1/31/10

Announcing: Women and African Americans In Horror / Disgruntled Bloggers/ Stuffed Ballot Box - Month!

For me, February always meant three things: Groundhog day, The celebration of when I met my significant other (14 years on 2/12/10), and my older sister's birthday.  This year, it seems, I have to clear my calendar and  make way for a slew of other important events.

In the Horror blogosphere, it seems that February is the month to celebrate the fairer sex's role in thriller films.  Prepare to see many posts that breathlessly praise the works of such noted female thespians as Linnea Quigley, and Sheri Moon Zombie (or you could just CLICK HERE and see that Maxium might have beat us all to the punch).   On the other hand, I am assuming that the usual suspects will be trotted out once again, women like Jamie Lee Curtis or Jamie's Mom, Janet Leigh (for her iconic stint in Psycho).  Then again, you never know, maybe some will avoid the obvious (and I'm looking at you, BJ-C), and delve a bit deeper into the role of women in horror.  Maybe some authors, or directors will get their due ... all we can do is wait and see, this should be fun, and possibly very informative.

Meanwhile, February is also Black History Month, and I am pretty sure that there was some discussion about  spotlighting the role of African Americans in Horror (at least amongst the LOTTD).  Sadly, this idea seems to have been dropped as many were concerned over how a presentation like this might be perceived (consider early horror films from the 30's 40's and 50's and if there was a black actor or actress in one of these films, he or she was either presented as a wide eyed, comical fool scared of his or her own shadow; or they might be voodoo priests/priestess full of malevolence). Then again, one need only look no further than George Romero who has had several African American men play the lead in his films (think for a minute how groundbreaking it was to have Duane Jones as the lead in Night of the Living Dead - that was in 1968 for Christ's sake).  Be that as it may, I know for a fact that several bloggers out there are going to celebrate the role of Black men and women in Horror - again, I think this is going to be fun as well as highly informative.

Two prolific horror bloggers have recently posted their thoughts on the Bloody Disgusting Horror Blogger Award.  For those of you not aware, yet another award is up for grabs and that's great.  However according to Chuck over at Zombie's Don't Run and Johnny at Freddy in Space - trickery may be afoot.  You see there is this other blog, that no one seems to really know anything about that's garnering more votes than other blogs.  I wonder if Pia Zadora was involved (and for those of you too young to get that reference HERE'S YOUR HISTORY LESSON FOR THE DAY).

Happy Women and African Americans In Horror / Disgruntled Bloggers/ Stuffed Ballot Box - Month!

***
Finally, in some totally unrelated news, I am happy to announce that my contribution to Butcher Knives and Body Counts Essays on the Formula, Frights, and Fun of the Slasher Film has been accepted, just click on this link and if you know my real name,  you'll see it listed  ... if you don't know my real name, you'll just have to trust me on this one.

8 comments:

Matt-suzaka said...

And you're going to have an essay too?! That's great...I know my buddy Jeff from Dinner With Max Jenke is going to have a few pieces in that thing too...can't wait to read it!

As for women in horror, why is it in the same month as Black history? There's 11 more months that could be picked from...it would be sad if the horror blgosphere were to ignore black history month for women in horror, which will probably be the case.

Andre Dumas said...

Thank you Matt that's what I said! I find it to be incredibly poor taste that "Axe Wound" picked February to be Women in Horror Month.- so I'm completely ignoring women in horror month and sticking to the plan for Black History Month. I can't wait. First post will be up at midnight since I have to work tomorrow boo. stay tuned.

Christine Hadden said...

Pax, I got the Pia Zadora reference without clicking your link;)
Guess that makes me old...

wavingpalms said...

This seems as good a time as any to step up on my own personal soapbox:

Why isn't Jessica Harper a bigger star?

The woman was the star of SUSPIRIA for Pete's sake. Not to mention PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE.

Any discussion of women in horror that neglects her in favor of LQ (whose résumé is graded by weight, not quality) is just the scribblings of the woefully uninformed.

JMS

wavingpalms said...

And one of these days, I'm going to collect my conflicted feelings about Mantan Moreland.

JMS

laura linger said...

I meant to nominate you for one of those Kreativ awards. I'm sorry. I did that posting at 3:30am when I was already half dead with insomnia. Your blog is a favorite of mine and I didn't mean to overlook it.

Laura Linger
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Chuck Conry said...

Well it makes me happy to see your not buying their story either.

I Like Horror Movies said...

Awesome Pax, cant wait for the release! There were too many themes this month, so I stuck with my personal favorite: "Watch a shit load of horror movies."