Appropriately Aggressive

By Krista D. Ball

"If one more rando tells me that women have to be raped in fantasy because that's how it was back then, I am going to cut someone. With a spoon."

And so was born this eclectic collection of essays about science fiction and fantasy publishing, social media rants about sexism, and a generous sprinkle of stories, favourite things, and writing advice, all from Canadian SFF author, and general rabble rouser, Krista D. Ball.

These essays represent copious bottles of Chablis, a shocking amount of poutine, and many supportive furry animal hugs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Krista D. Ball
• Release date: Feb 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386373803

Book preview

Dedication

To r/Fantasy

Except you.

You know what you did.

How Did I End Up Here?

Or, perhaps more importantly , how the hell did I end up writing feminist essays on Reddit?

I’ve been a member of r/Fantasy since 2012. Specifically, two days before Obama won his second term election. I was booked to do an AMA—Ask Me Anything—and it just happened to be the night of the US presidential election. I had not participated or really read anything on Reddit before that period, and I knew plenty about Reddit’s abysmal overall reputation. However, I had a new book out (What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank: A Fantasy Lover’s Food Guide, go buy it, it’s funny), and thought it would be fine enough. I’d give it a go. Worst would be I wouldn’t do it again.

Here’s where I do a little housekeeping, since I know there are a lot of people reading this who aren’t familiar with Reddit and might find the terms I use confusing. Think of Reddit as a giant tent. Underneath the canopy are many different subreddits (that’s why, for example, I write it as r/Fantasy. It means the Fantasy subreddit on Reddit). Each of these subreddits are run by a group of volunteers that aren’t Reddit employees, nor paid or sponsored by them. They just use Reddit’s giant tent area to stake out a tiny corner of it.

As an aside, if you are if you’re interested in learning more about r/Fantasy’s demographics, you can read the entire 2018 census by clicking here.

I quickly realized r/Fantasy was a great place to talk about fantasy, science fiction, and all of the related topics of those fandoms. I also saw the moderators work increasingly hard to ensure the subreddit’s main rule—Rule 1, as they called it— was followed: Be Kind. As time has progressed, Rule 1 developed to be more inclusive, compassionate, and respectful. Transphobia is not tolerated. Gay bashing is completely unacceptable. Sexism is called out on the spot. Racism often results in a ban.

You might be thinking, but how does all that lead to essay writing? Well, it started with counting.

There had been several discussions about the 2015 Hugo Awards, which were undergoing a major controversy at the time. (Note: I tried to summarize the Puppy and Rabid Puppy history, but it honestly sounds like I’ve made it all up. Just do a search on those terms and you’ll find more than you ever wanted to know.) Someone complained that nearly every thread on r/Fantasy during that time had been dealing with the Hugos, gender relations, and social justice. Well. I knew that wasn’t true, and the only way I could prove that was to count every single thread posted in the previous few days.

Which I did.

Also, people post way too much.

I began writing my essays for r/Fantasy as a way for us to see how we recommend, discuss, and review books. Later, it morphed into more complex topics, such as the Joanna Russ essay I wrote in early 2018 (which is included in this collection).

I wrote the essays for anyone to read. I’ve never been paid for them. I simply felt there were things I wanted to share, so I did.

However, the Joanna Russ essay changed things. More people than usual reached out privately to ask if I had a Patreon account or a donation page to contribute to my essays. Others asked why I didn’t try selling these essays to Tor.com or the Guardian. Eventually, the idea for this collection developed from those conversations.

I didn’t want this to be only Reddit posts and some tweets, so I’ve added a few new things for this collection that I hope everyone will enjoy. Or, if not, will give you enough fodder to mock me on Twitter.

What About the Collection’s Name?

Originally, this was going to be called Feminist Killjoy. I’ve been called a feminist killjoy so many times that I felt it was an apt title for the book . However, there were already a number of books and essays on the topic, not even counting Sara Ahmed’s extensive work around the phrase itself. So, I wanted to choose something else that was reflective of me and still a little cheeky.

I was one of three guests of honour at a fabulous local convention, Pure Spec. Candas Jane Dorsey, one of the other GoH that weekend, attended my Q&A session. I said that I was struggling with a title that was both reflective of the subject matter and still appropriately aggressive to reflect my personality.

Candas said, arms outstretched like it was the most obvious thing ever, "So call it Appropriately Aggressive."

And here we are. Thanks, Candas. The title is perfect.

Volume One

The Reddit Essays – Introduction

These are the core ten essays. At first, I was going to put them in chronological order, but I feel they read better in the order I’ve used. Each one has a small introduction, and I’ve cleaned up all the shorthand language that I used in the essays for an exclusively Reddit crowd. In some cases, I’ve included commentary after the main essay. Most of that is my own r/Fantasy posts themselves—either directly quoted or condensed for clarity.

It’s strange looking at these essays now as a collection. I’m so used to seeing them in isolation. Someone mocks paranormal romance, and I see someone post the Fantasy Inn in reply. A person says they only read good books, and sooner or later someone will link Is Good Good Enough. It’s been a strange experience re-reading them all and re-living how I felt when writing them, or the responses to the essays. Some of these were emotionally crushing to write (She Wrote It But). Some resulted in years of insults, and one ended up being nominated for an award! These essays represent many bottles of Chablis, a shocking amount of poutine, and many supportive furry animal hugs.

Enjoy!

There's Room for All of Us at Fantasy Inn

Idon’t remember the exact moment that spurred me to write this, though many of us can probably come up with a decent facsimile of the exchange. A snide comment about romance readers. A passing insult about 50 Shades of Grey. Creepy comments about romance writers. You know the drill by now. I was tired of it, so I wrote this. It’s short, sarcastic, and to the point.

IN VAIN HAVE I STRUGGLED. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I am tired of the paranormal romance (PNR) bashing—that includes any book that even remotely looks like it could be PNR, including books written by women and/or recommended by women and/or have women on the front covers.

One of the great things about fantasy is that it offers an amazing array of subgenres and flavours. Like military SF with dragons? We got you covered. Like five-party cave adventures against giant spiders? There’s a book out there for you. Like incest with your politics? Done. Like murder and debauchery? Loads of choices. Like belly laughing when you read? Yup! Like a little taste of all those things? Yup, we got that, too.

As long as it’s not paranormal romance. That’s not real fantasy.

So many fantasy fans talk about how they were mocked growing up for their interests. They were never completely accepted by their preferred group of choice. Some took the dust jackets off their books so no one would know what they were reading. We loathe it when science fiction authors sneer at us. We loathe it when literary readers mock us, even now, and turn up their noses at our reading.

Of course, it’s totally okay to stomp all over paranormal romance readers because they aren’t real fantasy readers.

It’s okay for us to talk about how welcoming we are. All are welcome. Not every book will be loved by everyone, and that’s okay.

As long as it’s not paranormal romance, because that’s not real fantasy and it’s total shit and those who like it don’t belong here. Don’t you have your own little forums to go talk about your Twilight fanfiction, 50 Shades of Grey?

I’m not asking anyone to read PNR. I’m just asking that we not insult some of our regular contributors and many, many lurkers who read everything the rest of us do...and PNR.

Tl;dr Let’s not be genre elitists.

Strong Female Characters vs Varied Female Characters

With my feelings on genre elitism out of the way, here’s one that’s a little more fun: The Strong Female Character. The SFC, as I call her, and I have a complex and checkered past. This is actually one of the more recent essays and was a request.

After I got established writing essays, I got asked to write way more than I could ever do. Sometimes, I encouraged people to write their own. Other times, I simply said there was no way I could write the specific topic (be it because I’m not qualified, not interested, or simply didn’t have the time). However, this one really appealed to me. Perhaps my favourite moment was calling Batman a Mary Sue character just so that I could see if people were actually reading the damn thing! Fun times!

I don’t remember who asked for it, so whoever you are, thanks!

STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS (SFC) have been drinking and snarking their way through our fantasy books for several years now. One of the most common requests we get around here are for books with female characters and for them to be strong. We don’t want them weak, whiny, pathetic, damsels...we want them strong.

Thus, the SFC came into being. She is a fierce creature to behold. She rarely has any true female friends, because she’s just not like other girls. Instead, she does male pursuits, like wanting a job, not wanting children, refusing to comb her hair, and longing to fight with a sword. She is also beautiful, quirky, adorkable, smart, compassionate, willing to put up with abuse, isn’t a dick tease, but also not a slut. She’s often the only female major character in the book, and rarely speaks to other women, except to complain about how she’s not like other girls. She is the perfect Smurfette.

Sometimes, we get a little variation in the more realistic books, where she dons leather pants and a red halter top, shoots first, smokes like a chimney, drinks alcoholics under the bar, and fucks every demon in town. Then, will either drink him under the bar or shoot him and smoke his corpse. She’ll also shoot anyone who calls her a slut, which is nearly everyone in the book, except her love interest, who she will just hit repeatedly.

We often call my first example a Mary Sue, and then call her a wide assortment of names. The second we call a lot of awful words and unrealistic (usually, in reference to her ability to fight). But, hey, she’s strong. Right?

I want to break this down into the different aspects we’re dealing with here. There’s a lot of stuff to cover, and it’s even going to be confusing and contradictory at times. But here it goes. Note that nearly all of this is my own opinion (except where I quote others) and pretty much an off-the-cuff reply to a lot of questions and comments about SFC.

Mary Sue

I want to address Mary Sue right off. There is nothing wrong with Mary Sue. What’s more? We need Mary Sue. I don’t mean the old definition, either, but what everyone now calls Mary Sue. Wish Fulfillment. An individual’s fantasy.

Aka Batman.

Many people need(ed) Batman, and it’s wrong to argue reading him is going to do some kind of emotional damage. And you know what? It’s kinda rather the same for Bella Swan and Rey. Sometimes, you just want the dream. All of our dreams are different, twisted, and not based in anything remotely in our reality. Let people have some books where they can pretend and dream.

This is not to say either is without legitimate criticism. I have plenty to say about New 52 Batman and Twilight and Star Wars pretty equally. Let’s also recognize that there’s nothing wrong with some wish fulfillment fiction when life is full of shit. And while I tend to dream about mowing through a battlefield of demons with a flame thrower, others dream about being noticed. And it’s all the same in the end.

Not Like Other Girls

I think it’s important to explain this one. Many young women and girls go through this, especially if they live in a place where they aren’t being exposed to (or aren’t allowed access to) a variety of different kinds of female role models and examples. For example, if you only ever see girls shrieking and boys doing stuff, you might find yourself thinking you’re not like other girls...you’re more like the boys. Sometimes, it’s that innocent, and the person grows out of it with life experience. (In my case, for example).

The other comes from a darker place. It’s a signal to men to treat you differently from how they treat other women. I’m not like other women, so don’t mock me for being me. I’ll behave however you want, just treat me like you do each other and not like how you treat your sisters, girlfriends, teachers, and mothers. Treat me like a guy.

An SFC wouldn’t address either of these situations. But a strong female character could easily confront (in the first example) that she is basing her entire opinion of her gender just on a handful of people. With experience, she realizes how ill-formed her stance was, and decides to change it. She grows as a person. Growth and self-reflection are true strengths.

In the second, perhaps she realizes she doesn’t value these men’s opinions enough to stand by and watch them abuse and harass others. She finds herself taking a stand, and they turn against her. They begin to treat her like a woman. Then she realizes their friendship and help was never true or authentic.

Not Like Other Girls can be tricky because some women benefit the most from this social structure.