FOGCon: Outlaw Bodies Roundtable Notes

On Friday afternoon I ran a roundtable discussion on the subject of "outlaw bodies," seeing as I am currently co-editing an anthology by that title and all. But just to be clear, the roundtable was intended to discuss the kinds of issues that I hope will inform the stories; otherwise the two things were unrelated.

I took a few notes here and there and had a bunch more prepared as well. This is not intended as a definitive write-up of the roundtable at all, but a further think-and-discuss spark.

1. Outlaw Bodies of Today (and Yesterday)
This was my "icebreaker" question. I went around the room and asked people to name a situation in which people's bodies were declared outlaw today. Some vectors:
* Health care, insurance
* Disability and accessibility, services for the disabled
* Trans and gender-nonconforming bodies
* Fat bodies
* Black and brown bodies, "suspicious" bodies
* Women's autonomy over birth control and reproduction
* Chemical castration
* Performance-enhancing drugs (Barry Bonds is an outlaw body)
* Drug tests for employees
* Pharmaceutical mental health management and Federal drug schedules, etc.
* Assisted suicide
* Historical: escaped slaves; bastards
* Children ("free range kids" and their decline)
* Tattoos and piercings (esp. historically)

2. Extralegal vs. Illegal Bodies
Also: Social Outlaw vs. Body Outlaw

3. Outlaw Bodies of the Future (and such)
* What is considered natural, what is considered artificial?
* What happens when something is natural *and* illegal? (cf. X-Men, below)
* Which body modifications etc. are acceptable and which are proscribed, socially or legally or both?
* Deviance from the norm vs. movement toward the norm
* Tension between self-expression and need to physically survive, need to survive vs. existential death, and how this is navigated
* Subcultures creating pockets of tolerance and expression, insulation from "the law" -- how to maintain, how do they collapse?
* The invisibility of age and how it allows for more freedom to be radical in many directions

4. The Outlaw Body in Literature
* Frankenstein's Monster (Hello Ghost of Honor) -- and why did they have to stitch up a bunch of bodies, anyway? (Did they do this for the Bride?)
* Octavia Butler, Xenogenesis (consent vs. coercion)
* Varley's "planet of the Barbies" and glossing over what a society like that would really look like -- explore the implications
* X-Men
(I am sure I have forgotten others we discussed, but it was not a reading-rec-heavy panel)

And three notes from Our Monsters, Ourselves

Moderator Pro-tip: Do Not Start Your Panels With the "Favorite Literature" Question. Do Not.

This is not by any means the only thing that tipped this panel off the rails, but it is not an auspicious start. At worst, it allows panelists to natter on about their books (the book you write is always your favorite, it seems). At best, it turns it into one of those boring "book rec list" panels.

Speaking of which: Zombie POV book -- Breathers. Is it any good?

Also, someone should write this story: "The Doppleganger of the Corporation." Seeing as how corporations are people now and all.

So there you go. I'll spare you my Really Deep Thoughts about zombies, vampires, werewolves etc. as metaphor (for what?). Ask me some other time.