By David Futrelle
Reductress, if you don’t already know, is kind of a feminist Onion, poking gentle fun at women’s magazines, clickbaity “inspirational” web sites aimed at women, and the feminism-ultra-lite that permeates women’s media generally. Gleefully absurdist, its headlines (and the news stories that accompany them) are easily spotted as the parodies they are.
These are the sorts of headlines you’ll find there on any given day:
So yeah, pretty obviously NOT REAL HEADLINES.
At least obvious to most people. Not so much when the people in question are proud Men Going Their Own Way and the headline involves vaginas. Last year, you see, Reductress posted a fake story titled “Wow! This Woman Stood Up to Gender Norms By Naming Her Son ‘Vagina,’” and MGTOWs lost their shit.
The mod of one MGTOW page on Facebook posted this a couple of months ago, with the lovely caption “C*NT…feminists HATE MEN. #MGTOW”
Naturally, other dudes chimed in with their similarly furious takes on this terrible injustice to the poor (imaginary ) child and men in general.
Now there were a few commenters wise enough to realize that the headline was probably a joke; several even pointed out that Reductress is a satire site. But that didn’t stop the assembled angry dudes from raging, and raging, and raging some more.
These aren’t cherry-picked comments; these are almost all of the comments in the thread, minus a handful that were boring or redundant.
Antifeminsits love to mock feminists as easily outraged, humorless “snowflakes.” But, seriously, hell hath no fury like a MGTOW who doesn’t get the joke. And they never get the joke.
Problem is, to a True Believer, EVERYTHING is Axiom, Axiom, Axiom, FACT, FACT, FACT.
Again, True Believers.
There can be no humor, only total, unsleeping, unsmiling dedication to The Cause.
There used to be a website called “Baby’s Got a Bad Bad Name” dedicated to exactly that subject.
The one I remember is the section “Big Chief Mucus Breath” about the fad for Native American names. Written by a Lakota who kept getting pestered by pregnant white co-workers for “Indian Names” because “Indians are soooo Spiritually Evolved”. Lakota obliged; there are now several Spiritually-Superior Indigo Children growing up whose names are Lakota cusswords.
I heard once there’s a US-born folklorist named Frog. He’s a white guy from Oregon and that’s his full legal name. He started school without a birth certificate, and the school authorities could only record his calling name, since apparently his hippie parents didn’t believe in surnames.
Over here, it shouldn’t be possible to give your child any really weird name or embarrassing, at least in theory. You have to either pick a name from an official list of conventional names, or your name suggestion needs to be approved by some clerk somewhere, or ultimately by a judge.
Well, at least the piece got one of them to admit that he really hates women. I guess that’s the first of the twelve steps to sobriety…
This is more magic realism than straight fantasy, but I really liked Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom. She’s an excellent storyteller. I’m a bit biased because she’s from my city, and the fantasy “City of Smoke and Lights” is kind of dreamworld-Montreal. I’m so happy I got to go to her book launch and hear her read. I was struggling with some “I’m shy and I don’t know anybody” thoughts, but I went anyway.
Half Life by Shelley Jackson is both sci-fi and self-consciously literary, which maybe people have mixed reactions to? I thought it was good, certainly interesting; my classmate LOVED it and called it a “queer Finnegans Wake” and I was thinking, “Wait, I’m the one that gets enthusiastic and compares weird things.”
@Lumipuma – Iceland? I was reading a non-fiction book by Daniel Tammet about languages and he had a chapter about the naming system in Iceland.
When anyone describes something as “rediculous”, you know not to expect a lot of enlightenment from said individual.
And thanks for introducing me to Reductress. It apparently has the added bonus of generating more humor when miggies see it.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Mercedes Lackey for fantasy books. Not only does she write strong female characters, she also regularly has gay and lesbian characters, including a gay main character in a trilogy which was published in 1990.
I also like Anne McCaffrey, but most of her books are more sci fi than fantasy and she does have some problematic stuff, particularly in her earlier works, but she told great stories and was a major trailblazer for women in sci fi.
I can not in good conscience read anything written by that woman or ever give her estate money. She was a child abuser and child sexual abuser and many people have said once you know that about her, you can see it in her writing. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/27/sff-community-marion-zimmer-bradley-daughter-accuses-abuse
http://theothermccain.com/2014/07/15/marion-zimmer-bradleys-son-describes-abuse-by-feminist-pagan-fiction-author/
This site has her excerpts from deposition in her second husband’s molestation trial. http://marionzimmerbradley.com/index.html
epitome – I’m in Finland and I’m only vaguely familiar with Icelandic naming conventions. I suspect many countries have stricter scrutiny than US in approving potentially awkward names for children.
Apparently, Iceland only allows certain names because of the grammar rules of the language. The name changes depending on tense and case. Foreign female names, for example, fit the grammar if they end in “a”, but often not if they don’t.
@Skylalalalalalala
I’m a huge Mercedes Lackey fan! Been meaning to re-read some of her books but I’m in a not-reading funk right now.
I love a lot of Mercedes Lackey’s stuff! She’s got a couple dedicated shelves on my bookcase.
Really, the only problem I’ve had is that she kind of swings from books that are pretty clearly for a younger crowd to TMI stuff with not much in the way of a middle ground.
Since I’m ace and in ‘Camp IDon’tWannaKnow” it can be a bit jarring. Then again, most ‘adult’ fiction leans heavy on the TMI, so I kind of sort of hang out in the ‘Young Adult’ corner of the local library…
I love her elemental master’s series, and I have a deep seated fondness for Bedlam’s Bard.
It may or may not be related to my primary instrument being flute.
Other Authors/Series that deserve love in the fantasy bent:
Patricia C. Wrede — Enchanted forest chronicles. Excellent dragons, cool witch, obnoxious wizards.
Dawn Cook — Truth Series (4 books, all good). I never really got into any of her other series, though.
And seconding the Lois McMaster Bujold rec on the vorskorgian saga, which is a bit more mature but good.
McCaffrey’s Pern stuff gets a little repetitive and some of her other stuff gets problematic, but I loved the first Acorna book.
I also liked “Clan of the Cave Bear” by Auel, despite a rather horrific section in the middle (content, not writing style). I really didn’t care much for the rest of the series, because WAY TO MUCH TMI once she brought in a secondary dude protagonist. Also, repeated descriptions of the same things that she’s already described, and Ayla literally invents ALL the things and… but the first book was good.
My mouth literally dropped open I have never ever heard anyone say they don’t like Patrick rothfuss books. I am literally stunned. I think you’re looking at the scene and interpreting it in the worst possible light I actually specifically went back and reread it because I have it on my Kindle app on my phone and yeah he tells two women both who have been horribly raped multiple times that they should not be terrified of all men for the rest of their lives. He says all men will not do that to you trying to calm them I honestly don’t see how that’s problematic. If you was just like oh yeah those were insane outliers and oh my God most of them are great people and stuff like that I’d be totally on your side. But he distinctly says a lot of men are assholes and dangerous but not all of them are so as to make them less scared if you remember one was traumatized to the point where they couldn’t eat or speak or anyting. I think trying to make her less scared is not a bad day even if it technically falls under Not all men I think the context just makes it perfectly acceptable. If you read it again and still feel the same will just agree to disagree not a big deal. I’m just so shocked because I know hundreds of people read those books and every single one like them some list some more but Everyone likes them. And okay yes Marion Zimmer Bradley incredibly problematic but I judge someone on all of their actions she also brought one of women into the fantasy sci-fi genres and mentored many many women and assorted other things that literally changed the landscape of sci-fi fantasy novels for women. Mercedes Lackey will say the same. She is said she has issues with her but the woman was also her teacher and somewhat of a mentor and she respects her for that. I respect her for her art and her talent and her holding female writers I load and I’m disgusted by her molestation. I feel like now that she’s at she’s not getting anything from reading her books anyway so isn’t it kind of a moot point?
@Lumipuna
Folklorist is one way to describe him, I suppose. He hawks jokebooks near the University of Oregon campus, and has done as long as I’ve new alive.
@Fantasy and scifi
I can’t get into Rothfuss, and can’t be arsed with Sanderson; the Steelheart books are decent, but not good enough to excite mw about another generic vaguely Anglo-Norman fantasy setting.
Nthing Bujold, besides Vorkosigan the Five Gods books are excellent fantasy, and the Sharing Knife is quite good as well. Also Wrede, Jemison, Okorafor, and Butler.
Not yet mentioned; Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch books are the best space opera to come out in possibly ever. Tobias Buckell’s Caribbean Space Operas are also recommended, and his neocyberpunk stuff.
Amanda Downum’s Necromancer Chronicles (Not The Chronicles of the Necromancer, which didn’t do much for me) are good fantasy, with queer themes and a trans protagonist in one book. Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence is a dystopian fantasy in a quite novel vein, also has very good handling of queer and trans characters.
Oh I just downloaded the Amanda Downum books. I’m glad to hear that they’re good cuz I just read the little blurbs I wasn’t actually purchasing them LOL I used a torrent so if they weren’t good I’m not losing anything.
I would agree with you with Sanderson up to The Stormlight Archive books. They are by far better than any of his other books like I don’t think it’s even comparable. And they are not set in a vaguely tweaked but obviously anglo-european setting. He learned to flush out his World building a whole lot more, there are many cultures, gods, different kinds of government, race and religion. And not just one dimensional little chapters either. The first book is slow but that’s because he needs to give a lot of information cuz it’s supposed to be A 10 book series.
He wants it to be essentially his magnum opus, a few of his friends/colleagues have said. I’m not sure if he said that himself cuz it would be a bit pretentious. But I really do I think The Stormlight Archive is worth a shot if you like fantasy. I wouldn’t claim that about any of his other works. Like mistborn for example it’s fine sure it’s adequate but I wouldn’t recommended particularly to anyone it would never be on a top 10 or even top hundred list for me. Anyway I’m babbling like I always do.
The thing I love about Rothfuss is his writing style, I find it very engaging and sometimes very amusing, and his way of slowly slowly ratcheting up the suspense and giving tiny bits of information at perfect points where it’s like blink and you’ll miss it. I’ve read both of them 3 times and I’ve noticed new things on each subsequent reading that I didn’t notice previously not trivial things either. All right, rant over? I hope everyone had a lovely Father’s Day.
@Lumipuna – Sorry! I’d just read that book chapter* about Icelandic naming conventions and I only remembered that you lived in a Scandinavian country. Of course many other countries than Iceland would have a government body approving names, since the name would have to be registered somewhere. I’m sure Canada does this too – I’m just ignorant in this regard.
@zesty – Yes, the nouns have declensions, so the ending of names would change depending on their grammatical function. (English names do this for possessive form – Bob, Bob’s).
*In Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing: Encounters with the Mysteries and Meanings of Language by Daniel Tammet.
I need to visit the library before work so perhaps I’ll borrow Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower again. I didn’t finish it last time – true, I read kind of slowly – but also with global warming + Trump it wasn’t too hard to imagine North America slipping into that kind of chaos, so… not very escapist. I’m more into sci-fi than fantasy, but I’ll check out the book recs here too, thanks!
MGTOW.
Men’s Gargantuan Triggering Over Women.
Quite a few good bookrecomendations.
I will add Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant which can be a bit dark but are very rewarding. (Mira Grant is her penname for her horrorbooks)
And don’t forgot the standalones. The Goblin King rules.
About Sanderson it is very interesting how taste differ, because Steelhart is that from him, which I care last about.
And yes for Luis McMaster Bujold. I have not read much of the Vorkosian Saga but I love her World of the Five Gods.
And I should make clear that I typed rubish, I meanes The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison above.
Such a good book.
SF litfan oral history/urban legend:
Ursula LeGuin was said to have written her award-winning 1973 short “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” as an allegorical commentary on the MZB sexual abuse/coverup in the SF author/litfan community:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Omelas
Urban legend now and then says she couldn’t say it directly because of MZB’s clout.
So… they ain’t heard of Buttbart yet, I suppose.
I’m surprised that Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni books haven’t been mentioned yet. It’s set in an alternate Welsh kingdom, with a well-made magic system and with tons of intrigue to go around. The books are set at various points in a timeline, so the reader can get the ‘true story’ of something that’s only a legend in later books.
Seconding the C.S. Friedman recommendation, though I’ve only read In Conquest Born and The Wilding of hers. They’re SF, but the way she treats things like what the ‘default’ color of humanity is, is interesting.
Like, humans in this series are literally ALL colors of a rainbow. The Braxins (sp?) Empire is essentially Gor, but written as if real people wrote the social rules there. Their mortal enemies (whose name I’ll remember after the timer runs out) has a sexism-free society, but a massive racism problem. The Wilding, for lack of a better concise term, looks at both empires from the PoC / minority POV. It’s not as good as the first book, but it’s still a good read, imo.
C.J. Cherryh writes good books, though her protagonists tend to be male the vast majority of the time, though her women can be quite…forceful. Signy Mallory in Downbelow Station, Illisidi in the Foreigner books, and the original Arianne Embry from Cyteen are not women you want to treat as dumb, unless you REALLY don’t want to live for another five minutes.
I’ll recommend more writers / books as I rediscover them.
I’m actually convinced that reactionaries hate comedy. Just in general. Sure, they claim that they’re trying to mine new comedic ground when they make transphobic jokes (looking your way, Ricky Gervais), but the only people that really buy that are people that just find trans people icky or weird. And let’s be clear… history never remembers that shit kindly. The old vaudeville acts that played on racial stereotyping are not remembered as some kind of lost transgressive comic genius; they’re considered hideous and embarrassing relics of ignorance from a bygone time. Give it a half-century, Ricky, people will be looking at your stand-up material with the same bewilderment.
But let’s face it, defending the status quo does not good comedy make. You can see these guys try to overcompensate with absurdity and half-baked irony, but the deep-seated resentment is still pretty naked and open for all to see. This is why conservatives fail at comedy, as they’re telling the joke, they remember how much they hate the subject and just launch into a rant that reveals them as terrible people (Exhibit A: Steven Crowder).
That’s the other thing that doesn’t make for good comedy: contempt for the subject. It’s actually part of why I don’t find myself laughing at either John Oliver’s or Samantha Bee’s programs. Because I’m just left dismayed by what I see. Neither of them really have Jon Stewart’s capacity to focus upon absurdity and just revel in it. John Oliver’s essay style doesn’t permit that and Sam Bee just gets self-righteously angry and sprinkles the occasional self-depricating Photoshop in between rants. That said, neither are wrong to highlight the things that they do, but if they’re trying to do comedy shows, it doesn’t really leave me in stitches the way the old Daily Show did. Jon Stewart’s softball interview style left a lot to be desired, but when he needed to get serious, he left the bemused persona behind and addressed his audience directly. I can still remember the first show after the Charleston shooting, he looked straight in the camera and said “I’m a comedy writer and I couldn’t do my job today.” That still resonates with me in a way that a Sam Bee segment just hasn’t so far.
I will say this: it’s a huuuuge indictment of the 24hr cable channels that one can learn more from 30 minutes of Sam Bee than hours of their bullshit content.