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Female Directors: A Film Herstory Awareness Post

Women Directors – A Group Effort Resource List!

Pop Culture Round-Up

Guest post by screenwriter and actress, Nia Vardalos over at Women in Media & News concerning Hollywood studios not making movies with female leads because "women don't go to the movies." Sounds like what we've heard from the gaming and comic book industries (women don't play/read them - - which we know is bullshit).

A detailed and thought-provoking piece over at Salon on genre busting heroines in supernatural fiction including Buffy Summers, Anita Blake, and Sookie Stackhouse.



I've yet to get into True Blood or the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris, but this piece over at Damsel has me intrigued by the author's suggestion that Sookie Stackhouse is the "natural heir to Buffy's feminist throne." Considering my interest in female heroes (and specifically, post-Buffy heroes I think I'm going to have to get cracking!

Another Great Comics Arts Conference at WonderCon

From Wonder Con's Programming Page


"The Humanization of Weisinger's Legion of Superfluity," "Sequential Signs: Comic Art in the Gallery," "The Feminstas of Justice" — do these titles seem a bit high falutin' for a comic book convention? Well, they're the titles of a few of the presentations slated for the Comics Arts Conference, a full- fledged academic conference that takes place each year at both WonderCon and Comic-Con International: San Diego.

Founded in 1992 by Dr. Randy Duncan — of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas — and Dr. Peter Coogan — who teaches at Washington University in St. Louis — the Comics Arts Conference brings scholars and professionals together to talk about comics with the public by breaking out of the ivory tower and holding sessions during two of the nation's most influential comic book shows. This year marks the CAC's 17th annual conference at Comic-Con International and its third at WonderCon.

Headlining this year's CAC presentation at WonderCon is the legendary cartoonist and San Francisco native Trina Robbins, a special guest at the convention. Robbins will be presenting "Nell Brinkley and The Brinkley Girls," a talk on Jazz Age cartoonist and illustrator Nell Brinkley, whose glamorous, curly haired "Brinkley Girls" were a household name in the early 20th century when Brinkley was "The Queen of Comics." Robbins' talk is drawn from her Fantagraphics book The Brinkley Girls, published in January, and Robbins will be signing copies of after her talk.

Comics have been moving into the classroom and gaining ever-greater acceptance at educational institutions. This acceptance is reflected in two CAC presentations. The first is "Cross-Curricular Comics: Applying Comics in the K-8 Classroom" a workshop by middle-school teacher Liz Vizcarra that demonstrates the application of comics in the K-8 environment to meet California standards. A professional development certificate is available for teachers who attend this session. The second is from CAC co-chair Randy Duncan on his new comics studies textbook, The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture, to be published in April by Continuum Books. As the first textbook on comics and graphic novels aimed at undergraduates, The Power of Comics is an exciting breakthrough in the cultural legitimization of the comics medium, and the CAC offers a first look at this important work.

Besides the classroom, comics have broken into the museum, and the CAC does as well, in a pair of talks. Fine arts scholar Kim Munson explores the importance of comics to contemporary visual culture and the central role of the 2005 Masters of Comic Art exhibit in breaking comics out of the art world's high/low debate. CAC co-chair Peter Coogan presents "Superhero Science 101," a talk originally given in conjunction with the Marvel Comics Super-Hero Science exhibition at the St. Louis Science Center. Dr. Coogan explains the science- fictional laws that operate in superhero universes, including why Bruce Banner's pants stretch so much and what we in the real world can learn from such "rubber science."

Need to bone up on your superhero history? The fifties, sixties, and seventies get a thoroughgoing review in a matched set of three presentations. California State University librarian Douglas Highsmith and University of California librarian Chuck Huber examine the superhero comics "between the Flashes" from the last appearance of the Golden Age Flash in 1950 to the first of the Silver Age Flash in 1956 — yes, there were superhero comics in the early fifties! Moving on to the 1960s, independent scholar Jeff Barbanell peers through his timescope to find the first "Marvelization" of a DC series in Jim Shooter's Legion of Super-Heroes run and his infusion of his comic book narratives with the Lee and Kirby techniques of group dynamics, hyperrealism, and cosmic context. Finally, the "ink-stained Amazon" Jennifer K. Stuller attempts to resolve the conundrum of the "feministas of justice," the superwomen of the 1970s such as Valkyrie, Diana Prince, Ms. Marvel, and Lois Lane, who presented a superficial image of feminism but continue to serve as symbols of female empowerment in the cultural imagination.

But like the world of comics, the CAC is more than superheroes. CAC presenters take on social issues that resonant with today's headlines. Indian cartoonist Gokul Gopalakrishnan (aka Gokul TG), who is a fellow of the Centre for Performance Research and Cultural Studies in South Asia, investigates the cunning exploitation of the misconception of comic strips as "harmless fun" to enable cartoonists to sidestep censorship, focusing on O. V Vijayan's Malayalam comic strip Ithiri Neramboku, Ithiri Darshanam ("Bit of Trifle, Bit of Philosophy") during the 1975–1977 State of National Emergency in India. Diana Green of the Minneapolis College of Art & Design unearths the GLBT in EC Comics and the play of these stories in the burgeoning, shifting acceptance of gay culture that began in the 1950s. And Trevor Strunk, graduate student at New York University, takes on the topic of hybrid cultures as they are expressed in Jaime Hernandez's Love and Rockets output.

With the Comics Arts Conference, WonderCon offers attendees a unique chance to dig into comics' past and present and give their brains a workout while in the midst of one the country's great comic book conventions.


(BTW - - "The Feministas of Justice" is me! - - Thanks to Hubby for the title suggestion!)

Li'l Abner on TCM

Cinema Retro reports that Li'l Abner--the 1959 film based on Al Capp's comic strip will be playing this Friday at 11:30 EST.

I'm intrigued because I've never seen it, I'm a sucker for a musical, and Trina Robbins gave a great talk on "The Feral Women of Li'l Abner" at Wonder Con last year:

Cartoonist and historian Trina Robbins (From Girls to Grrrlz) presents a slideshow talk on the feral girls—Pig Girl, Hawk Girl, and Wolf Gal—of Li’l Abner’s Dogpatch, a bloodthirsty lot with no compunction about turning Dogpatchers into dinner. Wolf Gal, the starring wild girl of Dogpatch, is strong, beautiful, independent, and—don’t laugh—a feminist. When the little girls of Dogpatch imitate Wolf Gal by taking no guff from the boys, the citizens of Dogpatch react. They want their daughters to grow up as "overworked, wore-out, respectable married drudges," not "wild an' happy an'f ree, like th' wolf gal!!" Robbins connects these cartoon wild women with mythical feral children and more contemporary figures like Misha Defonseca, a Jewish orphan during World War II, who hid from the Nazis in the forests of occupied Europe for four years and eventually teamed up with a family of wolves. Recounting her experiences years later, she wrote, "the only time I ever slept deeply was when I was with wolves... Those were the most beautiful days I had ever experienced."

And . . . it stars the gorgeous Julie Newmar as Stupefyin' Jones.

Post: Call for Proposals on Women of Color in Popular Culture

This came to me through the Comics Scholars List-Serve and the deadline is fast approaching (July 1st!). It's for junior tenure-track faculty, but I thought I should post it in the hopes that at least one person gets a great opportunity out of it.


CALL FOR PROPOSALS:
ESSAYS OR BOOK CHAPTERS ON Women of Color in Popular Culture

JR. FACULTY PUBLICATION WORKSHOP
Thurs. Sept. 18-Sat. Sept. 20, 2008
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA


The CENTER FOR ETHNIC STUDIES AND THE ARTS (CESA), University of Iowa, seeks proposals for participating in a two and a half day workshop for junior tenure-track faculty on their research-in-progress on “Women of Color in Popular Culture.” Workshop participants are also CESA Junior Fellows for Fall Semester 2008 and are part of a collaborative network of scholars.

Topics may include but are not restricted to:
➢ issues of representation regarding gender, race, ethnicity, class, and sexualities in any form of popular culture, including literature, music, photography, film and television, comic books, art, dance and performance, technoculture and cyberspace
➢ women of color as creative producers and expressive artists
➢ body politics and women of color
➢ feminist or womanist approaches to race and popular culture
➢ stardom and celebrity
➢ race, gender, and American popular culture in U.S. and transnational contexts
➢ female and racialized audiences, reception, and popular culture

The workshop will consist of: sessions and written feedback on individual drafts: style tips; networking with faculty from many colleges and universities; information about publication and fellowship application strategies.

Participants are expected to participate in sessions from Thursday afternoon Sept. 18 through Saturday afternoon Sept. 20. Preference will be given to faculty from CIC-member or Midwestern universities and colleges. For out-of-town participants, travel and lodging expenses will be reimbursed up to $700.

This workshop is part of CESA’s 2008-2011 Arts in Everyday Life Initiative. CESA recognizes that art and creative expression are integrated components of religion, ritual, everyday life, and other cultural practices of minority communities. The Center seeks and encourages multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approaches to studying these practices as well as to the ways that ethnicity and popular culture shape U.S. national and international issues and cultures. It seeks critical histories as well as contemporary ones.

TO APPLY:
All participants must be Assistant Professors with a tenure-track faculty position (effective September 1, 2008) and must submit a draft of approximately 7-15 pages of the article or book chapter being proposed for workshop development. Only work that has not yet been published is eligible. Please send: a letter of interest that includes an abstract of your submission, a CV no longer than 4 pages, and workshop paper draft to: cesa@uiowa.edu. Please send materials electronically as attachments to your e-mail letter of interest.

DEADLINE: JULY 1, 2008. Participants will be notified by AUGUST 1, 2008.

For questions and further information, please contact: Professor Lauren Rabinovitz, Director, Center for Ethnic Studies and the Arts; (319) 384-3490; Lauren-rabinovitz@uiowa.edu or cesa@uiowa.edu

Superwomen in the Movies

On the subject of female heroes in movies and television I wanted to link to a couple of thought-provoking posts & sites.

The first is by Cindy Cooper of Blog Spot "The Bad Genious" who passionately writes about the need for women and girls to see positive heroic representations of their sex/gender to be able to grow up believing in themselves. In fact, she relates a story about spinning with her sister until dizzy and nauseated, hoping upon hope to burst into Amazonian Princesses, that echoes one I tell in my book introduction almost word for word. She also asks, and answers, the question,"So why didn’t those little girls watching superheroes grow to be a generation of women reading about superheroes?" and notes the frustrating fact that movies featuring superwomen just aren't given the same respect as those with supermen--which forces young girls to identify with either the love interest or the contemporary male heroic ideal.

Supervillainess over at "Female Comic Book Superheroes" asks female audiences an important question with What's Your Dream Superheroine Movie? (My desires include: A Modesty Blaise movie worthy of her character, a Promethea movie, a good Buffy movie, Wonder Woman, natch, and Birds of Prey.)

And Heroine Content always has thoughtful critiques of race and gender in movies and television.

Red Sonja Redux

USA Today reports that Robert Rodriguez will be producing a new Red Sonja film, with an estimated release date of 2010. The script, he says, was brought to him by his girlfriend, actress Rose McGowan. As he told the paper,

"I was surprised when Rose brought me a script of Red Sonja that she liked,” adding, "I found it very entertaining. Sonja was strong, smart, cunning — just about everything she'd have to be to survive."

Rodriguez wants to cast the slight McGowan as the red-haired warrior, saying

"Rose is a pistol. She's whip-smart, has attitude to burn, is sexy, extremely strong, yet has a vulnerable side that would surprise her closest friends. That description also fits Red Sonja."*

This isn't going to be an adaptation of any particular comic book story arc, nor will it be a remake of 1985's awesomely awful Dino De Laurentiis produced Red Sonja which starred a young and svelte Brigitte Nielsen in the title role.



Red Sonja became the final installment in a trilogy that included the fabulous Conan the Barbarian which was followed by the atrocious Conan the Destroyer, which unlike Sonja can't even be described as "good bad." And it's so good bad that I had to go buy a copy. See what I mean - -




The characters of these movies were loosely based on the 1930s pulp writings of Robert E. Howard. Red Sonya had appeared in only one of his stories, “The Shadow of the Vulture,” as a pistol wielding Russian in the 16th century. In the 1970s, the character was adapted by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel comics as a supporting character in their Conan title. The spelling of her name was changed from Sonya to Sonja, and her origins were moved from Russia to Conan’s fictional prehistoric “Hyborian Age.” Her deftness with a pistol was changed to mastery of the sword.

Sonja proved popular enough to support an eponymous title. In the original edition of The Superhero Women, Stan Lee refers to her as “the ultimate female warrior” and suggested that because Sonja is depicted as holding her own against any combatant—regardless of gender—“perhaps through the medium of the contemporary comicbook [sic], society may inch itself a bit closer to the time when we judge an individual on his or her own merit, rather than the accident of sex.”

I'm not sure whether the comic book Sonja accomplishes this (and I invite thoughtful comments on the subject) but the movie, though it has Sonja spouting pseudo-feminist rhetoric such as “No man may have me, unless he's beaten me in a fair fight.” and “I don’t need any man’s help.” actually ends up putting Sonja in her rightfully gendered place by the end of the movie. (I go into detail about this in the book, and so only mention it here. Regardless of Lee et al's intentions with the comic, the 1980s film focuses more on Sonja’s gender than on what should be her impressive sword skills.)

Still, it's a Great God-Awful film, well worth watching. Although it's a bummer to see Sandahl Bergman go from her portrayal as the glorious Valeria in Conan the Barbarian to playing the campy Queen Gedren in Sonja--a role for which she "won" a Razzie award.


Finally, I'd originally found the news of Rodriguez's new venture over at Superhero Hype where the comments are filled with disturbing, if unsurprising, misogyny—most of it in this instance directed at McGowan.

A brief rundown includes such sexist gems as:

“She’s witch” who’s “plum bewitched Rodriguez.”

She’s called a “dumb Ho” and “Marilyn Manson’s leftovers” who is only getting roles because “she's banging robert rodriguez so he got her another movie.”

She’s not only blasted as unattractive, but as a both a home-wrecker and career poison.

One poster “Wishes Rodriguez was back with his wife cause they have a ton of kids and I know that's hard.” –an over-simplification of the situation—and another claims “She's doing to Rodriguez what Nielsen did to Stallone. (Wrecked the first marriage, leading him into dopey career moves).”

One poster even goes so far as to praise the scene in Death Proof in which McGowan’s character gets “all broken and bloody.”

It reminds me of Violet Blue writing that at some point "every woman on the Internet gets called slutty and ugly and fat (to put it lightly) no matter what; all we have to be is female."

Regardless of what one thinks of Rodriguez as a director, or even as an adulterer, and regardless of what one thinks of McGowan as a Beauty or an actress, the vitriol with which her attributes are addressed is alarming. These are not critiques of her capacity to fit the role, or take on this particular acting challenge, this is venomous rhetoric against women.

I don't know whether McGowan can be a phenomenal Sonja, I do think she will be perfect in the couple's remake of Barbarella and she was super kick-ass as Cherry Darling--a go-go dancer cum leader of her people in Planet Terror.









*This is all good, but I hate when strong women are praised for being "vulnerable" --as if it's a necessary qualifier. You never hear the same adjective used to praise the strengths of a male warrior.