tessaradudley - Tumblr blog

[tessaradudley]

[tessaradudley]

messy thing just to get my thoughts down

[tessaradudley]

Coffee shop AUs are the 21st century version of the pastoralist fantasy, where the gruelling work of the lower classes is reconceptualized as a simple self-sufficient way of life where romance can blossom.

[tessaradudley]

A forever fave.

Things Terry Pratchett Did

Made fun of the “unnecessarily naked/scantily clad woman,” “sacrificial virgin,” and “sexy heroine” tropes in his first two novels.  The first was described as being the most powerful of her clan of dragon-riders and the nakedness was properly treated as unnecessary in a clear parody.  The second turned out to be one of the more level-headed (while not well-educated) members of the party after her initial introduction, and also had a spine and knew (and got) what she wanted.  The third was described as wearing sensible clothes, was pretty but not sexualized at all, and was practical and smart.

Wrote an entire novel to critique the unequal treatment of “men’s magic” versus “women’s magic” in the fantasy genre.  Portrayed witches as just as if not more capable than wizards (when it comes to actually helping people, in particular), and also generally having more common sense than them.  Nevertheless created a little girl character with wizard powers, and had her decide neither wizard nor witch magic was sufficient and develop a new kind of magic all her own.

Included sex workers in his worldbuilding.  Made jokes about them the same way he did every other kind of person of any profession, but was also highly respectful and never critical of these jobs.  Described the head of the ‘Seamstresses’ Guild as one of the most influential people in the biggest city in the world.  Never showed or described in detail any sexual violence, including against these workers.  In fact, made sure to say that anyone in the city who harmed a sex worker would be dealt with painfully, embarrassingly, and/or lethally by two fearsome elderly ladies.  Even his more ditzy stripper character quickly smartened up and learned some true self-respect–not by quitting her job but by realizing she didn’t have to take any shit from men.

Included strong female friendships aplenty.  Included female enemies who were enemies over things other than men.  In general constantly passed the Bechdel Test and not only that, left it in the dust and had way more meaningful and realistic representation.

Five words: Dwarf Women Are All Trans.  More words: And there’s no way to know if some of them were trans in the way we Earth humans would understand it, too, and he clearly didn’t think that sort of genitalia-based gender labeling mattered.  Did not turn his trans dwarfs into a joke, but treated them simply as people–including a scientist/forensics officer in a police department, a prominent fashion designer, and the literal King of all dwarfs (who subsequently came out as Queen).  Portrayed transmisogynists as unequivocally wrong, and had protagonist characters stand up for and protect their trans colleagues and friends.  See also: had genderfluid characters in two of his books and at least one trans man, as well as confirming canonically that there are gay wizards, one of whom is really good at football.

One of his mainest of main characters was a blunt, bad-tempered, prideful old woman who is also good to her core.  Didn’t gloss over her unfriendliness or excuse it, but made her complex and interesting and overall likeable despite all that.  Also had a very amiable old lady character who also had a temper and would throw hands with anyone who’d mess with her family or best friend.  In general, steel-souled old ladies, wow.  Also steel-souled young girls.  

Said he was incapable of writing a weak, wilting female character, and honestly I can’t think of a single one in any of his books.

Please feel free to add to this list with other Things Terry Pratchett Did because I definitely didn’t say them all!

[tessaradudley]

Co-sign.

SNL Weekend Update: May 18th 2019, Leslie Jones on the new abortion laws

[tessaradudley]

Oh snap!

Accurately-titled novels - part 1

(Part 2)

Writers’ HQ

[tessaradudley]

Bless.

holy fuck.

[tessaradudley]

Please reblog if you think that “they/them/theirs” is a valid set of pronouns.

Seeing as I use them, I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t

[tessaradudley]

Different

“You’re…different. I’ve never met a girl like you.”

She stares at him, hands stilling over her sword. “What?”

“All the girls in my village are so boring,” he says. “So focused on finding husbands that they don’t bother learning about the world.”

“Girls in your village aren’t allowed to own property or vote,” she says, somewhat incredulous.

He winces at her tone. Need she be so harsh? “Well…it’s not like they’ve ever needed to, we’re a very progressive village and I always vote in favor of their needs. You’re not like that though, you fight for your rights yourself.”

“They are fighting for their rights,” she says. She sets down her sharpening stone, a frown stretching across her face. “No voting, no property, no wages of their own to purchase necessities. Besides finding a kind husband, what else do you think they can do to find a good future?”

“Th-they could leave,” he says. He did not expect the conversation to go this way. He expected her to blush like she had when he complimented her sword skills. He finds himself oddly defensive. “The men in my village aren’t slavers. The girls can leave any time.”

She snorts. “On foot? Your village is a hard, three day ride from the nearest city and that’s by horseback. And, even if they made it, what skills do they have? What references? The risk is too high for any woman to leave, that’s as good as trapping them. The fact that it takes me holding a sword for your opinion of women to change just shows how small-minded you are.”

 He bristles, unable to refute her. “Look, I was just trying to pay you a compliment! There’s no need to attack me.”

“Trust me,” she says, standing when he moves to loom over her. They’re of near equal height and, if he was trying to intimidate her, he fails. “You’ll know it when I’m attacking you. This isn’t it.”

He doesn’t seem to hear her, flustered to be seeing her eye-to-eye. “Furthermore, I think I’d know what sort of girls I grew up with! They’re timid and lack a desire to explore the world.”

“The world you created for them doesn’t take long to explore,” she says. Her sword is bare in her hand. “Marry or descend into poverty. Bear an heir or be cast into poverty. Behave or be thrown into poverty. I was there for a week and figured it out. But,” she continues, looking him up and down, “maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to judge. After all, you’ve lived there your whole life and you still haven’t figured it out.”

He splutters. “That’s not–there are other options–”

“When the revolution is done,” she says, coldly, “and your people are forced to give women rights, see how many stay and how many leave. See how many suddenly discover their wander-lust. See how many end up like me.”

She leaves him there and stalks off to the edge of camp. She leaves him there with his mouth opening and closing, and heart pounding in his chest.

She leaves him there with the unsettling realization that he doesn’t want the women in his village to end up being like her, so different and strong. Because, if they did, where would he be? Where would his home be?

It’s an upsetting realization to have, mid-revolution. No chance to back out now.

[tessaradudley]

and i oop-

[tessaradudley]

Why do people listen to the advice of those wannabe ‘writers’. I mean they are not even published? 

[tessaradudley]

Watch: The most wonderful moment of joy came when he entered a Nazi guard bungalow.

[tessaradudley]

//icb i have to make a psa but if you’re not jewish and you’re seeing posts about yom hashoah, holocaust remembrance day, and you start to froth about ‘but not only jews died–’. stop. nobody is saying only jews were targeted. there’s a separate day–international holocaust remembrance day–for *all* victims of the shoah. today, however, is specifically for jews to process our grief, trauma, history. so maybe let us do that.

nonjews feel free to reblog.

[tessaradudley]

I commemorated Zalman Rajtapfel (of blessed memory): born in 1924 in Chmelnik, Poland, Zalman died in the Holocaust, aged 18

For Yom HaShoah, I visited illuminatethepast.org and lit a candle for Yankel Gershtein, a Ukrainian student, murdered at 19.

[tessaradudley]

I’m type #1, fyi

The two types of fantasy writers

1. Feverishly calculating the body mass of your dragon species, spent 5 hours last night researching the origins of steel, losing sleep over horseshoes, 20 tabs open, should a cockatrice be warm-blooded?, will die if they don’t immediately figure out when honeybees were first domesticated

2.

[tessaradudley]

just a reminder:

a black girl character growing her hair out long breaks more stereotypes than a black girl character having short hair

a black girl character getting to be soft and fragile breaks more stereotypes than a black girl character being strong all the time

a black girl character being protected and comforted by others breaks more stereotypes than a black girl character having no one to look out for her but herself

a black girl character being considered pretty or cute by other characters breaks more stereotypes than a black girl character being considered unattractive

not everything that is empowering for white girls is empowering for black girls

the sexism we face overlaps, but it is not the same

[tessaradudley]

Jewish lifehack: before you start your pesach cleaning, refill a bean bag chair—inevitably spilling foam pellets all over and forcing you to spend a bunch of time hunting them down and vacuuming them up from under every other piece of furniture in your house. Since you’ve already started cleaning, you may as well keep going, right?