot'' of things, and you will look like a fool. But also, this is a feminist sf blog. Do not presume that because people here are not talking, here, about thisshit, and won't let you talk, here, about thisshit, that it's something they don't care about: it just means that we won't let you morph a feminist sf blog into a generalist all-issues blog.

3. Feminism cannot be packed into a short set of rules. At the end of this post, you'll find a short reading list, of books we all agree are essential to feminist sf, and a long reading list, of books all of us have agreed are good background reading for feminist sf. If you're truly interested in learning more about feminism/feminist sf, those book lists are a good starting point.

4. We live in a patriarchal society. Patriarchy is the anthropological term used to define the sociological condition where male members of a society tend to predominate in positions of power; with the more powerful the position, the more likely it is that a male will hold that position. Some non-feminists assume that when they hear feminists talking about the patriarchy, this means we're blaming "all men" or we're claiming that "all men are better off in this culture than any woman" or some other confusion of "all men" with the patriarchy. This is a common, and completely wrong, confusion. We won't bother telling you twice.

5. You may well see feminists disagreeing with each other in discussion. Don't think that "because X disagrees with Y about what the feminist position is on Z, either X is not a feminist or Y is not a feminist. Feminism is not monolithic. Though X and Y disagree in this instance, they probably agree with each other on many other issues.

6. Abusive or sexist language will not be tolerated.
What does that mean?
Means if you call people names, or abuse them, instead of arguing civilly, we'll ban you. Means if you try to denigrate a person because she's female or an idea because it's a feminist one, we'll warn you and then ban you. We don't like racist or homophobic or any other kind of abusive or denigratory language, either.

7. We're not here to argue with anti-feminists or misogynists about our basic values, or even to explain to you what our basic values are. We do not feel the need to defend feminism to you, or to explain to you what we mean by feminism, or to argue the case for our being feminists. We might be interested in doing that on other forums, but not here.

:* Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority. Mary Wollstonecraft
:* Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less. Susan B. Anthony
:* I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute. Rebecca West
:* What I am proud of, what seems so simply clear, is that feminism is a way to fight for justice, always in short supply. Barbara Strickland
:* I became a feminist as an alternative to becoming a masochist. Sally Kempton
:* Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings. Cheris Kramerae

8. There's a moment in [[C. J. Cherryh]]'s ''Cuckoo's Egg'' where the adult trainer (who comes from a species with no handedness) says to his human student, "You feinted left, went right," and the student says defensively "I thought this time I'd surprise you!" and his teacher retorts, "Not when you do it every time!" Some tropes in fiction - women being raped - girl children being sexually abused - women submitting themselves to men, women finding joy and satisfaction in becoming a good wife and mother and giving up independence - are like that: they aren't "surprising", or "interesting", or "revolutionary", and it makes no difference if the incident is presented positively or negatively: they're just another patriarchal trope in fiction.

9. Related to the latter: it is a standard patriarchal trope that men's bodies just are, and women's bodies are overtly sexual. That's why Frank Miller draws drooling pictures of Wonder Woman's butt for front covers, but not Superman's crotch or Batman's butt<ref>http://odditycollector.livejournal.com/97166.html</ref>. This is a given value for the patriarchy: it is not just something "natural" or "how women are".

10. Do not try to tell '''us''' "what feminists believe".

==Posting rules for men==

"The exclamation [of my friend] ... was not merely the cry of wounded vanity; it was a protest against some infringement of his power to believe in himself. Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice his natural size." - Virgina Woolf

You are most likely to have been directed here because you asked a question or made a comment indicating that you are a man in need of reading these guidelines in order to be allowed to continue to participate on this blog. If you decide you'd rather not participate, the door is that way, and you can be on the other side of it.

1. Because you are a man, you have male privilege in this society. You are most likely unaware of how male privilege has eased your way, and in an environment where you will not be allowed to exercise male privilege, such as this blog, you will probably find yourself thinking "That's not fair!" and "Why am I being treated like that?" because that's how privileged people tend to react when privileges are removed that they are so accustomed to, they think of them as rights. Go read The Male Privilege Checklist<ref>http://colours.mahost.org/org/maleprivilege.html</ref>. We are not interested in arguing with you about whether or not you have male privilege, or how that concept works in real life: we just want you to understand that here, on this blog, you are not permitted the status your male privilege gives you in the wider world.

2. In general, don't try to turn a conversation about how women experience the world into a conversation about how you, a man, experience the world. If you have nothing to contribute to any particular discussion because its focus is entirely on women's experience, read without commenting. In particular, do not attempt to derail discussions about rape with comments like "But men get raped too!", or to derail any similar discussion with equivalent attempts to turn the discussion from violence by men against women to violence where men are the victims.

3. In general, if someone makes a point about male behaviour, don't try to turn the conversation by arguing that ''you're'' not like that, or ''you'' don't do that. Maybe you aren't and you don't, but you know what? It's really not all about you. Furthermore, you may find - if you let yourself know it - that behaviour you took for granted looked very different from a woman's perspective. But, mainly: conversation about how male behaviour looks to women is not assisted by men explaining how men think of male behaviour. We already know: it's not as if men keep it a secret.

4. Do not try to excuse bad behaviour from men because "that's how men are", or trying to justify it in terms of evolutionary theory or any other BS is just another way of endorsing patriarchal values and male privilege. (If you don't grok "patriarchy", go read the posting rules for non-feminists.)

5. If someone makes a comment that assumes all the readers are women, or that everyone in a particular group is a woman, take it as an educational experience: this kind of thing happens to women all the time. Don't derail the conversation by piping up "Hey, I'm a man!"

6. Do not assume that women will be flattered by being told "You've really got balls!" or won't mind some man being denigrated by being referred to as "a pussy" or "a girl". It is not flattering to be told that a man assumes his genitals are a synonym for courage, and insulting to have a man insult another man by comparing him to a woman or a woman's genitals.

7. In general, do not use endearments such as "honey" or "sweetie" when in hot disagreement with someone. That's condescending and infuriating, as it strongly implies that you don't take that person's views seriously.

8. Sometimes women will make jokes about men or male behaviour that you don't think are funny. Think of this as an educational experience: don't interrupt to tell us you think that joke's not funny, or that it degrades men AND women for women to talk about men like that.

9. If you don’t understand what women are saying to each other, but the people involved in the conversation clearly understand each other perfectly well, you have three legitimate options: (1) Continue to read the conversation, and try to understand without derailing it. (2) E-mail one of the people offblog and ask - politely - for clarification. She may or may not choose to explain. (3) Stop reading the conversation. Do not interrupt the conversation to demand clarification.

10. If you make a comment and are told you have misunderstood, accept that you have misunderstood; don't derail the discussion by arguing at length that your interpretation is right and theirs is wrong.

11. Do not try to tell '''us''' "what women want".