Mercedes Lackey ----> A Feminist???? Part 2

I decided to research this a little further. At work, it being a feminist library, they are very careful about what goes on the shelf. And Misty's works are considered by one of the collective as too fluffy and not serious enough. Well, obviously I don't agree otherwise I wouldn't be writing this. I for one, when I am reading for pleasure, don't like to read anything that is based too much on reality. So crime, drama etc are out. I want to escape to a world that reflects how I would like to see my life, or my world. A place where your face is not your calling card. Where you are taken at face value and valued for your abilities.

Yes I could dream on a little more but I think that it would be a problem if I got too caught up in the fantasy and forget about reality!

Out of interest, I have been searching for sites that discuss feminism and Mercedes Lackey and Have been having a great deal of trouble finding anything that is recent.

But anyway here is what I have found so far.....

A review from http://www.feministsf.org/femsf/reviews/lackey.m.html dated 8/13/95.

This site also seems to have a great mailing list for the discussion of feminist sci fi and fantasy....great!!!

"Because of the prominence of female and homosexual characters in her high fantasy works, she has been criticized for writing "fluffy" fantasy novels which bear little or no resemblance to real or pseudo-real history. Given that fantasy is an escape from reality, the relevance of this criticism is somewhat questionable."

Quoted from http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Mercedes_Lackey a great encyclopedia article on Misty which is very similar to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_Lackey Curious.....




Well enough of that now, I have looked for a while to find stuff on Misty and feminism and can't seem to find much at all, and even less that has been written in the last 3 years.

That is simply sad.

It's not beer o'clock yet, cyberbludger

Good old Aussie linguistic culture is alive and kicking, thanks to terms like
dunny budgie, pash rash, cyberbludger and beer o'clock.

For the
uninitiated a dunny budgie is a blowfly, a pash rash is the result of excessive
kissing, a cyberbludger plays internet games on the boss's time, and beer
o'clock is any time you feel like a drink.

All have become official
entries in the latest version of the Macquarie dictionary.

Wow! Just what we've always wanted!!! A dictionary with all those aussie phrases that drive every other English speaker nuts!

Seriously though, it is very heartening to finally start to see true Australian language showing up in our dictionaries, I, for one, am getting rather sick and tired of the American bias that our culture is slowly assuming.

check out the full article ~ http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=66711

Yet more Quizzes!!!

Try this one, I got goth, which is just what i prefer out of the two anyway!


You're Gothic.
Alone, cold, and distant, you're typically the
social outcast. You often find yourself in a
crowd full of people, while being the lonliest
person in the world, wanting something more
from life. Besides that, you're a damn
creative person, and you're always drowning in
your next "project." You're life may
seem dark and gloomy, with out much detail, but
in reality, it is quite the opposite. You
choose to keep your life rich by burying you
head in books that require thinking, and
writing people that confuses the common folk.
The world is a cold place--And you understand
that to the fullest.


Punk or Gothic?
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And here's another one!



Your a vampire congrats! YOu live for the darkness
because you can't go in the light.you live of
blood but you don't kill when feeding(only if
your evil you will)Being immortal is a a very
lonely road,but somehow you deal.YOur rich and
money is not an object since if you wanted to
you could rob a bank!(that would be so cool!)
Your saying:Bite me and I'll bite back.


What creature of darkness or you?(COOL PICS)CHANGED
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True Confessions.....Quizzes

Ok Yes I will admit it, I have a shocking weakness for quizzes, especially those of a personality kind.

I have just found 4 different ones that are new to me and and three of them are on Fruit Basket characters. That's right I like Fruit Basket!! Both the manga and anime!!!

So here are the 4 quizzes I found and my results.....


You're orange. You're strong and have the reflexes
of a tiger. You're overly protective, and
those skills come in handy... You're a natural
person, with a taste for natural foods (I mean
organic, here.). Well, that's not true.
...Just food in general! You're as
quick-witted as your reflexes, and sometimes
painfully logical. You love wild animals and
pets. (Preferably wild animals!) You're a
natural person, and a true child of Gaia.
You're a stimulating, and outgoing person. You
enjoy making people think, especially with your
infectiously spontaneous attitude. You're a
generally optomistic person, with a love for
showing off all of your good traits. Although
many people may see you as strung-out, or just
plain weird, you're very down-to-earth and
humble. You're incredibly sweet (as this
color's other name!), and you care about people
in general. As this color would describe,
you're energetic beyond all human
comprehension. You've got a nack for drawing,
and you enjoy it, too. When it comes to
school, you're a good listener with an even
better memory. You're studious... At least
when you need to be!


What color are you? (Amazingly detailed & accurate--with pics!)
brought to you by Quizilla




You're Ayame - the snake.


Which Fruits Basket Character Are You?
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You are the very weird Ayame Sohma.You love to hang
around with Hatori he is your basically role
modle.You also love to be very weird with your
cousin and best friend Shigure.other than that
you have a lot of emtional problems inside.You
didn't really know you had a little brother
untill later and when you did you just brushed
him off.You now wish that you had differently
and want to close the gap between you two and
with the help of Tohru you might be able to get
really close.


Which fruits basket character are you inside?
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You're Ayame Sohma!
You have a weird relationship with your family...
then again you're kind of weird yourself...


What Anime Fruits Basket Character Are You?
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Guess what the irony is???

Aya is one of my two favourite fuba characters!! Along with Shigure of course!

Breast Cancer Myths Part 2

I find it amazing that women don't go and have their breasts checked when they find something wrong/different!

When I was 19 I found a lump and went straight to the doc and had it looked at. Just as well as three months later, after seeing the specialist, it was removed. It was a very frightening experience and one I don't care to repeat. Fortunately it wasn't cancer but something entirely different, but it still had to come out.

Please, please, please, go see your doctor if there is anything different about your breasts!!!

Breast cancer Myths

Survey shows breast cancer myths persist

Wednesday Sep 28 18:00 AEST
By Sheryl Taylor
National Nine News medical reporter

Breast cancer kills 2500 Australian women each year, but the results of a national survey on women's' knowledge about the cancer show that many are ignoring risk factors and delaying early detection tests, putting their lives at risk.

The survey of 3000 women found myths are often believed ahead of lifesaving facts.

"It's frightening," says Professor Don Iverson, from the National Breast Cancer Centre.

"Not just because it's the biggest cancer killer, but because it's the program we spent the most money on."

Half the women surveyed thought breast cancer was a young person's disease.

"But the risk of breast cancer increases with increasing age," says Dr Helen Zorbas, from the centre.

For full article Click Here

Mercedes Lackey ----> A Feminist????

I don't know but the book I read last night makes me question.

A bit of background....I have always loved Misty's books, They have a heart, soul and are just great reads. But most importantly she is woman friendly. Her stories are either about women or are based in a world were equality is an accepted reality. I love the way Valdemar doesn't have a state religion and that there is no one true way, but many. Misty's books are like a balm for the soul, especially the Valdemar ones. Now I'm not saying that there is no nasty stuff in them, because there is. And not every book ends in a traditional happy ever after, but every time I read one of her books, I put it done with a smile on my soul as she reaffirms everytime, my beliefs in true equality. The kind of equality were no one is judged by their gender, race, religion or any other kind of bias, but by their own personal abilities and actions.

Anyway to get back to my fist comment, last night I finished reading The Serpent's Shadow, one of her fairy tale books. And in one of the chapters there is a section where the main character is talking/thinking about the suffragette movement and how she agrees with them. It does go on for a while, instead of being "a fleeting thought" which makes me ask the question...Is Mercedes Lackey a feminist??? And if so, then why haven't we seen more of the "feminist dogma" in her works??? Or is it just because her works are based in the ideal feminist utopia, that is why I have always liked them anyway???

I am not so much confused as curious, I must admit but whilst I have always recommended her books as a wonderful place to go to, I have never actively thought of her and feminism in the same heartbeat.

As I work in a feminist library, I often have "discussions" about whether or not an author is feminist, and what is it that makes an author a "feminist writer"? Is it the fact that they are a writer and a feminist, or because they only write feminist tracts???? My understanding of feminism is that it is all about equality and there is a difference between women friendly books and those that are separatist and those written by men that are not so women friendly. A lot of the fantasty/science fiction written by men, in the earlier years not so much now, were not particularly friendly towards women. They were placed in very low positions within the societies, or were property, or in some cases didn't feature in the books at all. But then having said that, there are some feminist fiction out there that have done exactly the same thing to men, so what does that say about the women???

Can a book only be feminist fiction if it is woman friendly and has a woman as it's main character??? Or can a book be considered feminist even if the main character is a man???

It bears thinking about I think, and it is one of those loverly questions that needs to be raised.