WFC: Gender-Bending Fantasy
Nov. 8th, 2005 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eimarraThe first panel of the con, at 2 p.m. on Thursday, was on Gender-Bending Fantasy. Panel members were Ellen Klages, Terry A. Garey, Jeanne Gomoll, and Jill Roberts. Justine Larbalestier had stayed in New York because Scott Westerfield was down with the flu.
At first, this panel was supposed to be to discuss the Tiptree Award, but the people proposing it were told that special interest groups couldn't have panels. So they renamed it to "gender-bending fantasy" and discussed the Tiptree anyway. The Tiptree Award is given to fiction that gives insight into what it means to be male, to be female, to cross over those lines -- without focusing on those issues. It is, to quote, for "science fiction or fantasy that explores or expands our understanding of gender roles."
"If we haven't pissed someone off, we're not doing our job." (Speaking of selection of the winner or winners.) They want controversy, and what is gender-bending changes with time.
All discussions of the judges are being archived for future scholars, but are not currently available. The time frame given was 50 years after death of the last juror.
This past year, there were two winners, Johanna Sinisalo for Not Before Sundown, a love story involving a troll, and Joe Haldeman for Camouflage, a story about shape-changing aliens on earth.
Ellen commented that people don't want to use the label "feminism" because that's over, we won -- which is pretty much what people's attitudes were about racism before Hurricane Katrina. (Side note: I don't describe myself as a feminist because most of the women I've met who do tend to be femi-Nazis, as i saw it described on another blog.)
A goal for this award is to make people uncomfortable in the right way. A lot of Tiptree winners are from small presses; big publishers tend to be scared of controversy. The closer you are to pushing the edge, the harder it is to get published. And if you are published, it will either disappear without a trace or be critically acclaimed.
Tiptree-winning fiction makes you squirm; it will never be mainstream.
Someone from the audience asked about supernatural/mystical androgyny, as in Hong Kong action flicks or Bridget Lynn. An editor (Jill Roberts?) said that if someone was writing that, she'd love to see it.
The panel said that everyone should report any fiction they think should be considered for the award. (Web site is http://www.tiptree.org). Fiction is not considered separately by length -- short stories or novels are considered equally.
At first, this panel was supposed to be to discuss the Tiptree Award, but the people proposing it were told that special interest groups couldn't have panels. So they renamed it to "gender-bending fantasy" and discussed the Tiptree anyway. The Tiptree Award is given to fiction that gives insight into what it means to be male, to be female, to cross over those lines -- without focusing on those issues. It is, to quote, for "science fiction or fantasy that explores or expands our understanding of gender roles."
"If we haven't pissed someone off, we're not doing our job." (Speaking of selection of the winner or winners.) They want controversy, and what is gender-bending changes with time.
All discussions of the judges are being archived for future scholars, but are not currently available. The time frame given was 50 years after death of the last juror.
This past year, there were two winners, Johanna Sinisalo for Not Before Sundown, a love story involving a troll, and Joe Haldeman for Camouflage, a story about shape-changing aliens on earth.
Ellen commented that people don't want to use the label "feminism" because that's over, we won -- which is pretty much what people's attitudes were about racism before Hurricane Katrina. (Side note: I don't describe myself as a feminist because most of the women I've met who do tend to be femi-Nazis, as i saw it described on another blog.)
A goal for this award is to make people uncomfortable in the right way. A lot of Tiptree winners are from small presses; big publishers tend to be scared of controversy. The closer you are to pushing the edge, the harder it is to get published. And if you are published, it will either disappear without a trace or be critically acclaimed.
Tiptree-winning fiction makes you squirm; it will never be mainstream.
Someone from the audience asked about supernatural/mystical androgyny, as in Hong Kong action flicks or Bridget Lynn. An editor (Jill Roberts?) said that if someone was writing that, she'd love to see it.
The panel said that everyone should report any fiction they think should be considered for the award. (Web site is http://www.tiptree.org). Fiction is not considered separately by length -- short stories or novels are considered equally.
