Lauren K. Moody (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
anthimeria) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
writerstorm2012-09-14 12:26 am
anthimeria) wrote in writerstorm2012-09-14 12:26 am
A Different Sort of Question
Do we still need First Girl Ever stories?
In the real world, these stories happen and are still happening, but we've been telling them for several decades--the Song of the Lioness quartet (Alanna), by Tamora Pierce, came out in the eighties, and I've read opinions that this trope is "tired and overused." (To be clear, this isn't the only place I've read/heard that, Brennan is just very clear.)
While I definitely agree with Brennan in the article linked above, that I would love to see more Second Girl Ever stories, I'm wondering if there's still a need for the First Girl Ever story. Is it still important? There are girls making huge strides in male-dominated fields today, but as Brennan points out, they're largely in "field[s] that, while not exclusively male, [are] still heavily skewed that way." Which makes the Second Girl Ever story all the more important.
So what do you think? Is the First Girl Ever story tired and overused? Or an important story that needs to be told, no matter how many times we've already said it?
(Crossposted, since I'm hoping to get as many opinions as possible.)
In the real world, these stories happen and are still happening, but we've been telling them for several decades--the Song of the Lioness quartet (Alanna), by Tamora Pierce, came out in the eighties, and I've read opinions that this trope is "tired and overused." (To be clear, this isn't the only place I've read/heard that, Brennan is just very clear.)
While I definitely agree with Brennan in the article linked above, that I would love to see more Second Girl Ever stories, I'm wondering if there's still a need for the First Girl Ever story. Is it still important? There are girls making huge strides in male-dominated fields today, but as Brennan points out, they're largely in "field[s] that, while not exclusively male, [are] still heavily skewed that way." Which makes the Second Girl Ever story all the more important.
So what do you think? Is the First Girl Ever story tired and overused? Or an important story that needs to be told, no matter how many times we've already said it?
(Crossposted, since I'm hoping to get as many opinions as possible.)
no subject
I think that there's space for FGE stories in fields which are still believed to be male-only. Whe wrestling team story is relevant here, because up to that point I hadn't known it was even possible for girls to participate in wrestling as a sport, or that there was a legal case to be made for allowing them to do so. Nor, obviously, had the characters in the story. So I was discovering some new facts right along with them.
On the other hand, it is quite likely that by the time the book was written, there had been many "first girls ever" in wrestling. I think the oversimplification of the story into a one-hero narrative is a problem -- because you can have situations where girls, independently and without knowledge of one another, are breaking into new fields.