rachelmanija (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija) wrote2011-02-04 11:35 am
rachelmanija) wrote2011-02-04 11:35 am
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Monstrous Women
I will be attending Sirens again this year, and am thinking of panels to propose. This year's theme is monsters, and as the con is about women in fantasy, that would be female monsters.
Last year, there was only one panel with an explicit LGBTQ focus, and practically the entire con attempted to pile into it, forcing it to shut some out for lack of space and leaving the poor people doing the panels scheduled opposite to speak to nearly-empty rooms. It seems clear that there is enormous interest in the topic, and the con could easily support several more panels on the theme. If you're considering attending Sirens (by far my favorite con I've attended in the last five years or so), please consider proposing something along those lines. (The overall con theme is "women in fantasy," so monsters are not essential.)
However, the obvious panel would be LGBTQ monsters, particularly female and female-identified ones. I am thinking of proposing this, taking a wide view of "monster" - some monsters are literal, some more ambiguous, and sometimes the identity or orientation itself is condemned as monstrous.
Can you suggest fiction or even folklore featuring such "monsters?" So far I've thought of the lesbian vampires in The Gilda Diaries, Micah in Liar, and Mystique in The X-Men. I'm OK with spoilers in comments, so long as they're marked on the subject headers. (So beware spoilers in comments!)
Last year, there was only one panel with an explicit LGBTQ focus, and practically the entire con attempted to pile into it, forcing it to shut some out for lack of space and leaving the poor people doing the panels scheduled opposite to speak to nearly-empty rooms. It seems clear that there is enormous interest in the topic, and the con could easily support several more panels on the theme. If you're considering attending Sirens (by far my favorite con I've attended in the last five years or so), please consider proposing something along those lines. (The overall con theme is "women in fantasy," so monsters are not essential.)
However, the obvious panel would be LGBTQ monsters, particularly female and female-identified ones. I am thinking of proposing this, taking a wide view of "monster" - some monsters are literal, some more ambiguous, and sometimes the identity or orientation itself is condemned as monstrous.
Can you suggest fiction or even folklore featuring such "monsters?" So far I've thought of the lesbian vampires in The Gilda Diaries, Micah in Liar, and Mystique in The X-Men. I'm OK with spoilers in comments, so long as they're marked on the subject headers. (So beware spoilers in comments!)
Spoilers for Suddenly, Last Summer
There's also the real-life story that Monster (2003) was based on (also see the title of the movie).
This story is also not quite what you're looking for, but I think I'll relate it anyway. In the movie/play "Suddenly, Last Summer", the main character is being institutionalized for witnessing something her aunt wants to kept secret. It is revealed at the climax that while on vacation, her cousin was murdered and eaten by some young men that he had paid for sexual favors. You know from the beginning that the cousin is dead, so I kept wondering what horrible thing he had done that his mother was trying to hide. I thought he was a serial killer or a monster or something horrible. I was confused and let down when the big secret turned out to be that he was homosexual. Frankly, I think she would have been less ashamed and horrified if he had been a murderer.
Re: Spoilers for Suddenly, Last Summer
Re: Spoilers for Suddenly, Last Summer
Re: Spoilers for Suddenly, Last Summer
Re: Spoilers for Suddenly, Last Summer
Re: Spoilers for Suddenly, Last Summer