Tabula Rasa
May 18I had one of those thoughts in the shower this morning. The deep kind. Not the other kind. But before I share, I need to give you a little background.
A few months back we had a gathering, something my extended circle of friends calls Slackademics. The idea is pretty simple – if Bob knows how to play ukelele and the rest don’t, Bob can teach us the basics. If someone knows how to draw or make web pages, they share their basics with the group. And at this particular gathering it was the history of comics. Very cool stuff, as the author and comics historian of the group covered the history of comics and what they were reflecting of society.
By the end, there was a main conclusion – this love of comics and sense of historical perspective wasn’t something easily transmittable. Those with kids were passing it along to their kids, maybe a few of their friends. But what about all the kids that don’t have that kind of nerd-mentorship?
Which is where my brain picked up this morning (as I was also pondering my post from the previous day and wondering if it would be a big shit storm or a little shit storm.)
They say we are not born racist, or sexist, or homophobic, or so on. We are not born with any preconceived ideas at all. They are not with us at the start, we learn them. And if you’ve ever watched a newborn brain power up, you’ll understand how scary it is to see how much they absorb through observation, let alone direct tutoring. So, generation after generation, we chip away at discrimination – it seems to be working, though it’s not like we’re ready to remove the word from the dictionary.
We’re even chipping away at sexism. But something is broke in comics. And I think that it’s related to a lack of comic mentorship. We are – right this very second as it happens – arguing with one another. One side sees the a problem and wants change. The other side are old dogs, who do not want to learn a new trick, and in fact don’t see a problem with the old trick. How is this going to help? It will help in the few younger minds that may happen to read and catch a thought. But will it be a good thought, or a bad thought? Kinda random.
So, here’s my question – why fight a 35 year-old with a disposable income who likes to collect statues? Shouldn’t the target be the brains that are still sorting things out?
If a living room full of people agree that maybe we should all try harder to educate kids that “I’m the God damned Batman!” is a stupid line, not in keeping with the spirit of the character, aren’t we agreed that those same opportunities, if we can produce them, are the logical place to ween an industry off of pointless booty, by prepping some new brains.
“This is a great Wonder Woman story. This one is stupid.”
“That’s a cute Supergirl statue. Oh, God, it’s that awful Superman/Batman Supergirl.”
So, how do we do this?
Brainstorm time!
1) Arrange with your local library to have regular comic-reading gatherings. Be prepared to bring the good shit, and that it may go missing or get damaged. You have five bucks to replace it, that kid doesn’t.
…
Actually, that’s all I’ve got. But I like it. I’m going to ponder it. What else can be done? Matt has something, but I will not comment – hopefully it something that can be talked about in the near future.
Mary Jane Watson-Parker, Burn Your Bra.
May 18Oh, sigh.
I’m trying to speak sense to the senseless, and frankly, it’s exhausting.
There is no context, nor situation or scenario, in which this statue of Mary Jane from the Spider-Man comics is anything but sexist and demeaning to women.
Don’t try to rationalize it. Sorry, doesn’t work. I don’t care what the target audience is; I don’t care that women “don’t have to buy it” or “don’t HAVE to look at it.” I don’t care that there are women who actually do laundry for their husbands, or women who look like that, or even women who look like that and pose like that when they do laundry.
It’s patently offensive to me that a major American entertainment corporation chooses to depict women in this way. It’s an archaic view of a woman’s place in the culture, it’s demeaning to the entire gender, and it’s just the latest example.
This example is particularly egregious, because it is so outlandish as to almost be a parody of sexism. Hell, maybe it is. I dunno.
I know that every time I see a Michael Turner cover with breasts bigger than basketballs, it pisses me off. Every time I open an issue of Superman and see Carlos Pacheco’s cheesecake obsession getting in the way of a darn good superhero yarn, it pisses me off. Every time I read an Ex Machina trade and a random main female character is depicted as sitting at home alone in a transparent negligee, like a character in a Friday After Dark movie on Skinemax, it pisses me off.
When I saw this statue, it REALLY PISSED ME OFF, and something snapped.
I just can’t resign myself to it anymore. The debasement of women in modern superhero comics, much like the graphic violence in the same, is something I have come to tolerate if I like a story well enough. There is no way I can justify it, and it consistently bothers me that I somehow support and silently issue my approval by spending money on it. Yet it doesn’t ruin things for me often.
This statue? It ruins things. It makes me want to torch my entire collection and disassociate myself completely with a fanbase and a hobby that I love. It makes me embarassed to even read comics. It’s pathetic.
I wish more people could try to understand how this is a problem, instead of working so hard to weakly rationalize it.
As I said in the Sisyphean comment thread on Newsarama (yeah, I’m gonna quote myself, fuck you):
If you think this statue is okay, I ask you to do me one simple favor.
Imagine any woman you care about in that same pose. Your mother, your sister, your girlfriend, your wife, your daughter, your friend.
Just give it a second.
Then tell me how it’s okay for this industry to put these images consistently out into the public space, EVEN in limited editions, and EVEN for a targeted, tiny, sad market.
Ow! My eyes!
May 17Really? Really, really? Fanboys like boobs is news and suddenly appalling? Did we cure cancer and I missed it? Is that why we have all this free time? I think I strained a muscle rolling my eyes at both sides (Seriously dude. Any rebuttal that includes “You obviously don’t or haven’t read Spider-Man in the past 20 years or you’d know this.” isn’t helping. Or winning, for that matter.)
Really, if and when Hughes ever designs the 70’s, Club 54, party-girl comiquette (why is nobody complaining about that word? Is it just me?) of Miss Watson, will there be enough spare outrage to rail against injustice? Perhaps it should be saved for a better shot than this.
But here we are. Fanboys – own up. You’re buying statue boobies and everybody knows it, you Maxim-wanking lunks, you. Offended fangirls, give ‘er, but I think in a world where Jae Lee art gets into the hands of tens of thousands of young men, a limited edition run of Spidercheesecake isn’t the best shot (but it’s generated a lot of discussion, so what do I know?) – I think of it like this; Spider-man has a day job and a night job, whereas Mary-Jane just has the day job, and it’s acting, so I think it’s very nice that she offered to do his laundry. This once…
…or maybe NOT! Maybe she’s going, “Tiger, this sweaty body suit stinks – and it’s dark, so please don’t throw it in with my lights.”
We just don’t know.
So, someone fill me in – how’d we conquer cancer?
[UPDATE]
Despite grumpily swearing I wasn’t going to fight this one, I kind of kept thinking about it. I still think this is a stupid battle for a good war. I’m now attempting alternatives.
I hope Matt’s post makes it onto When Fangirls Attack soon, but until then dear readers, go here.
Ahhhahahahahahahaha! Awesome. It’s like the office discussion rendered into reality.
Not So Mighty Marvel Mites
May 15Found this through the always-awesome Pop Culture Junk Mail:
“These tiny tots are completely useless in the ongoing struggle against evil. Not only are Spiderman and Captain America helpless babies, they’re revealing their secret baby identities.”
Mars Does the Limbo
May 15So the upfronts are this week and I’ve been waiting and waiting and gnawing my nails off and refreshing webpages in hopes of hearing the official word on the fate of Veronica Mars. It’s been a total rollercoaster for us Marsians. There was the news that the network was quite keen on Rob Thomas’ re-vamped Veronica, which fast-forwards a few years and showed us our girl as an FBI agent. There was continued buzz that the show’s less-than-stellar recent ratings spelled certain doom. When Gilmore Girls got canned, it actually seemed like a positive — one more drama slot on the schedule! But still no news of either a pick-up or a cancellation.
The CW presents Thursday, and virtually every series except Veronica has gotten the official word either way. Variety cites the old “people familiar with the situation” to claim it’s very likely done. TVGuide.com’s Michael Ausiello sez Dawn Ostroff might not even make a decision until after the upfronts, which seems cruel and unusual (or marginally hopeful, depending on your outlook).
All this waiting is making me crabby. And yet, I’m still holding onto that slender ray of hope. It’s all I have, you understand. I guess this limbo situation speaks to the unique place the show inhabits: it’s a culty fan favorite that Ostroff reportedly loves, but it just doesn’t bring in the numbers of that fucking Pussycat Dolls show, or even the odious One Tree Hill. And yet, like so many culty fan favorites, the fans that do love it love it hard.
I’ve also heard that Rob doesn’t exactly resolve things in the season finale. Gulp.
If Veronica does leave the airwaves, it will mean the end of an era, for I will have no Iconic Girl Powah show to latch onto and that is a sad thing indeed. Before Veronica, there was Alias, and before Alias, there was Buffy. I guess I better hope that Bionic Woman (clips in that link, FYI) kicks ass, eh?
