The Dragon Age Series

For a long time, Bioware have been my go-to for games. While I could write quite a lot about the Mass Effect series, which will forever be the pinnacle for me in terms of my favourite game series ever, I’m going to be talking about Bioware’s other series: Dragon Age. Spoiler warning for the games (only marginally for the latest release of Dragon Age: Inquisition as I have not yet completed the game). So this is a brief rundown of the games and some thoughts I had about them. I'll probably write an additional commentary on Inquisition once I've completed the game.

A Century of Women Combatants in Russia

I took a class on warfare throughout the 20th Century this semester just gone, and my professor let me choose my own question for the assigned research essay. I chose to look at women combatants, because I and Bene have both been on a bit of a spree getting excited about various excellent ladies involved in wars a lot lately. I ended up becoming most interested by the roles of women in Russia's military, and decided to focus on that in my research. My topic, when I eventually realised what it was, was on the promises of equality made to Russian women by the Bolsheviks early in the 20th Century and how well that promise was kept. As it was a class on warfare, I was examining it through the lens of women's involvement in Russia's military action. 

Anyway, before I start rehashing the whole thing, here's the real thing!

Female soviet pilots relax between missions during World War II

The Second World War of 1939-1945 saw a dramatic increase in female combatants on the Soviet Union’s frontline from Russia’s involvement in World War I, 1914-17. This increase in the number of women and variety of roles was largely caused by a progression in the attitudes toward women, brought about not only through feminist activism but the adoption of Communist ideology shortly after the end of WWI. Focusing on the women combatants of Imperial and Soviet Russia in the First and Second World Wars, I will examine the changes that occurred in the attitudes to and roles of women in Russia throughout the 20th Century. I will use this to make a comparison to women’s roles in the armed forces of contemporary Russia and show that, though Russia’s women gained “unprecedented rights to equal jobs, pay, [and] education,” the promises made by Socialism of gender equality failed to be fully realised (Schwartz, 1979, p. 67). 

The Top 5: Female Protagonists from -

A Book Series:

1. 

Violet Baudelaire from A Series of Unfortunate Events       

All of the Baudelaire children have special talents to help them get themselves out of a jam, but Violet’s skill is inventing, and sometimes she makes some downright mechanical things.  If Violet ever made it to university, I’d think she’d go into mechanical engineering.  Seriously, remember the grappling hook in book one???  She does all of her best thinking on her feet, at the same time as keeping her younger siblings safe from evil relatives who want their money, and ingeniously foiled an attempt at robbery by marriage by signing the contract in her NON PREFERRED HAND.  Moral of the story, dear readers?  No one can make you do anything you don’t want to.  And adorable hair ribbons make you smart.

2.       

Ellie Linton from John Marsden’s Tomorrow Series

Despite being played by the whiny girl from Home and Away/ The Sleepover Club in the (frankly abysmal) movie adaptation of this book, I am pretty sure that Ellie’s voice will always be somewhere in my head.  She was tough and street smart, rather than book smart, but she also had the emotional intelligence to see different strengths in all of her friends.  As a leader of the group, alongside her neighbour Homer, Ellie holds the band of teenagers together and her quick thinking ensures their survival through seven books and a sequel series.  It isn’t always a smooth getaway, and Ellie handles grief honestly and plans her revenge accordingly.  I want her on my side in the apocalypse.

3.

Jo March from Little Women

Jo is not sentimental.  She does what it takes, even when that means cutting off her beautiful hair.  While she doesn’t get the passionate love we all hope for her, she still achieves a happy life, and best of all, educates others.  Jo works hard on what matters, has a vivid imagination, and cares about her family… she’d be just fine, husband or none.

4.

Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind

Okay okay, so this isn’t a book series, but it takes you about the same amount of time to read it.  Are you surprised by my inclusion of backstabbing, preening, self-absorbed Scarlett?  This novel shows the most complex and realistic portrayal of disappointment I have ever seen.  The humbling of pretty, bubbly, manipulative Scarlett as she comes to a head against the realities of her life would rival any great Bildungsroman; and the idea that marriage does not lead to happily ever after is greatly under-misrepresented in classic literature.  Indeed, as Colleen McCullough posits in her Pride and Prejudice para-fiction, perhaps Darcy and Elizabeth’s opposing personalities might have turned out like Scarlett’s and Rhett’s had this been given time on the page.

5.

Alanna from The Song of the Lioness Quartet

Tamora Pierce, I miss you.  I miss reading you.  I miss your heroines who disguise themselves as
pages and go off to learn to be knights, all the while bed-hopping with princes!  Alanna or Alan may have had more love interests than a girl of her age or a girl of mine could fully understand, but the insertion of a girl acting against convention in a medieval fantasy series was pure genious.  Way to introduce girl power from an early age!  These novels gave girls like me adventures to play out in my head, ones in which I could be the champion and not the damsel.  Sometimes, I look at the books about fairies and princesses available for young readers and I want to weep. 

_________________________

(photo credit: Mark McGovern)

Emily Paull is a bookseller by day and a writer by night. She has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in English, Creative Writing and History. Emily blogs at The Incredible Rambling Elimy.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel released its latest blockbuster last week as Guardians of the Galaxy hit the theatres in Australia. Follow me under the cut as I discuss the movie (hark! there are spoilers ahead).

Blogger Opening

NYAD is currently on the search for someone to join our team! We are looking for a woman (born as or identifying as) who can commit to writing one blog post a month.

Please contact us on notyouraveragedamsels@gmail(dot)com if you're interested.

EDIT 7/8/2014: Just want to let y'all know that this call is still open! And the regularity of posting is negotiable if anyone is interested but concerned that a monthly schedule is too high a time commitment.

Let's Represent!

Recently I took the kids I nanny to a local amusement park for the day because the Avengers were going to be making an appearance. My 5 year-old boy is super hero obsessed so of course this was a mandatory stop. When 2PM finally rolled around and we’d waited in line to see them you could see tiny little pieces of all the little girls around me die. Even my 9 year-old who couldn’t possibly care less about the Avengers shrank back. Three well costumed men walked up onto the stage. Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man were all properly represented and the crowd cheered, cameras flashed. I was tugged down to Tyler’s height. 
“Sarah, where’s Black Widow?” he asked frantically.

“She couldn't make it today. She and Hawkeye had important work to do. Its not easy to protect the whole world all the time. And Hulk doesn't like crowds and roller coasters.” I lied. 
I heard my words repeated by other parents around me at a greater loss for words than I was. One little girl broke down in tears and despite having already waited a hour to see the Avengers refused to go in and meet them. She wanted to meet Black Widow.  Tyler stepped up to her and patted her back telling the girl that their beloved Nat was off being a better hero. She’s one of his favourites, and despite some judging of adults we've spent many a day with him adamantly telling everyone he meets that today he’s Black Widow.

NerdHQ Panel: A Conversation with Badass Women

Nerd HQ did a Badass Women panel with mystery guests: Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck), Retta (Parks and Recreation), Missy Peregrym (Heroes), Jennifer Morrison (Once Upon A Time), Ming-Na Wen (Agents of SHIELD) and Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones), and where better to link it to you than Not Your Average Damsels?

Three Shows I Have a Lot of Feelings About

I'm working on another post at the moment, but I've gotten completely stuck on it, so in the meantime, I present for your consumption:

three shows I have a lot of feelings about

Bene Watches: Historical Series

The wonderful thing about being on a university holiday break is that I can watch a bunch of tv series and then talk about them to you guys! The following is in no particular order and contains series which have been renewed, completed or cancelled, with varying degrees of success. I'm trying my best to be non-biased but that tends to be a bit hard sometimes. Please note that I often do not know where to live-stream these series but if I give it a good recommendation, buying the DVD is probably not going to be a waste of money. Light spoilers ahead.

Historical Profile: Baroness Emma Orczy

When you think of heroes with secret identities, you probably think of the superhero genre and comics, but where did they begin? As far as we know, they begin with The Scarlet Pimpernel in the early 20th Century, which was the inspiration for later characters like Zorro and Batman. The Scarlet Pimpernel was set during the French Revolution, boasting a titular character who masquerades as a shallow dandy while leading a secret society of English aristocrats who rescue their French counterparts from the guillotine.

the cover of the 1908 edition

And, yes, that says Baroness. Because the creator of the original dual identity hero was a woman. Last week, Sarah was talking about the concept of the “fake geek girl” who is supposedly taking a thing that is just for boys and pretending to enjoy it for the attention. I didn’t mean for my post to tie in so nicely—I chose my topic before I actually knew what Sarah’s was—but this is a happy coincidence that lets me add this argument to the mix: How can it be just for boys when a woman wrote the play and subsequent adventure novels that inspired such a large part of the genre? Yeah, no, it can’t.

I’m not going to keep going with that though, because Sarah did a great job with it and this post is actually the first of a new series we will be updating intermittently on women of significance throughout history.

The famous quote goes that history is written by the victors, but there’s another facet of that is often left ignored: History is written by men. Women have contributed so much to the world as we know it, but they are frequently forgotten or their work is stolen by a man who presents it as his own. F. Scott Fitzgerald is certainly not the only example, but he’s the first I can think of off the top of my head.

NYAD’s series on historical women, then, serves to highlight women we wish we’d learnt about in school, women who impress or astound us, women we adore, women whose contributions deserve recognition. And this week, I’m starting with:

"Fake Geek Girls"

I’ve been in the Marvel fandom for over a decade now, and it wasn’t until joining Tumblr that I learned there was such thing as a “fake geek girl”. It's still a mind boggling situation to me. So let’s have a little chat about it. But first a little background information so you know where I’m coming from. Growing up there was one phrase I almost never heard said in real life that it seems everyone else heard too often. “That’s just for INSERT GENDER HERE.” I sit here now completely confused as to how this is possible. I had friends. I spent time with adults beyond my parents. I had a social life. Let’s be honest here, I grew up on a farm in a small town there should have been so much sexism there that you couldn’t take a breath without choking on it. But no, when the chicken barn needed shoveled the saying was, “I have a mask and shovel that’ll fit you,” and my parents did. When wood needed chopping: “I’ve got an axe that will fit your hand.” When laundry needed to be done: “You wore it you can learn to wash it.” When baby animals or the occasional baby human needed minding, it didn’t just get put off on my mom, sister, or myself. No, my dad and brother were tasked with just as many dirty diapers and bottles.

Snow Gum River

Snow Gum River is a literary short fiction piece that unfolds around a bushranging gang in New South Wales, Australia during the late 1800s. I recently entered into the daunting world of publishing and this is my début short story which is available for free download through Smashwords here. After the break, I'll be discussing a little bit about how I came to write Snow Gum River and the process behind it. Spoilers below in case you haven't read it.

16 Female Musicians You Definitely Need to Know Exist

I’ve decided to highlight some female singers and songwriters for y’all this week by sharing a collection of my favourite songs with female vocalists. It was so difficult to narrow it down, but I’ve managed to keep it to just 16. There’s a mix available here on 8tracks of the songs I ended up choosing, and if you love any of them, I 100% recommend checking out their other work and supporting them!

And now, in no particular order, the ladies who made this mix possible.

On Stress and Worry

If my degree had any units based around studying worry and stress, or anything along those lines I would be a high distinction student, totally averaging around 80-90% (after all experience is the best teacher right? I wouldn’t even have to attend classes!) It’s amazing how often my thoughts can be consumed with stressful thoughts and worries; worries about Uni and Uni work, worries about work and figuring out how to balance it with Uni, worries about my family and friends, worries about money, worries about my car (which has a tendency to break down at the most inconvenient times, such as last night) and yeah…just worries about all aspects of life in general.

At some point in the last few weeks I have realised that too often those thoughts, worries and stress were stopping me from doing things that I would really love to do (like moving away, which I did anyway but that’s another story,) and that it might actually be possible to build a life free from an insane amount of worries and stress. I realised that I was lying awake at night worrying about things completely out of my control… worrying years into the future (what will I do when I graduate Uni? Where will I live? Where will I work?), worrying about members of my family (should I have moved away? How’s my brother coping at school? What if something happens to mum or dad and I’m hours away?), worrying about money (What if something happens at work and they decide to fire all the night fillers? How will I pay my rent? What if something goes horribly wrong with my car?)…you can see the picture.

I Need A Hero(ine)

With the recent success of Marvel (and to some extent DC) Comic Films, superheroes have once again captured the attention of a wide audience outside the usual fanbase. I've read only a few comics because the graphic novel and comic format has been hard for me to get into (weird, huh?) and because I've never known where to start, there are so many layers and reboots that it’s a daunting project to try. The comic genre had also never felt accessible to me and even now I still feel deterred from entering it. It wasn’t until Iron Man (2008) that I began to feel like it was something I could begin to involve myself in, and from there, the other Phase 1 (Iron Man - Avengers) and Phase 2 (Iron Man 3 - Avengers 2) movies and my first tentative steps into the comics themselves.

So what about my superheroines? There are plenty of female superheroes in both the Marvel and DC comics and yet, even in 2014, there is a resistance to the idea of making a female superhero movie; either from the belief that the movie wouldn’t make enough money, that women don’t watch comic book movies or there wouldn’t be an audience for it. We’ve had female superhero movies before in Elektra (2005) and Catwoman (2004), both of which did rather badly. They weren’t that great in many aspects. It’s been nearly ten years; a lot has changed since they were released, and there are many other ladies to choose from. It’s time that women finally get to see female superheros on the big screen who are the lead, rather than sidekicks or love interests.

Guest Post: A Study of Termites and Biofuel

I am a first year PhD student from UWA. I have recently handed in my project proposal so it's a great time to share my plans with you. In a sentence, my project is about studying the gut flora of local termite species to find cellulase enzymes useful for the production of bioethanol in Western Australia. 

Let me give you a bit of background...

As you all probably know, fossil fuels are a finite resource and their use contributes to climate change. There is a lot of research going into cleaner, renewable sources of energy. I think this is not an easy problem to solve and that in the end it is probably a combination of solutions that will come into play. Anyway, biofuels are one way to tackle this issue. Bioethanol is a type of biofuel. It is ethanol made from biomass (recently dead or living biological material).

Camp NaNoWriMo

Coming to a close in a few days is the first Camp NaNoWriMo of 2014. Don’t fret, it comes back in July for another chance to make writers cry. But I suppose you’re not really fretting if you’re sitting there, reading this, going, “Sarah, what on earth is Camp NaNoWriMo?”

Camp NaNoWrMo, which I will just call Camp from now on, is sort of the laid back sibling of NaNoWriMo.

“Wait! What’s that!?!”

NaNoWriMo? It’s a challenge that takes place every November to write a novel (50,000 words) in just 30 days. Its open to anyone with a story to tell. Or even a collection of stories if you like. The rules are pretty loose and open to interpretation. Just sit down and write 50,000 words in 30 days. That’s about 1,667 words a day, which is a far less daunting way to break it down. There are a lot of different breakdowns and if you have the time and dedication to write 50K in one day you can totally do that. Actually if you do that, I will worship you. You will officially be entered in my Big Book of Deities. 

My Creative Process in Writing "Always"

I've recently self-published a short story written in 2012 for one of my classes at uni. We were required to write a piece that "held a conversation" with a poem or short story from our readings, and to write an accompanying essay about the techniques we used and our creative process. This is a little baby bit a promotion of the story (here is a link to the download page if anyone is interested in the final product; it's totally free) but it's also an excuse for more writing theory!

Anyway, on to the essay (spoilers follow)...

Review: Warm Bodies

To be honest, a movie was released that I never thought would actually happen. For a few people that know me well, I stated that zombie romances would never be a thing because they are nasty and gross. I also had faith in humanity that a line would be drawn somewhere. Apparently I was wrong.

Follow after the break for a spoilery review of a thing that actually happened:

My First Week of (It'sNot)OKCupid

A few of my friends have forged into online dating in the last few years; one is currently chatting with a bunch of guys who all sound really cool, another has met a guy in person and had him be as great there as he was online, and another two are now in serious relationships with guys they met on RSVP—one around six months and the other over a year now. I’ve always been pretty reluctant about the idea of online dating though, even if I’m more than happy to meet new friends in the same way. Honestly, I’m still not sure I’m ready to give up on the possible Meet Cutes that happen in real life, that make telling your future children how you met their father a cool story, but in a moment of curiosity and, ok, plain nosiness on Monday, I decided to make an online dating profile. I figured I wouldn’t actually use it; I could just have a bit of a look around and see what online dating was about and maybe come back once the horror set in of hitting 25 single when, at seventeen, I was so confident I’d be getting married, if not already building a family. 

Hired Cape

“I’m the nanny,” I say with a great deal of pride in my voice as I strike the Wonder Woman pose. For a brief moment I imagine a red cape billowing out behind me, my mud coated tennis shoes are tall stovepipe boots, there isn’t any macaroni in my hair, no snot on my shoulder, no finger paint smears down my front. I’m the super hero my charges see. I am Master of Electronics, Lady of Double Knots, Queen of High Up Things, Goddess Referee. I am all powerful, clearly the coolest adult since Batman. Not as cool as my bank account won’t allow me to buy out the zoo and stock the freezer with nothing but ice cream but hey nobody’s perfect.

“Oh,” is all the mother I’ve been talking to for the last half hour can say. Her eyes fall on my kids with a pitying look and shortly after she finds a reason to ignore my existence. I lose my cape. I’m back covered in mud and paint with food in my hair. I’ve lost twice the cool points I had to start with.

So what happened? We were just talking about our kids, their likes and dislikes, the headaches we get over making them eat their veggies, and how hard it is teaching them to tie their shoes and mind their manners. Now suddenly I’m being skirted around like the droppings that big labradoodle always leaves at the park. What happened actually isn’t hard to understand, even if its kind of ridiculous. I’m hired help.

Random Thoughts at Midnight...

Okay to start off this blog post I need to confess two things: firstly, this post was written post-midnight (after a very long shift at work that left me wired and full of writing beans) and secondly, I am a Social Work student (not a writing student.) This means that my posts on this blog may lean towards being short and quite practical, describing my experience as a University student and as a young adult living out of home. I may include essays as well on topics that I find interesting (like the one I was going to present today before two assignments, two shifts at work and a work-experience application prevented me from doing the research for it) but that totally depends on time, and I’m sure most of you would understand that there is just not enough of it!!

Guest Post: A Sad Place Indeed

The fate of your local independent bookseller

A closing down bookshop is a sad place indeed.

At the time of my writing this, New Edition in Fremantle has just closed its doors. (Sure, it will be opening again in eight weeks, in a new location and under a new owner, and a rose by any other name, right?) To the avid book-buyer, it’s another year, another closure. We all remember the scenes a few years back when Borders and Angus and Robertson both closed their doors almost simultaneously, and like vultures we descended on the carcasses to buy up the remaining stock at a fraction of the retail price. It was the same when Dymocks in High Street closed, and again when the Elizabeth’s Second Hand bookshop closed next door to it a few months after. For the people of Perth, statistics on bookstore closures are beginning to play out before our eyes.

 

Three Shows You Should Consider Watching

During my summer holidays from Uni, I managed to get a decent chunk of new tv watching in. While my taste in shows is generally towards the science-fiction/fantasy genre, there have been quite a few different shows that have piqued my interest. I also have a high tolerance for otherwise terrible shows, the good bad shows, if you will but I’ve put that aside to bring you the top three good shows. Ok, I partially lied, two good shows and one good bad. So, if you’re looking for some new shows to watch, then you’ve come to the right place. Potential (light) spoilers ahoy!

Joan of Arc and Queen Isabella of France: Impact on Women in Society

Joan of Arc and Queen Isabella had a significant impact on women in the Later Medieval English society. Whilst both Joan and Isabella came from French backgrounds and were indeed French, they both influenced and had a part in changing England. In this essay I will be looking at the events that they participated in and how it affected England and the later consequences for the women and any social changes that occurred for women of their period. The essay will also be looking at how they broke the gender stereotypes and limitations placed on them.

Repetition in Writing

In his 1933 essay, “One Hundred False Starts,” F. Scott Fitzgerald claimed that, as writers, we write about two or three experiences in our lives that we constantly disguise and rework. The quote is reproduced in full in Matthew J. Bruccoli’s Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald:

Mostly, we authors must repeat ourselves - that's the truth. We have two or three great and moving experiences in our lives - experiences so great and moving that it doesn't seem at the time anyone else has been so caught up and so pounded and dazzled and astonished and beaten and broken and rescued and illuminated and rewarded and humbled in just that way ever before.

Then we learn our trade, well or less well, and we tell our two or three stories - each time in a new disguise - maybe ten times, maybe a hundred, as long as people will listen.

(1981)

Fitzgerald has made three assertions in this statement: first, that authors must repeat; second, that we only have two or three stories to tell; and third, that authors write those same stories over and over in different disguises. In order to fully address each of these, I will split my argument into three corresponding parts. First, I will discuss repetition present in the writing of both professional and ‘new and emerging’ writers. I will then agree using Freud’s repetition compulsion and the role of repetition in imagination, that authors are compelled to repeat ourselves. Last, I will argue that though authors may have many moments in their life worth writing, they have only a few experiences about which they need to write.

Welcome to NYAD!

Welcome to Not Your Average Damsels, NYAD for short. Considering that I fail at introductions more often than I succeed, I shall get straight down to business.

Not Your Average Damsels is a blog run by ladies aimed toward women and fellow feminists. NYAD is intended as a safe space where women can share their ideas and interests with likeminded individuals. The idea behind the name was that no woman should be considered an average damsel, regardless of what their personality is like. The acronym NYAD is a reference to the nymphs of the classical era. We’re aiming to blog about a wide variety of things, not limited to pop-culture, life topics, writing, history and sport. Our blog will update on a semi-regular basis, mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Some of our ideas for what we’d like to post in the future are:

• Historical BAMF Lady of the Month: As the title implies, once a month we’ll research and post a small biography of a historical lady and what she’s accomplished. We’ve already collected a few but we’re always open to any suggestions.
• Reviews of books, tv shows and movies. 
• As a majority of our bloggers are also creative writers, we’ll also be posting about the writing processes we go through, cover a bit of the research we conduct and discuss our forays into the world of publishing.

We’d also like to have guest posts from other ladies about topics they’re interested in, so expect a few of those once we pin some down.

If you'd like to know a bit more about us, then check out our About the Authors page.