A Twist of Things to Come

So, I have a new writer for GC who goes by the handle Mv2.3, who submitted an amazing rant on the romance genre called, The Pink Shroud. It first gives her opinion and her approach, then lists several novels (some with her Amazon reviews of them), why their heroines annoyed her and a brief sketch of the first sex scene. (I was surprised by how many of them were not consensual.) She does all this in a most refreshingly foul-mouthed way. I'm not sure if she meant it to be funny, but I found it really amusing.

I'm not a big fan of the straight-up romance novel. I do occasionally go for a book with plot and action AND romance/sexual elements. I like it when protagonists get laid and all, but I'd rather that wasn't the *point* of the thing.

That said, my sister writes inspirational romance novels on the side (she's a mental health professional), and I wish her well. It's just not my cuppa. I think maybe it's that Mv2.3 just sounds so grumpy is what made me giggle. ;D

Anyway, I'm hopeful that some of you guys will go over there and start some discussion.

***

Taking the boys to play laser tag this afternoon. I have some critting to catch up on, and I'm wondering if I'll manage some writing later. I'm not feeling very bouncy today - it's raining a lot and still in the 80s.

Earlier this month, Kitchen Jedi reviewed a magazine for 'gamer girls' in A Gamer Girl E-Zine? She found it to be, well, not of interest. Others followed her link, read some articles and agreed that it was more like the swimsuit issue of a magazine for male gamers, complete with "Top Ten Reasons You Should Date a Geek Girl" which doesn't seem to be aimed at the Femme Geek market at all, because everyone knows that lesbian geeks don't need to be convinced of the appeal of their peers.

Flash forward to today, when the publisher of the mag finally followed his traffic stats back to GC. Here's what he had to say:

From the Publisher.
written by Jack R Stewart, June 30, 2010
Greetings, I am the publisher of the D20 Girls magazine. I've read your comments & concerns & would like to point out a few things.

1.) Everything in this magazine is controlled by Gamer Girls.
2.) Even the pictorials were designed, thought up, layed-out, and conceptualized by the girls themselves.
3.) All the articles are written by gamer girls.
4.) other than me being the publisher, there is no male influence in this magazine whatsoever. If a couple of the pictorials seem to be more eyecandy related, that is because the gamer girl posing for the shots is that comfortable with what she wants to do. She should not be berated because she wants & feels comfortable posing like that.
5.) All of the costumes, poses, and themes of all of the pictorials were chosen by the girls themselves, again.. no male influence whatsoever.
6.) As far as the dating article goes, that was written by E.Foley, a decently well-know Nerd & dating expert. http://geeksdreamgirl.com/
7.) This is not an e-zine, it is a print publication that we do happen to also put out in an electronic format also.
8.) The editor for this magazine is a gamer nerd herself.
9.) before you judge the magazine or the girls that put so much work into it, I would suggest you stop by the D20 Girls website & read up on what exactly the D20 Girls are all about.

Thank you for your time...

This annoyed me. I got the email notice of the comment while at Laser Tag with my boys, a couple of their friends and a mommy friend of mine, so I had time to stew over it. Our filters had required moderator approval for it, possibly because of the links. I published it from my phone but I couldn't respond until I got home and took care of other business.

After some thought, this is what I wrote in response:

written by UberWench, June 30, 2010
Thank you for YOUR time, Mr. Publisher man, but the article stands. The magazine speaks for itself, and if our own gamer girls found it to be SSDD, then they have the right to say so, regardless of the configuration of the sexparts of whoever is responsible for it.

To argue that something produced by people with a va-jay-jay cannot be sexist is not logical. The product must stand on its own. No one gets a XX chromosome pass, despite their geek cred. If you have to know the bios of the writers for something to be relevant to your interests, then it probably isn't.

It's good to know that geek women have jobs at this magazine, and we're happy for them, but let's not kid ourselves. Your audience is supposed to be gamer girls, and our gamer girls didn't find it interesting. *shrug* Them's the breaks, kiddo.

Also, gamer girls don't need to read articles about how to date each other, even from a well-known dating expert. Some of us like boys (gamer and otherwise), and those who don't can work it out just fine without help.

Thanks for the mansplainin' ( http://www.urbandictionary.com...=Mansplain ), but your magazine speaks for itself, and Kitchen Jedi's account of it is a valid one.

In all fairness, Kitchen Jedi never used the word 'sexist' in her article. That was my addition. Also, she is totally capable of defending her own opinion. I just couldn't resist.