a horrible group of people
- February 11th, 2014
- Posted in other people's art
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In ref. the latest bit of SFWA-related fail, and the petition to restore the old system that lead to last year’s various racist and sexist disasters – because apparently 2013 wasn’t a bad enough year for the Science Fiction Writers of America, they must need another one – I was pointed at something else today.
The petition’s author, Dave Truesdale, described the 2007 atypically mostly-women PK Dick Award shortlist as, and I quote, “vagina-heavy” and the authors as “five furry pussies on the ballot,” in his column on SFSITE.com. He later amended the post to claim it was satire and protest against sexism by women, in true Men’s Rights Activist fashion.
Until now, I was merely very disappointed in the signatories to this thing. Now I’m angry. Anybody who would sign a petition by this asshole is off my reading list and onto my die in a fire list. Goddamn.
For those of you on Livejournal, James Nicoll has a poll running, which you may find interesting. The comment section is very active.
eta: Scalzi weighs in with some desperately needed advice for signatories.
eta: Related posts:
An Embarrassing Stumble towards Irrelevancy (Monday, 10 February 2014)
A Friday of Followups (Friday, 14 February 2014)
What is Being Lost (Monday, 17 February 2014)
The comment section is very active.
… and surprisingly readable. I dunno how James Nicoll’s Mallet of Loving Correction compares to Scalzi’s, but it’s a good thread…
I don’t think a full-on burn-at-the-stake witch hunt is warranted… usually, ever, because the Universe has a habit of snapping back, wash after wash… but I *am* glad that the list of names is so well publicised. People will vote with their wallet… which is generally a good thing.
But still. Scalzi’s right. This is NOT 1975, and sexism *does not get it* anymore… and unless we publicly and vocally *fire* some of these authors (word choice intentional) for being *idiots*… or worse, Benford…
I wish Octavia Butler were still around. Just to hear what she’d say.
Oh, I’m not even calling for a boycott. I’m not evem trying to persuade anyone. I’m just saying that, for me, I’ve had enough of this shit and I am done with these people.
5 comments on Livejournal; 5 comments on Dreamwidth; 3 comments on Google+.
If you’re interested in some of the sources of this pushback, I wrote a longer post last year called Exclusion, on why a crowd 33% women is seen as “mostly women.”
Also, you may find interesting Power and Supervillainy, about harassment at conventions, Pushback and Misandry, about how resistance to sexist abuse is consistently represented, and finally, Gatekeeping and Recourse, which contains something only men can do about exclusionary harassment by men against women.
Pretty much anything written by Truesdale is full of the awful. I first heard of him when a colleague expressed doubt about the wisdom of submitting reviews for publication in anything Truesdale’s in charge of. Truesdale’s review of Apex #55 in Tangent Online is really special.
Bless his heart. /southern sarcasm
Ah, another rant about man-hating feminists I couldn’t force my way through. Thanks, despite that. Good to know it’s not just a couple of explosions.
You missed the thing in his 2007 screed where he complained about insufficient editorial control over the woman who posted the anti-men sexism he was railing against. Which is of course in direct opposition to the complete editorial freedom his petition purports to want for the SFWA Bulletin and its anti-woman sexism.
Oh gods, it just keeps going. And going. What is Being Lost, Sunday night/Monday morning, as Sean Fodera threatens to sue the Internet for libel, and I try to be serious and constructive after dealing with that.