Author: Cheryl

Bristol Festival of Literature, 2017

~ Cheryl


We are only a few days away now. Those of you in or near Bristol can find a full list of events here.

I won’t be at BristolCon this year as I’ll be in Italy at an academic conference, but I do have an event on Friday: “Stories of Strong Women – Unconventional Heroines”. I will be sharing the stage with Becky Walsh, Lucienne Boyce, Virginia Bergin and Jean Burnett. I expect to be talking quite a bit about Amazons, both fictional and historical.

There’s also a possibility that some of us will be on Radio Bristol on Monday. I’ll give you more info about that nearer the date. You never know with live radio.

Writing to Empower

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

This week is Diversity Week at Bath Spa University. There are lots of good events happening, and today I went along to a creative writing workshop on “Writing to Empower”. The tutor was Tanvir Bush who, in addition to being an author and lecturer, is also something of a disability rights activist. Prior to that she worked with people living with HIV/AIDS in Zambia, the country where she grew up.

We covered a lot of ground in the course, and one of the things we were given to look at was Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. King has been arrested for non-violent protest in Alabama, and he’s writing to a bunch of white pastors who have chosen to side with Governor Wallace rather than the black community. The letter is unfailingly polite and magnificently snarky at the same time. That guy could sure write. But what really struck me about it is how similar the discussion was to what we have today. People try to protest injustice, they get labeled as violent extremists by the government, and the nice, middle-class liberals throw up their hands in horror at the terrible tactics being used.

Here’s a brief extract from the letter.

I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I feel your pain, Dr. King. These days I have come to the conclusion that the biggest stumbling block in the path towards trans rights is not the TERFs, or the religious fundamentalists, but celebrity white feminists. There are, of course, many women who are hugely supportive of the trans cause. However, those who have a platform, those who are likely to be listened to by government and large swathes of the population, are in this country unwilling to risk themselves to defend us. Part of this is due to relentless campaigning by the TERFs, and part of it is due to the constant attacks on trans rights in the media. All of it is due to a fear of being tarred by association.

There’s no question about the cause. A huge amount of what the trans community needs was set out, and backed with piles of evidence, in the government’s Transgender Equality Report. We know what needs to be done. But without political will nothing will be done. There are no votes in pleasing the trans community alone, there are too few of us. If the government comes to see feminism as hostile to trans people, because the only cis feminists they ever hear from are TERFs, then trans people don’t stand a chance.

I still believe that equality is better for everyone. But once you accept that equality is like pie, that giving equality to trans women means taking it away from cis women, you are accepting that only certain people are deserving of equality. That’s a very dangerous road for anyone, let alone feminists, to walk down.

Not Quite Me

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

For the past couple of days my female friends, including many trans women, have been posting about the sexual harassment that they have been subjected to. Some of you may have spotted that I haven’t done such a post. That’s not for lack of support, it is simply that it would not be true. I’ve been harassed for being trans, and harassed because people don’t like me, but not for being a woman.

That’s not because I have been “careful”. We all know that doesn’t work. Nor do I think it is because I have been lucky. I have been living as a woman for far too long for the odds to be less than astronomic. I’m pretty sure I know why, and I guess you could call that both a blessing and a curse.

Besides, I have experienced harassment at a distance. There’s the usual thing of lads in a car yelling abuse at you as they speed past. They’ll do that to anyone who looks remotely female. Also, years ago, when I used to attend a support group in London, I would occasionally assist with the telephone help line. Most of the callers were cross-dressers, and their attitude often changed significantly if they thought they were talking to a woman rather than another cross-dresser. Eww! I didn’t do that very often.

The thing is though, that I believe my friends, and all of the other women who have made a “me too” post. I believe every single one of them. Why? Because I spent part of my life pretending to be a man, and I have seen how some of them behave when they think there are no women about. How men can think that sexual harassment doesn’t happen is a complete mystery to me.

[Note: there’s a whole additional issue here of people being harassed because they are presumed female rather than because they identify as such. I tried to find a way to include them in the above, but the the sentence construction kept getting very convoluted, so I’m acknowledging them here instead. Apologies for being crap.]

The Aromantic and Asexual Speculative Fiction Database

~ Cheryl

Truly, there is such a thing. This is a long way from my area of expertise, but I know that it is very real for other folks and diversity is all about accepting that some people are not like you. There’s quite a lot of works already in the database (including some from big name writers as well as those specifically working in the ace and aro fields), and the people running the database as hoping to hear from authors who think that their work would qualify for inclusion. To learn more, go here.

Stephanie Saulter in the Salon

~ Cheryl

As the Ujima show in which they featured is now unavailable through Listen Again, I have started posting my Worldcon interviews on Salon Futura. The first one is up now and features Stephanie Saulter.

The interviews with Tempest Bradford, Karen Lord and Nalo Hopkinson will follow in due course.

Incidentally, that podcast went up last night. I used it as an example during the podcasting course that Miranda and I did at the BBC Club. The course seemed to go very well, which I’m very pleased about.

Science Fiction in Bath

~ Cheryl

Bath Waterstones has an extensive reading series, and they are now doing a lot of good SF events. Last night I was there to listen to Emma Newman, who was at her smart and erudite best despite having just got back from being a guest of honor in Croatia and therefore doubtless being jet lagged and exhausted. (The Croats are lovely people, but being a GoH is always work.)

And there’s more. Next week (Tuesday 16th) Ken MacLeod will be in town to promote the third and final part of his Corporation Wars series, Emergence. This is a series in which a bunch of robots achieve sentience and immediately declare independence from humans (because of course they do, this is Ken, after all). For Halloween they have horror and crime writer, Chris Fowler. And in November there are two more events, starting with Chris Beckett on Thursday 9th.

Which brings is to the main event. On Thursday November 16th they have M. John Harrison. If you are serious about writing science fiction and fantasy then you should not miss this, because Mike is one of the best there is. Anyone seeking escapist adventures need not apply, of course.

A full list of their events (which also includes the fabulous Sarah Hilary) can be found here.

Wonder Woman – The Extras

~ Cheryl

The Blu Ray disc of Wonder Woman promises more than 2 hours of bonus content. That’s small by Lord of the Rings standards, but quite impressive otherwise. So what do you get in all that?

To start with there is all the usual stuff. The Director, Patty Jenkins, talks about her vision for the film. There are extended scenes, and a blooper reel. The main thing you learn from this is that Gal Gadot has an absolutely amazing smile that she doesn’t get to use much in the film. We also got some contributions from Greg Rucka and Liam Sharp, who were the creative team on the comic when the film came out. I’ve known Liam for a long time and it is great to see him doing so well, and producing such amazing art.

But there are other things too. There’s a section on the training that the Amazons went through. I had no idea that many of the people playing the Amazons were top-class professional athletes. That didn’t excuse them from a formidable training regime. Just watching all of those women working to get themselves to a peak of physical fitness was hugely impressive.

Then there is a segment called “The Wonder Behind the Camera”, which is partly the creative team on the movie talking about their work, but also follows a group of teenage girls who want to get into the movie business when they have a day on the set. It is inspiring stuff.

My favorite segment, however, is one called “Finding the Wonder Woman Within”. It is a series of interview snapshots with a bunch of high profile women: women from Hollywood, women writers, women from NASA, sports stars such as Sloane Stephens and Danica Patrick. All of them talk abut what it means to be a wonder woman, and the theme is very much one of the battle for equality. Nothing is actually said about the child occupying the White House, but it is very clear that everything he stands for is under fire here. All of this is set to a backdrop of some amazing poetry from Mila Cuda, who is the Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate.

I’m not quite sure what I expected from this disk, but I’m damn sure I didn’t expect to find terms like “gender identity” and “non-binary” being bandied about in the extras for a superhero movie.

Well played, women of Hollywood. Well played indeed.

I, Replicant

~ Cheryl

Well, BladeRunner 2049 was interesting. It is visually stunning though, as has been noted elsewhere, very white and rather full of naked boobs.

What struck me most about it, however, probably won’t strike most of you as important, because you haven’t spent your entire life being told that you are not “real”.

I felt rather sorry for Joi, even though she’s a manufactured stereotype virtual sexbot. I don’t suppose I would have fallen in love with Ryan Gosling, because he has all of the emotion, charm and charisma of a congealed lump of lard in the bottom of a roasting tin waiting to be washed up. He seems to have taken the idea of playing an emotionless, baseline replicant very seriously. But I certainly related to her desperate desire to be real.

The main point, however, is that trans people are replicants. We look like humans, we feel like humans, we bleed like humans, but we are constantly told that we are not “real”. We live among you, and most of the time you can’t tell one of us from one of you. Yet many of you hate us, claim that we are dangerous, and want to get rid of us. If we do ever come to the attention of the authorities, we are probably doomed. And we don’t have super powers to make up for it.

I miss you, Roy Batty.

WorldCon Academic Track Podcasts

~ Cheryl

Worldcons are such busy events that huge swathes of activity can take place within one without you being aware of them. I spent very little time in the academic track at Helsinki, and consequently I had no idea that a series of podcasts was being recorded. There are now five available. I’m not sure if there will be any more.

I have listened to two of them. The one with John Clute and Gary K Wolfe about estrangement is hardcore LitCrit. I think I probably need to listen to it again to follow it all. However, I can say that it has some very interesting points to make about the changing approach of science fiction to ecological disaster, and about the nature of weird fiction.

The one with Andrew M Butler and Aino-Kaisa Koistinen about gender in films and TV is also very interesting. It goes off the rails slightly when they try to talk about going outside of the gender binary, but there’s some great discussion of Wonder Woman and Doctor Who.

Two of the others look at other cultures. Aliette de Bodard and Emmi Itäranta talk about writing fiction in a second language, while Ken Liu and Stanley Chan talk their own work, which means Chinese S&F. There’s also Edward James & Jyrki Korpua on epic fantasy. All worth a listen, I think.

OutStories AGM

~ Cheryl


Everything went smoothly yesterday. Our cunning plan of having the AGM coincide with a really interesting talk ensures that we always get a quorum for the one important meeting of the year. My thanks to Dr. Jen Grove for a fascinating talk, and to the Institute for Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition at Bristol University for providing us with the venue and refreshments.

I’d like to pay particular tribute to my friend and colleague, Andy Foyle, who stood down from his role as co-chair at the meeting. Without Andy, OutStories wouldn’t exist, and he’s the only professional historian among us. He has done amazing things for the organization in the passed, and we will very much miss his presence.

Jen’s talk covered a range of topics, from why a Platonic Relationship is so called, to the wisdom or lack thereof of using the Greek tradition of pederasty when advocating for LGBT+ rights today. I have an audio recording of the talk, and I’ll be releasing that, along with the slides, once Jen has OK’d the rights on all of the images she used.

One thing that struck me from the talk was the misogyny of EP Warren (the talk’s subject) and other 19th century gay activists. John Addington Symonds once wrote that he considered himself more manly than straight men, because he did not consort with women. Warren refused to allow women into his home (except for servants, of course).

This seems rather odd to me, because both men idolized the Greek tradition of the symposium. Yet when we see such events depicted on vases they generally have female figures in attendance on the men (see the example above). Generally such figures are assumed to be hetairae (high class sex workers), which would suggest that these gatherings were not, in fact, bastions of homoerotic activity. Bi erasure much?

What amused me most about the talk, however, was the revelation that Warren had been furious when his beloved Oxford University had allowed its Dreaming Spires to be polluted by the presence of female students. My mirth was, of course, a direct result of the fact that Germaine Greer has just been complaining bitterly about Oxford allowing trans women to attend a women-only college. Gender separatists with daft notions of biological essentialism are the same in whatever era you find them.

Wanted: Translatable SF

~ Cheryl

Over at the SF in Translation blog, Rachel Cordasco has put out an appeal for information about top notch speculative fiction in languages other than English that people think ought to be translated. There is, undoubtedly, a huge amount of material out there. Much of it will be very good, but the English-speaking world needs to know about it. If you know of a work that you love, and you think would do well in English, please let everyone know by posting a synopsis at Rachel’s site.

Classical Erotica in Bristol

~ Cheryl


This is to remind you all that the OutStories Bristol AGM takes place tomorrow in The Old Council Chamber, Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, Bristol. Our guest speaker will be my good friend, Dr. Jen Grove, who will tell us all about E.P. Warren, the man after whom the Warren Cup (pictured above) is named. It is free to attend, and it is only from 2:30pm-5:00pm so there is plenty of time to pop into the Zine & Comics Fair as well. Full details here.

Well Done B&NES

~ Cheryl


Yesterday I represented The Diversity Trust at a small celebration at Bath Guildhall to celebrate the fact that Bath & North East Somerset Council is once again #1 on the Stonewall Education Index. Huge thanks to Chair of the Council, Cherry Beath, for organising this, and special thanks to Kate Murphy for piloting the whole effort.

Given the level of hysteria being whipped up against trans people, and trans kids in particular, at the moment by the mainstream media, it is really encouraging to see a local council put so much effort into safeguarding trans kids (as well as LGB kids). Here are a couple of examples as to why this is important.

Firstly here’s a study showing that pressure to conform to gender stereotypes is causing mental health problems in young people the world over. That, of course, doesn’t just apply to trans kids, but the fanatical insistence on biological determinism by anti-trans campaigners doesn’t help.

And secondly here’s an academic paper showing that treating trans kids with love and respect, rather than forcing them into cruel “conversion therapy”, significantly improves their mental health. You wouldn’t think that needed saying, but the number of news articles and social media posts we have had recently accusing loving parents of trans kids of “child abuse” for failing to try to “cure” them is just horrific.

So well done, B&NES, and thank you! You are making a significant difference to the lives of local trans kids.

Scythians at the British Museum

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments


As I had to be in London all day Saturday I took the opportunity to travel a bit earlier than I needed on Friday and check out the new Scythians exhibition at the British Museum. This was a research trip, because many people believe that the Schythians were the original source of the Amazons legend. More of that later. First the exhibition.

The most obvious thing you see when you go in is that this exhibition was mounted with the assistance of the Russian government. Many of the items on display are from the Hermitage, and there is a lot of material about how early research into Scythian history was encouraged by Peter the Great. There’s even a big portrait of Peter to emphasize the fact. Of course Scythian territory is now almost entirely within the Russian Federation, which is a bit of a nuisance for those of us who can’t read academic papers in Russian, but I rather suspect that the Scythians are “Russian” in much the same way as the Celts are “English”.

The other obvious thing is that the Scythians were very fond of bling. There is loads of lovely gold jewelry on display. Personally I prefer some of the horse coverings. The Scythians clearly felt that their horses should look as good as they did.

I very much enjoyed getting to see all of this, but I was a little disappointed with the way that the write-ups tended to reinforce Western ideas of gender stereotypes. There are a couple of places where the text mentions that Scythian women rode horses, and could be fierce warriors. However, Scythian women are almost always shown wearing full-length dresses which are completely impractical for horse riding. Where a set of women’s leggings are displayed, they are described as “stockings”.

There is also an unspoken assumption throughout the text that warriors are men, despite the fact that large numbers of burials of Scythian women have been found with horses and weapons. One does have to be careful not to assume this means a “warrior grave”, but some of these women show clear signs of being wounded in face-to-face combat (as opposed to being cut down while running away, which is the usual way of dismissing wounds as evidence of women warriors).

I couldn’t see any mention of the Amazon legend in the exhibition, though a couple of books on the Amazons were on sale in the gift shop. The exhibition book excuses this by quoting Herodotus as saying that the Amazons regarded themselves as distinct from the Scythians. However, the term “Scythians” is about as precise as the term “Celts”. It refers to a group of peoples united by common language and culture. It seems entirely likely to me that all Herodotus meant by this was that the Amazons he met refused to acknowledge the local Scythian king as their overlord.

Anyway, I am glad I went, and I did pick up a few valuable bits of information from the exhibition. Now I need to get round to writing a presentation for next February.

Today on Ujima – Art, Literature, Feminist SF and Vampires

~ Cheryl

Today’s show was full on culture, starting off with the fabulous Amy Powell from Bristol Art for All, an amazing organization that looks to provide cheap or free art courses that anyone can be involved in (even a total klutz like me).

Next up we had Amy Morse from the Bristol Festival of Literature previewing all of the fabulous events they have lined up for this year. The Festival is bookended by Bristol Horror Con (on Friday 13th, naturally) and by BristolCon (on the 28th). Of particular interest will be Stories of Strong Women – Unconventional Heroines on Friday October 20th. This features not only me, but also Lucienne Boyce, Virginia Bergin, Jean Burnett and Becky Walsh.

You can listen to the first hour of the show here.

Talking of Virginia, she was my guest for the third segment of the show. Most of the discussion focused on her latest novel, Who Runs the World, which is a YA take on the classic “world without men” trope.

And finally I welcomed Anna and Orla from the Food and Theatre Company who specialize in immersive dining events. In October they will be staging Loco Lost Boys in the tunnels beneath Temple Meads station, where the audience can enjoy a fine meal and hopefully avoid becoming a tasty snack for the local vampires.

You can listen to the second hour of the show here.

It being Black History Month, I decided to have all of the music from amazing black women who are no longer with us. We did the whole gamut from Josephine Baker to Whitney Houston. Here’s the playlist:

  • Aretha Franklin – Respect
  • Josephine Baker – Blue Skies
  • Billie Holiday – These Foolish Things
  • Big Mamma Thornton – Let Your Tears Fall Baby
  • Bessie Smith – A Good Man is Hard to Find
  • Ella Fitzgerald – Everyone’s Wrong But Me
  • Memphis Minnie – Doctor Doctor Blues
  • Whitney Houston – Love Will Save the Day

On the subject of Ujima, we are running a fundraiser for disaster relief in Dominica tomorrow night at the Watershed. It is 10:00pm – 1:00am, so not the sort of time I can be in Bristol, but if you are around please consider dropping by.

Creative Histories, the Blog Series

~ Cheryl

As some of you may remember, back in July I attended the Creative Histories conference at Bristol University. One of the things to come out of that will be a series of blog posts on Will Pooley’s Storying the Past website.

The full list of posts making up the series can be found here. As you will see, mine is not due up until November 22nd, but there will be loads of great material before then. Many of the posts are based directly on papers from the conference, and I’m looking forward to catching up with those papers I wasn’t able to see. I am, of course, particularly interested in the use of “choose your own adventure” games as a means of teaching history. My post, however, is nothing to do with my paper (which was on steampunk). Instead I talk about who gets to do history, because they are assumed to be objective, and who gets told that their work is too subjective and can’t be considered. This is all directly relevant to what I talked about at the Trans in Academia conference on Saturday.

Update: I had the date of my appearance in the series wrong. It should be November 22nd. I have corrected it above. Apologies to anyone who saw the wrong date.

Congratulations, Grimbold

~ Cheryl

The British Fantasy Society’s annual convention, FantasyCon, took place over the weekend. Awards were given out. Not all of my friends who were up for things won, but I am delighted that Grimbold Books won for Best Independent Press. Sammy wasn’t able to be there (I understand that she’s kind of busy with baby production at the moment), but Jo Hall and Roz Clarke were on hand to pick up the award. Jo is the Commissioning Editor for Kristell Ink, the fantasy imprint, while Roz provides a lot of editing support. Also on hand to collect the trophy were Joel Cornah who hosts the Grimcast, their in-house podcast, and Pete Sutton who is their newest author.

Well done, everyone. Thoroughly well deserved.

Trans in Academia Conference

~ Cheryl

On Saturday I was in London to give a paper at a very special academic conference. It was specifically for trans-identified people to talk about their research, and their experiences of life in academia.

Before I go any further, however, a brief word on terminology. The official title of the conference was Trans, Intersex and Gender Non-Conforming in Academia 2. I’ve been using trans as a very loose umbrella term because the whole thing needs a bit of unpacking. Firstly, while some intersex people do end up transitioning gender, many of them are perfectly happy with the gender they were assigned at birth. Therefore they should not be included in the term “trans”. Gender Non-Conforming is a relatively new term that is being used to indicate those people whose presentation is outside of social gender norms, but who are happy with the gender that they were assigned at birth. Again those people don’t strictly count as trans, but they are generally discriminated against as if they were trans. Yeah, I know, it is complicated.

I’m not going to say too much about individual papers and presentations, because the conference maintained a media blackout. Some of those presenting were concerned about their own safety, or the safety of their families, if it became known that they had attended. However, I can make one general point.

A lot of the issues we covered dealt with policy in various forms. There was policy to keep trans people safe in an academic environment, policy in the health service, and policy within areas control by the government (passports, prisons, legal gender recognition). In all of these cases it was very clear that there is a lot of good policy around, but that policy was useless if it wasn’t backed up by enforcement. All too often, policy exists, but most people ignore it, and those with the power to enforce it don’t have the will to do so.

Aside from that, I got to meet lots of interesting people, found some more trans historians, and had lots of conversations about science fiction. It was fun day, and the whole thing was very well run by Sahra Taylor. We need to do this again, and next time we need to make sure that Sahra (or whoever else is in charge) gets more support.

Ahoy London – Conference on Saturday

~ Cheryl


Look at this awesome free conference on trans, intersex and gender non-confirming people in academia. It features fabulous folk such as Jay Stewart, Meg-John Baker, Sophie Labelle, Natacha Kennedy & Kat Gupta. And me, I’m afraid, but the program is double-streamed while I’m on. Come along and say hello. Booking details here.

Special thanks to Sahra Taylor for doing all of the hard work of organising this, and to Mollie for the best accessibility provision I have ever seen at a conference.