I don’t go to cons\u2014I have anxiety and issues with crowds\u2014but as a fan of genre books, I keep aware of cons, and the groups that recognize genre books, etc.<\/p>\n
As such, there has been a shit-storm for the past several months that just won’t stop, over the way women are viewed within and treated by the SFF community.<\/p>\n
It isn’t good.<\/p>\n
In fact, it’s so bad that some of my favorite fantasy authors refuse to join the SFWA. (Jeaniene Frost<\/a>, Faith Hunter<\/a>, Ilona Andrews<\/a> to name three authors I adore.)<\/p>\n The SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America) has been full of controversy this year, most of those controversies involving the way women are treated and\/or depicted<\/a>. You can peruse that link for what’s happened, I have no stomach for it here.<\/p>\n So what’s happened now? World Fantasy Con (WFC) had planned a panel called "The Next Generation: Broads with Swords<\/a>" <\/p>\n The Next Generation: Broads with Swords. Once upon a time the heroic fantasy genre was\u2014with a few notable exceptions such as C.L. Moore and Leigh Brackett\u2014the sole domain of male writers like Robert E. Howard, John Jakes and Michael Moorcock. Those days are long gone, and it seems that more & more women writers are having their heroines suit up in chain-mail and wield a broadsword. Who are these new writers embracing a once male-dominated field & how are their books any different from their literary predecessors?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This came to my attention via the always excellent Jim Hines<\/a> who has been politely and hilariously mocking gender stereotypes<\/a> for a while now. <\/p>\n My first reaction was that it would have been amusing if they’d called the panel Broad-Swords, because I’m immature and find puns hilarious.<\/p>\n My second reaction was, "wait, what? ‘the sole domain of male writers’? What the hell have I been reading for the past twenty some years then?"<\/p>\n That led to a perusal of my book database<\/a> for books published between 1980 and 1990, with female fighters \/ women who are willing to fight if needed.<\/p>\n Emma Bull<\/a> War for the Oaks<\/em>\u00a0 published in 1987 Robert Lynn Asprin<\/a> & Lynn Abbey<\/a> Thieves’ World<\/a> series, published \u00a01979-1989\u00a0 And although they aren’t fighters per se, I wanted to also point out these strong female characters:<\/p>\n Marion Zimmer Bradley<\/a> The Mists of Avalon<\/em> published in 1982 And these are just books I have read. There were plenty of other books published during that time, with female fighters or strong female characters, that I never read or even knew about.<\/p>\n So, if you’re looking for something to read, I recommend any of the above books, even though they may possibly have existed only in my imagination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don’t go to cons\u2014I have anxiety and issues with crowds\u2014but as a fan of genre books, I keep aware of cons, and the groups that recognize genre books, etc. As such, there has been a shit-storm for the past several months that just won’t stop, over the way women are viewed within and treated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-reading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pefxA-2QW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Robin McKinley<\/a> The Hero and the Crown<\/em>\u00a0 published in 1984
\n Charles De Lint<\/a> Jack, the Giant Killer<\/em> published in 1987
\n Mercedes Lackey<\/a> \u00a0Diana Tregarde\u00a0 series, first book published in 1989
\n Mercedes Lackey<\/a> \u00a0Vows and Honor series, first book published in 1988
\n Jennifer Roberson<\/a> Tiger and Del series, first book published in 1986
\nSteven Brust<\/a>\u00a0 Vlad Taltos \u00a0series, first book published in 1983<\/p>\n
\n Marion Zimmer Bradley<\/a> Sword & Sorceress<\/a> series, first book published in 1984
\nTerri Windling<\/a>\u00a0 Borderland series, first book published in 1986<\/p>\n
\n Raymond E. Feist<\/a> & Janny Wurts<\/a> Empire series, first book published in 1987
\n Terry Pratchett<\/a> Discworld series, first book published in 1985
\nDavid Eddings<\/a> The Belgariad \u00a0series, first book published in 1982<\/p>\n