- The reconstructionists – The site is, ” a collaboration between illustrator Lisa Congdon and writer Maria Popova, is a yearlong celebration of remarkable women — beloved artists, writers, and scientists, as well as notable unsung heroes — who have changed the way we define ourselves as a culture and live our lives as individuals of any gender.”
- HPV costs Americans $2 billion to treat – Mostly because our prevention sucks, “In 2010, only 30 percent of American girls had received all three CDC-recommended doses of the HPV vaccine.”
- Young adult heroines infographic – Can’t tell them apart? That’s because they’re a lot alike. Via.
- I’m a black female cosplayer and people hate it – “Here’s the second deal: I’m also black. Which is fine by most everyone…until I have the audacity to cosplay a character who isn’t.”
I can’t believe the reaction that cosplayer got. I’m glad she’s speaking out about it. People are asshats.
Hermione DOES NOT belong on that infographic next to Bella Swan and those other vapid “heroines.” She is actually one of the few modern female role models that I think is great and that I don’t mind my daughter looking up to.
I don’t think they’re asserting that the works are BAD, just that they’re for young adults. I’ve heard good things about “Hunger Games”, for example.
I’d still like to know why they think Hermione has “poor self-esteem”. She’s actually pretty confident. I mean, she once cried after getting picked on, but most eleven-year-olds would do the same.
I also think Katniss is a solid young adult heroine. She’s confident and strong and a leader. My guess is that if a similar infographic was made of young adult heroes it would look pretty similar- although some of the categories would have to change. I think this is more a comment on young adult literature.
Given that the infographic is made up of arbitrary categories and doesn’t provide any context, it’s hard to say who belongs on it or not.
That being said, Hermione would have been a much more interesting main character than Harry, in my opinion.
And how do you figure that Hermione doesn’t have a supernatural boyfriend.
He’s a WIZARD. With a MAGIC WAND.
Also, there was no love triangle. One of the neat things about that series was how Harry and Hermione were friends without having any romantic intentions towards each other.
Regarding the cosplayer. While a lot of Americans and Europeans view Anime characters as white, most of them are supposed to be Japanese – they’re just viewed as white here because we have a tendency to see ourselves in fictional characters.
Which means that most of the racists that are picking on the black cosplayer, are just as “inappropriate” (their opinion, not mine) for the character as she is.
So Bella was the heroine of those film? “Main character” would seem more appropiate. :)
Of course, I’m only going by what I’ve read.
It also leads me to wonder if an infographic of adult heroines would present similar result. Heroines like Ripley, Sarah Connor, Selene, ect.
I wonder if people like those that criticize the cosplayer deliberately make the comments they do just to piss people off.
If you can pick arbitrary, largely superficial categories and then interpret them as broadly as possible (Hermione was in a love triangle? Only if you count the paranoid delusions that Ron suffered while under the effects of a curse.), you can make anything look like anything else. Hell you could make this chart with many of the male characters in those very same books and it would look exactly the same. I think the most important difference we would see in a similar chart of young adult male heroes would be better racial diversity. Aside from that, the similarities are largely the result of picking books that have been made into movies that are all aimed at the same general demographic and belong to the same genre.
With regards to the cosplayer, cosplayer-critics are some of the most relentlessly negative people I have dealt with. I’m not making the “it happens to white cosplayers too” argument to negate the validity of her experience. Just saying, most of those people who are being racist assholes towards her are probably assholes first and racists second.