Lisa Paitz Spindler

“Always keep your bowler on in time of stress and watch out for diabolical masterminds.” — Emma Peel to John Steed in The Forget-Me-Knot

It really would be a travesty to discuss kick-ass heroines without bringing up Emma Peel from The Avengers. To quote the Z.Z. von Schnerk character from one of The Avengers episodes, Emma Peel is:

“. . . a woman of courage, beauty and of action. A woman who could become desperate yet remain strong, become confused yet remain intelligent, who could fight back yet remain feminine.”

Emma Peel paved the way for so many of today’s strong heroines in movies, TV shows and books. Unlike so many female characters before and after her, Peel was admired because she could show weakness without being considered a weak character and could be rescued as well as do the rescuing.

Even more interesting, according to Francis Hui, Rigg and Steed used to write their own witty dialogue. As a married woman, Mrs. Peel came across as sexually experienced and was yet not defined solely by her sexuality. Becca at Pop Culture Heroines points out that Peel was “a force to be reckoned with; smart, beautiful and capable.” What more could a girl ask for?

The Center for the Advancement of Women has launched a campaign called “Ann Coulter Does Not Speak for Me.”

The only way this could be better is if it were a “Wack-a-Coulter” instead.

Coulter is so oblivious that she doesn’t even realize that if it weren’t for Feminism in the first place she’d have no voice with which to abuse people.

On this same topic, check out what Salon’s Lynn Harris has to say in their Broadsheet column.

Also, Andrew Sullivan has an eloquent response to Coulter, though when in a separate post he calls into question whether she’s a person I think he’s stooping to her level.

The Right is imploding and it’s going to be one heck of a show.

Therem over at Feminist SF – The Blog! compares the last X-Men movie to Jane Eyre and echoes what I’ve thought myself about Jean Grey since seeing that movie.

In X-Men the writers had an opportunity to show a woman learning about her personal power — in Jean’s case, the power to destroy the world — but it’s assumed that she will never be able to control it. I wonder if they’d gone down that plot road if it was a male character with all that power?

Compare Jean to Wolverine, whose forced modifications (in the movie anyway) were done to him yes against his will, but with the objective of making him more dangerous. The tinkering Xavier does with Jean’s mind is to put a leash on her power. I can’t remember from the movie if the leash was originally intended to be temporary, but as a short-term or a long-term solution Jean should have been made aware of the bonds on her power.

It would actually be interesting to look at all of the X-Men movies in terms of personal freedom and control, since that’s one its overall theme with non-mutants wanting to control mutants. Jean Grey’s power just takes that friction to the nth degree.

Dorchester is launching a new Speculative Fiction Romance line called Shomi with Manga-like covers. Here’s how Dorchester defines the line:

These romances aren’t bound by rules or any one reality. They’re suspense, they’re paranormal, they’re fantasy, they’re sci-fi…but above all they’re romance at its very best.

I definitely welcome a line that embraces all of these elements, especially since the demise of Bombshell. Shomi seems to also have an interesting handle on the marketing aspect, something that could be a real challenge for a line with such a wide content mix. I’m really looking forward to learning more about it. (Hat tip: Racy Li’s fun blog I just discovered.)