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September 2012

Red Carpet Rundown: the 2012 Emmys

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The Byzantine luxury-turf war that is the red carpet came alive last night for the Emmys! Sometimes, a clear trend rules the red carpet, and everyone shows in shimmering beige and you have to sort them out based on a Martha Stewart paint chips with names like Tawny Lint. Not so this time! This was a year of so many trends that nobody knew quite what to do, except some people who looked amazing, and some other people who accepted bad advice by stylists who were probably secretly paid out by enemy factions. One of those people put Michelle Dockery in this dress: Even though it had been wadded up in their trunk for a week first. But we’ll get there. First, some sartorial delight!… Read more »

Victorian Etiquette and “The Dancing Master”

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So, I have a story in the out-now anthology Willful Impropriety (Wilful Impropriety for those who live outside the US and/or hate excessive “L”s). “The Dancing Master” is about Leah, the dancing master her parents hire for her, the cousin the family invites for her, the paid companion who Leah idolizes, and what happens after. (Spoilers: pining, sadness, kindness, rebellion, and the Mazurka.) But it’s also a story about the constraints of Victorian etiquette, because it is out of control. It’s almost hilarious reading through etiquette manuals, in all their specificity and emphasis, right up until you realize that this was, in fact, internalized code designed to create and perfect a rigid class system, entangle women in a microcosm of concerns to keep them from activism in the public sphere, and demonstrably “elevate” the Victorian above the people they were colonizing and repressing, who did unforgivable and “vulgar” things like eating with their fingers or speaking vociferously. Then it’s less funny. (I wrote about them in a much darker story, The Burmese Tailor, a few… Read more »

Things You Should Know About the Fallout

Nearly two months ago, I went public about harassment I experienced at Readercon. Things happened. The outcome was positive. For this and other reasons, I still think it is crucial to report, if you feel safe doing so, because most harassers are serial, and reporting them is vital to making sure the behavior is named and stopped. However, for those thinking of going public with their own experiences with con harassment, I want to talk about how it looks nearly two months on. Because it’s still going, two months on. 1. Even if it’s easy to decide to report (it isn’t) and even if the people around you are supportive (they were), and even if the organization takes it seriously (they didn’t, and then they did), and even if the community is supportive (the initial outpouring was amazingly supportive; the encroaching of naysaying is…unsurprising), you will spend an untold amount of time dealing with fallout. 2. The fallout may not be, but will certainly seem like, a Kafka novel. There will be creeps in comments.… Read more »