Women Being Awesome: Say My Name challenge

[wrangletangle]

(This month, I'll be contributing to #femslash february by highlighting female-centric and femslash-centric tags at AO3.)

So I mentioned yesterday that "Women Being Awesome" used to be in the tag cloud. It's not anymore. What happened?

The tag currently has not quite 900 works. Part of the problem is that it doesn't have many subtags, like most other tags in the cloud do. "Bonding", for example, has the subtags "Male Bonding", "Forced Bonding", and "Psychic Bond" (with its own subtags), for a total of about 1200 works. But "Women Being Awesome" has only five small subtags, all names of specific women. I estimate we'll need about 200-300 more works to get it back in the cloud.

My challenge to you is: go back and tag all your previous works that include a woman being awesome with the generic tag "Women Being Awesome" and a specific tag with her full name in it. (If more than one woman is being awesome, tag them all!) Once at least 3 users have tagged with a specific name, if the tag is in one of my fandoms, I will canonize and subtag it. If it's in another wrangler's fandom, I'll leave a note with them or the wrangling committee asking for the same.

(If a tag's ready for canonization and I don't notice, please drop me an ask.)

Let's get this tag back on the front page where it belongs!

Freeforms of the day: Awesome Darcy Lewis, Awesome Natasha Romanov, Awesome Pepper Potts, Awesome Peggy Carter, and Toph Being Awesome

Comments

[gehayi]

You know, I love the tag "women being awesome", but I never know when to use it. What are some occasions that you've used it for characters?

[wrangletangle]

This is a really good question! I think it's subjective? I tend to personally use it when female characters have their own agency, so they're not just victims but are active in shaping what happens, but also aren't one-dimensional villains. I've used it on the same works I used "BAMF" on, but also on works where women are self-positive, or thoughtful, or clever, or hard-working, or just plain enjoying the heck out of life. I feel like it's a stamp of "I made this work to be female-positive."

Is it like porn, I know it when I see it? A little. But I'm pretty sure no one's going to come around with some measuring rubric and declare which works "should" be tagged and which shouldn't. And the more people who use it, the more broad and diverse the meaning becomes. I think that's a good thing.

[gehayi]

Thank you!

Mind you, I don't know how many of these will help you, but...ones I've added:

Awesome Brienne of Tarth
Awesome Ophelia
Awesome Lady Macbeth
Bisclavret's Wife Being Awesome
Awesome Snow White
Awesome Rosanna Calvierri
Awesome Donna Noble

I'm tempted to add my space opera, but I don't know how many takers you'll get for Awesome Hypatia, Awesome Princess Pingyang, Awesome George Sand or Awesome Khutulan. (I write about a lot of odd characters, can you tell?)

[wrangletangle]

Awesome! ^_~ You've got such a diverse group, and so does thisbluespirit, that I'm going to send a general announcement to the list shortly. I just fired it off to the staff list for review.

Thank you!!

[alexseanchai]

Oh god that means I have to go through all five hundred of my fics. They're not all going to get that tag. But lots of them are.

[wrangletangle]

May I humbly cheer you on? ^_^

(If you've posted any Merlin, we're very close on some of those ladies, but you're welcome to let me know about any tags you think might be ready for canonizing.)

[alexseanchai]

No Merlin. Nearly all Supernatural.

[wrangletangle]

I'll leave a note for the wranglers over there so they know what's up. Thank you!

[alexseanchai]

Not tonight, I have other things to do tonight. Like maybe catch up on sleep, though for that I really ought to go to bed, like, now...

[cantarina]

Which Merlin women are you near-to-complete on? I have a few podfics I could upload and tag appropriately to push us over.

[wrangletangle]

We're one user away on Morgana, Gwen, and Freya. But all the ladies could use some love!

(Also, you have Merlin lady!podfics? How have I not heard these before? I thought my collection was pretty complete. Hm, must remedy this.)

[cantarina]

Will bump Morgana and Gwen up today, then :D Get get Mithian and Elayna some more love.

(Four of them! All short, which is maybe why you don't know them? Or maybe you're not into f/f? But you know, just in case: They're on the masterlist.)

[wrangletangle]

Oh, I am definitely into F/F! *g* I just realized I'm way behind on collecting awesome podfic in Merlin fandom. This must be remedied! *bookmarks*

[thisbluespirit]

I've added it to various of my fics where it seemed applicable and to individual characters. (I don't know how helpful those'll be, my fandoms tend to be small. I've done Sapphire [S&S], Cally, Jenna, Servalan [B7], Sandra Pullman [New Tricks], Faith Lehane (BtVS), Leela, Jo Grant, Liz Shaw, Peri Brown, Romana, Barbara Wright, Polly, & Charley Pollard [DW], Lynda Day [Press Gang], Miss Marple & Captain Janeway).

Where to use it and not to is a good question, though. I think it probably would apply to more of my fics, but it starts to seem overused at that point, or as if there ought to be levels of awesome...

[wrangletangle]

Thank you! Due to you and gehayi having such extensive collections, I'm going to make sure the wranglers as a whole are aware of what's happening, so nobody gets missed in the shuffle. And you never know - it only takes 3 users!

I understand the feeling of uncertainty about tagging everything. I mean, really, any work with a woman in it should have her being awesome, right?

(If Janeway and Faith don't have enough users tagging to be canonical by the end of the week, I'll be shocked.)

[justice_turtle]

I've also done Liz Shaw, but now I'm all -- does it need to be in a certain format, "Awesome Liz Shaw" or whatever? I just did "Liz Shaw is awesome" because she is. ^_^

(I've also tagged Zoe Heriot, Anne of Green Gables, Kathy Selden from Singin' in the Rain, Sam Carter from Stargate SG-1, Kira Nerys and Jadzia Dax from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Merryweather and Cinderella from the Disney Princess fandom... sadly I tend to write ladies mainly for Yuletide, so I'm not sure how many of these anyone is interested in. *lol*)

And I've created a tag I hope many other people will pick up: "Unpopular Female Character Being Awesome". This goes on fics about ladies who are highly unlikely to get their own canonical "awesome" tags, like the apologia-for-the-villainess I wrote this Yuletide for a fandom that has exactly two AO3 fics right now. ;P Any takers?