Timeline of Gender Meta

This page lists meta and other articles about Gender and Fandom and the related discussions of sexism, misogyny, feminism, etc. See also Timeline of Feminism Meta.

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

1980s

1980

• Feminism (Or the Lack of It) in Trek-Lit by Leslie Fish (March 1980)
• Feminism in Trek-Lit (1980 essay) by Mary Lou Dodge (March 1980)

1990s

1993

• Mick Doherty, Manifesto for an Empath. Examination of Deanna Troi's character in the context of feminism and assumed traits of Generation X (1993)

1998

• Sex and the Single Agent: Confusion of Rape and Desire in the XF Universe by Fialka (updated in 1999)

2000s

2001

• "One index finger on the mouse scroll bar and the other on my clit": slash writers' views on pornography, censorship, feminism and risk by Kelly Simca Boyd

2005

• Femslash - Feminism, Women, and Potterverse by volsi (September 2005)
• Slash as Flashpoint, ^{Archived version} (2005)
• makes you like the female characters you do?, ^{Archived version} (2005)

2006

• Eric Leif Davin, Partners in Wonder: Women And the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965. Oxford, England: Lexington, 2006.
• Susan Faludi, Backlash, the Undeclared War Against American Women. 15th anniversary edition, Broadway 2006. The chapter entitled "Teen models and unwed witches: the backlash on TV" illustrates many examples of misogyny in the media, especially the downplaying of strong, self-willed and independent women characters.

• Fandom As a Female Space by Telesilla (August 2006)

2007

• Oh, look, a CAN OF WORMS! Let's watch Mary open it again! :D;archive link page 1; archive link page 2; archive link page 3 by sharpest_rose ("Am I causing more problems with my insistence on an equal heroine:hero ratio?") (January 2007)

2008

• Fannish Misogyny Bingo Card, by Esorlehcar (with help from several other fans.) Posted on September 01, 2008. See also Cheryl Morgan, Female Invisibility Bingo, posted 2011-05-31.
• Robin Reid, Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy, volumes 1 and 2. Greenwood, 2008.
• I was going to say "adamantium" but wolverine doesn't do post-modernism by brown-betty (April 2008)
• Silencing/Oppressing/Marginalizing/Suppressing (archived) by ithiliana (May 2008)

2009

• Gender, Identity, SF, & the Singularity (a draft essay written 7/14/07) by Kathryn Cramer, ^{Archived version} (June 2009)
• now that we've got that clear, and you know that i'm not here... by peri-petia (July 2009)
• Sara Paretsky Women of NCIS (August 2009)

2010s

2010

• a tentative meta on mary sue and the inimical effects of misunderstanding feminismArchive by lj-albumsontheside (April 2010)
• Girls who are boys who like boys to be girls... by FayJay (October 2010)
• Femininity and Fanfiction: A Meagre Foray into the Fandom Wilds of Gender Disparity, Gender Equity, and the Epic Hoax of the Emotionally Supine Woman by amyhit (November 2010)

2011

• Give Kirk a Break -- Spock's the One Putting Women Back in the Kitchen by Emily Asher-Perrin for Tor.com (May 2011)

2013

• Charlotte Frost, The Male-or-Female Thing, posted April 9, 2013 --"Slash fandoms had a hard time finding a middle ground between "Mary Sue" and "misogynist". As a writer, your best bet was simply not to have any female characters. But then readers start wondering why everybody is male."; WebCite
• David Barnett, The incredible shrinking presence of women SF writers. In the Guardian, 2011-05-31.

• An Open Letter to the Doctor Who Fandom, posted July 2013, discussing the possibility that Doctor Who, traditionally played in successive "regenerations" by male actors, could regenerate as a female. "If you don’t see why regenerating into a woman would be only be “credible” or valuable to the narrative if it was the symptom of a plague that needs to be “cured” is offensive as all get out to female viewers and female-allies, you are currently demonstrating what the root of this problem is with this discussion currently: There is nothing wrong with being a woman, and a woman is not a terrible, inferior being."

• Greg Sandoval, The End of Kindness: Weev and the Cult of the Angry Young Man. In The Verge, 2013-09-12. General article about the prevalence of sexual degradation and harassment of women online, including the Kathy Sierra story and the harassment of Caroline Criado-Perez for campaigning (successfully) to get Jane Austen's picture on British money. See also The Trolls Among Us by Mattathias Schwartz, New York Times 2008-08-03.

2014

• Mary Beard, The Public Voice of Women. London Review of Books, March 20, 2014, entire text online. Discusses the origins of Western culture's assumption that women's voices are of no consequence, going back to ancient Greece where it was a sign of maturity for a man to order a woman -- even his own mother -- to shut up. "One of the questions at the back of my mind is the connection between publicly speaking out in support of a female logo on a banknote, Twitter threats of rape and decapitation, and Telemachus' put-down of Penelope."
• On Star Wars fandom, feminism, diversity and anger by Dunc at Club Jade (May 2014)

• Kathy Sierra, Why the Trolls Will Always Win, October 2014. "I now believe the most dangerous time for a woman with online visibility is the point at which others are seen to be listening, 'following', 'liking', 'favoriting', retweeting. ... From the hater's POV, you do not 'deserve' that attention."

2015

• Wives, Warlords and Refugees: The People Economy of Mad Max by Kameron Hurley (May 2015)
• The Clan of the Boltcutter or, Why Keys Are Not the Tools of Freedom by Joyce Sully (May 2015)
• Why Fury Road’s Heroes Are Better Than Ur Fav by lierdumoa (July 2015)
• Mad Max and Motherhood by penfairy (August 2015)
• Mad Max Meta by Shades of Mauve

• Kameron Hurley, The Culture Wars Come to Sci-Fi Atlantic Monthly, 2015-04-09. Discusses the Sad Puppies movement and their apparent hijacking of the 2015 Hugo Awards, supposedly to restore science fiction to the "good old stuff" of former times and claiming past nominees were overwhelmingly preachy screeds by "left-wing control freaks who have subjected science fiction to ideological control for two decades and are now attempting to do the same thing in the game industry"... yada yada yada. See also George R.R. Martin's dissection of all this in Where's The Beef?
• "The misogyny towards fanfiction", 2015 article by by Nandhini Narayanan in the Duke University Chronicle.

2016

• A Plea to Fandoms - Stop Erasing the Women! (LiveJournal), ^{Archived version} ; also at Fiction Press (2016)

• On Building Better Male Protagonists by lierdumoa (March 2016)
• Your Vagina is a Bigot; My Vagina is a Saint by Franzeska (April 2016)
• I See A Lot Of Posts Going Around (Suppressing Women's Sexuality) by buckyballbearing (August 2016)

2017

• Ok, well don't say I didn't warn you. by Bokai (June 2017)
• Quit Making Fun of Teen Girl Fans, They Probably Think You’re Lame by Hannah Ewans (September 27)

2019

• On Hanson, fandom, and the sexual desire of teenage girls by Cate Sevilla (February 2019)

2020s

2024

• A guide to drawing, discussing, and writing black characters (because apparently none of you know how to act right) by taiboboisland (Total Drama and Disventure Camp fandom specific)
• Disventure Camp, Misogyny, and You by total-mkulia (Disventure Camp fandom specific)