A Smattering of Ignorance

Some of the Avengers I'd love to see show up in later movies, with my fantasy casting. Image heavy, so under cut.

Feel free to join in! Pictures strongly encouraged. Arguments and alternate suggestions welcome.

( AVENGERS ASSEMBLE! )

I mentioned it before, but I've actually gone ahead and started it:

Noshing on the Newberys, my new blog about reading all the Newbery Medal books. I'm sure it will get more interesting as I settle in.

You may have noticed I haven't been very active in Who fandom lately, and there are several reasons for this: the fact that I still haven't finished watching the most recent season being the biggest one (nothing against it, it's just I've been watching almost no television lately- I haven't even seen the new episodes of my favorite guilty pleasure, True Blood, nor have I even watched very many Red Sox games this summer). Of course, I've been rather involved with some other fandoms ::cough DS cough::, and heavily into my 50 book challenge, not to mention studying for the GRE.

But being the opinionated person that I am, I couldn't really pass up expressing some thoughts on the latest to-do. amaresu is a friend, so I saw her post first, and then read this post that was linked from metafandom, and the post it originally was originally inspired by. I'm sure I've missed tons of other stuff, as those are the only posts I've read.

( Under the cut, as this gets kind of long )

Odo & Kira were one of my first ever OTPs, so I figured it was high time to get nostalgic and re-visit them. Sadly, a lot of the old sites are gone, but I've had fun hunting down some old classics, and discovering some new ones.

This is a very mixed bag of fic- romance, gen, humor, adventure- they're all mixed in together. However, I have marked adult fics as such. I've also included a list of links for further exploration.

( Odo/Kira Fic Recs )

Further Thoughts On Fandom Misogyny

You know, I'm disturbed by how often the male characters who treat people (especially women) like crap are the fandom darlings. They become the woobie who can do no wrong, because he's deep, he has layers, he's had bad things happen to him, he's misunderstood (especially by all those evil female characters). They often have huge communities devoted to them and metric tons of fic describing how wonderful and perfect they are. I'm not trying to criticize people for loving the characters they love. We all have our preferences, and deeply complex characters are interesting, and often feel more real.

What's really bothering me here are the gender politics that go on in fandom, and the double standard between the way female characters are treated versus male characters.

Let's take Tony DiNozzo from NCIS. Yes, I like him too. He is a complex character, he's had some wonderful moments of heroism, and he has struggled with some tough times in his life. But let's be honest: he's rude, he's dismissive, he bullies people, he objectifies women constantly, and he also tends to blame women ("it's always the wife "). Before anyone jumps in to accuse me of misunderstanding poor Tony, let's take a step back and deconstruct things a bit.

Take some time and really, truly, and honestly think about this: if Tony was instead a woman, let's say Tonia, what would you think about her? When she constantly objectified men while simultaneously dismissing and blaming them, how would you feel? When she bullied, belittled, and tormented Tim, would it seem just as funny (because, after all, she really does love Tim like a brother, right)?

There are some people who can truthfully say they'd love Tonia just as much as Tony, because it really is just about what they like about the characterization, regardless of gender. Tonia has probably also gained some brand new fans, who like her because she turns the dominant paradigm on its head- they'd enjoy watching a woman constantly objectifying men, and running roughshod over everyone.

But be honest: how many people would call Tonia a slut, a bitch, a whore, or a harpy? How dare that uppity woman torment poor little Timmy! Who does she think she is?

Let's try an opposite sort of example, and take Rose Tyler from Doctor Who. Rose consistently gets accused of being a Mary Sue, a selfish brat, a chav, and all sorts of other similarly offensive things. Imagine, however (honestly and deeply), if Rose was instead Ryan, played by someone like Bradley James. Let's say we now have a young man who doesn't have much in the way of education, but who pick things up pretty quickly, someone who's compassionate and friendly, and who loves the Doctor deeply. Ryan is suddenly reminding me a lot of a modern version of Jamie McCrimmon. How many people hate on Jamie, or call him a Gary Stu, or accuse him of being selfish for loving the Doctor? Just how many of the people who despise Rose would hate Ryan just as much?

Try taking any female character you dislike, and transforming them into a man... how does this change how you look at them? There are still going to be plenty of characters you dislike, regardless of gender, because they're still a cat hater, or a Yankees fan, or they look just like that math teacher who used to call you stupid. But how much time would you spend bashing them? Do you think there would be whole communities devoted to hating them? Would they be constantly vilified in fanfic?

But what does it matter if we bash female characters? They're only fictional, after all. I'll just say this- I don't think it's a good idea to spend a lot of time disparaging and despising women, even if they aren't real, as that's the sort of thing that can become a habit.

Yes, I'm oversimplifying things, being judgmental, and the people who see this are almost certainly the last people on earth who need to read it, but I had to throw it out there.

Thoughts, critiques, attacks, opinions?

You're very welcome to share this/link to it.

Last updated June 5, 2014.

Due South will probably always be one of my favorite things, in large part because of how awesome the fandom is. The sheer volume of truly amazing fanfic is almost mind-boggling.

I'm a Fraser/Ray K. OTPer, and so that's the focus of the list. It's split into Pre-CotW, Post-CotW, and Alternate Universe, and then by subsections within each. (Be aware, a large majority of these fics are adult.)

( Fraser/Ray K Fic Recs )

It's been awhile, and I was in the mood for some Seven & Ace... aka known as the Doctor & companion pairing most likely to leave you bruised, broken, beaten with a baseball bat, or blown to hell.

( Nitro-9 Time )

It's no secret that "The End of the World" is one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes, and that the Nine & Rose photos from EOTW = LOVE. While browsing though Tragical History Tour, I discovered that there were some new photos from said shoot, so of course I felt compelled to add the new to my old favorites, and make a picspam.

Because Nine and Rose are just too adorable (and gorgeous) to resist.
( There's me... )

Nine & Rose genfic rec list last updated March 14, 2010.
New recs are labeled as such. Also, I've starred (*) a few of my favorites.

My Nine/Rose recs page was getting so unwieldy, I made the executive decision to move all the non-shippy fics over here. Romantic/shippy fics of all ratings remain at the main Nine/Rose recs page.

( Lots of planets have a North )

For all of my fellow Trekkie friends, new and old, if you don't already know about trek_news, you should check it out. No need to join a ton of comms to keep up with Trek fandom- let Trek News do it for you.