CyberNev Sundays: Fangirls! Attacking! Rar!
Sunday, March 15th, 2009 at 2:40 pm Category: Comics, CyberNev's SundaysA vague collection of thoughts…
Not knowing what to post today I hemmed and hawed. There’s a lot going on. The new Wonder Woman DVD, the Watchmen movie…all of that’s been covered very well on this site.
But this week, I, along with a friend and two people I do not know, offered to replace Ragnell and Kalinara on “When Fangirls Attack” when they sent out a call to arms.
WFA is a linkblog. The theme of it’s linkdumps have always been the issues of gender in comics, both superhero and manga. It’s a great resource, and I’ve been following it for a while. Check it out here
I hope you guys check if out as I and my friends try to update frequently.
I know I often drop in a reference to my feminist beliefs and whatnot in my articles, and sometimes my reviews. It must be annoying, like I’m harping on an agenda or something. I hope it’s not like that.
I don’t know why I’m a feminist. Technically, the definition of feminist is someone holding the belief men and women are equal. Nearly everyone will vehemently say they embody/support that statement, but shy away when the “f” word is used. I don’t know why that never affected me. Why I took such a passionate interest in woman’s rights. It just seemed natural.
I carry my tenacious belief in equality and hatred toward injustice anywhere I go, not just comics. I don’t think I have it bad. I am amazed and proud of the progress the woman’s movement made, and I cheer every time comics make an awesome female character (which is a lot). I just think it could be better.
It’s very much a part of me.
One of the first comic sites I joined was Girl Wonder. People get the impression that they’re a bunch of comic-hating rabid, radical feminists. I’m pretty sure anyone who thinks that has never spent more than two seconds at the site. It’s a place for intelligent discussion about both where comics succeed and fail dismally at portraying diversity. It combats not only sexism, but racism and homophobia in comics. It’s one of the only message boards I can go to, and not worry a debate is going to turn into childish name calling and wanking and whining. They are that cool over there.
But you have people at TV Tropes and whatnot (and I consider TV Tropes to generally be female positive) saying GW buys comics because they hate them, (Ctrl+F “Comics” and scroll). Which of course, makes no sense.
It’s sad. I wish GW got more traffic too, it’s been dwindling lately.
I got the “Re-Gifters” and “Emiko Superstar” from the Minx line in the library yesterday. They were both good, funny and cute. When I was twelve, I would have freakin’ adored them. DC said Minx failed because of some bullshit “girls don’t like comics”. Yeah, tell that to the manga industry. Truth is, DC doesn’t know how to market to teen girls. First of all, they named the line “Minx.” Look that up in the dictionary. Second, they should have advertised in magazines, or at places girls READ, or GO. And don’t put the novels in the graphic novels section at a bookstore, only comic geeks go there. Put it with YA Books, sneak it in with the Manga, something like that.
DC claims they tried, but they really didn’t. Were I not a comic geek, I would have never heard of “Minx.”
Last random bit of feminist info, Silk Spectre’s not my favorite Watchmen character, but the fact this super crazy lady called her a “whore” (she’s like Rorschach!) for being confident in her sexuality and being the one “on top” made me love her a little suddenly! Silk Spectre IS the instigator in the relationship with Nite-Owl, she is the confident one there, and she IS “on top” in every way, and you know what? That’s pretty cool. Cool enough for this lady’s crazy little mind to be blown.
Go Laurie!
(For more of crazy lady on Watchmen,check out this fandom_wank entry.)
Ciao!
Responses to “CyberNev Sundays: Fangirls! Attacking! Rar!”
I think I speak for many others besides myself that I never thought as your feminist awareness as a bad thing, as though you were pushing an agenda. Matter of fact I quite enjoy most of your articles because of that extra thought you put into them.
I used to go out with a vocal, sensual, active feminist back in the day, and to tell you the truth she didn’t like most other feminists and I’ll tell you why. Most feminists are mean, egotistical (also militant) and often have little actual insight that goes beyond a surface value. Debbie Schlussel, is a very good example of the unfortunate average of the so called “feminists”, her opinions are pretty shallow (thanks for that link btw, I love how she got owned in the comments section). This average is what a lot of people think of when the term feminist goes out into the air, even though it’s not supposed to have a negative connotation inherently. It might also have to do with the “ist” at the end, like communIST (Budgetron), elitIST (Swank), socialIST. Not many like things with ‘ist’ tailing the term for what they describe themselves as representing.
Anyway, you are not what I would deem a feminist in that respect. To me, you are simply a very aware and enlightened individual who has a gift of observance in sexual equality, and great insights therein.
In other words, to me, you’re a cool feminist, not a lame one.
I like the fact that you can see that Specte II has a lot of power in the way she acts and in the way that she wants to dress, most people miss that about a lot of characters and people. The fact that you notice that puts you a cut above the rest Nev. Don’t think about changing for a second.
Two things:
1) I agree that Nev is great.
2) Budgetron is the elitist. He’s not a communist. And I’m a socialist. Get it right.
“Most feminists are mean, egotistical (also militant) and often have little actual insight that goes beyond a surface value.”
I would say that this is, in fact, the demonised image of feminism presented by a threatened patriarchy, and not anywhere close to true. The “average” feminist is anyone who thinks the sexes should be equal.
“This…is what a lot of people think of when the term feminist goes out into the air, even though it’s not supposed to have a negative connotation inherently.” is very true, though.
Congratulations, Nevermore.
[...] The last thing I want from a possible female audience, even on the internet, to my work, is scorn and derision. Females are half my intended audience, because it’s even harder to get guys to read my stuff because it deals with men falling in love, getting in touch with one’s feelings, and self esteem issues in late modernity. In some cases I can be even girlier than some girls are, and in a not so good way. I once had one of my posts linked to by When Fangirls Attack! which talked about romance manga, and that was some encouragement that at least somebody didn’t think I was a misogynist. Leigh Alexander left me a comment calling me “Not irrelevant at all”, a moment in my career that makes me intensely proud, because it’s hard to convince female bloggers that you’re not like the percieved hordes of male otaku bloggers who post gushings over 2D girls all day. I started reading Yu+Me Dream by Megan Rose Gedris and I thought it was one of the best webcomics I’ve ever read, and it made me feel very, very small in my artistic abilities because her art style was better than my own. TT_____TT This is also a very good post about comics and feminism, click on this link plz. [...]
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