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From Thunder Blossom's livejournal:

So what's really making people feel iffy about our lazy janitor as a woman? I'd say it's simply a matter of what standards have been set already. Really, the problem is that we're just not used to having female characters that don't do what has been already set in our culture as female things to do. And it comes down to, why is the character a girl? People asking THAT, but not ever asking, why is this character a typical white guy AGAIN? And we're so used to seeing men as the stars, that when there's a woman, the rarity calls attention. Calls so much attention that I guess people get more wrapped up in the "why" of that instead of just trying to follow the story.

Another classroom example: In acting class, our instructor drew a big square on the board and asked us to make a character out of it. It was just an exercise in figuring out a character and motivations and goals and all that. Most that were made were male characters, all without any romantic histories or motivations, while the one female character did. I mean, there were some crazy and fanciful ideas for the male characters, but the one girl seemed quite limited to that girl stereotype.

What's happening here is... I guess people are asking the wrong questions. "Why should we have a female character? There has to be a purpose in our character choices! Oh, so logically something significant to this character story-wise would probably be a boyfriend or something."

When these attachments are taken out of a story and we simply have a character that happens to be a girl, it may throw some people off because they're just not used to it.

Interesting

Newsarama posted a teaser image that DC sent out. Careful, it might spoil some of 52 (though there's an argument that its meant to mislead going around).

Anyway, I just wanted to comment on four things in that picture.

Spoilerphobes, go away



1) Someone online is probably already making a big deal of that belt. Well, forget it. Not even Didio would bring Barry Allen back.



2) I'm happy to see Mary healed up and sitting around like she's mourning someone else (rather than being mourned).



3) Donna and Kyle. I thought I'd scream at the implication of seeing them together, but weirdly I'm getting comfortable with the idea. Don't get me wrong, I'll never be a Donna fan, but damned if she wasn't the strongest love interest Kyle ever ran across and she has proven staying power. Idiot writers can depower her, kill her, turn her to stone, erase her mind, turn her into a villain and she keeps coming back to what she was in her most popular incarnation. She's got a better chance of getting through a crossover than Kyle does.



4) This is adorable and I want a poster of it.

Raquel Ervin and Why I'm Pro-Choice

Today's the 34th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, so naturally I turned to my stack of Icon issues and dig out the appropriate story for the occasion -- Icon #7, which illustrates pretty well why I went from anti-choice to pro-choice over the last 5 years.

The first thing you need to know about Icon is that is is a very political book. Augustus Freeman IV is an alien who has been stranded on Earth for almost two hundred years. He's very old, very rich, and very conservative. Raquel Ervin is an idealistic teenaged girl with very progressive leanings who convinces Augustus to don a suit and use his powers to inspire and help people. She has a belt that gives her superpowers. Together they are Icon and Rocket, fighting crime and debating human nature across Dakota City.

Early on in the series, Raquel discovers that she's pregnant, and the father asks how she knows its his. Raquel doesn't react too well to that.



So yeah, help from him is out. The family already lives in the projects. Her grandmother all but tells her she won't help, its abortion or adoption. Raquel doesn't think a black baby will get adopted, so as Icon #7 (by Dwayne McDuffie, Erica Helene, and MD Bright), the "Very Special Issue About Abortion" opens, Raquel sees one option to save her ambitions.

Hoping for a mistake, Raquel takes a trip the clinic to get the diagnosis confirmed. After the Doctor tells her that yes, indeed, she is pregnant, she goes off the record. Because the government funds the clinic, its illegal to give Raquel the information she needs, but the Doctor tells her what type of procedure she needs, how long it will take, and that she needs to make the decision quickly for both her physical and her emotional health. this leads to the first revelation of the issue (all issues of Icon of drama and personal revelations that lead to social commentary monologues on Raquel's part).



After this, she decides (consciously) that an abortion is the smart thing to do so she goes to Augustus to borrow the money. Augustus, as mentioned before, is very old, very rich, and very conservative. She goes in expecting a denial and a sanctity of life lecture but here's where the writers throw a little twist her way. Augustus was married before.



Estelle and Augustus decide on an abortion, and fortunately they had enough money to afford a safe one, by 19th century standards. Augusus tells Raquel that he can't put himself in her position, or judge her based on her choice, but the money is a gift if she needs it.

Raquel does not react well to that.



This is when we find out what Raquel's really been searching for. Not money, not options, but someone to tell her what to do. Raquel's at a scary crossroads. She can have the baby and forever wonder what her life would have been like without having put her life on hold for a child, or she can have the abortion and forever wonder what her life would have been like with a little son or daughter. Its such an incredible decision, and both choices have a lot of pain associated with them. If she was denied the money, or the ability to get an abortion, she would be forced to keep the baby and responsibility for her decision would not be on her. She could always blame Augustus if she has to drop out of school. She wants to keep the baby, but she doesn't want to think that she gave up her dreams when she does.

This may also be when I start projecting onto Raquel. See, I've lived my life avoiding responsibility and deferring to other people for even little decisions. I put off college too long, I put off learning to drive until I was forced to, I put off buying a car until my situation become impossible, I put off moving off base and into an apartment until the USAF forced me out of the dorms. Every single step I've taken towards being an adult has been reluctant, and made at the very last moment. Because, at the least moment, its very easy to blame circumstances or other people if the choice you've made was the one you regret. This always made the pro-Choice movement scary, because whichever choice you make, you own it and its a unimaginably huge decision.

Raquel ended up keeping the baby, but she couldn't resign herself to having been forced to make the decision. She had to commit herself to working her butt off to making things work for her, and for the baby together, and if she fell on her face it would all be her fault.

I've gotten into arguments at work with pro-lifers who think that the pro-choice movement is irresponsible. For me, being pro-life and letting everyone else makes my decisions for me is the irresponsible path. Its the easiest path possible, that's why I was pro-life when I was a teenager.

As an adult, I can't be anything other than pro-choice, because adults make decisions. And adults don't make other's decisions for them.

And this issue captures my own view of it perfectly. At the end Raquel makes the choice to have the baby, but she and everyone around her are better off for having the options available that they do, and the right choice for Raquel is not the right choice for everyone and the stories of the Dr. Sidhani and Estelle Freeman illustrate that.

This is Actually Related to the Post I Was Writing

I'm trying to do a Blog for Choice Day post, but today I am easily distractable so I'm not sure how well it'll come out. I seem compelled to be flippant when I discuss Icon. I think its the overwhelming joy of having such a pro-Feminist superhero comic in existence, even if it is long since concluded.

In the meantime, please enjoy Raquel "The Rocket" Ervin punching some dude in the face.

We haven't done a caption game in a while.

Have fun, I even left a bit to get you started.


(Here's the original image, scanned out of The Best of the Spirit)

Gossiping Gods!

Guess what happened next.

Since I'm doing memes anyway..

(Found via Artemis and Racy Li)

Thirteen Books I Started Reading, But Haven't Finished 1) Triplanetary 2) Rituals of the Dark Moon 3) Women in the Line of Fire 4) Superconscious Meditation 5) Any Four Women Can Rob the Bank of Italy 6) War of the Worlds 7) Survival 8) Art is a Way of Knowing 9) The Prince 10) The Universe Next Door 11) The Second Sex 12) Witchcraft for Tomorrow 13) To Write Like a Woman (Just started 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 13. I've given up completely on 8, 9, and 10.) Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Racy Li 2. Caylynn 3. KT Cat 4. Jenny Ryan 5. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Five Things Feminism Has Done For Me Meme

I was tagged for this one a long time ago. I am terribly slow with memes. Also, I fear this will reveal too much of my petty, vindictive soul.

Oh well.

Here goes:

1) Last November, two men who signed their names to absurd, criminally unconstitutional legislature, wasted taxpayer money, and had the most odious personal politics I have ever heard of were voted out of office, and I helped. Yay Suffrage!

2) When in a discussion about politics or feminism, and someone states something to the effect of "Have YOU ever served?" or implies that women should be eligible for the draft if they want equality, I can say "Yes, in fact I enlisted during the Clinton years before patriotism became so popular. How about you?"
Past military service still carries a surprising amount of weight with a lot of people in the US, and its only because of feminism that I had the option.

3) I can upgrade and troubleshoot my own damned computer because of the training I got in the military, in a career field that was not open to women fifty years ago.

4) I have my own job, and I pay for my rent, my food, and my utilities with money that I earned myself. I didn't need to stay with my parents until I got married.

5) When I'm finished working, and need to relax, I can go online and find a story that features a woman like me, who has my interests, and my skills, and maybe some of my background. This does not have to be a romance story, though it can be if I'm in the mood. It can be political, fantasy, science fiction, or just a story about ordinary life. It can be online or at a nearby store, a television show I hadn't known about, a comic, or written prose. I can find a story where the hero, a woman, drives the story, does not fit entirely into a set little box of wife, mother or daughter based on how she relates to a male hero. I can find a story that doesn't try to subtly drive my lifestyle choice in a direction I find unsatisfying, just because that's the social role for my gender. I can find a story that values what I do and affirms that women can have it too. I can write such a story and reasonably expect to see it published and read.

Which is basically a long way of saying I can dream, and share it with others, and I can learn what other people dreamed about, and there aren't stupid limits on what we can share based on what's acceptable for girls to dream about.

And this meme is old, so whoever hasn't been tagged before and is reading this, consider yourself tagged.

Hey, those aren't the rules!

Okay, one thing keeps bothering me about this post:

The questions began. First I was asked to establish more credentials, and it wasn’t even innocently phrased anymore. One guy said, word for word, “If you really like Batman, name three Robins.” Because hey, I’m me, I busted out Stephanie Brown, in fact, and not Tim Drake. I was then told that I’d forgotten one. (“No, you asked for three and I named three. If you wanted Tim, you should have asked who the three male Robins were.”) I was asked who killed Jason Todd. I was asked to detail current storylines.

Since no else has mentioned it yet, I might as well.

Didn't she win?

I mean, seriously. She knew Stephanie Brown and they didn't. Their knowledge of Batman trivia was inferior to hers. They had no right to keep questioning. In fact, she could have been demanding that they prove their geeky credentials because they were out of date.

She won, dammit. They're supposed to lower their heads and bare their soft underbellies for devouring. No fair, dammit.

Check out Bully's place today, too

Dr. Martin Luther King Day

Off-Topic Reading: Civil Rights History

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

(I'd never seen this one before today)

Solicits and Ice

On Wednesday, work itnerrupted me and I didn't make it to the comic book store. And then on Thursday, work interrupted again. I made plans for Friday and that was when the storm hit. I waited out the ice, living off oatmeal and macroni and cheese in the meantimke, until today when I stumbled out of my cavern to clear off my car.

That took 40 minutes.

Then, I was stuck in the parking spot. It took 10 minutes, a bag of kitty litter, and a neighbor's help to get out.

I made my way down the icy road to the dry cleaner's, which was on the corner. On a clear day this trip takes 2 minutes. Today, 15.

Obviously the comic book store, half-way across town, was out of the question. So much for JSA and GLC this week. Maybe Wednesday. Today even the discount grocery store a few blocks away was out of the question. Instead I went to the one which is close, but so expensive you actually save money by going to the 7-11 instead (but the 7-11 is out of kitty litter). Yeesh, Skinner Spaghetti for $1.70? WTF? That's a 10 cent item!

But hey, at least I have power. And a phone line to order pizza.

And the DC solicits are up for my birth month!

They're pushing two Wonder Woman issues that month, which that means the bimonthly crap is over when Heinburg bolts (if we'll actually have the end of Heinberg's run by April is another question). I might be satisfied with Piccoult for a while if she can get a script done on time. Also, Amazons Attack starts that month, so they might be setting up a Wonder Woman month in April.

Recommended Reading.

At Loren's place.

Did ComicsSpace just get useful?

ComicsSpace Bulletins just went online. If anyone else is like me, and just collected people for a little bit then got bored, there's a use for that account now.

I'm going to use mine to link people to stuff, as that is the purpose the the internet.

Mary on Visibility

From Tangled Up in Blue:

A lot of the people I know, online and off, identify a lot more easily with male characters than with female characters, which I suspect is one of the major stumbling blocks when we all try to discuss this stuff from equally well-meaning but very different positions. Because I don't identify more easily with men than with women. I don't know why that is. It wasn't, when I was a little girl, a political choice I made. It's just part of who I am, and it influenced the way I grew up and the beliefs I hold as an adult.

There's a book I have called Fearless Girls, and in the introduction the writer talks about going to a school and reading a picture book to a kindergarten class. At the end of the story, she asked the kids who they'd 'been'. Who had they identified with in the story. And one of the little girls flipped through the pages to a crowd scene, and pointed out a girl in the background -- the only female character in the story. That's how I feel sometimes. It's why I end up fixated on hobbits who show up for two scenes at the end of a three-book trilogy.

There are certainly male characters I'm fond of; that's no revelation to anyone reading this, I'm sure. But I want Sarah Connor as well as Mad Max; Zoe as well as Jayne; Jessica Jones as well as John Constantine, Stephanie Brown as well as Tim Drake. I want the option to identify with a female to be available to me.

It's not fair for a black kid to watch tv and only see white people when they'd also like to see black people. It's not fair for a gay teen to watch tv and see only straight people when they'd also like to see gay people. And it's not fair for me to watch tv and only see male people when I'd also like to see female people.

Your mileage may vary; I know it does for a lot of you. But my mileage is as valid as yours, and isn't as reflected by what I can watch, and that's why I haven't shut up about it yet.

National De-lurking Week!

Anyway, I nearly missed it, and there's only a couple days left, but Tom informs me its National De-lurking Week. So leave a comment, even if you normally just read.

Last time I asked for guesses as to the context of the image, but you should all know this one even with the words changed.

If Anyone Ever Wonders Why I'm So Arrogant When Discussing Comics...

It's a pre-emptive strike. I've experienced what Reb has in every comic book store in four cities. (Via FSF Carnival 9)

Two other guys, both of them nerds, were there. Both of them overheard. And upon affirming that yes, I really like Batman and have a mild interest in and knowledge of comics, I was asked what other titles I read.

This was not a friendly question. It wasn’t the way you’d ask a new acquaintance what they read to see if there’s anything to discuss or bond over. It was a challenge, which they made very clear. The question may have been, “What other comics do you like?” but the subtext was very clearly, “You’re a girl, what other comics could you possibly actually be familiar with?”

But I am, as I said, conversant in Batman and passingly interested in comics. So I answered honestly that I don’t really read a lot of comics, and definitely know more about Batman than anything else, but thanks to friends who were really into them, I enjoy both Green Lantern and Green Arrow. And the guys in the staff room, well, freaked out.

The questions began. First I was asked to establish more credentials, and it wasn’t even innocently phrased anymore. One guy said, word for word, “If you really like Batman, name three Robins.” Because hey, I’m me, I busted out Stephanie Brown, in fact, and not Tim Drake. I was then told that I’d forgotten one. (“No, you asked for three and I named three. If you wanted Tim, you should have asked who the three male Robins were.”) I was asked who killed Jason Todd. I was asked to detail current storylines.

And again, keep in mind, these were questions to establish that, good god, I really was a living, breathing girl – an attractive one, no less! – who was into something nerdy. One of the guys responded with wonder. The other, who many women at the store have had other, far worse kinds of run ins with, was angry and condescending. (Needless to say, he was the one who hadn’t even realized Stephanie was a valid answer to the Robin question.) This all went on for a good twenty minutes (until our break ended, in fact) and through the whole thing I got more flustered and more angry, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on why until later.

Ahh... Nerd Superiority plus sexism. Didn't Atalanta set up the race rule because of a similar combination?

Ninth Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans Posted!

The absolutely wonderful Betty has put together the Ninth Carnival over at League of Substitute Heroes!

Go check it out!

And if anyone wants to step up to host the tenth, contact me.

I Hate Being Wrong

Ladies and Gentlemen, (Via Rhiannon) Mr. Chuck Dixon:

We needed a scene in which Connor undeniably had sex with a female so we could stop the assumptions that Connor was gay.

Let me start off by saying that is the stupidest excuse for having a sex scene I've heard outside a Laurell K. Hamilton plot.

And it serves to kill some of my interest in Connor Hawke.

I didn't read much of Dixon's Green Arrow, just the Green Lantern crossovers, JLA and the relaunch. From them, though, I never got the impression of a homosexual man. Instead I thought he was asexual.

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the term "asexual" as applied to human beings, let me explain it to you the best I know how. If you've ever been pretty drunk while a remarkably attractive person is kissing you and begging you to spend the night but you turn them down because you don't feel like going to the trouble of undoing a button fly on somewhat tight jeans, the term might just apply to you. If its not shyness that keeps you from approaching the gorgeous person who sent you a drink, but an unwillingness to give up your seat in a crowded and noisy club, the term probably does apply to you. I don't mean anyone who turns down sex in a "it's not my type" or "I'm aroused but repressed by low self-esteem or cultural taboo" way. I mean someone who turns down sex in a "I have better uses for my energy" way.

Its a lot more complicated than that, and there's probably a bunch of people ready to nitpick this definition, but the basic idea is no real interest in sex.

That's not to say there's no interest in romance or attraction, which is where I got my impression of Connor Hawke. He liked women, but really didn't have an active sex drive.

It fit with his whole relaxed archer persona. Like Ollie, pretty much all of his sexual needs were met. Unlike Ollie, he required very little in that department.

Until, of course, I saw these pages.

Instead he's just another repressed, sheltered young man for writers to project their own adolescent sexual insecurities through, or play off cliches and cheap jokes with.

This character is strange. I'm reasonably certain that he was a 90s attempt at racial diversity. I remember one comic that described him as part white, part Asian, and part black. But, they gave him blonde hair and most of the artists draw him like a white man anyway, so nobody knows unless they specifically point it out.

In the meantime, he seemed, to a lot of people, like a chance at sexual diversity. A lot of people read him as gay, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who read him as asexual. They can still make him bisexual if they want (there's really no way to close that door on future writers). But that message board conversation proves that he was created to be a stock heterosexual young man.

And he looks like a stock white man, unless you go out of your way to point it out in the story (and you shouldn't have to).

They could, of course, have let it be subtle and been ambiguous so that individuals could project on him, relate him to themselves or people they've known. But that intense need to establish sexuality early on shut the door on that, and made the DC universe just a little less diverse, and a little less interesting, than it could have been.

In the end, of course, it proves nothing but Dixon's double-standard on censoring homosexual relationship. People experiment, even asexuals, and a single love scene doesn't set things in stone. A later writer could establish him as gay and retcon this out, or explain it away as him doing what he thought he was supposed to do and have a big awakening sexuality storyline.

The only difference now is, as opposed to being irked that he's gay rather than asexual like I'd thought, I'd find myself logging online in sadistic glee to read Dixon's reaction.

Honestly, what they teaching at Harvard these days?

Dear Defensive Writer,

No one is surprised or shamed when you say "there is nothing to support that in the narrative" to an accusation of sexism. Of course you don't think there's anything to support sexism in the narrative. You wrote the damned thing.

So when responding to a criticism that charges that a female character is written out of character and dismissed by the story, it certainly helps your point if you read the post and respond to the actual criticism rather than ranting in the comments of a post linking it about all the good you did otherwise in the story and then claiming that the sexism charge is baseless without even looking at the actual sexism charges. It might also help to go to the post that addressed the issue and comment there.

I've seen your colleagues answer these same sorts of criticisms thoughtfully and politely, taking the entire argument in account. Some see the mistake, some don't see the mistake, but at least they listen. Maybe you should too.

Just a helpful suggestion,
-- One of the Fans Who Made the Original Criticism.

(Those you wondering what this is about should check comment #4 on this post)