Media by women

[graddy]

My wife and I are making June 2015 women's media month. I want to try to consume books, longform articles, games, movies, TV made by women. For the more collaborative media, I'm settling for lead writer/designer/director being female. I've got a few ideas already, but would love more! Help me flesh this out?

 

Games

Tengami - Jennifer Schneidereit (developer, cofounder)

Lots of stuff - Nina Freeman

 

Books

Some Luck - Jane Smiley

 

Articles

 

 

Movies

Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn (writer)

 

TV

Orange is the New Black - Jenji Kohan

John Adams - Michelle Ashford

 

Music

[tberton]

Books: Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (graphic novel)

 

Games: Depression Quest by Zoe Quinn

 

Music: Tegan and Sara, Metric, Regina Spektor

[tegan]

Gonna toss out a few comic creators, since that's my area of expertise:

 

Kate Beaton (Hark, A Vagrant)

Noelle Stevenson (Lumberjanes, Nimona)

Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist, Silver Spoon)

Takako Shimura (Wandering Son, Sweet Blue Flowers)

Kelly Sue DeConnick (Bitch Planet, Pretty Deadly, Captain Marvel)

Kate Leth (Adventure Time: Seeing Red, Edward Scissorhands)

Gigi D.G. (Cucumber Quest)

 

I will probably think of more later.

[tberton]

Oh for TV, can't believe I didn't mention Steven Universe from Rebecca Sugar.

[Patrick R]

If you are interested in articles, Joan Didion wrote about a hundred great ones. Pretty much everything in Slouching Towards Bethlehem is golden.

 

As for films directed by women, there's

 

Daisies - Crazy experimental (but funny & charming!) Czech feminist film about two free-spirited young women fucking shit up in high society.

Harlan County U.S.A. - Incredibly powerful documentary covering the Brookside strike

Cleo From 5 to 7 - Moving and heartbreaking film about a woman wandering Paris awaiting scary test results

Fast Times At Ridgemont High - Generation defining teen sex comedy that also has a remarkably heavy subplot involving abortion

Near Dark - One of the all-time great vampire movies

Salaam Bombay - Slumdog Millionaire before Slumdog Millionaire, only much better

Clueless - Great teen comedy

Strange Days - Paranoia cyber-punk thriller responding to the Rodney King trial

Beau Travail - Intensely physical and gorgeous movie based on Melville's Billy Budd. Greatest ending in film history.

Boys Don't Cry - The story of Brandon Teena. Devastating.

The Headless Woman - I saw someone once describe this as "a story about ghosts who are so good at their job they don't even have to show up". Great film.

Wendy & Lucy - Sparse but moving film about a homeless woman and her dog.

White Material - Incredibly tense thriller about colonialism and denial

Winter's Bone - Jennifer Lawrence's break-out role as an Appalachian teenager out to find out what happened to her missing father.

Meek's Cutoff - Great deconstructionist western about westbound settlers dying of dehydration.

[WickedCestus]

Xinran is a great Chinese columnist, who used to be a journalist in China. Her non-fiction book "The Good Women of China" is a terribly, terribly sad look at gender and poverty in China.

 

For music, La Sera is a cool group led by Katy Goodman. Their last two albums are pretty cool. 

[Thrik]

Scandal. Nice TV show if you can get past the first season. Due to sub-par music and a slight lack of focus, the eight or whatever episodes that comprise season one provide vital narrative but seem very unremarkable. I did not at all understand its popularity.

Get to season two and you'll very quickly realise why it's now on season five, because it busts out into 22-episode seasons of political drama and action that I can only compare to something like 24 in terms of speed and twists, with doses of House of Cards thrown in for good measure.

I've never seen any other show transcend so quickly, although unlike 24 which is pretty much constant hell, it does have an element of silliness. This element is mostly lost after the first season, but does pop up from time to time — which you might really like or not.

[seasleepy]

For articles (longform and not), The Toast, forever.

[Erkki]

From Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy, Meek's Cutoff) I also liked Old Joy, but Night Moves felt boring. Would like to see her older stuff as well (River of Grass).

[Erkki]

As for games, anything from Deirdra Kiai aka Squinky.

[seamus2389]

Tv shows

Comedy

 

Some girls (british and brilliant)

Inside Amy Schumer

The comeback

Fresh off the boat and don't trust the bitch in apartment 23

Pulling (also british)

 

Drama

Jane the Virgin

Top of the lake (only 7 episodes)

Bunheads 

Transparent

Girls

The fosters

Switched at birth

Happy Valley (British and only 6 episodes)

 

 

S&SF authors

Kate elliot

Kameron Hurley

Nnedi Okafor

Elizabeth bear

Catherynne Valente

Sofia Samatar

Jonanna Russ

Ursula Le Guin

Kelly Link

 

Non-S&Sf authors

Zadie Smith

Chimanada Ngozi Adichie

Edna O Brien

Emiear McBride

Hilary Mantel

Helen Oyeyemi

 

Games

Christine Love

Liz Reyerson

 

Comics

 

G.Willow Wilson

Gail Simone

Becky Cloonan

[miffy495]

Music: Sleater-Kinney, Best Coast, Fist City, Janelle Monae (I still really like her stuff...), and always ALWAYS Amanda Palmer.

[richardco]

Short stories authors: Flannery O' Connor, Amy Hempel. 

 

Games: I keep wanting to check out Nina Freeman's Freshman Year, but just reading what it's about is so heavy.

 

Music: Jenny Lewis, Emily Haines, Liz Phair, Tilly and the Wall

[Mangela Lansbury]

Doris Lessing is a good sometimes-scifi feminist writer who won the Nobel! Renata Adler is a good writer too. Sei Shonagon, Banana Yoshimoto, Simone de Beauvoir, Robin Hobb, Mira Gonzalez, and Chloe Caldwell are all good writers too.

These are all very different writers.

Sarah Jeong writes good coverage of the intersection of tech and law -- maybe take some time on a Thursday to read 5 Useful Articles, a copyright law newsletter she co-writes. It's interesting, promise.

[Merus]

Amy Hennig wrote and directed the Uncharted series. You've also got Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.

 

Jade Raymond directed the first Assassin's Creed. I like the first one, it's got some good moments to it so long as you play it episodically.

[Gwardinen]

Tv shows

Comedy

 

Pulling (also british)

 

Very much +1 this. Been years since I saw it but I enjoyed it immensely.

 

Jade Raymond directed the first Assassin's Creed.

 

She definitely had a lot to do with it, but wasn't she the producer, not director? I believe the director was Patrice Désilets, hence people's continuing fascination with him and his relationship with Ubisoft.

 

If you'll take artist for a comic, Fiona Staples is the artist on Saga, which is a fascinating and beautiful series. The series itself is very infused with feminine perspectives as well.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Definitely 80 Days the mobile game that was written by Meg Jayanth. You've heard about it on the podcast and it is totally worth it. Especially for its representation.

 

If you're also including podcasts...

 

Criminal is a great show hosted by Phoebe Judge. Each episode takes a person's story about their interaction with the criminal justice system. They can be stories about being wrongfully convicted and what that does, someone being blackmailed for years or the story of a 71 year old woman with a long rap sheet and her thoughts on how crime has changed over the years.

 

Justice Points is another gaming podcast, that I think is a great companion to Idle Thumbs. It features similar chat about games that blends casual chat with intelligent analysis well. But JP is more focused on games than IT is at this point, and it feels like JP is more invested in actually addressing the issues and what's going on in the games media.

[Deadpan]

Might be a good month to pick up video games for Humans, an anthology of close reads of Twine games edited by Meritt Kopas. Or read through Embed with ... by Cara Ellison. Or everything by Lana Polansky. I've also enjoyed Susan Sontag's essay collection Against Interpretation recently.

[richardco]

If you're also including podcasts...

 

Criminal is a great show hosted by Phoebe Judge. Each episode takes a person's story about their interaction with the criminal justice system. They can be stories about being wrongfully convicted and what that does, someone being blackmailed for years or the story of a 71 year old woman with a long rap sheet and her thoughts on how crime has changed over the years.

Phoebe Judge has the greatest voice ever.  Criminal is a great show, very tightly written and well-produced.

[graddy]

All of you are fantastic and I have a ton of great looking stuff to sift through. Thank you.

You even gave me podcast recommendations

EDIT: For music, Lucius - Wildewoman is one of my favorite albums from the past five years.

[Mawd]

Music:

(calling them pop rock doesn't give them justice; I'm not armed with any deserving adjectives but they're really good and worth a listen.),

(moody indie rock with fantastic instrumentation),

(post-punk served with haunting menace),

(genre bending blends of R&B Soul)

 

Authors: (They're all contemp. fiction writers btw)

 

Jennifer Egan - Her book A Visit From The Goon Squad is a book that examines quite the cast of characters linked in one way or another by the relationships they make at some point in their lives with each person highlighted at a time of great change in their lives.

Lorrie Moore: Writes short stories that masterfully walk between humour and poignancy. 

Alice Munro: One of the greatest short story writers. She doesn't centre on plot as much as presence. She's known for juxtaposing the fantasies and mundanity of every day life.

 

Well everyone's contemp. fiction except Eleanor Catton. You've probably heard of her book The Luminaries and it's worth a read though not for everyone. It's big on word count but the (good) plot takes a second seat to simply being with the characters, their interactions and observations. If you find it particularly exposition heavy know that softens up as the reader becomes grounded in the world.

Actually plot takes a back seat in basically every author whose I've mentioned in one way or another.

[feelthedarkness]

Book:

he Flamethrowers - Rachel Kushner

One of my favorite books in recent memory. The story of a young female performance artist coming to NY in the 70s, and meeting less than great men. It's a triumphant book about a woman who often feels, and is made to feel less than triumphant while trying to engage in the excitement of youth. I don't mean to say she's some sad sack, quite the opposite, resolute and bold, but it effectively communicates the subtle ways people chip away at her agency.

 

Music:

Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp

This will be a favorite of 2015. Sometimes hauntingly dark/beautiful singer songwriter stuff, sometimes a bit 90s fuzzed rock. Samples of both: 

  

 

Potty Mouth - Hell Bent

4 Boston women. Kind of Riotgrrly, kind of fuzzed out Dinsosaur Jr,kind of slackery, but just oozing cool.

 

Pharmakon - Abandon or Bestial Burden

One woman noise assault. Totally menacing, rhythmic, synthy crumbling and shrieking

 

In School - Praxis of Hate

Four brooklyn women. Raging hardcore, fast, smart and mean. ep

 

G.L.O.S.S. - We're From the Future demo

Olympia women, trans and cis. hard, distorted and ferocious. demo

[Justin Leego]

Thank you so much moddy and ftd for the music selections. Maybe because I am browsing at just the right point in the day, after a relatively prolonged absence from IT boards, but it's good. It's good. (I am also hideously out of touch)

 

Here's one that might work for May 31st? The Jim O'Rourke cover of the Ivor Cutler and Linda Hirst song.

[Meat Mecha]

I know it's already been mentioned, but Steven Universe is absolutely fantastic. Not only is it made by a woman, but it's full of diversity, non-nuclear families, non-binary genders, and explores themes like sexuality, consent, and abuse. Be warned, however, this show is full of feels.

[marblize]

~ Another podcast - Chicks Who Script ~