Oh, Picard. You have captured my feelings precisely.

I find that I am more than a little bit uncomfortable with this fundraiser.

I understand that this is the third year for Lee Moyer’s calendar but in light of all the discussions that have been going on throughout the last year about sexism in science fiction and fantasy to advance this year’s calendar as a fundraiser for Clarion seems a bit, ah, ill advised. To say the least.

I watched the video. While there are male authors mentioned (and only one female author!), the only characters on screen are female and they are shown in a lingering slow-pan that reeks of the male gaze. In images from past years, it appears that Lee Moyer has gender-swapped some characters to be female (and sexy!).

There’s also a woman in the video, but she’s unidentified and sitting on the floor in a low cut dress while Moyer is in a chair and fully clothed (and is identified). I think the unidentified woman is supposed to be a librarian, but I’m not completely sure. There’s also a sexy cat-girl on the calendar. I guess we should be grateful that there’s no one in a chain mail bikini?

Moyer doesn’t seem to be completely unaware of these issues in the genre–he’s written quite eloquently about them, in fact. Despite this, this fundraiser absolutely lacks awareness of the ongoing conversation and the video is rife with tropes that I find to be problematic. There’s no subversion of the pin-up trope or of the male gaze anywhere that I can see in this project–I’m not even sure why it has to be a pin-up calendar; there are certainly other interesting things these characters could be shown doing instead of being objectified.

I really don’t know what else to say, other than I won’t be backing this project.

In conclusion: