Lisa Paitz Spindler, Danger Gal

Broadsheet blogger Judy Berman today came out to being a geek.

I recently had to admit something to myself: I am, it turns out, a geek. I finally came to terms with it earlier this week, after drinks with female friends. We had been catching up and talking shop when someone mentioned Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All of a sudden, we were all shouting over one another, recounting our favorite episodes and most loved and hated characters.

Despite the fact that Berman used a very cool Kevin Smith quote,* I spent a good few minutes trying to ferret out why her post left me feeling disaffected. Shouldn’t I be glad that more and more women are owning up to their geek interests? (yeah) Shouldn’t I be ecstatic that there’s a much larger female presence at geek venues like Comic Con? (hell yeah) So what’s my problem?

I re-read the post a few times and kept coming back to an angle that initally flew right under the radar:

One friend floated the idea that the show includes just about every kind of guy a girl geek could possibly be attracted to.

To each her own, obviously, but this is not why I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love that show for these reasons: Buffy, Willow, Cordelia, Tara, Fred, Darla, Drusilla.

Buffy can kick arse six ways to Sunday, Willow has the power of the universe at her fingertips, Cordelia has more self-confidence in her pinky finger than most women will ever have, Tara lived a life of authenticity, Fred has one of the biggest brains on the planet, and Darla told the world to suck on its outdated idea of “good little girls.” But Berman and her gal pals would far rather talk about how dreamy Angel, Spike, Riley, and Xander are.

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This week’s Danger Gal Friday profile goes to Trixie as played by Christina Ricci in the re-imagining of the Speed Racer cartoon in the recent-ish movie. Last year, before the movie was release, I pegged Trixie as a Danger Gal Maybe with a wait-and-see episode. Well, thanks to Netflix, I finally saw Speed Racer and I have to say that I like the updating of this character. I would love to see a movie with a female character like Speed as the main character, but I’m always optimistic when female characters are updated with more dimension.

In the cartoon, Trixie did little more than yell “Speed!” and moan a lot, so I appreciate how they developed the character in the movie, actually portraying as an active character with interests outside of her love for Speed Racer. Rebecca Murray mentions that Trixie is “an outgoing young woman who’s equally unafraid of dressing girlie and kicking a little butt” and quotes Ricci as saying:

“Trixie is Speed’s childhood sweetheart. He’s his best friend and confidant; his partner in crime. In some ways, she’s the feminist ideal model. She’s as girly as she wants to be, she’s into her hair and outfits and makeup … she has a special outfit for each activity, but at the same time she’s into all the things the boys are. She’s never judged or given the irritating title of ‘tomboy’ and that’s important for young women. Young women tend to watch the reaction of men around older women and they see if someone’s judged, positively or negatively, in too strong a way. Young women shy away from making those kinds of decisions.”

At the Tribeca Film Festival, Ricci has actually considered her character Trixie from a feminist point of view and said:

“It was really fun. It’s fun to play someone who’s a little bit cartoonish. They dressed me up like a doll, but then they let me go and fight people and race cars and fly a helicopter so it was fun…It was really fun and it was something that I loved because that really is the sort of ultimate feminist thing where you can be as girlie as you want to be, but you’re still as capable and as able to do everything that the boys can do. But I still want more.”

Trixie evidently isn’t just the girlfriend of Speed Racer, but an important member of the Racer family’s racing team. Speed clearly respects her abilities. We get to see Trixie coming to Speed’s rescue, racing Taejo Togokahn’s car, repairing engines, and flying a helicopter among other things.

As a side note, one character did have to strip down to skivvies in this movie — and for once it wasn’t a woman. Nope, this time it was Matthew Fox as Racer X. Never in my girlish crush did I ever expect to see Racer X in his boxers and all the while fighting a ninja!

First Trixie flying, racing, and rebuilding engines. Then Racer X in his boxers. Can I watch the movie again?

My latest post is up at the Writers At Play blog and today I’m talking about the nature of heroines in Paranormal Romances, specifically how rare they are. Once in a while a blog post or comment takes on a life of its own. A while back I responded to a comment by Diana Peterfreund on the Dear Author post “My Paranormal Malaise”:

Diana Peterfreund said:

The other day, I heard someone refer to the pararom/UF market as the “vampire boyfriend” genre. Which is really interesting and not necessarily inaccurate because so many stories seem to be able to be described as “girl falls in love with [insert paranormal creature here.]”

An apt description, and partly why I’m much more interested these days in SFR rather than Paranormal. Why is it the paranormal character is so often the hero and not the heroine?

Love Romance Passion responded with the a very enlightening post “6 Reasons Why the Paranormal Character is Always Male” and The Galaxy Express responded with “The Romance Heroine is Not a Side Dish.”

Read more…

I wasn’t going to post this, but John DeNardo over at SFSignal gave me the idea. I still can’t decide whether it’s gratuitous and disrespectful. What do you think? I’ve watched it a bunch of times, but still can’t decide.

This week’s Danger Gal Friday is FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham played by Anna Torv from Fox’s new Science Fiction TV show Fringe.

One aspect I have so far enjoyed about Fringe is that Dunham is our main protagonist. She’s the center of the action and not a sidekick. While Dunham has her problems (a horrible step-dad, falling in love with her off-limits partner), we also see how she excels. We get to see a mix and balance of the negative and positive forces in her life. This makes for a multi-dimensional character.

From a Gaze standpoint, I’ve also noticed that Dunham dresses in suits and simple t-shirts, we’re not seeing her body objectified by outfits an FBI agent just would not wear. Actually, it seems like Dunham’s black suit attire is meant to evoke a “Men In Black” vibe, or it could simply be that a woman with her background and profession likely would have a “uniform” similar to that. If the attire is due to the former, that’s a fun twist on a stereotype that I haven’t seen since Linda Fiorentino and Rosario Dawson in the Men In Black movies.

If her attire choices are due to the latter, that seems to fit what I would expect from Dunham’s character. Dunham is not in a “girly headspace,” and I just don’t see many of the typical feminine trappings appealing to her. Dunham’s one assent to femininity is her long hair. Again, this seems to fit the character the writers have created. It’s a compelling mix of the practical with the impractical.

In the series premiere, the plot did call for Dunham to strip down to her skivvies, but no special emphasis was placed on this. In a later episode we see Peter Bishop, played by Joshua Jackson, in his boxers somewhat gratuitously (Pacey, all grow’d up), so I feel there’s an even treatment so far across the genders of the main characters. I also like that they’ve teamed up the crazy old white mad scientist man with a Black female lab assistant whose character seems to be treated as much more than window dressing.

Dunham’s character is also active in that she’s not only investigating intellectually into cases, but we get to see her in physical foot and car chases. We get to see her pull and fire a gun. In that last episode “The Cure,” we see her leading a SWAT team intent on rescuing a woman undergoing a tortuous medical treatment. So far, I have overall found Fringe to be a fun hour of entertainment. Some of the science in the show seems way more out there than what I’d even call “fringe,” but I have so far been able to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the show.

For more on Fringe:
IO9’s What to expect on the fringe
SF Scope’s Fringe episode reviews

Of those starring in The Watchmen are Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Patrick Wilson — not two actors you’d expect to see as superheroes, so I’m really excited for this movie. According to Wikipedia, The Watchmen “remains the only graphic novel to win a Hugo Award. . . and is also the only graphic novel to appear on Time Magazine’s 2005 list of “the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.” I may have to check it out before seeing the movie. Also from Wikipedia:

Watchmen depicts superheroes as real people who must confront ethical and personal issues, who struggle with neuroses and failings, and who—with one notable exception—lack anything recognizable as super powers. Watchmen’s deconstruction of the conventional superhero archetype, combined with its innovative adaptation of cinematic techniques and heavy use of symbolism, multi-layered dialogue, and metafiction, has influenced both comics and film.

Now the casting of Morgan (Edward Blake/The Comedian) and Wilson (Nite Owl) makes much more sense and I can see either of them portraying these kinds of characters with aplomb (not to mention the eye candy factor…). I even kind of like Silk Spectre’s costume, it seems no more ridiculous than her male counterparts, especially the blue glowy dude in the speedo (Doctor Manhattan, played by Billy Crudup). Watch the trailer below:

Here’s a well-done mashup fan video for Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter Series. In it you’ll find all sorts of fun clips of Gerry Butler from 300, Attila, Phantom of the Opera and Dracula 200 as well as clips from The Lost Boys, Alexander among others. Music is “Just Like You Imagined” by Nine Inch Nails, which you might recognize from the 300 trailers.

I’m blogging today over at my group blog Writers At Play about the Female Gaze and how advertisers are finally catching onto the kinds of economical clout women have had for a long time. Something the Romance industry is aware of already. Oh, and there’s beefcake too. I figured I should mention that since the whole point of my post is that sex sells — to both genders.

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You may have heard that CBS canceled Moonlight. Figures. I hope we get to see Alex O’Loughlin, Sophia Miles and Jason Dohring again in other shows very soon. You made a huge mistake, CBS. It looks like even a last minute save isn’t going to happen.

1. Alex O’Loughlin (with fangs and glowy eyes, oh my).
2. Vampire Solidarity. Rah. Rah.
3. We’ll never find out what happens to Coraline after she was carted off by her brother.
4. So many unemployed Freshies.
5. Claudia Black as The Cleaner!
6. We won’t get to see the vampire Lisa again, and so I won’t get to hear Alex O’Loughlin say my name anymore. Say my name Mick! (WAV, 164KB)
7. There are too few great female characters like Beth Turner.
8. Because I will miss seeing the Fortress of Style that is Mick’s apartment.
9. We never found out who Josef’s sire was. That’s just not fair.
10. Alex O’Loughlin (without the fangs and glowy eyes, oh my).
11. We’ll never find out what happened to Josef’s Girlfriend in a Coma (thanks, Recapist, thanks).
12. All that speculation about Mick’s fleur-de-lis jewelry, for naught.
13. No more cheeky Recapist summaries.

Bonus: No more emo voice overs. (Alex: Can you please get another job where you get to read teh emo voice overs? kthxbye)

Both screen caps come from Moonlight Love.

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My group blog, Writers At Play, today is interviewing Romantic Times’ Mr. Romance 2008 2nd Runner Up Jimi Gaskin.

We’ll be giving away prizes throughout the day so be sure to drop by and say hi to Gaskin, ask him questions, or to just join in the fun. Each comment you make enters you to win a prize!

Gaskin is more than just a pretty face, he’s also studying Physics at the University of Hawaii. Interviewer Janice Lynn says that Gaskin is:

Real as in the good-looking guy you had a major crush on while growing up. Real as in the guy next door you wished would notice you. Real as in you don’t suffer worries that your bra would fit him better than it fits you. Real as in someone you’d introduce your best friend to, your daughter to & keep your fingers crossed. That kind of real.

Lynn goes onto point out that Gaskin isn’t overly polished: “You didn’t have a fake tan, veneers, over-styled hair, or muscles that could give a woman a complex about her own chest size. I really like that ‘realness’.”

We hope this future physicist continues keeping it real.