Breaking the Glass Slipper: Women in science fiction, fantasy, and horror

In 1979, one of the most seminal sci-fi films ever made was shown for the first time on the big screen. Ridley Scott’s Alien is a dark, disturbing and downright terrifying addition to the Hollywood Hall of Fame. 2019 marks 40 years since Alien was born (or possibly ripped from a stomach), so we thought […]

Today’s episode was inspired by an article that appeared on The Guardian with the headline ‘Picture book bias worsens as female characters stay silent.’ The piece was based on research into books published in the last year, showing that most picture books ‘present a white and male-dominated world to children.’ A child is 1.6 times […]

I don’t want the future to be female. I want it to be for everyone. Lisa Yaszek In a fascinating episode that covers everything from telepathic matriarchies to lesbian vampire fiction, academic Lisa Yaszek chats to us about the history of women writers in science fiction. Why are so few remembered? What did they write? […]

In our last episode, we had author Aliette de Bodard on to discuss the absence of mothers in speculative fiction. One explanation put forward was the focus of chosen one narratives – these stories rely on the protagonist achieving something great, against all odds, and usually alone (or supported by a small group, rarely, if […]

We were inspired to speak to Aliette about representations of motherhood in speculative fiction after reading her excellent essay ‘On Motherhood and Erasure‘. There’s no denying that mothers are demonstrably absent from most speculative fiction. Whether they died ‘off-screen’ or simply have no tangible presence in the narrative, there is a gaping hole in our […]

With a new film adaptation of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, and the upcoming 60th anniversary of the publication of The Haunting of Hill House, we thought it was high time we turned our attention to the wonderful Shirley Jackson. To help us on our journey of […]

Here at Breaking the Glass Slipper, we love the 1987 film The Princess Bride. I mean, who doesn’t? It is endlessly quotable, tongue-in-cheek, and full of great characters. Unfortunately, only a couple of those characters are female and the way they’re represented…well, let’s just say our inner feminists are wincing. Is it ok to still […]

Sometimes it is fun to call the shots on this show – and this week (while Lucy was away on holiday!), I decided to indulge a personal favourite subject of mine: time travel. My love of time travelling tales has been life-long, from Back to the Future (obvs) to Kindred, there’s so much scope for […]

We like to think that fantasy is a limitless exploration of our imaginations, but in reality, fantasy fiction is limited by the cultural experiences of the author. As a result, what most of us are exposed to are a very narrow set of ideas about fantasy and magic – those from a Judeo-Christian tradition.  When […]