when you feel the need

The movie Ever After is obviously a "feminist" Cinderella, with Danielle portrayed as a feisty and clever action heroine, and with a contrast between her tomboyish ways and the ladylike refinement of her stepmother and stepsisters. But the conflict Danielle faces revolves much more around social class than around gender.

Then there's Betsy Cornwell's 2015 YA novel Mechanica, a steampunk Cinderella where the heroine is an inventor. This is obviously a feminist retelling too, because Nick excels in a traditionally masculine field, because she uses her inventions to take herself to the ball without the need for a Fairy Godmother, and because she has a concrete goal of freeing herself from her stepfamily by opening her own shop. In this way, she's very much like the "girlboss Cinderella" of the 2021 Sony/Amazon musical. Yet if I remember correctly, her struggles have little to do with gender. She isn't blocked from achieving her business goal because she's a woman; the problem is simply that she's trapped in an abusive home with no money or resources of her own.

Yet the 2021 musical, with its Cinderella who similarly wants to go to the ball to find a patron and start her own business, makes the whole conflict ham-fistedly about sexism. To a slightly ridiculous degree, because this Cinderella isn't an inventor of mechanics, she's a dressmaker! Weren't most 19th century dressmaking shops run by women? Yet the entire conflict is framed as "Ella's goal of a career outside the home is frowned on because she's a woman."

Then there are the two screen versions of Disney's Beauty and the Beast: 1991 vs. 2017. In the original film, apart from Gaston's claim in passing that "It's not right for a woman to read!" Belle's misfit status is framed in a gender-neutral way. Her dreamy, adventurous spirit, of which her love of books is one aspect, sets her apart from the village's simple workaday culture. Of course there's a feminist element, since she wants more from life than what's expected of her and doesn't want to be the "little wife" of a man who doesn't respect her, but the villagers would still consider her odd if she were a man. Yet the 2017 remake had to explicitly add gender issues. Here, the villagers disapprove of women being educated; only boys go to school, Belle's neighbors dislike the fact that she even knows how to read, and they bully her for teaching a little girl to read too.

Dutifully Loved Chapter 18: Prisoners of the Dalish

Summary: The Wardens negotiate the terms of their surrender.

Warning(s): None

WC: ~3k

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Excerpt: Keeper Zatharian proceeded to guide the Wardens through the Dalish camp. Alistair's eyes caught sight of children playing, young adults chatting and drinking, parents caring for their kids, and large structures that looked like boats but on wheels. He also saw hunters with bows and tradesmen creating tools and weaving cloth. But there was something else he noticed, something that wasn't obvious when the group was coerced into camp. Towards the back, there appeared to be something that looked like a field hospital. There were small tents and tables, covered in tools and poultices. On the ground were mats with injured elvhes being cared for by their kin. Some of the injured were heavily maimed with bleeding, infected wounds. As they passed by, one broken man screamed out in agony when a young woman tried to tend to, what looked like, a deep bite mark in his arm.

So I made a joke in the Cullenmancers Discord about starting too many one-shots, then @jinxedhybrid suggested a Siren!AU, we got to yapping with @opheliatrevelyan and @carako, and suddenly I was possessed by an ancient spirit of the sea (the same one that made me pursue oceanography in the first place) and now here we are. I never met a sexy merman, but at least Ella can. This is the same exact flavor of Ella and Cullen you know from the main Skyhold Literary Society fic, just wearing Gore-tex and/or scales. And in this fic? She is more scared of her Postdoc supervisor than the sea monster. (Those who know, know)

The premise: Dr. Ella Greenwald is one dataset away from escaping her tyrannical PI, Meredith Stannard. All she needs is a few routine water samples from the Haven lagoon to prove her hypothesis about the location is correct. Unfortunately, her $15,000 CTD sensor hasn't snagged on a log. It's been hijacked by a massive, bioluminescent merman who is absolutely furious she keeps dropping metal on his roof.

Features:

Exhausted scientist competence kink

Lionfish!Cullen (he glows, he's venomous, he's grumpy) and inspired by this fanart

Unauthorized fieldwork (the location was NOT grant-approved)

The absolute indignity of hauling your crush out of a lagoon like a sack of wet flour and accidentally getting a grope in while doing it

If you have ever been an exhausted academic running fieldwork on three hours of sleep, purely fueled by the fear of your PI... this one goes out to you.

It's one chapter right now, it might be more later. Let me know what you all think <3

Read The Soundings of Sirens and Stubbornness on AO3

Tag List @aetherflowers @bibutterflies @carako @dogot @dragonagedorks

@inquisiorastoria @loreofthedasposts @opheliatrevelyan @priya-san @theluckywizard

Dutifully Loved Chapter 17: The Dalish Ambush

Summary: The Wardens are being drunkenly loud in the middle of the forest. Probably not smart…

Excerpt:

Neria popped upwards, "Oh I know this!" Her voice became serious in an almost epic way, "Behold the ten verse tale of Lord Bryce Cousland, a decorated young military commander, who joined the Bann Mac Eanraig's fleet and led a contingent of soldiers from the deck of the Seawolf's — that's Eleanor — ship, the Mistral. Listen as Bryce and Eleanor's first meeting goes so terribly that it was immortalized in a famous sea shanty." Haljra laughed, "And these two got married and then, had him?" She threw her thumb towards Aedan. "Evidently," Aedan rolled his eyes. "You know a lot about my parents, Neria." Neria fell back against Leliana, "Listen. There wasn't much entertainment in the Circle. For a time, I lived and breathed The Soldier and the Seawolf. I wrote stories imagining my life as y-your mother and meeting a man like Bryce Cousland. Which is hilarious, given my preference." The elf grabbed the side of Leliana's head and planted a sloppy kiss on her hair.

This is good information to know.