Rarely Written 2015

[toujours_nigel]

The Rare Women Exchange returns this year as rarelywritten, and has now been thrown open to all characters who fall outside the rubric of cis-male. Announcement, FAQ and Important Dates are up.

Please consider nominating/requesting/offering your favourite under-represented characters from marginalised sexes and genders. Given the hit count requirements, all non-cis-male characters among the Ancients should more than qualify.

Comments

[naraht]

Given the hit count requirements, all non-cis-male characters among the Ancients should more than qualify.

I've been idly wondering who would qualify under the new criteria, apart from the obvious cis female characters.

Bagoas, almost certainly?

Nikeratos, possibly? "When I put on a woman's mask I am a woman; I could do nothing if I were not. There are two natures in most of us who serve the god." But I'm not sure. There would be ways of writing him that might be within the spirit of the challenge and others that definitely wouldn't.

[toujours_nigel]

Bagoas certainly ought to, though I've left a query. If Bagoas passes, then all the other eunuch characters in The Persian Boy, with whom one could do rather a lot. Palace politics are the best. *g* Arguably at least one of the male bull-dancers from the Theseus novels is trans rather than gay, but I'll have to re-read to know for sure.

Niko, I dunno. As you say, one can fit it into the spirit of the challenge, but theatrical gender performance is a slightly but significantly different thing than everyday gender performance.

[naraht]

Niko, I dunno. As you say, one can fit it into the spirit of the challenge, but theatrical gender performance is a slightly but significantly different thing than everyday gender performance.

It's not so much the theatrical gender performance - a man simply playing female parts and enjoying it, I wouldn't consider at all eligible - as the way that he conceptualises it. He seems to be saying to Axiothea, who fits more clearly into the space of trans male or genderqueer (insofar as ancient Greeks ever can), "I am like you." Of course you could put this down to a cis man making a poor analogy. But it seems to parallel the way that Renault elsewhere writes about people with "two natures" (Leo and her Inner Boy in Friendly Young Ladies) as well as talks about her own gender identity.

Having said that, this may all be too extra-canonical. Since I don't plan on requesting or offering Niko, I should probably save it for the book discussion!

[toujours_nigel]

Yes, I see what you mean. It's been a good while since I've read Mask, so I hadn't remembered the context for that quotation.

I plan on sticking to cis-women, actually, and in Renault probably the Persian women, whom I have a lot of love for, but never get around to writing outside of fic exchanges.

[greerwatson]

"I plan on sticking to cis-women, actually"

Me, too. I get where they're coming from; but I had no problem with it being rarewomen. Surely, there ought to be a place in fandom for an exchange for canonical women as well as one for "othered" people of all sorts?

Still, it's their exchange.

[toujours_nigel]

Well, I'm actually extremely glad that they've opened it up. Feminism and feminist exchanges ought to include trans* and gender-queer and non-binary people. And if you've read the rules, they explicitly exclude head-canons, so no AUs where a cis-man turns female will be entertained.

I was speaking entirely on pragmatic grounds: my current fandoms don't include trans* women (other than OitNB, but I am not familiar enough with that to offer for it). If I have a slot empty after nomming Olympias, Eurydike, Kleopatra, Sisygambis, Roxane, Drypetis, and Stateira I'll nominate, not Bagoas since I doubt he'll meet the hit-requirements, but very likely Oromedon.

ETA: For women-centric, or women-only exchanges, you can try purimgifts, femslashex, and a third thing that currently escapes me. *g*

[lilliburlero]

This may induce me to make nominations and offers I will regret horribly.

[naraht]

I was hoping so! ;)

[toujours_nigel]

Oh, good.

[lilliburlero]

naraht, toujours_nigel, you callous pair of enablers. *g* There are 3 people from different canons I'd like to nominate (a couple of them not Renault), but that doesn't include Axiothea, if you'd like me to. (Colonna's covered, right? Tell me Colonna's covered.)

[naraht]

I believe Rarelywritten gives you up to five different fandoms, so you may be OK anyway.

It would be great to see Axiothea nominated. I'm definitely covering Colonna. (This makes me think I should post about the exchange in renaultx...)

[fawatson]

Let me know if you cannot nominate Axiothea because then I will.