Thorns

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House: Young Foreman

SGA: Ronon in a suit

Main updates at my lj, but I'll post the odd roundup here when I've done a bunch.

So, a couple of days ago I made a genderswapped Ronon off Stargate, inspired by swirlygate. Today I did a genderswapped Teyla. You might note I haven't coloured it or anything: this is because, having finished it, I feel rather conflicted and weird about it. (I inked it without fiddling with the costume etc despite the obvious flaws for similar reasons. I realise he looks like a girl :/)
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So Stargate Night was a worthy experiment, and ended in the middle of season 7. I thought I would do a summary of how I felt about the first 6 seasons, maybe doing the rest if and when I watch them.

Episodes from this list, ones added by Cam in italics. They do tend to be the ones I disliked...

Overall: cheesey, silly, unoriginal, but often fun and thrilling if you don't think too hard and some genuinely interesting ideas here and there. So Racist OMG.
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cupidsbow's prompt.

I realised early on this would take me FOREVER if I was all finicky, so I was rather slapdash. I think it came out ok overall though some bits are completely wrong (the perspective on the balcony for example)
( Stargate Atlantis:the team explore the city -- somewhere high )

The word "race" means many things in sff: real life ethnic groups (europeans, africans etc), fictional ethnic groups (Numenorans, Darthacans etc), and (possibly non-human) sentient species (vulcans, elves etc)

Often these fictional "races" are used as a metaphor for, or draw upon, real life ethnic or cultural issues. This can be done well, part of the long tradition of sff using metaphor to make broad and powerful statements about the human condition. But often these stories are warped by the authors unexamined prejudices, as well as the problems inherent in equating the arbitrary divisions of race and culture to the objective biological divisions between species.

In Part One of this essay I go through some of the issues involved with using non-human species as a metaphor for race. In Part Two (if I write it) I'll go through some of the issues with using made-up ethnic groups and cultures as a metaphor for real ones.

EDIT: I never wrote Part 2, but here are the notes for a panel I took part in on the subject.

Disclaimer: I'm feeling sleepy and stupid but need to get this out of my head (I've been putting off posting it for like a year while it gets longer and longer in my head) I know I'm prone to over-generalisations and am not all that good at expressing myself, but please don't point out my minor errors without also thinking about my actual point. Though really, if anyone read the whole thing at all I'll be grateful :)

I don't really have a point as such (beyond pointing out how dodgy it all can be), just disconnected thoughts. It's not something I've seen explored beyond discussions of individual stories, and I'd like to get the ideas out of my head and hear other people's POV. I'm considering a Swancon panel on a topic like this, and also may do a redraft and post to a relevant community, so any and all suggestions, corrections or thoughts would be VERY appreciated.

Oh, and if the length of the disclaimer didn't tip you off: it's LONG.
( Part One: Different Species )