Why “The Razor Girl”?
I stole the name from William Gibson, whose character Molly Millions is referred to as a “razor
girl.” She’s a tough, strong-willed mercenary and a cyborg. You don’t mess with her.
Nowadays the razor girl is somewhat of a stock character in
cyberpunk fiction: think Trinity in The
Matrix and Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost
In The Shell. Around the corner you’ll find ladies like Kate Kane from the
DC Universe, and down the street the mahou shoujo and slayers are sippin' on malts and talking about their feelings. I love cyberpunk vibes, I love science fiction tropes, and I
love autonomous, smart, multi-layered ladies in science fiction.
Whilst people of every gender can and should be educated on feminist scholarship and practices, for this project it was important for me to have a gendered name. The word "girl" also acts as a nod to academic girl studies, and grassroots riot grrrl.
I am the exact opposite of a razor girl - yes, my wet look
leather bodysuit and military-grade weaponry are simply a cunning ruse. That’s
also why I chose to name this project after these girls; I wanted to soak up a
little of their badassery through association.
It’s a silly name, I know. That’s intentional; go hard or go
home, right? Let’s make some bold claims! It's the internet!
Why “colour” and "favourite"?
British English!
Why all the wands and weapons?They're from the Sailor Moon franchise. I've loved Sailor Moon for a long time; I love the super kawaii pastel weaponry and the conflation of femininity and fighting for justice.
I love that each girl has a unique personality, style, fears, and strengths.
I love that there was an awesome, canon queer couple in a 90s children's series (not in the English version, though, because of reasons).
All
of those things inspire me, and continue on the "girl" theme from the
title of the blog, as well as my interests in gender studies and cult
texts. I wanted to reflect this inspiration everywhere, in pixel wand
form.
We are all magical girl heroes. Yes, that means you! And you! And you.
A note on footnotes:
My reference system for footnotes is consistent but imperfect, mostly Chicago style with maybe a little bit of MLA thrown in (MLA favours in-text referencing over footnotes anyway, but it's such a common style it's become a bit of a habit to revert back to it). So if you're going to copy+paste any sources to use in your college-level paper or art manifesto or dream journal (or basically in anything where reference style matters), please double-check that all the full stops and commas are in the correct places for your style!
If you're having any trouble looking for an article or book I've mentioned, feel free to comment or email therazorgirlonline@gmail.com and I'll see if I can help out!
My reference system for footnotes is consistent but imperfect, mostly Chicago style with maybe a little bit of MLA thrown in (MLA favours in-text referencing over footnotes anyway, but it's such a common style it's become a bit of a habit to revert back to it). So if you're going to copy+paste any sources to use in your college-level paper or art manifesto or dream journal (or basically in anything where reference style matters), please double-check that all the full stops and commas are in the correct places for your style!
If you're having any trouble looking for an article or book I've mentioned, feel free to comment or email therazorgirlonline@gmail.com and I'll see if I can help out!
