#women's writing

[the-most-sublime-fool]

From the diary of Sei Shōnagon, a 10th century Japanese court lady

#oh...i love this interaction #sei shonagon #the pillow book #diaries #women's writing #history #japan #heian era #quotes #excerpts #to save

[infantineguyfawkes]

uh hi i haven’t logged in here in forever and was v much a tumblr teen/undergrad from c. 2011-2016 with some sporadic use after that but i would love some new followers for my tumblr renaissance i am an english and women’s studies grad student/teacher and i like radical and marxist feminist theories, books by women (especially from the 19th century, austen shelley brontes etc), 80s/90s romcoms, muppets, recipes, silly things

#feminism #radical feminism #jane austen #mary shelley #charlotte bronte #romcoms #muppets #cooking #women's writing

[mehestmoi]

Fanfiction survey

Hi! We'd like your help in filling out a survey.

We are a group of undergraduate students who are interested in collecting data about perceptions and opinions regarding fanfiction.

You do not to be a reader of fanfiction to take part in the survey.

We intend to use the information collected in a podcast episode for our semester project.

No personal information will be collected beyond a confirmation of being older than 18 years of age.

The survey will take about 15 minutes.

#fanfiction #podcast #survey #undergraduate #women's writing #fanfic #fic #writing

[samaeljigoku]

Hubris and Envy

How I wish I were you, With eyes like the blazing cores of stars And hair like marrow plundered from an angel's wing Your body transforms disease to blessed youth, How I wish I were you

If only I hadn't done that, Plucked out the fibers of my own heart And bowed to the whim of each human ill that befell us, All I wanted was to impress you, but in the end I only came across as cruel

#poetry #dark poetry #romantic poetry #women's writing #my writing #free verse #dark romance #poems on tumblr #freestyle poem #beauty

[sadbhkellett]

A blogpost I wrote last year on such an underrated Irish writer!

#katharine tynan #ballads and lyrics #irish folklore #folklore #women's writing #sadbh kellett #celtic revival #fairies #sídhe #fairy #irish revival #ireland #irish writer #phd #university of st andrews #Irish Women's Writing Network #Academia

[zelihatrifles]

Mrs. Dalloway

A stream of consciousness masterpiece, is that right? Lovelorn Peter Walsh, shell-shocked Septimus, alienated Rezia, wild Susan, conservative Richard, ridiculously faithful Miss Kilman, young Elizabeth, Coriolanian Lady Bruton, conformist Sir Bradshaw, and so many more, brought together into one chaotic, sometimes confused and very lifelike assemblage, as Mrs Clarissa Dalloway prepares frantically for her party that she feels obliged to give because she simply must bring together people, not because she had to show off, not because she had to preserve her social stature, but because...

...both were quite wrong. What she liked was simply life.

Woolf takes you into the human hearts of her characters and you see London and its landscape through their eyes, smell it and feel it through their senses, and you feel oh so close to these slices of humanity.

#virginia woolf #mrs dalloway #stream of consciousness #british literature #inter war years #books #reading #currently reading #women's writing #impressions not reviews

[crimeronan]

i think about this tweet Every Time i see people scared to write women with flaws bc they think it'll come off as sexist. cannot believe this is nearly a decade old. Ahead Of Its Time.....

#not just fandom writers. this also includes some very sweet very anxious people in irl writing group #clutching you by the shoulders. Make Your Women Crazier. #For Your Health And Mine Alike .

[noperopesaredope]

I wish we had more female characters like Eleanor Shellstrop. One of the most unlikable people you've ever met. Read a Buzzfeed article on most rude things you can do on a daily basis and decided to use that as a list of goals. Makes everyone's day worse just by being there. Dropped a margarita mix on the ground and tried to pick it up, only to get hit by a row of shopping carts which pushed her into the road where she was hit by a boner pill delivery truck, killing her instantly. Cannot keep a romantic partner despite being bisexual. Had a terrible childhood but will die before she gets therapy. Best employee at a scam company. Just the worst but also can't help but root for her to improve.

Absolute loser. Girl-failure. Bad at almost everything. Literally perfect female character.

#eleanor shellstrop #you know i was thinking about how we hold female characters to such high standards #and severely criticize bitchy female characters while praising asshole male characters #and then i remembered eleanor and realized that she is the perfect example of how to write an asshole woman that the audience likes #the worse she is the more i'm drawn to her (and honestly same for tahani) #we need more cringe-fail women who nobody likes (for good reason) #the good place #female characters #writing women #girl failure #girl loser #she's so mean #i love her #my favorite #fucking asshole #iconic #the good place eleanor #tgp #tgp eleanor #kristen bell

[elizalona]

ᴠᴇɴᴜꜱ ɪɴ ᴘɪꜱᴄᴇꜱ ᴍᴜꜱɪɴɢꜱ

My most sacred ritual as a woman is chasing a love that evades me.

I don't know when I started to build altars for feeble men. All I know is that with every offering of flesh and blood, an erosion began.

Fleeting affections became my solace. Greedy caresses and poisonous mouths took their share. The damage left in their wake felt like something akin to love.

A veil fell over my eyes. I hid behind trapped doors and unkept hair. I chain smoked til my throat was parched, a punishment.

I waited and waited and waited. Seasons passed.

Why do I let you take from me?

Our most sacred ritual as women is our innate regeneration.

Through the ash and stubbornness and bitten nails and clawed thighs, I still stood. I rid the smell of foreign sheets and saliva from my flesh.

Something else, something more foreign, began to breathe life back into me.

Shadows still wandered the halls at night, but I learned to wander with them.

Velvet curtains were pushed aside, the sun illuminated a forgotten portrait. The apparition of my former self. Instead of kindling flames for another, I now light a candle for myself.

The scent of jasmine stirs in the air, soul music drifts from the back room.

In the morning, I revel in the fondness of my own breath. It was strange at first, not awakening to the boozy snore of another.

It was like my senses became attuned to another frequency.

The sensation of touching citrus, the sight of birthing foliage in a plant.

I sing a song that ceased to exist, its lyrics like a forgotten incantation.

In the evenings, I rejoice in the company that is myself.

There are still times where I find myself in the mouth of hungry company, a man who is more predator than lover, but they come few and far between these days.

Our most sacred ritual as women is the ability to guide ourselves to warmer days. To guide ourselves into a fortress of tenderness.

#venus in pisces #women's writing #self love #poetry

[going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi]

things to ask yourself when designing a female character:

how much blood is she covered in

are her eyes filled with madness

can she rip things to shreds with her fingernails

#female characters #female character design #character design #feral women #writing #writer #writing things #writer things #unhinged women #writerblr #writingblr #writeblr #writblr #writing community #creative writing #writers of tumblr #writer stuff #writing stuff #writing women

[bernard-the-rabbit]

Oh alice..you would have loved Tim pls don't end up like him <3

#design might change as we go on!!! #also “jonathan sims pls stop writing hot women challenge” #he is losing #my trashy art #tmagp #tmagp fanart #the magnus protocol fanart #the magnus protocol #alice dyer #alice dyer fanart #alice tmagp #alice tmagp fanart

[the-most-sublime-fool]

A list of elegant things according to Sei Shōnagon, a 10th century Japanese court lady

#quotes #women's writing #literary figures #japan #heian era #excerpts #sei shōnagon #the pillow book

[suzannahnatters]

all RIGHT:

Why You're Writing Medieval (and Medieval-Coded) Women Wrong: A RANT

(Or, For the Love of God, People, Stop Pretending Victorian Style Gender Roles Applied to All of History)

This is a problem I see alllll over the place - I'll be reading a medieval-coded book and the women will be told they aren't allowed to fight or learn or work, that they are only supposed to get married, keep house and have babies, &c &c.

If I point this out ppl will be like "yes but there was misogyny back then! women were treated terribly!" and OK. Stop right there.

By & large, what we as a culture think of as misogyny & patriarchy is the expression prevalent in Victorian times - not medieval. (And NO, this is not me blaming Victorians for their theme park version of "medieval history". This is me blaming 21st century people for being ignorant & refusing to do their homework).

Yes, there was misogyny in medieval times, but 1) in many ways it was actually markedly less severe than Victorian misogyny, tyvm - and 2) it was of a quite different type. (Disclaimer: I am speaking specifically of Frankish, Western European medieval women rather than those in other parts of the world. This applies to a lesser extent in Byzantium and I am still learning about women in the medieval Islamic world.)

So, here are the 2 vital things to remember about women when writing medieval or medieval-coded societies

FIRST. Where in Victorian times the primary axes of prejudice were gender and race - so that a male labourer had more rights than a female of the higher classes, and a middle class white man would be treated with more respect than an African or Indian dignitary - In medieval times, the primary axis of prejudice was, overwhelmingly, class. Thus, Frankish crusader knights arguably felt more solidarity with their Muslim opponents of knightly status, than they did their own peasants. Faith and age were also medieval axes of prejudice - children and young people were exploited ruthlessly, sent into war or marriage at 15 (boys) or 12 (girls). Gender was less important.

What this meant was that a medieval woman could expect - indeed demand - to be treated more or less the same way the men of her class were. Where no ancient legal obstacle existed, such as Salic law, a king's daughter could and did expect to rule, even after marriage.

Women of the knightly class could & did arm & fight - something that required a MASSIVE outlay of money, which was obviously at their discretion & disposal. See: Sichelgaita, Isabel de Conches, the unnamed women fighting in armour as knights during the Third Crusade, as recorded by Muslim chroniclers.

Tolkien's Eowyn is a great example of this medieval attitude to class trumping race: complaining that she's being told not to fight, she stresses her class: "I am of the house of Eorl & not a serving woman". She claims her rights, not as a woman, but as a member of the warrior class and the ruling family. Similarly in Renaissance Venice a doge protested the practice which saw 80% of noble women locked into convents for life: if these had been men they would have been "born to command & govern the world". Their class ought to have exempted them from discrimination on the basis of sex.

So, tip #1 for writing medieval women: remember that their class always outweighed their gender. They might be subordinate to the men within their own class, but not to those below.

SECOND. Whereas Victorians saw women's highest calling as marriage & children - the "angel in the house" ennobling & improving their men on a spiritual but rarely practical level - Medievals by contrast prized virginity/celibacy above marriage, seeing it as a way for women to transcend their sex. Often as nuns, saints, mystics; sometimes as warriors, queens, & ladies; always as businesswomen & merchants, women could & did forge their own paths in life

When Elizabeth I claimed to have "the heart & stomach of a king" & adopted the persona of the virgin queen, this was the norm she appealed to. Women could do things; they just had to prove they were Not Like Other Girls. By Elizabeth's time things were already changing: it was the Reformation that switched the ideal to marriage, & the Enlightenment that divorced femininity from reason, aggression & public life.

For more on this topic, read Katherine Hager's article "Endowed With Manly Courage: Medieval Perceptions of Women in Combat" on women who transcended gender to occupy a liminal space as warrior/virgin/saint.

So, tip #2: remember that for medieval women, wife and mother wasn't the ideal, virgin saint was the ideal. By proving yourself "not like other girls" you could gain significant autonomy & freedom.

Finally a bonus tip: if writing about medieval women, be sure to read writing on women's issues from the time so as to understand the terms in which these women spoke about & defended their ambitions. Start with Christine de Pisan.

I learned all this doing the reading for WATCHERS OF OUTREMER, my series of historical fantasy novels set in the medieval crusader states, which were dominated by strong medieval women! Book 5, THE HOUSE OF MOURNING (forthcoming 2023) will focus, to a greater extent than any other novel I've ever yet read or written, on the experience of women during the crusades - as warriors, captives, and political leaders. I can't wait to share it with you all!

#watchers of outremer #medieval history #the lady of kingdoms #the house of mourning #writing #writing fantasy #female characters #medieval women #eowyn #the lord of the rings #lotr #history #historical fiction #fantasy #writing tip #writing advice

[sirobvious]

“You just wrote your medieval fantasy setting to have medieval gender roles and homophobia and prejudice because you secretly fantasize about being able to be sexist and homophobic in a land with no PoC without any pushback! It’s fantasy, there’s dragons and wizards, it doesn’t have to have prejudice unless you, the writer, want it like that! In *my* D&D setting, there’s no sexism or homophobia, so that gay transgender women of all races can be holy knights fighting to protect the good kingdom from the endless hordes of the evil dark race that has threatened its borders for a thousand years!”

#writing #medieval fantasy #medieval women #fantasy #d&d #d&d 5e #dungeons and dragons #ttrpg #books #novels #worldbuilding

[genderqueerdykes]

my trans girlfriend tells me about how they don't experience bottom dysphoria with her penis because she doesn't view it as a "male" organ and feels like it's a part of her womanhood. i love them for that, she's right; that is simply just a part of her, and she is a woman, so that makes it part of her womanhood. being trans is beautiful, i love her

#trans #transgender #lgbtqia #lgbtq #lgbt #queer #mtf #trans woman #trans women #trans girl #transsexual #nonbinary #enby #non binary #genderqueer #our writing

[lesbicosmos]

when hozier said "if im a pagan of the good times, my lover's the sunlight" and when hozier said "no grave can hold my body down, i'll crawl home to her" and when hozier said "i slithered here from eden just to sit outside your door" and when hozier said "heaven is not fit to house a love like you and i" and when hozier said-

#this man just writes about women like women write about women yk #also yes ive used two of these lyrics as sapphic fic titles #hozier #take me to church #work song #from eden #francesca #unreal unearth #sapphic #lesbian #sarahs having a Lesbian Moment