Good Girls

When I saw the previews for the new show Good Girls, I thought “Great, a TV series that should have been a movie.” How could anyone get a full season of television out of “hapless criminals rob a grocery store under a protection racket?” For whatever reason, I gave the first episode a shot, and before I knew it, I’d finished all three of the episodes that have aired. In spite of myself, I’m invested - and impressed.

Breaking Bad worked as well as it did because it started with a man who seemed relatable, in a situation so many Americans face. I’d also say it worked well because it was a drama. Good Girls takes a risk with similar subject matter in a comedic setting. What I love about the show is where it differs from Breaking Bad, through.

The show, true to its title, focuses on the issues that a group of three friends are struggling with. A mother living in poverty eleven years after becoming a teen mom, and trying to fight for custody of the gender non-confirming daughter her ex can’t seem to understand, a working class couple with a child suffering from a disease that can only be treated by a medication insurance won’t cover, and the suburban mom who thinks life is great until she discovers that not only is her husband cheating, but he’s blown all their money while she’s played the happy housewife.

All three need money fast. Their kids, their lives, everything is at stake. These are all incredibly American problems and, moreso, women’s problems. The show knows, without hitting the viewer over the head, that women are more likely to face poverty after divorce. The show knows that teen moms struggle long term in ways their male counterparts don’t. The show knows - and shows in heart breaking detail, how overburdened our healthcare system is, and how being black and poor means your doctor might not even bother to hear you when you speak.

The women in Good Girls don’t go traipsing into a life of crime because they’re bored housewives and need a thrill, they are desperate. In the second episode we see how insecure men confuse sex with power - through the eyes of the cheating husband facing the loss of his family, and through the eyes of one of the girls, who’s boss decides to use the knowledge of her crime to blackmail her into sex.

Even though the show is a comedy, the two scenes where he attempts to coerce sex from his employee are gut churning. The three friends continue to stand together and go deeper because the things on the line are unfathomable. Who could watch their child waste away waiting for an organ transplant? Who could let their friend be raped? Who could allow a dangerous criminal to show up at their friend’s home and interact with their children?

Some of my favorite crime stories feature hapless criminals, but the women in Good Girls aren’t hapless so much as inexperienced. Rather than counting on their lack of criminal experience for laughs, it pushes the characters further into trouble, backs them into a corner, and then delights in showing us how strong, fierce, and innovative they are.

It’s only three episodes in, and anything could happen, but I’m hopeful. The cast is great, the writing feels honest, and it’s a great crime story unfolding. I like seeing a woman led story dealing with real issues that can sill focus on being entertaining and funny while we contemplate what we would do if the American Dream fell in on is the way it has done to so many of our neighbors.

Do Girls Bite?

The latest in First World problems sees the internet collectively losing its mind over a girl.

Some people, it seems, think a girl can't be a doctor. Who knew? In 2017, apparently, there's still a list of what different genders are permitted to do. Online articles pulled responses from Twitter to talk about the backlash.

This brought to my mind The Shield. CCH Pounder's character "Claudette Wyms was originally supposed to be a man, but Pounder's agent called creator Shawn Ryan and convinced him to change the detective to a woman. However, Pounder still requested that none of the original dialogue was changed so her character would be able to "hold her own" alongside other male detectives."

Another thing this brought to my mind was the ridiculousness of people who are afraid to write about people of the other gender. People are people. They all have hopes and dreams and fears and likes and dislikes. There's a male in this house more terrified of spiders than any girl that lives here.

I suppose, for me, the idea of true equality means there's a smidge of hope for acceptance for some of us. If you thought sexism was a thing of the past, you only needed to hit the internet yesterday as people were losing their minds over Dr. Who, but the bench of those who perpetuate gender stereotypes is deep. One place I worked at was a perfect example. They were supposed to champion the rights of people with disabilities, but they had a clear preference for female staff who were cutesy and dumb. A supervisor told me early on that I may have a problem because I'd worked in more professional environments in the past.

If I smiled and laughed a little more and thought a little less I'd do fine.

For real. In this decade.

You know what I say to that? Fuck them.

I shouldn't have to be a bitch to be treated equally, but I also shouldn't have to be a little cute and stupid to be liked as a woman. Yet I still feel this is a reality; it's part of how girls are taught to flirt. It's how they learn to manipulate people to get what they want.

There are no spoilers in the first few minutes of this; it starts with episode 1. The critical bit I was thinking of is from 4:48-5:45 approximately; as Sansa is getting her hair done, she moons over a boy.



It's so typical of what's almost expected of a girl when she has a crush; she loses her mind and rushes headlong into her obsession without thinking things through.

It's actually interesting to watch the bit just before that scene, when the king arrives and greets the Starks. Sansa isn't even a name to him; she's assessed on appearance alone. It is Arya, the rebel sister, the one who is more interested in the sound of a bow than the needlepoint in her hand, that earns her identity with the king.

The author behind Game of Thrones has taken a lot of criticism for how women are treated in his stories, but I find nothing to fault him on. He has female characters, like Sansa, who are trying to fit into the mold of society's expectations. He has other characters, like Arya, who have no interest in conformity. Martin said:

The books reflect a patriarchal society based on the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages were not a time of sexual egalitarianism. It was very classist, dividing people into three classes. And they had strong ideas about the roles of women. One of the charges against Joan of Arc that got her burned at the stake was that she wore men’s clothing—that was not a small thing. There were, of course, some strong and competent women. It still doesn’t change the nature of the society. And if you look at the books, my heroes and viewpoint characters are all misfits. They’re outliers. They don’t fit the roles society has for them. They’re ‘cripples, bastards, and broken things‘—a dwarf, a fat guy who can’t fight, a bastard, and women who don’t fit comfortably into the roles society has for them (though there are also those who do—like Sansa and Catelyn). 

 I think that Gwendolyn Christie pretty much nails her assessment of what Game of Thrones has really done with the female characters.

“This was a television show that would put women at the forefront,” the actress, who plays Brienne of Tarth on the HBO series, says in The Top 10 Game-Changing Game of Thrones Moments, a special on the PEOPLE/Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN). “We were going to explore female characters in a way that conventionally doesn’t happen.”
With characters like Sansa and Arya Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, Cersei Lannister, and Brienne, she says the show’s women are as independent and complex as they are powerful. “They wouldn’t simply exist as the mother role, the girlfriend role, the wife role, or the sister,” Christie explains. “They would be people in their own right.”

If for no other reason, Game of Thrones is actually well worth watching just to see the extent of the character development at work. The women who start out controlled, meek, submissive do not stay that way.

As my husband says, the show is really about the fall of the patriarchy and the rise of the matriarchy, because it's long been clear that the women are asserting control and having the most significant impact on the events that are unfolding in Westeros.

While it's fair for someone to say they aren't convinced about an actor who's earned a specific role, if they refuse to give them a chance just because of their gender, that's sexist.

There's a reason that The Handmaid's Tale entered the pop culture mainstream this year, and has become a symbol of public protests. It's tragic that in this day and age, in the western world, that women working for the White House earn 80 cents to a man's dollar. Not based on credentials. Not based on experience. Based on gender.

This, right here folks, is why my husband has been right in his Disney princess aversion. He never wanted his daughter thinking she just needed to be someone's little princess. He was never so sexist that he called her his princess. She wasn't reduced to being a man's possession.

Instead, they were watching Princess Mononoke.



If western culture is still so backwards that people are financially penalized for having ovaries, then we must cheer for the creators who are putting women at the forefront, showing that they can hold their own and do anything that a man can do. For me, it isn't about dominance. I love a great story about a man; I love writing male characters too.

But thankfully, it's now far more common for people to write about women who are more than some man's eye candy. Those are the women I want to watch. It may be that Game of Thrones is one of the first shows I have a really hard time choosing a favorite character from, but of the top five, only one man makes the list, and it isn't because there aren't a lot of great male characters. The bench is deep, which makes the fact that so many female characters

I personally haven't been a Dr. Who follower in the past, but I say that whether the new actress in the role works on not will depend on a number of factors, starting with the writing, and can only be determined once seen. For anyone that finds it hinges solely on the lead's gender, well, I guess they have to ask themselves why they are okay with perpetuating discrimination.

“And then there’s the whole issue of sexual violence, which I’ve been criticized for as well. I’m writing about war, which what almost all epic fantasy is about. But if you’re going to write about war, and you just want to include all the cool battles and heroes killing a lot of orcs and things like that and you don’t portray [sexual violence], then there’s something fundamentally dishonest about that. Rape, unfortunately, is still a part of war today. It’s not a strong testament to the human race, but I don’t think we should pretend it doesn’t exist... I want to portray struggle. Drama comes out of conflict. If you portray a utopia, then you probably wrote a pretty boring book.”

-- George R.R. Martin

The women on my favorites list have overcome abuse, have overcome rape, have overcome loss. They are not strong women because they've been spared these horrors. They are strong women because they refuse to let others dominate them. They see themselves as equals.

And perhaps, sadly, that's the part of Martin's stories that's more of a fantasy than dragons, because apparently we still live in a world where women need a strap on and flat chest to be treated as equals.

Fight The Good Fight - Interview with Kameron Hurley

I'm going a little off-script here. This amazing guest interview by Katy Lees with Kameron Hurley isn't about crime fiction, but it IS about writing, and it IS about writing believable strong, badass women, and it IS full of great lessons we can all use. -R.

Kameron Hurley - award-winning fiction author, inventor of 'bugpunk', self-confirmed badass and troublemaker, and apparent llama enthusiast - is currently winning acclaim and applause for her collection of non-fiction essays, The Geek Feminist Revolution, which includes her Hugo Award-winning essay We Have Always Fought.

Before this glorious revolution, Kameron was lauded for her work as a speculative fiction author of such works as the Worldbreaker Saga and the Bel Dame Apocrypha. The Mirror Empire, first book of the Worldbreaker Saga, is particularly famous for its inclusion of powerful and complex women, world building both deep and broad, and uniqueness of perspective.

Kameron took some time out to tell Dirge Magazine about her feminist beginnings, the power of empathy, the best and worst parts of geek culture, and her upcoming works.

DIRGE MAGAZINE: How long has feminism been part of your life?
KAMERON HURLEY: Since my late teens/early 20’s. Growing up post-80’s, I was raised to believe that, because women were legally equal, they could do and be anything that men could. But no matter how equal you believe you are, when you go through puberty and get out into the working world, the world treats you like it treats women. I was confused about why I wasn’t getting promotions and opportunities like my male peers. I’d work twice as hard and get passed over. I’d get harassed on the street. When I lived in Chicago, I’d get harassed on public transit every day. I lost a job offer as an assistant to a stock broker because I refused to wear makeup. I remember another job interview where it became clear that the man in charge was looking for the type of secretary he wanted to sleep with, not one who could do the job. It grinds you down. When you go out into the world you can believe all you want that sexism doesn’t exist, but that won’t change how people treat you.

After experiencing all that, I went back to my mom’s books on feminism, the dusty ones she put away when she had a family. They opened my eyes this time. Whereas before I said, “Oh no, none of this applies anymore, we’re all equal,” now that I’d seen the world for what it was I recognized just how many things were disturbingly the same. Those books gave me a good grasp on feminist theory, and helped me not only make sense of what was happening to me and the women around me, but also gave me tools for understanding that world and working to change it.

How long have you been writing about feminism?
I started writing online back in 2004. My blog was called Brutal Women, and was explicitly positioned as a feminist blog. Those were great days for young feminist bloggers; were able to find each other and have good discussions. I wrote critiques of books and other media, reviews that let me tackle not only the race and gender politics of a work, but the worldbuilding and prose, too. People call these “feminist” essays because they acknowledge the gender politics of media. The truth is, every piece that doesn’t address those things is also addressing race and gender, but in a way that upholds the status quo. That says something about the writer’s and reviewer’s attitude toward how men and women and everyone else should behave, too. Not mentioning the race and gender politics of a work is just as much of a position as mentioning it.

Misogyny in geek culture is rampant. How best do you think it can be combated?
There’s been misogyny in geek culture since there was geek culture, because geek culture is part of our wider culture, and we’ve built a society on the idea that some people are more equal than others. It’s difficult to change that foundation.
I read somewhere that “Athens was a democracy, albeit one that did not include women, slaves, or immigrants.” I laughed because that was the exact democracy the United States was founded on. Women, slaves, and immigrants were not legally equal to white men when this country was founded, especially white men with property. We’re dealing with that legacy today. When you build a society with that assumption as the foundation, it bleeds through history and colors everything we see and do. So, to address misogyny in geek culture, we have to address it in the wider world.

Laurie Penny had an amazing essay called Why do we give robots female names? that argues that the man-creates-female-robot story is rampant in sci-fi because it’s men asking themselves whether women are really human, or at what point women become human. The reframing of the subtext of that story – from a man’s fantasy of an emotionless woman that serves him, to this struggle men have in defining whether or not women are human – was super creepy and eye-opening to me. As long as we position women as other and opposite to men, as opposed to human beings, we will struggle with misogyny.

Solving this misogyny problem involves cultivating empathy. It’s about encouraging women and men and everyone in between and beyond to engage with stories about people other than themselves. Our media has enforced this view of heterosexual men as the default, as the “real” human, with all other stories and people as secondary. Combating this narrative involves telling other stories from other narratives, and making sure those men come along for the ride. I believe storytelling can help us change the world, and it starts with telling stories about everyone, so that we all become normal, so that we are all the default, so we are all seen as humans with agency.

What’s your favourite aspect of geekdom at the moment?

The fact it’s so easy to find each other. It used to be that, if you liked some obscure show or character, it was difficult to find other people to talk to about it. Now you can find folks who both love the same things you do and who find some of the same aspects disconcerting or worth discussion. I love these discussions about media, though I would prefer more nuance. Sometimes the narrative can become “This is good” OR “This is bad”, but most stories have aspects that are both. I enjoy aspects of many sexist stories – if I didn’t enjoy aspects of work that were also sexist, there wouldn’t be that many stories I could enjoy. I can acknowledge that a show does some things right and some things painfully wrong, and not burn it out of my life.

We Have Always Fought stands out for its commitment to the truth about women as active and important throughout history, plus your honesty in writing it. What was it like to write it?
Once I came up with the llama frame – because who doesn’t want to read a story about llamas? – the rest was pretty easy. I had a whole lifetime of experiences and research to draw on and turn into a narrative. I wrote it in a few hours, and revised it for a couple hours the next day. Maybe 4-6 hours of total work, because most of it was stuff I knew.

As for the honesty, that’s a hallmark of my writing. My parents raised me on this idea that honesty and integrity are paramount. I share a lot of data that other authors don’t, including sales and financial data, because I’ve found that it helps other writers to understand what to expect. Having said that, I choose what I talk about online very carefully. I see a lot of writers, especially young women, writing these excruciating tell-alls for like $50 that end up on the internet forever, and I think, “Are you really sure you want to give that away for $50?” There are certain subjects I don’t talk about or write about online: sex, my spouse, details related to my day job, etc. I decided early on what was out of bounds and what I would share with others. I think that’s an important thing that every writer needs to consider, especially in this age where privacy is considered quaint.

Who is your favourite woman who fought in history?
There are an incredible number, and they are largely forgotten. I’d say my favorite group, though, are the ones who said, “Fuck it all,” dressed up as men, and went to serve in regular armies. Fighting is already a dangerous thing, but to do that knowing discovery could mean even more terrible things could happen to you was pretty brave.

What are your favourite fictional stories about women?
I grew up on the Alanna books by Tamora Pierce, about a woman who dresses up like a man and becomes a knight. They are perfect for kids of all genders from 9-13 who are piecing together how the world could work. Peirce wrote those books in such a real and engaging way that it was a big part of why I would go on to study the role of women in combat.

Alanna was never positioned as someone who was especially gifted, and not chaste either. She was good at some things, not so good at others. What was important was that she held her own during training and earned the respect of her peers. She was not positioned as Singular Woman, which we see so much in some other stories – like, THIS woman is SPECIAL so SHE can break all the rules! She’s stubborn and really just wants to be a knight, which is the actual story of most women in history who fought. Being good and stubborn will get your far.

What’s your least favourite trope about female characters?
The “strong female character” trope: a woman who is given a gun so the reader is supposed to think that makes up for lack of depth, or that sexism in that world doesn’t exist because she has a gun, or punches somebody once.

Carrying a gun doesn’t make a character interesting or complex. I read some advice from a female screenwriter who told writers, especially men, that if they wanted to write great women characters, they should write one they didn’t want to sleep with. It’s great advice, especially for men who default to writing about their ideal woman – sexy, tough andvulnerable! There is more to being human than being seen as attractive.

Your Worldbreaker trilogy offers a vision of a culture with gender-flipped social politics; a society where consent is always explicitly and verbally sought; and a world with five politically recognised genders. How did it feel to break fantasy status quo so thoroughly and awesomely?
Writing the Worldbreaker books is a lot of fun. I wanted to create cultures that were at least as interesting as the rest of the worldbuilding. So many fantasy books will give you these amazing worlds and cool magic, then trot you through the same small pseudo-medieval villages with the same pseudo-patriarchal gender roles. It’s just boring. Total lack of imagination. Like, you’re a fantasy writer! COME UP WITH SOMETHING FANTASTICAL.

So I wrote the book that I wanted to read, one that included all sorts of different family and gender structures. Many of those structures had historical influences. Many Native American cultures had third and fourth genders, and I just read a great book about a society that had thirteen different gendered pronouns. If we can’t be as imaginative as the real world, what are we doing writing fantasy?

Guest post by Katy Lees. Katy Lees is a mental health worker and trainee psychotherapist from East Yorkshire, England. She's a fan of zombies, spooky sci-fi and wet-your-pants horror. Katy blogs mini book reviews, writing news and poetry at iamkatylees.blogspot.co.uk. You can also find her tweeting over at twitter.com/IAmKatyLees.