What my followers on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ saw today:
• Fab. Famous author J.K. Rowling lost her billionaire “status” because she donated so much of her money to charity.
• What, wait? If the giant labels can cut CD and DVD can prices to save a retailer, why were the prices that high to start with? Music giants rush to save HMV
• Male author tries to create an authentic female protagonist, still fails. (Though at least he’s man enough to admit it.) Honestly, guys, it’s not that hard to see women as people, is it? Giant Thief, Crown Thief, and How to Fail the Bechdel Test
(hat-tip for today’s links: Angela Gunn)
I don’t think David Tallerman would consider Estrada a ‘failed authentic female protagonist’, in fact he seems quite proud of her. He is more concerned that he failed to present the world she lives in as a more convincing place, given the gender politics he himself created for it. The Bechdel test was always a better measure of social dynamics in a work than quality of individual female characters.
Though, not having read the books, I feel that Tallerman trying to self consciously create a ‘strong female protagonist’ is of more concern – the way he presents her in the article (not her actions, but the way he writes about her) makes her sound a bit lifeless and token. I didn’t pick up much about her besides the fact that she’s ‘strong’. Maybe he deliberately focused on it for the purposes of the article.
Could this be the old “feisty” problem rearing its head again?
Friend of mine went out to buy a CD yesterday. 9 quid in the supermarket, 12 quid from Amazon, 18 quid from HMV (at special sale price). Yeah, I’m sure I can’t imagine why they had any financial worries.
When HMV got started in retail, they tried to employ staff who knew something about music and could advise people on what they might like, and they were happy to open CD packages to let people listen to them before buying. They reversed these policies in the quest for short-term profits, and got them – and they became, in effect, just the same sort of massive warehouse shop without helpful advice that Amazon is, except on an expensive high street rather than a trading estate in Cardiff.
I’m always a bit wary of wide application of the Bechdel test – specifically, once someone becomes aware of it, it’s no longer a useful metric for that person’s work, because it’s easy enough to stick in a test-passing scene while not changing anything else.
Given how badly Hollywood continues to fail the Bechdel test, I’d say this concern is a bit… premature
Janet Fielding complained about the same thing in her time in Dr Who at the weekend – in all these different worlds, not one of them ruled by a female? Sometimes it’s about visibility.
Off the top of my head I can recall a number of Doctor Who “worlds” ruled by women. Doesn’t invalidate her point about the general sexism of the show, of course.