Generally, as a publisher, we have done our best to avoid direct political commentary and rather we speak through our publications. And yet, the last few years have seen vast changes and awakening in awareness for the general public. However, other items such as the attempted Transgender Army Ban and the coming of the first female superhero movie has shifted our desire to remain quiet.
Back in 2015 to 2016, a group of individuals attempted to hijack the Hugo Genre Fiction Awards. Dissatisfied with what they saw as “radical changes” in Science Fiction and Fantasy they tried to rig the vote. The ensuing drama led to extensive comments from the likes of George RR Martin. In of itself the same year saw the election of a man with an extensive history sexist and racist behavior.
2017 wasn’t really any different except the increased desire women have taken to speak out. The coming of the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up in the wake of the fall of Harvey Weinstein. But this alone is not enough to combat the problems which are deeply imbibed in our societal structure. Many people are still confused about how to deal with harassment and assault. The fact that people are actively against #MeToo is just frightening. It has revealed a star rift which I once considered paltry in the great feminist movement.
Notations and links aside, this year by itself has shown itself part of the growing reality of how detrimental and widespread harassment and much worse is. One reason I started writing fiction about Amazons and much more was I simply felt at ease writing women. I think it was my internal self-coming out to be in open and lack of strong women I was seeing in stories at the time. Over the years I wrote more stories and evolved my characters to be more open. My girls became bisexual, gay and nonbinary. With ThreeFold Seer I wrote y first openly transgender character for general publication.
I had originally designed my story Weeping Skies to include a transwoman and instead changed the character to a bisexual woman of color. I delved further into deconstructing and reworking traditional fantasy concepts. I embraced my love of the magical girl genre and themes far more prevalent in eastern media. My self-exploration into language broadened my horizons to bring about a larger understanding of narrative. Still, in the face of all this positivity, there are still elements of modern feminism which are harmful to the greater whole.
Sady Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) do exist as do elements in the [url=https://www.change.org/p/human-rights-campaign-glaad-lambda-legal-the-advocate-out-magazine-huffpost-gay-voices-drop-the-lgb]LGBT Community[/url] to disassociate from trans individuals.
Through the first months of my transition, I was distrustful of people and wary of strangers. Honestly, I still am. I am an outspoken radical feminist. I actively educate myself on different issues and try to constantly expand horizons. Through my dysphoria, I rework understanding new ideas and understand why people target people like me. Just the other day I had someone make a rather crude prank call at my day job. Feminism is about removing sexual abuse and improving equality. If its outsiders, so-called men’s-rights-activits, or even other feminists I’ll let my written work speak for me.