This week I appear on the podcast Game On Girl, a weekly podcast hosted by Regina McMenomy, Ph.D., and Rhonda Oglesby. While the show focuses on gaming culture and representation, my visit centered on fandom, the reasons behind franchises dismissing their female fans, and the importance of speaking up as fans and customers. We also talked about storytelling and smashing tropes, one of my favorite pastimes when working on my novels.
Speaking of Wynde, it did get a little air time, as did its main protagonist Vespa. She is a princess of sorts, perhaps a spoiled one. It’s what she does in the gravest hour of need for the people of her homeworld that turns the princess into a heroine.
The big discussion of the hour was on defining the term strong female character. Then we tackled how objectification and agency are separate issues when considering the portrayal of women in stories.
It was a fantastic conversation from start to finish. I look forward to meeting up with Regina and Rhonda at GeekGirlCon later this year. From the show notes for Episode 123:
Have we got a great show for you this week! Tricia Barr from FANgirl Blog joins us. We discuss Star Wars fandom, strong female characters, and writing. Check out the episode and let us know what you think in the comments.
You can find Game on Girl on iTunes or the RSS Feed!
Tricia Barr took her understanding of brand management and marketing, mixed it with a love of genre storytelling, and added a dash of social media flare to create FANgirl Blog, where she discusses Star Wars, fandom, and strong female characters. She also writes about Star Wars for Random House’s science fiction and fantasy blog Suvudu.com and Star Wars Insider magazine and is a contributor for Her Universe’s Year of the Fangirl. Her FANgirl opinions can be heard on the podcasts Assembly of Geeks and RebelForce Radio Presents Fangirls Going Rogue.
Tricia Barr’s novel, Wynde, won the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Award Gold Medal for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Ebook. She was also part of Silence in the Library’s successful all-female creator science fiction and fantasy anthology Athena’s Daughters, which is available now. For excerpts and tales of her adventures in creating a fictional universe, hop over to TriciaBarr.com.
For updates on all things FANgirl follow @FANgirlcantina on Twitter or like FANgirl Zone on Facebook. At times she tries the Tumblr.
