Don't forget the Matrithon!

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Let's face it, we have all complained about how women are treated on our shows, and especially older women (if indeed they are treated at all). It's often difficult to write about characters who haven't been established particularly well on a show or to feel motivated to read about a character who didn't make a strong impression.

Yet a community actually formed to do something about it: matrithon posted rules and prompts and is close to finishing a month of stories by those who volunteered, all about women over 40. astrogirl2 got me excited about it, and I urge you to give it a look: there have been several good fics in my favorite areas, and I suspect there are also good ones in fandoms or combinations I don't read (I think I haven't read any of the het or slash there). Some characters have been very prominent ones; others have had only a single brief appearance or have remained mostly in the background.

For once this is not (purely) shameless self-promotion. Yes, I wrote a story there. It's a Deep Space 9 story; that show hasn't been on in years, I don't know a large number of people who are enthused about it (though I maintain it is the best Trek show ever!), and so I'm not surprised I didn't get a lot of comments. I'm happy with the ones I got and not trying to bludgeon anyone to read my story.

What surprises and worries me is that I see a number of other fics in a number of other fandoms, including more popular and more current fandoms and not one has what I would consider a lot of comments, though there have been stories in many fandoms, and some very fine vignettes for Atlantis and Farscape in particular. There are not even forty stories yet (for which I'm a trifle disappointed, given the 500 prompts). Maybe some authors have been getting most of their comments on their home LJ posts (though the few I checked hadn't, at least not yet).

No, reading these stories won't fix the broken idiot box. It may, however, make you feel a bit better about the characters we do have, and encourage at least the fan writers to write more for women and older women. Maybe eventually we can even get it through to more paid writers that women are complex and interesting characters.

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