Category: Sexism

Disrupting Normalcy: The Key to Better Writing

4/2/2016

by Michael Fotos

In kindergarten, I sat on a rug as every student discussed what their favorite color was. The room was silent save for one voice at a time--green, black, yellow, orange—normal. And then something happened when I spoke the word pink. My favorite color was pink and before the adjacent child revealed his favorite color to be the enchanting color of blue, everyone laughed. He likes pink, Ha! And I cried.

What is it about our world that says that blue is fit for a boy and pink belongs to girls and that if a boy likes pink it is worthy of ridicule? What of makeup, heels, skin tight dresses? What happens when a man plays the role of woman, when a man enters the genre called being a woman? I would argue that entertaining this genre and many others has benefits for all people, especially writers.

Entertaining an unfamiliar genre has the potential to enrich life experiences by providing perceptions of the world. By disrupting what we believe is normal, disruption becomes possible. We explore truths we are not used to, and explorers of truth must think outside the box, and consequently, prove to be excellent writers. Writers who challenge the normal create original works that transcend prose and poetry. Writers who only adhere to genres fall flat.

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The Battle of Female Science Fiction Writers

9/1/2015

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by Kathryn Brining

In 2013, President Barack Obama championed initiatives encouraging women to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), fields where many feel women are underrepresented. Publishing and media is another arena where men seem to outnumber women, so it should come as no surprise that sexism seems to reign where these two interests meet: science fiction.

Both science and science fiction have long been considered masculine, male-dominated pursuits and the reluctance for some to embrace women working in technical fields may be closely linked to their exclusion when writing about the sciences. Though some might argue this is simply a case of genre, not gender, inequality, all too often, the aspiring female science fiction writer feels stranded in a hostile alien world.

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Disrupting Normalcy: The Key to Better Writing

The Battle of Female Science Fiction Writers

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