Representations of women in fantasy art

So, I’ve been doing a bunch of reading in the feminist blog circuits lately. It has been quite eye-opening. I try to stay aware of this stuff but, really, there’s this whole world of analysis I’ve been missing, a parallel stream of cultural analysis with a focus on gender power dynamics. I find it invigorating to read, and also quite intimidating sometimes, because it definitely challenges me to address my own expectations and behaviour.
And partly springing out of that, over on Gametime, which is a group blog focused on roleplaying games where I’m a contributor, I have been running a series on fantasy cover art.
Specifically, on the way gender representation has worked out on the covers of Dragon magazine, the long-running (30 years!) periodical with a focus on the Dungeons & Dragons game.
It is a seven-part series, and it has lots of images of covers down the years, and lots of graphs, and a few words to tie all the covers and the graphs together. It starts here.
When I had finished, I made sure the current Dragon staff were aware of what I was up to, and there were some good responses, including a lengthy and considered reply from Dragon’s current editor-in-chief. Which was really good to see. The reply is reproduced here.
If you are a reader interested in feminist issues, in fantasy, in gaming, in magazine publishing, or in any other area that intersects with this, I encourage you to go check it out.
And that’s what I’ve been up to the last couple weeks, aside from Ron the Body. (Now completed rewrites for chapters 1 to 16. Chapters 17, 18 and 19 to go.)