So You Want To Ship Some Women, pt. 1

[effex]

As you might have noticed, there's been a fresh round of 'Why ignore the women, fandom?' making it's way through LJ/DW/Etc. I agree with the sentiment - we do need to write more women and more femslash - but I don't really have anything to add to the discussion. So! Instead, I present to you 16 8 movies and tv shows that are full of girls, women, and slash potential. And also awesome.

Video and images behind the cuts.

Animated Series:

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Utena, as you might have guessed from that vid, is beautiful and very, very strange. It's about... well, it's about a girl named Utena (pink hair in the vid) who dreams of becoming a prince. She transfers to a strange new school and is soon swept up in a complicated game of politics, sword fights, and love. The other girl (purple hair, south asian) is Anthy, the Rose Bride, who is trapped in her destiny and duty. They fall in love!

If you like sword fights, philosophy, improbable architecture, layers of symbolism, complex motivations, mice, and heroines who fight for what's right (even if it's not what they want), then Utena is the show for you.

~*~

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon

Ha, I almost forgot to give a plot synopsis for this one. So! As you may or may not remember from your childhood cartoon viewing years, Sailor Moon is about Usagi (Serena in the dub, I think? Maybe?), clumsy school girl, reincarnated moon princess, and a soldier of love against the forces of evil. She's got a team of Sailor Senshi/Scouts, also reincarnated moon ladies with super powers, who fight with her. There are battles! Romantic entanglements! Homework!

There is also - and most/all of this was cut from the US version - a reoccurring theme of sacrifice and rebirth, lots of death, lots of genderbending, and an out lesbian couple. Yes! In the original version, Haruka and Michiru are not freaking cousins.

Let's just copy and paste from Okazu: In Season 3, Sailor Moon S, the adorable Inner Senshi (and let's face, they're yuri subtext-y enough for any fan!) are joined by Sailors Uranus and Neptune, arguably one of the greatest lesbian couples in anime, manga and related media, ever. Directed by Ikuhara Kunihiko, (director of and creative genius behind Utena,) Sailor Moon gave the world the first anime lesbian couple to ever be portrayed *as such* on Japanese television. ...Bottom line, Haruka and Michiru are one of the most romantic, funny, and fun yuri couples, ever.

If you like transformation sequences, ridiculous monsters, actual character development, genderbending pop stars, magical space unicorns, time travel, superheroes in top hats, and kickass lesbians, Sailor Moon is the show for you.

~*~

El Cazador de la Bruja

El Cazador is my favorite of the 'girls with guns on the run' genre. Copypasta (again. look, there's a lot to write here) from Okazu:

...tough, competent, but slightly flaky gunwoman; cute, flaky younger woman with no memory of the past. Repeated murder in the past footage. Weird object with no meaning as of yet, and grand conspiracy in the background.

...Their relationship was total win for me. In the beginning, the idea of the two of them as a couple squicked me out the door [effex's note: Ellis is older then she looks. Oh anime, etc]. There was no one moment where it changed and became something else - it was a slow process. It was, in fact, the point of all that stuff that other people saw as fluff episodes - they were there entirely to allow the characters to develop a relationship naturally, leisurely. And it wasn't an even process either. Ellis [the blonde] comes to like Nadie [the red-head], later Nadie starts to care about Ellis as more than a job. Ellis starts to fall in love, Nadie starts to realize that Ellis mean more than just friend to her.

If you like the American Southwest, gun fights, conspiracies, psychics, mysterious pasts, roadtrips, tacos, mythology, and bounty hunters, El Cazador is the show for you.

~*~

Simoun

I haven't seen all of this one, but I really like what I've watched so far. I. Really have no coherent way to describe it, so I'm linking to the Okazu review (she named it Best Yuri of 2006) and the Wikipedia entry.

If you like airships, gender issues, religious issues, air battles, voice casts made up entirely of women, and stories about the power of love, Simoun is the show for you.

~*~

Further Viewing - For your school girls (explicitly) in love needs, check out Aoi Hana and Sasamekikoto on Crunchy Roll. For your slashy but (mostly) not explicitly in love school girl needs, track down the episodes for Maria-sama ga Miteru. For your slashy 'what the hell am I watching, holy shit did she just, how is something this terrible so amazing' needs, see RE Cutie Honey (it's pretty short and, if you can't find it, things can be arranged).

And definitely read Erica Friedman on Okazu, home of all things yuri (female version of yaoi) since 2002.

~*~



Live Action Series:




The Good Wife

Kalinda/Alicia - I ship it. Tentatively, because I'm only halfway through the season and I want to know how it develops before making any firm commitments [rolls eyes at self], but I really like both characters and their relationship. Uh, what is The Good Wife you ask? It's a lawyer show and a political drama, set in Chicago. It follows the life of Alicia Florrick, wife of a corrupt politician, after her husband is jailed and she goes back to work. Kalinda is the in-house investigator at Alicia's new firm, tough as nails, hot as hell, and up to her neck in shenanigans. ETA: Aha! I found a good review, have at.

If you like lawyer shows, political drama, conspiracies, incredibly good acting, women who look good in leather, and interesting story arcs, The Good Wife is the show for you.

~*~

Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous

How does this movie not have a fandom to rival Devil Wears Prada (at least)? It's a buddy cop show! A buddy cop show with women! Interesting women! And it's incredibly slashy, as all good buddy cop shows should be. It's like it was tailor made to be the transition fandom from slash to femslash.

So! If you like buddy cops, requisite buddy cop ust, fashion, william shatner being ridiculous, beauty pageant queens, the FBI, snorting laughter, and women who don't take any shit, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous is the movie for you.

~*~



Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Willow and Tara! Buffy and Faith! [waves hands around] I mean, we have an actual lesbian couple and two women with a ton of Issues and UST, there's no end to what fandom could do. Fixits for Willow and Tara, first times for Faith and Buffy, monster fighting, witchcraft, vampires, demons, adventure, romance, science magic! If you like these things (all this and more!), then Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the show for you.

~*~

Xena: Warrior Princess

I feel this vid has made my argument for me. There needs to be a Xena renaissance - the show was so full of myth and legend and amazing women and the original there's-no-sub-in-this-text lesbian yearning. There's so much you can do with it! Time travel, battling the gods, case!fic, AUs, crack, address the rampant cultural appropriation...

Wait, everyone here knows what Xena is, right? Just in case, from Wikipedia: The series narrative follows Xena (played by Lucy Lawless), a warrior in a quest to seek redemption for her past sins as a ruthless warlord by using her formidable fighting skills to help people. Xena is accompanied by Gabrielle (played by Renee O'Connor), who during the series changes from a simple farm girl into an amazon warrior and Xena's greatest ally; her initial naïveté helps to balance Xena and assists her in recognizing and pursuing the "greater good".

If you like warrior women, modern themes in your historical narratives, greek mythology, gods, monsters, Joxer the mighty, and battle cries, Xena: Warrior Princess is the show for you.

~*~

Further Viewing: The Devil Wears Prada is a fairly popular fandom for femslash. I remember seeing quite a bit of Star Trek: Voyager (Janeway/Seven of Nine) once upon a time, I should try to track that down. Femslashy trekness, mmm. There's Gwen/Morgana hanging round the fringes of Merlin fandom, and traces of femslash in the fandoms for Glee and Star Trek IX.

~*~


This unexpectedly turned into a two-part post [could you feel me loosing steam there at the end? I sure could] - look for the next bit (manga/comics/books/video games/RPF) tomorrow! In the meantime, anyone want to add to the list? What are your favorite neglected fandoms and femslash pairings?

Comments

[wishfulclicking]

The Women's Murder Club had a fandom, I don't know the size of it now though.

Sunshine Cleaning, a movie with Emily Blunt and Amy Adams, has the potential for some sweet gen sister relationships, het, and femslash. It's a really good movie too.

Greek and Make it or Break It are shows I could see having a femslash pairing in, especially Make it Or Break It. Both air on ABC Family.

Glee has a pretty strong femslash pairing based on the tv show and with the RPF. It has a strong het presence too.

There's that one soap opera that has the canon lesbian pairing and a lot of fic is written over. There's also Skins and L&O:SVU has a good amount of femslash too. Criminal Minds has some as well.

Sailor Moon was what introduced me to femslash, there's so much in the fandom.

[effex]

Ha, I thought I'd seen more femslash then usual in Glee fandom - there was quite a bit of it for Yuletide.

Oooooooh Amy Adams [takes notes].

[trascendenza]

As cheesy as this show was, I actually rather enjoyed the friendship relationships in H20: Just Add Water and it didn't take long for me to OT3 the three main characters.

[effex]

Huh, this is the first time I've heard of H20: Just Add Water. Wikipedia tells me it contains mermaids, which is always a plus <3.

[elspethdixon]

In the further anime schoolgirls in (mostly subtextual, this time) love vein, Oniisama e got me to unknowingly ship incest for the first time since I was a small child watching Star Wars Episode IV (the Vampire Diaries don't count. I *knowingly* shipped that incest), and I had the hugest crush on Hana no Saint- Juste as a nineteen-year-old, to the point that I did a paper for French culture and civilization class on the real Saint-Juste. And the art is beautiful, though you have to take the seriously old-school shoujo-ness with a grain of salt (dramatic flashbacks! Frozen close-ups of significance that rival Rose of Versaille's plot-lightning! Gusts of cherry blossoms from nowhere and random flocks of bird flying overhead every time something important happens!).

[effex]

Oh man, Oniisama e. I saw the first couple of episodes *years* ago (when fansubs were first being released via the intertubes, oh how times have changed). I should watch the rest of it.

[facepalm] I don't think I've unintentionally shipped incest... but I did start doing it intentionally at an early age. Oh, Fushigi Yugi twincest, you do warp a person.

[nepenthe]

Miss Congeniality 2, yes! When you posted this, I was all, 'she has got to post for Miss Congeniality'.

Goodtimes.

[effex]

Yes! I mean, they *explicitly* set Sam up as the emotional replacement for whatshisface from the first movie. It was amazing.

[cadenzamuse]

Oh man. I have never seen Miss Congeniality II. And considering just last week I was thinking, "We need more queer UST buddy-cop shows" this makes me very excited. (Although I still want to see a UST buddy-cop show a la Bones, where the UST is textual and part of the formula of the show, that is either girlslash or boyslash. Someday, when a show like that gets made, I will probably dance around in joy for days.)

[effex]

By all rights Miss Congeniality II should've been a complete waste of time - and it *is* a dumb movie, don't get me wrong - but it's dumb in a gloriously self-aware kind of way. I'm pretty sure the ust was deliberate, too (I read an interview about how they put the story together once, I should track that down).

If we're really lucky (and work really hard) we'll see such a thing in our lifetime. Here's hoping, right?

[katarik]

Another live-action rec: FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, a movie adaptation of the 1987 novel FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLESTOP CAFE, by Fannie Flag. FRIED GREEN TOMATOES is the story of a middle-aged woman, Evelyn Couch, who meets and befriends elderly Ninny Threadgoode, who tells her the story of the town she grew up in, Whistlestop, Alabama, circa the 1920s.

The major plot thread running through these stories is Idgie Threadgoode and her lover Ruth Bennett, nee Jamison, and the cafe they run together. In the novel, the two are explicitly in a romantic relationship -- love at first sight that had some complications -- whereas the film makes it slightly more ambiguous. Though not, I point out, a great deal -- it is really, really hard to watch this movie and come away with any interpretation other than 'they are in love.'

Now, because the setting is rural Alabama in the 1920s, depicted pretty realistically by a local, there are some racial problems. There are named Black characters, both male and female, in both the book and the movie, and they are treated as important and sympathetic characters, but for character development of people other than White women, I would pick the book rather than the movie.

(The icon, in case you are curious, is from the ending credits of girl-centric episodes from the tokusatsu show TOKUSOU SENTAI DEKARANGER. The only edits made to it were resizing and adding text, iirc.)