The New Gender Synthesis
To be only masculine or only feminine is to be half a human being.
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Direct Action
A transgender college student declared “I am here to break the law” before entering a women’s restroom at the Florida State Capitol and being led out in handcuffs by police. Civil rights attorneys say the arrest of Marcy Rheintgen last month is the first they know of for violating transgender bathroom restrictions passed by numerous state legislatures across the country.
NBC News · Trans student’s arrest for violating Florida bathroom law is thought to be a first
#pennedpossibilities 633 — How did you choose the title for your story, and what significance does it hold for you?
Mars Needs Women was a 1968 schlock female-exploitation film. The title has had staying power (pun intended) even if the film didn't. My feminist SF short novel (now in revision) is about a woman from an endpoint technological religio-fascist society (2024 thru the 2100s) that takes biblical patriarchy seriously and leaves women few options but to be exploited. I wanted to show how women might run a society differently if they could get their chance.
The title came to me quickly, with the verb set instead to the past tense: Mars Needed Women. This is because women were contracted for colonization purposes, to have children. It's from a recruitment poster early in the story. When the colonization effort goes bankrupt and men die disproportionately compared to the imported women, the dynamics of power change. Over the 25 year span of the story, women and their predominately female native Martian children take over the jobs and then governing. When the women declare themselves an independent matriarchal nation, Earth's patriarchy slanders (ring a bell about modern time?) Mars' women so as to have an excuse to put down the "rebellion."
However, women don't fight like men. War isn't a game when you are keeping your children alive… This is why Mars needed women to survive.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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@nlupo@amikejo.xyzIt's funny that the word #gender comes from the French (I think) word for kind. It's similar to the word genre. So, it's what we call in mathematics, sets. You can have infinite arbitrary defined sets, therefore you can have infinite arbitrary defined genders.
Passing on information from a friend:
Incoming En-Gender conference, focused on gender and resistance. Online on August 21-23, submissions by April 30.
En-Gender · Conference 2025En-Gender 2025 Annual Online Conference, 21-23 August Building and Thinking Resistances This year we are celebrating our 5th consecutive year running the En-Gender Conference and very excited to be…
#ScribesAndMakers 2503.29 — What is your proudest or best moment with your creative endeavor this month?
I finished writing my web-novel (#RSMarsNeededWomen) and, surprisingly, I think I ended it well.
That was 31 days of one chapter composed, revised, and published† per day. I really didn't know where I would go when I started (other than the blurb I wrote on day one), but each day I chose a prompt from a list and ran with it—or rather the characters ran with it. With six days to go, I knew I'd be killing off a character so sympathetic I almost couldn't do it. With four days to go, I was introducing new characters. With three days to go, I had no idea how to end the story, let alone with a climactic moment. Yet. I did. The characters asserted their humanity, and that they were women. For all its warts—and this story has plenty because I could not go back in revise, fix plot holes, or foreshadow—I'm rather proud of the result.
My announcement: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/114261812977623863
† That was in addition to and in parallel with my Talk to Me Day appearance.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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#RSstory
Eldritch CaféRS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist (@sfwrtr@eldritch.cafe)Attached: 2 images
My feminist SF web-novel *Mars Needed Women* is complete! 23,300 words in 31 chapters, one chapter posted each day throughout March, the last posted 23 minutes ago as I write this. Check out the cover art.
To read, either use the hashtag #RSMarsNeededWomen or this link to the first chapter: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/114088945266387178 The full novel is in the thread. Just scroll to read.
> “A hopeful deeply-dystopian feminist SF story, with thinly veiled jabs at our current world's bad actors making for a bad future. Please note the past tense in the title: Mars Needed Women. The story's women are going to work to bring down the system, at least that part that's oppressing them, in a massive unscheduled disassembly.”
I'll leave it up for you to read for at least a week. After that, I'm revising it for later secondary publication.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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🅻🅸🅲🅴 (
) @alice@lgbtqia.spaceIt's always such an awesome gift when someone chooses to share their gender or sexuality exploration with me, and I strive to be a safe space for people to explore those parts of their identities.
So far in the last year, I've had people come out to me as bi, pan, ace, nonbinary, trans, and generally queer. And I'm so thankful for the trust that takes, and the opportunity to be a part of their journeys.
Wow! We hit 90 abstract submissions for our conference LILG2! 
Huge thanks to everyone who submitted - we are now diving into the review process and cannot wait to see the amazing presentations that will come out of this. Stay tuned!
Spotted this empty wheelchair at Saturday's Trans Rights Rally at Independence Mall. Whether intentional or not, it's a pretty powerful statement.
If you believe in the First Amendment right to Freedom of Expression, you will stand up and fight for the right of our trans and nonbinary siblings to express themselves freely without fear of persecution or worse - death.
If you call yourself an ally to the trans community, it is important for you to stand up and fight for the right of our most vulnerable siblings to exist.
The time is now!
Sending love to all my Trans family and friends on this Transgender Day of Visibility ...and every other day of the year. Whether you're out yet or not, you are loved.
#TransgenderDayOfVisibility #TransVisibility #Trans #Transgender #Transmen #Transwomen #nonbinary #gender #genderidentity #grafitti #streetart #philly #southphilly #lgbt #lgbtart #lgbtq #lgbtqia #TransIsBeautiful #TransRightsAreHumanRights
If you believe in the First Amendment right to Freedom of Expression, you will stand up and fight for the right of our trans and nonbinary siblings to express themselves freely without fear of persecution or worse - death.
If you call yourself an ally to the trans community, it is important for you to stand up and fight for the right of our most vulnerable siblings to exist.
The time is now!
Sending love to all my Trans family and friends on this Transgender Day of Visibility ...and every other day of the year. Whether you're out yet or not, you are loved.
#TransgenderDayOfVisibility #TransVisibility #Trans #Transgender #Transmen #Transwomen #nonbinary #gender #genderidentity #grafitti #streetart #philly #southphilly #lgbt #lgbtart #lgbtq #lgbtqia #TransIsBeautiful #TransRightsAreHumanRights
#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr
With parenting, I rarely have time to get to tags…
Good parents are what make the best future citizens. With your time zone admission, all the Australians are going to be sad you're not one of them.
Cheaper Q: Is there something you wish you'd been asked today, and wasn't? Include your response.
** Why did you decide to write #RSMarsNeededWomen?**
- The #writever prompts for the were all about women's rights, and I'm a feminist writer.
- The card with all the prompts (in French) had the word "Mars" on it. Okay, that's French for March, but still! I'm a feminist SF writer and my head EXPLODED.
- A certain man with the initials EM seems to think Mars is a place to make his boyish macho wet dreams of patriarchy run rabid into reality. Too good an opportunity to write thinly veiled satire about an EM Mars Colonizaiton Corp and their silvery starships going bankrupt.
- With the latter firmly in mind, and the US being dominated by shortsightedly stupid religious fascist oligarchs, I decided I needed to write a story where that becomes the new normal, only to unravel (albeit in a hundred years) under the pressure of a woman's perspective.
Alternate Q: I notice you include "author retains copyright" in posts. Did you have a bad experience, is this simply what you do on all platforms, or is there some other reason?
Look. I get it. People copy ideas. Nothing anymore is original. The copyright notice is a warning to be inspired to write your own stories not claim mine as yours.
However, the most important reason is to present a copyright notice for AI and bots to gobble up with my content. I want to cause digital heartburn. Yes, copyright is implied in the US, but some computer-zealots don't understand how it works until somebody copies their stuff and then, Oh Noes! The notice allows me to prove I wasn't putting it in the public domain. Not only do I have original copies date stamped in my filesystem, but I have backup archives from Mastodon. (I'd put the notice on a webpage, were I building a site.) Moreover, if my content really gets stolen, I have the proof that if an idiot republished it, even inadvertently as they could write software to prevent that, I can fight them in court.
That said, if I spark and idea in your head? Go write it!
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr
Dear RS, could you choose one among your stories that's your favorite? Which one?
I could. It's a fan fiction novel, however, and I don't want to mix this pen name (the SF and Fantasy commercial author) with the other pen name. The good news is the plot lines and the major characters are my creation. I am rewriting many of the stories totally in my own universe, now.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr
Why first person? What's the draw?
CW: I rambled.
I think 1st person the natural way people tell stories about what happened to them. Personal stories with all the warts are the best, I think. If you look at all my responses to all the prompts, you'll see I'm telling my story, and to get meta about it, I'm telling you my story now. This is actually my writing style.
To me, 1st person POV feels very personal and I feel it is relatable by all readers. Most people don't go around telling stories that happened to other people (3rd person in a nutshell), nor when they do so, do they feel comfortable asserting what those people felt about those events, especially if those events are impolitic or sexual. Maybe taking on the role of the narrator, they may say how they feel about the people who act they way they do in their story—but that's another level of complexity and can off as hypocritical. Furthermore, I feel betrayed when a 3rd person narrator doesn't tell the absolute truth. I expect truth from 3rd person, whether it's from the POV character's perspective, or a limited or an omniscient one.
It's very hard to master all the requirements of good 3rd person narration. It proved so for me. That said, my #RSMarsNeededWomen is the first 3rd person story I've written in many years. I chose that because 1st person isn't exactly a compact or concise POV, and fitting a novel into 31 long toots is hard.
In first person, as in life, the POV tells their story their way, making observations and commenting on what they feel about that. Imagine some embarrassing or revealing situation. How are you going to tell that story starting with the word I? Right, you will spin it. 1st person is all about perspective. Ours. We all censor. 1st person by definition is unreliable narrator, but as listeners we've learned how to read between the lines, to detect the white lies and black, and interpret the spin. Conversely, people may also be confessional. Maybe the POV wants to be seen in all their evil glory, or is simply rude and impolitic, but isn't so foolish as to let it leak out in word or deed. The dichotomy between private thoughts and public action can be breathtaking. Who doesn't like some unfiltered wise cracking and unvarnished cynicism, especially when paired with external integrity?
I hope that answered your question.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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#ScribesAndMakers ##TTMD @sfwrtr
I think a cooking section on the website is a great idea. Could also be a teaser in a newsletter.
Content is king, but it has to be interesting to keep people coming back for more. Like a restaurant, I suppose…
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr
What is your favorite thing you've written & why?
You b evil!
My main characters tend to get sorely abused and pummeled by reality. Twice as much work for half the credit, right? All so the moment of victory can be bittersweet and worth it. There's this one scene; I'll endeavor to minimize spoilers.
The setup: She had finally found friendship and love. Previously injured, she still ends up saving her lover (okay, one of her two lovers), and saving the life of her assassin, too, and died. Thought she had, only to wake, barely healed, to find the other antagonist had had them arrested and undone the good she'd done to prevent a foreseeable war.
The denouement: Though wit and persuasion, and the loyalty of the people she's protected, she proves everything she's said is right, literally causing the antagonist to throw her helmet on the ground in frustrated resignation. Clang! It does mean she reveals she's pregnant, because that's one of the keys, and has to agree to bare the child…
It's the intensity of the emotions and the integrity this cynical character displays that grips me. I can hardly believe I wrote it.
That goes equally for a more recent work. One of the MCs is male, and I usually can't relate enough to men to make them work as male in the story. He's different, as is the world he lives in. How he ends up noticing the woman antagonist's hidden anguish and solves the problem, in an albeit naïve but heartfelt uniquely male manner, has left me beside myself. It's one of the few times a male character might be carrying the story instead of his female co-MC.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr
What's your favorite comfy / cozy ritual? (E.g. curl up with a book and hot beverage?)
This may make me seem much younger than I am, but...
At the end of the day, I watch anime on Crunchyroll. Let's just ignore that I may also be snacking and I shouldn't be. Keep in mind that I am a feminist writer, so some of the series are really offensive, but it is in equal parts really stupid and meaningless, and subversive as to how the male characters get their comeuppance. There are also amazing truly feminist and traditional stories I'd highly recommend. I like slife-of-life stuff the best.
But, to answer your question, anime helps me forget the day.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr @saposcat
Did 'Laugh In' contribute to the imaginary play at all, or was it just background? Do you still like some sort of background noise when you're creating?
I was maybe 7 when I played in front of the TV with LaughIn while playing with my… were they dolls or action figures? I used to have a unique skill at multitasking, so I probably followed the comedy, but I was unlikely playing pretend with Artie Johnson on a tricycle annoying Ruth Buzzi.
When I was a teenager, all through high school, I always had the TV on, especially when doing my homework. When you've seen all the reruns of Doctor Who, Speed Racer, Kimba, Green Acres, F-Troop, Gilligan's Island, and Star Trek, it's easy to use it as background and still enjoy the best parts!
More recently, I love electronica, house, and progressive music. While programming. While writing. The beat can accelerating my heartbeat and my thinking. But it becomes truly background to a point that I forget to turn it on unless I need it to block out noise.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr
- When do you write your cookbook?
Probably never. However, if you follow me I show photos of my cooking, and sometime share enough of a recipe for those who cook to follow. When I get my act together and make an author website, I may have a RS Cooks section with this stuff. Remember, you need to keep people returning to your website over years so they remain aware of your new books!
- Do you bake (like that) too? I mean, I'm a lousy cook but when I cook I often improvise too. But never with baking.
I used to bake. I had two breadmaker machines! But I am very much low-carb now. (It's why I substitute cauliflower for rice in my paella, for example.) I have to watch my salt intake, too. My pork chop on the bed of kale, onions, butter, pecorino, and edamame linguine was low-carb. The edamame pasta has 1/5th the carbs of regular pasta, much of them as fiber instead. It has a better taste and a similar mouth feel, too.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr @willelm
How are you trying to keep from burning out in the future? Any tips or tricks to share for others when they get burned out?
My incessant answering prompts on Mastodon surely helps! Especially this one thing I learned here, which reaffirmed something I knew:
Write stories you want to read. For crafters or artists, craft what you want to use (I love what I cook) or paint what's beautiful to you. I love my photos. Be your first audience.
But it's up to you whether you are your only audience. Is that okay for you?
For me, sadly, no. That's why I burnt out. I was failing to communicate. Getting my ideas into other people's heads was very important. Worse, I was writing in the way publishers and my agents insisted I must. It made made my efforts harder and my lack of success more sour.
However, you asked for tips to prevent it:
- I found that writing fan fiction solved my not-communicating problem. I found the right fandom for me and couldn't avoid the feedback. I wasn't writing SF (except in stealth mode), it wasn't commercial, but it did satisfy, and I did communicate with readers.
- Whilst not for me, joining a writer's group does help others. Make sure they understand the Clarion critique ethic where you consider the work and never attack the writer, you give constructive suggestions, and most importantly, only the author gets to decide if the advice is relevant. Keep it social and professional at the same time.
- I stop writing, crafting, painting, whatever, when it isn't fun at some level. I do something else. This goes hand-and-hand with not expecting to make a living doing what I love, which means I can pick it up some another day or another year. If becoming a bestselling author as soon as possible is what drives you, this might not work. Sadly, in my first career, I wanted being an author to be my actual career. Maybe not hard enough.
- I try to recognize whether I'm being too hard on myself. In the realm of art, nothing is the Right Way™. I've seen plenty of artwork that looks unskilled in museums or as wall art. It's the expression and meaning that counts, and being persistent.
- The other part about being too hard on oneself is something I fight daily. Judging my content by the imagined standards of others. I don't know if my stories will offend, for example, and it can be paralyzing and become unbearably uncomfortable. I constantly have to watch myself for that. I practice a zen thing here. I recognize it, ignore it, and simply write anyway. Revision is always an alternative, but I need to complete the story first.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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Does the phrase “you guys” as a default for a group of people feel inclusive for you?