The Fantastic Four and Feminism

The Fantastic Four and Feminism

For our 24^th anniversary, my husband and I went out to the movies. We wanted to see Ant-man, but ended up seeing Fantastic Four instead. In general, I liked the movie’s first half, but felt that it’s second half, once they receive their powers, had too much crammed into it. But that’s not what I want to talk about here.

I want to talk about the women in the story.

First off, Sue Storm is great. I REALLY LIKED the way her character was treated for the most part. She was clearly a scientist and valued member of the team (she designed the suits). She didn’t play the role of a damsel in distress or  prize. The fact that if the writers follow the comics Sue and Reed are destined to marry was barely alluded to at all. We have a vague impression that Reed likes her and a brief scene with Victor telling Reed to back off that makes us suspect Victor has a crush on Sue, too. But there is no indication that Sue returns either of their feelings and no kissing. Sue has just as many relationship moments with her brother, Jonny, and her father, Franklin, than she does with Victor or Reed.

My husband (a comics fan) tells me that in the original comics Sue started out with only invisibility as her power, which was clearly the weakest of the four. I SO APPRECEIATE the fact that movie Sue is given her full powers right away: invisibility, force pushing and force fields. This makes her a combat-effective valuable member of the team.

So far, all is good. And then we hit the scene when the travelling-to-another-dimension project is taken away from the young scientists. Reed, Jonny and Victor get drunk together and decide to do a secret solo journey to the other dimension so they’ll be famous like Neil Armstrong. Reed calls up his childhood friend, Ben Grimm, (whom we’d met in the prologue) and asks him to come along, too.

And they don’t call Sue to join them.

That’s right. Reed calls his childhood friend, but not Sue, who has been working shoulder to shoulder with them for months.

This burns me. Yes, it later becomes useful for Sue to be back on earth so she can do hacker things and get Ben, Reed and Jonny (but not Victor) back from the other dimension. But Franklin could have filled that role just as well. Yes, it could be argued that the boys knew Sue would be smart enough to stop them from going in the first place—because she isn’t drunk off her ass. But that just brings up the other question: why didn’t the boys invite Sue to their pity-party in the first place? She’s equally devastated at having the project taken away.

And the only answer is because she’s a girl.

How much better would the scene have been if Sue had also been there and drunk off her ass, too? (Shockingly, girls can also get drunk. Remember Kara “Starbuck” Thrace?) Sue deserved her trip to the other dimension, too. 

Secondly, let’s talk about the other women in the story. Except, oh wait, we can’t BECAUSE THERE AREN’T ANY. 

Now I realize that if the moviemakers wanted to honor the original comics, they pretty much had to stick with the original skewed male to female ratio of the fantastic four themselves: one woman, three men. So let’s talk secondary characters. Villain: Victor von Doom –male. Project leader: Franklin Storm –male. Board of director spokesperson –male. That’s pretty much it for people who influence the plot. Everyone else is basically a spear carrier. None of those roles had to be male. All of them are.

Even among the spear carriers only three women get lines (that I recall). Ben and Richard’s moms in the prologue have brief appearances (along with their dads). A female military officer confers with Sue on how to track down Reed. That’s it.

I never used to notice things like this until I had a daughter. (Don’t even get me started on the Penguins of Madagascar movie.)

And if you’re wondering if I can walk the walk here’s the gender breakdown of my latest novel THROUGH FIRE & SEA:

Main characters: Leah (f), Holly (f), Gideon (m), Ryan (m)

Villains: Duke Ruben (m), Qeturah (f)

Elementals: Goddess in the Lake of Fire (f), Grumbling Man/Isaiah (m), Thunderhead (m), Poison Cloud (m), Cinders (m), Cauldron (m), Smoking Cone (m), Ocean Elemental (m)

Minor characters, female: Holly's mother, Dorrie, Yudith, Jehannah, Beulah, Shannon, Ms. Prempah, Eleanor, Dana, Paige, Niobe, Zamara, Sabra, Nimue, Cassie Burns, Councillor Ellona, Cook, Belinda, Gilda, Officer Pratt, Samantha

Minor characters, male: Joseph, Kyle, Captain Brahim, Saul, Duke of Poison Cloud, Duke of Cinders, Duke of Smoking Cone, Emman, Daniel, Officer Dunne, Yakob, Chad, Jason, principal, Malachi, ferryman

Women: 25   Men: 26

And no, I didn't deliberately balance the numbers beforehand. When I write both male and female characters naturally spring into my head. The only characters I deliberately gender balanced were the two police officers, Pratt and Dunne.

Saga of a Slush Pile

Beginning this past March, and ending, Muse willing, June 1st, a friend and I have been enjoying--or at least experiencing--our slush pile debut. 

We set out with good intentions and with lust to publish the smut we wanted to see in the world.

This crusade, undertaken by my friend "Pasi" and I, started with an adventure in a Belgian bookstore. From America, I sent Pasi electronic messages of encouragement to explore what's being published romance and erotica-wise in her native land. She and her girlfriend promptly went to investigate the contents of some bookshelves...and returned disappointed, even to the point of horror. They bore tales of yawn- and groan-worthy heteronormativity, overabundance of "alpha males" who really just seemed  to be entitled jerks rather than attractive lovers, prose so purple it became ultraviolet. I wanted to comfort her by pointing out a lot of excellent erotica exists out there, too--but my confidence was suddenly undermined by reading the Bad Sex in Fiction award winners. 

The fact is, our disappointment ran all the deeper because we did know some excellent writing existed. When I was younger I'd had the patience to shift through a lot of meh and some downright yucky books to get to a core of authors I really loved, and as an older reader, I began to expand my list judiciously with the guidance of a lot of reviews and more than a few anthologies (for which my habit, at one point, became "read cover to cover, write down the authors of the stories that didn't make me rage outright, hunt them down and never read the antho again, because of the rage outright bit." Sadly, even my best pre-screenings have failed to catch some rage-inducing reading experiences such as romanticized date-rape by the 'hero'). Meanwhile, Pasi had been getting most of her smutty and romantic fix through fanfiction. And we realized: between Pasi’s background in fanfiction and fandom culture, and my experience with the small press and self-publishing, we not only knew there were underappreciated writers out there who could do much, much better if given the chance, we also knew how to provide that chance. 

Thus, the New Smut Project was born.  Our goal: to bring the best aspects of NC-17 fanfiction and small press work—character-relevant sex, thoughtfulness, wordplay, and passion—in two collections of original erotica.

We sat down to write our submission guidelines. Aside from as much snickering about “submission” as might be expected when kinky individuals like ourselves sat down together, this went well, because we also shared goals for the anthologies. A prolific fanfiction writer with a Masters in psychology, Pasi wanted to see deeply-characterized erotica, where sex ties into the deepest motives and needs of the people having it, rather than the actions of cliched or cardboard "f*ckbots." For my part, a bit over a year ago, I first played with the idea of a collection of erotic shorts that each featured a character saying “No.” Because real people sometimes have boundaries in the bedroom, and respecting them doesn’t make their sex lives any less interesting or hot, but it's hard to find erotica or romance that reflects that fact! Now, we felt, the time had come.

When we posted our guidelines, we added two additional pages of storylines that made us UGH or SQUEE!  We figured we might as well be clear (plus we just enjoyed hashing out our preferences in such exquisite detail), although we also were a little concerned nobody would read all the way through. Perhaps we were being excessive. I remembered the words of my sister, who edits two fantasy webzines: "Less is more. Too much, and even smart people won't read it. And no matter how much detail you put in...people will still mess up." 

For all that, we did have a healthy bit of back-and-forth over the next few days, further explaining ourselves and answering questions from a combination of experienced writers who had spotted our submission guidelines and from new and fanfiction writers interested in embarking on original fiction, but unsure how to start. Did we offer contributor's copies? (Yes!) Did we accept reprints? (Yes!) Did we accept stories about heterosexual couples? (Yes! And every other relational arragnement you can imagine!) 

On the other hand... Suffice to say, we did get some submissions that obviously didn't fit. More advice from my editor sister: some people are just trying to psych you out, and submit stories purely for shock value. That seemed to be the only explanation for why, after having guidelines that we were pretty sure bled our concern for consent and a general feminist flavor, we got multiple stories in the slushpile that featured the exploitation, assault, and worse of female characters. We quickly added yet another post about submissions, trying to balance encouraging new writers (some of whom spoke with such an air of timidity it seemed they thought we were looking for reasons to reject them) while setting healthy boundaries around things we really didn't want to see. 

As more newbies came to us with their questions and uncertainties, I found myself saying over and over again, "Look, just send us what you've got. You care, your heart is in the right place. I guarantee you won't be the worst we've seen." Sometimes I added, with fervent faith, "In fact, you might be the best."

And somewhat surprisingly to me (although perhaps not to Pasi), some of our absolute favorite, OH MY GOD YES!-inspiring stories did in fact come from new writers and fanfiction writers stretching their muscles with original fiction for the first time. Meanwhile, cover letters laden with prestigious credits sometimes came attached to fiction that, while often technically proficient, just didn't grab us.

I've always known that reading, especially when it comes to romance and erotica, is a matter of taste. And my tastes are somewhat specific (at the least, I get the sense they're not catered to by certain predominant trends in the genre). Diversity of viewpoints is part of the game when you launch an anthology of "character-driven" erotica. It's been extremely fun to see different writers' interpretation of our themes.

And just recently, I've had the breathtakingly awesome experience of reading two stories in a row, and for each one, thinking, "This is my fantasy in words. Did I write this in my sleep? --But no, I couldn't have; this is everything I want but so much better written than I could have done it."

And I look forward to getting to share those stories with the world. 

Writing the Female POV in Fantasy

Lately I’m back into writing fantasy and it feels good to be back in that “brain.”

Because it IS a very different writing brain. I’m not exactly sure why. But I’ve been working hard lately on my erotic romances (Five Golden Rings for the Carina Press Erotic Holiday Anthology and Master of the Opera for Kensington). Now I’ve turned my attention to Book 2 of my adult fantasy Twelve Kingdoms trilogy. Book 1 releases in trade paperback from Kensington next June. I’d tell you the titles, but they’re still in flux.

Suffice to say these are my “princess” books – about the three daughters of the High King, each more beautiful than the last. At the start of Book 2, there are sad events. It begins in a bad place, with strong emotions and physical illness.

Just so not where I’d open an erotic romance.

And, though there’s love possibly in this princess’s future, right now her life is about other things. She has a long road ahead of her and it’s fascinating to walk it with her. Especially because she’s pregnant and I’ve never been.

(For those of you who know I have grandchildren, I acquired 5- and 7-year-old stepchildren when I was 24. They always seemed like plenty!)

It occurs to me that this is something particularly female, to write about civil wars and the concerns of ruling a troubled kingdom, while the heroine is struggling with morning sickness. Sometimes I see criticisms of the work of women writers along the lines that we focus on “small scale” events, rather than sweeping ones. (Maybe “criticism” is the wrong word – I’ve seen that offered as a reason for why books by women don’t tend to win the Big Awards, because they’re not about Big Topics.)

So, in that paradigm, the war and so forth are Big Topics and morning sickness is a small scale event. But, for me as a writer, they’re intertwined. It’s also to deal with the issue within the constraints of what is essentially a (fictional) medieval-style society. Amusingly, when I asked on Twitter about morning sickness – what foods set women off and which helped – I got an avalanche of useful feedback. I also had to keep reminding people that foods like Saltines and tech like Zofroth pumps wouldn’t be available to my character.

It was a great discussion. I Storified it here.

Still, it’s making me think – are there many fantasies with pregnant heroines? And I mean, ones with close POV on the trials of it, not the beatific Madonna glowing nearby.

I’d be interested to hear suggestions!

Wicked Women

An article on the Ms. Magazine blog about the movie Oz the Great and Powerful caught my attention today. I was looking forward to seeing this movie, but I was disappointed to read about its negative messages (or at least a lack of positive ones) about women. According to Natalie Wilson at Ms.:

The film speaks neither to the many strong female characters that populated L. Frank Baum’s books nor to the feminist, progressive leanings of its author. Instead, it trades in the notion that women are indeed wicked—especially those women not “tamed” by a male love interest or father figure, as well as (horror of horrors!) those women who lack nurturing, motherly characteristics.

Oh, dear.

It seems to be a disturbing trend in fantasy right now—certainly among fantasies making it to the big screen. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, and Beautiful Creatures are two other recent movies whose premises seem to rely on a rather medieval concept of women as the ultimate bad.

Sure, there are one or two good women in these stories, but the evil they’re battling is epitomized by those women who’ve chosen to embrace the qualities that are depicted as unfeminine—notably, a hunger for power. It’s the woman who chooses not to act on her power, not to “give in” to it, who is seen as the righteous woman.

On a similar note, it’s been bothering me increasingly that the heroines in urban fantasy, the branch of fantasy I read most often, are often seen as “one of the guys,” and rarely have more than one female acquaintance—whose role usually consists of two-dimensional “you need to get laid more” conversations. If there are any other women in the story, they’re generally conniving and, let's face it, wicked. It’s as if there isn’t room for more than one strong, positive woman in the heroine’s world. I can’t think of many urban fantasy heroines who have strong female friends—though there are a couple of notable exceptions that both happen to be television series: Lost Girl and Once Upon a Time. I think if it weren’t for these two series depicting a full range of strong women, I’d be despairing of any hope for the future of women in the genre.

All of this got me thinking about my own series, and how I have not one, but two “wicked” women whom my heroine must battle. I remember when I originally chose to turn it in this direction that I was consciously thinking about how I didn’t want a typical “bad guy,” so mine would be female, but I wonder if I just fell into the same trap. Do I now have a typical “wicked woman” instead?

I can only hope the additional female characters in my trilogy round things out. The heroine has one close female friend who isn’t strong in the physical sense, but who endures a great deal for her and has a strong heart, and she also has a kickass female Nephil second-in-command who was in the Russian special forces and teaches my angelic heroine Russian martial arts. There are a couple of additional female characters, as well, who start out on the wrong side but end up making some positive growth by the end of their story arcs.

It’s too late to make changes in that story now that the final book in the trilogy has just finished its last round of edits, but it’s definitely giving me something to think about as I work on my new WIP. So far (about 35K in) I have a heroine with no female friends, and the other female characters are all somewhat antagonistic in nature—the very thing that’s been bugging me in the books and movies I’ve been noticing. Looks like it’s time for me to stop and reexamine where this story is going.

Thanks, L. Frank Baum, for the century-old reality check.