we're all stories in the end

I made some tallies on the characters over at f_march_madness the other day, looking at the gender and race of the characters chosen to represent the 64 fandoms present in the original polls.

( this is how it broke down, and where it's at now )

J.K. Rowling in The Times: The Single Mother's Manifesto. (don't read the comments)

She is awesome.

You know how else is awesome? Britney Spears, who released images of a photoshoot, before and after airbrushing. I also like what Shakesville has to say about it in that article, and you can read the comments on this one!

Clearing out the tabs!

+ Moar chromatic casting: The West Wing, Discworld, Lord of the Rings, Friends and Chronicles of Narnia. \o/

+ Fic recs: Connected by 51stcenturyfox (Torchwood, CoE AU)
It took almost dying to make him realise what living really meant.

her body a bell (BtVS, Buffy/Faith, NC-17)
written for Porn Battle IX, prompt: bathtub

+ Vid recs: The Railway House by greensilver (Torchwood, Jack/Ianto)
This is a house of death.

I can't really talk about this vid properly on account of all the feelings, but oh god it is so sad and beautifully and amazingly edited.

+ Dreams by fan_eunice (Marley & Me)
A life well lived. Good dog.

Having never been a pet owner myself, I am a leetle less affected than lots of people, I'm sure, but this still leaves me totally verklempt.

---

( linkspam )

I have been very happy on the Internet this week! There has been a lot of amazing stuff everywhere. But then I made the mistake of going onto Facebook. I know, I know.

So, some backstory: lots of British unis, including the one I attend, have 'Overheard at...' pages, you know the drill. People overhear amusing things, write them down.

Going through the pages of comments is really quite something. I am depressed by but not surprised at the amount of misogyny, classism, racism, homophobia and general bigotry that pervades the 'humour'. I do hear those comments myself, after all. I tend to walk away rather than write them down for posterity, but there you go. I am dismayed by the amount of praising comments they've received, especially as some have proved controversial - namely, whether or not it's acceptable to describe someone as a geek. Way to go for the big problem there, guys.

But, I then went from not having the energy to be offended to being almost shocked. You think I'd know better by now, but it continues to really horrify me how readily people 'joke' about rape. Here, have some examples:

( cut for triggering content and unfunny business )

beccaelizabeth started this current meta trend off with statistics on Torchwood - out of the speaking characters, how many are female, how many non-white characters are there, and does it pass the Bechdel test (women talking to each other about something other than a man)? dsudis crunched numbers for the first season of Stargate SG-1. lefaym also did a post last year on Doctor Who and the Bechdel Test. (If anyone knows of other, similar sets of stats out there, I'd love to see them!)

So, I decided to run the numbers for Merlin.

A couple of notes - this is looking at speaking characters only, and though I've tried to be objective as possible it's possible I've overlooked things, misjudged things, or that there are simply two valid cases to be made. (Especially with regard to the Bechdel Test, because I really wanted 'The Moment of Truth' to pass, for instance, but I don't think it does.)

( cut for table, statistics etc )