Shiver me timbers. I bet she’s cold.
We both enjoy reading about and discovering stories about women pirates.
Sadly, they are often poorly represented in pop culture and in advertising as little more than the aforementioned nautical sexpots, turning up, as women sadly often do, only to prove that the central male characters are heterosexual and dashing.
The example on the left is a good one. This was taken from a pirate-themed crazy golf park. The male pirates had clothes. And coats. And treasure. All kinds of useful pirate things.
This is the trope we are used to – men representing the cut and thrust of the character, women thrown in for a bit of titillation (assuming that you like your titillation in this form, and sadly we live in a universe were that is the the assumption).
But all is not lost, me hearties!
There’s a sea-change coming. If we set sail to Hastings, that lesser known bastion of cut-throat feminism, there is a weather-beaten and battered but nonetheless awesome figure of a woman pirate on the roof of a restaurant.
A far cry from scantily-clad mermaids attempting to flog battered cod and chips – and a very refreshing change, as well as two fingers up to all the people who think that a woman’s place is stapled to the prow of a ship.
Avast in front! Now you’re talking.
No high seas bikini here! She’s got an outfit suitable for Proper Adventuring, she’s steering a boat, and she’s got treasure, which (aside from clothing that protects you from the elements and your enemies) is what every pirate wants.
Throw in the eyepatch and a pet crow (plus points for cool animal companion) and she’s ready to plunder the high seas.
So, aside from the fact that we’ve finally (finally!) got a female character in a similar position and costume to male characters, what really makes this a Found Feminism for me is the placement: we’re so used to having female characters as the special, odd one out, look-at-me-I’m-a-girl that having this figure here without any particular attention drawn to it makes it all the better.
It’s not a special Lady Pirate Restaurant, it’s just a bit of pirate ship decor which also happens to have a normalised, non-stereotyped female pirate aboard.
I’ve long flown the flag for giving women characters equal weighting in stories, especially fantasy and sci-fi fiction, where writers and audiences get the joy of experiencing other worlds that aren’t bound by the tedious social rules of our own – including sexism.
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If you’re a regular reader of this blog you’ll know that BadRep Towers generally posts updates every day of the working week.
This can be a lot of work, and lately Real Life has… gotten very real? There’s been an unexpected bereavement, a house move, and family members who for various reasons have needed caring for, and I’m also about to go on an evening course which will be pretty intensive. And then there’s my paid job, public sector, full time. So I’m a bit knackered at the moment. Busy is an understatement.
Several of the team are also, bless them, bloody busy. Therefore, for now BadRep will be updated only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Join the good ship BadRep
However! I’d like this to be a temporary move, ideally! We’ve had some lovely feedback in the last few months and we don’t want to stop now! Help us steer the HMS BadRep into new territory.
We’re looking to get more pop culture adventurers on board. We are sticklers for exciting, often-quirkily-original, well-written stuff, and for inclusive feminisms which take account of the variety of identities contained on our existing team (and more besides). We aim to be bouncy and accessible and occasionally irreverent – but we want to make your brain tick, not start a fight.
Here’s how you can be part of the adventure:
- Pitch us a guest article! Send a paragraph to [email protected]describing what you’d like to write about, and a little bit about you (and if you have one, a link to your own site so we can plug it for you).
- Or if you’d like to join our band of adventurers long-term, send an email to the same address telling us a little bit about you, your feminism, and why you’d like to join us. Include some examples of your writing, too. We’re looking for a commitment of two posts a month, ideally. If it looks like your writing is a good fit for what we’re trying to do, we might well be in touch.
- More information is on this page here – please do read and share!
PROTIP: Because of the Real Life outlined above, it sometimes takes me a while to answer emails to [email protected]. Your patience is mahoosively appreciated.
Also? Thank YOU.
We’re hoping with your help that we’ll come back bigger and better than ever, but in the meantime thank you for reading and sharing what you read, and for all your comments and support!
– Miranda and the rest of Team BR
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