And a roundup of links, while I’m off writing:
-The BSFA on BSFA Awards Ceremony: An Apology. Due to the fallout of the ceremony (and the fact that several committee members were angrily accosted late at night in the bar, which is not a very pleasant experience), they’ve had a spate of resignations. They’re short of people now, for various reasons. If you want to volunteer, now would be a good time.
ETA: fixed this, as fjm pointed out that I had been mistaken.
-Foz Meadows on Why Teaching Equality Hurts Men. I’m actually not convinced that “hurt” is the right word, insofar as it seems to put the privileged on the same level as those people who actively suffer from the misogyny/racism problem, but it’s a post that’s well worth reading.
-Tori Truslow on Dear Western SFF: stop it with “exotic” already: the use of the word “exotic” and the baggage it carries (this time, do check out the comments, there’s some very interesting discussion going on)
-Kate Elliott on The Narrative of Women in Fear and Pain. Also very important points on women as victims. It reminded me of last week, when I opened up a horror book: it had one of those characters who was clearly meant to be an unlikable protagonist, killing a young woman (not his first) in a particularly nasty and unpleasant way. I closed the book, and chucked it straight in the bin. It’s an easy and nasty shorthand for characterisation, and quite frankly makes me want to chuck the character through the window rather than follow him. It’s also voyeuristic as Hell, and I have no intention of being in any way a participant in that kind of narrative. Also, the day we get the trope of serial killers focusing their attention on helpless young men [1], I’ll cheer.

[1]There is one book I read which features a serial killer dispatching men instead of young women: Val McDermid’s The Mermaids, Singing. It has a boatload of problems (killer is a trans, and the only trans we see in the book, which is uber problematic), but at least it’s an interesting take. And I can confirm that neither the male-killing nor the female-killing kind of serial killers attract me in any way.