FanFare

Are women able to achieve anything they set their minds to? In How to Suppress Women’s Writing, award-winning novelist and scholar Joanna Russ lays bare the subtle—and not so subtle—strategies that society uses to ignore, condemn, or belittle women who produce literature. As relevant today as when it was first published in 1983, this book has motivated generations of readers with its powerful feminist critique.
posted by johnofjack on Oct 3, 2023 - 5 comments

Roar is an 8-episode anthology series from Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, the creators of GLOW. The series is based on the 2018 book of the same name by Cecelia Ahern, consisting of 30 very short stories. [more inside]
posted by still_wears_a_hat on Jul 10, 2023 - 0 comments

A look at the life and ideas of Pauli Murray, a non-binary Black lawyer, activist and poet who influenced both Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall.
posted by latkes on Nov 6, 2022 - 4 comments

Zen Cho's latest fantasy novel: "A reluctant medium discovers the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power in this compelling Malaysian-set contemporary fantasy." A closeted gay woman moves, with her mom and dad, back from the US to Malaysia, and discovers even more secrets to untangle. Suspenseful, funny, observant.
posted by brainwane on May 17, 2021 - 3 comments

Bikes Not Rockets: Intersectional Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories (Microcosm Publishing 2018) - As you ride down the intergalactic bike path, you come to a crossroads. Which path will you take? Your choice could determine your future, or the future of all humanity, forever. These twelve stories explore a variety of intersections set in distant, outlandish, or disturbingly realistic futures and dimensions—all involving bicycles and the breaking of gender stereotypes. A bicycle race spans a rift between worlds. A teenager learns a valuable lesson from her prepper mom. A young fruit seller gets closer to her dream of becoming an astronaut. An overwhelmed mom finds unexpected solace at a bicycle collective. [more inside]
posted by aniola on Oct 15, 2019 - 0 comments

Hardened by years in foster care, a teenage girl from Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood decides that wrestling boys is the only way back to her estranged father.
posted by latkes on Apr 20, 2019 - 1 comment

The general manager at a highway-side ''sports bar with curves" has her incurable optimism and faith, in her girls, her customers, and herself, tested over the course of a long, strange day. [more inside]
posted by latkes on Mar 18, 2019 - 3 comments

I'm wondering if there's interest in discussing the ContraPoints YouTube videos and, secondarily, how it'd fit on FanFare. [more inside]
posted by Nelson on Nov 15, 2018 - 20 comments

Based on the 1997 roman à clef of the same name, this funny, sexy, beautiful adaptation stars Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Hahn, and Griffin Dunne as the story's tragicomic love triangle broken over an epistolary artwork, all the while struggling to make sense of their desires, shame, and creative impulses. Well, maybe Dick isn't struggling. He's just Dick. Amazon's description: Adapted from the lauded feminist novel, I LOVE DICK is set in a colorful academic community in Marfa, Texas. It tells the story of a struggling married couple, Chris and Sylvere, and their obsession with a charismatic professor named Dick. Told in Rashomon-style shifts of POV, I LOVE DICK charts the unraveling of a marriage, the awakening of an artist and the deification of a reluctant messiah. [more inside]
posted by Stanczyk on May 13, 2017 - 7 comments

The widely praised debut from Turkish-French director Deniz Gamze Ergüven, from her original screenplay, traces the sexual and emotional coming of age of five orphaned sisters as they confront the joys and limitations of growing up in a conservative town in rural Turkey, searching for their own power in a series of dark and comedic events. Trailer for the film, which was France's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Oscars. "Mustang is at once feisty, poetic, hilarious, and gut-wrenching. It’s like a feminist 400 Blows, or if the punk teens from We Are the Best! were cast in a remake of The Great Escape."
posted by mediareport on Jun 30, 2016 - 4 comments

Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band -- despite not having any instruments and being told by everyone that punk is dead. [more inside]
posted by latkes on Jun 29, 2016 - 13 comments

Twenty-something Arash lives in an Iranian near-ghost town called "Bad City" with his dad Hossein, who's addicted to heroin and endlessly pines the loss of his wife. By day Arash holds down a gardening job, whose wages just bought him a brand new vintage Thunderbird. At night he tries, often unsuccessfully, to hold Hossein's vicious dealer Saeed at bay. Little does Arash know that someone else is becoming quite interested in Saeed's welfare. [more inside]
posted by Sheydem-tants on Jan 19, 2015 - 11 comments