Woman in a Cage: A Steampunk Feminist’s Perspective of the Victorian Crinoline

Cogpunk Steamscribe

A modern reconstruction of a crinoline

The basic structure of a crinoline is a cage, so a woman wearing a crinoline is actually trapped inside a cage, unable to run or move about freely. If there was ever a more powerful metaphor to sum up the restrictions of a Victorian woman’s existence, I can’t think of one. As both a writer and a feminist, to me the crinoline sums up worst behavioural excesses of the Victorian era.

Steel-cage crinoline circa 1858.

Some styles of crinolines even resembled bird cages. What an image … thousands of women walking around inside their cages, unable to accidentally brush up against a fellow human being. struggling through doorways, constantly having to be aware of their surrounding in case they knocked over furniture or small children. I know I’d be on edge. as I am not the mot graceful woman to start with. And oh…

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Review: THE COMPLETELY UNFABULOUS SOCIAL LIFE OF ETHAN GREEN

Comics Grinder

Eric Orner is one of the pioneers in LGBT comics. “The Completely Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green,” published by Northwest Press, is a great way to not only further establish him in the canon of LGBT comics, but simply to showcase the work of an excellent cartoonist.

All of us cartoonists can learn from Eric Orner. Just when you get that first wave of resistance, that’s when you push back a little harder. Orner had tales to tell, just like Howard Cruse before him and Alison Bechdel right alongside him, and they could not wait.

Orner’s comic strip ran in that fuzzy, chaotic, and bubbling time (1989-2005), before the internet and digital and then well into it. Orner grew as a person and as an artist. Collected here are some 300 of his groundbreaking comic strips. Well before Ellen DeGeneres was ready to come out, and perhaps a mainstream…

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Stephanie Watches Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: 2×15 “One Door Closes”

Stephanie Plus Verb

The fall of SHIELD was such a huge turning point in both the series and the MCU as a whole, so I’m glad we got to take a look at what happened to Bobbi’s gang (even if I think they’re being buttheads right now). Plus, Lucy Lawless was back in action, so that was exciting. And Adama kept saying more BSG stuff like, “I’m the commander of this ship!”

They were all ready to go down with their ship because they were outnumbered by Hydra agents. Bobbi, especially, since she had a special mission from Fury to do just that. (I like that Fury always gives the super secret missions to his fav ladies Natasha, Maria, and Bobbi~) But they all banded together and clearly took their ship back.

In the present day, Bobbi and Mack are terrible liars and trying to integrate themselves back into the SHIELD gang. But…

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