TELL ME SOMETHING I HAVEN’T HEARD
(This is to accompany this. Since apparently text-cuts don’t work in photo posts! Uhg, tumblr, why?!)
For a larger version of this image, go here.
About halfway through drawing this, I realized what I had created was effectively a Bingo Card, but perhaps a slightly more emotive one. So I’ll explain a bit of what’s behind it.
I first got into comics through feminist criticism of comics. I’m a feminist. And I love comics. The two things for me are inseparable, and I make no apologies for it. Both are a part of who I am. I’m also a fan of superheroes and superhero comics.
When it comes to discussions about women in comics, sexism in superhero comics, and so forth, I’m always reading, sometimes linking, and commenting a bit here and there. If you pay attention for a while as a female (and possibly feminist) comics reader, and/or superhero fan, you start to hear the same things over and over again. It becomes predictable and repetitive pretty quickly.
Below I’ve expanded on what I’m talking about. It’s lengthy, so it’s behind a text cut.
- You have the people who don’t see the problems you see, and they would prefer it if you could just shut the hell up about it already. Because if they don’t have a problem with something, clearly no one should complain.
- You have the indie comics or manga evangelists who insist that clearly, clearly, all these foolish superhero fans just need to give up the genre and start reading independent comics or manga. Assuming that they weren’t already reading and enjoying indies and manga. Assuming that readers who actually just really like the superhero genre will find other styles and genres to be completely interchangeable with superheroes. (And assuming that there are no problems for women or sexism in indie comics or manga.) Sometimes this is paired up with a wish or prediction that superhero comics will die some well-deserved death. I don’t think that’s what most people want, and personally I think it would be very sad if it did. [ETA: My friend Nev has some good comments on the article I linked to regarding sexism in the manga industry that’s worth reading.]
- You have the trolls who are so enraged by women expressing any sort of opinion about comics, so incensed at the possibility that opinionated women might have even a modicum of influence over how comics are created, that they resort to misogynist name-calling. Cries of “feminazi!”, “bitch!”, “cunts!”, and sometimes throwing in the occasional “dykes!” to balance things out with a bit of homophobia. Some take it even further with harassment and handing out threats. Of course, most trolls keep it mild and insidious, describing women’s words as “shrill” or “pointless whining”, and assume they know every single thing a woman has to say on the topic without ever reading or listening to a word she’s actually said.
- You have the people who like to bring up the only known (and outdated) statistics about female readership of superhero comics. “You’re only 10%!” they shout, as if that explains and excuses away any sexism or misogyny found in the comics they read. Yet apparently such a tiny, negligible group of people are also responsible for ruining the industry. Our complaints are supposedly going to get people to boycott all comics, so then all comics as we know it are doomed! Doomed!
Or maybe they, like their troll brethren, will take the mild and insidious route of insisting that feminist complaints about bad comics merely drive their sales up, and that clearly all these feminists are not doing their jobs if they’re not spending all their time promoting the good, female-positive comics out there. As if most of these women are getting paid to voice their opinions. As if it’s the job of anyone outside of the people who actually make or publish a comic to promote it. As if it is only female readers who have a problem with sexism and misogyny in their comics. As if ignoring the bad in favour of the good will result in the bad going away. (I guess they expect three spirits to visit comics editors and publishers in the middle of the night, so that they wake up one morning having seen the error of their ways, stick their head out of their window and shout at someone in the street, “You there! Fetch me some artists and writers, we’re going to make comics for Mrs Cratchit and her daughters, too!”)
- “Superhero comics aren’t for you!” some say. Really? Then why have I managed to accumulate a bookshelf full of comics I love in the four or five years I’ve spent reading comics? Why would companies like DC and Marvel create so many comics that appealed to me, that I loved, that made me fall in love with their characters, and with superhero stories and tropes? Why would they create TV shows and movies of same that left me starving for more? Why lure me in and then try to slam the door in my face, shouting “no girls allowed!” This may take the form of “superhero comics are just adolescent male power fantasies, of course they’re sexist, what did you expect?” It’s disturbing that male power has to come at the expense of the humanity of women and girls. It’s utterly ridiculous to say that girls and women don’t want power fantasy stories of their own, especially when as a whole they have more cause to feel powerless than your average straight white men.
- You also have some women who will trot out that well-worn phrase, “Well, I’m a woman and I’m not offended.” It may also take the form of “my friend/girlfriend/sister/wife doesn’t find this offensive”. On the surface, this isn’t really a problem. Not everyone is going to be offended by the same things. But often when a woman says this, it’s used to try and invalidate those who do find something offensive. Some take it further and build up a bizarre kind of logic where they think that liking cool guy-things instead of caring about stupid girly-things like feminism (“Ew! I’m not a man-hater! I love men!”) makes them cooler and somehow less sexist than everyone else. (Of course, internalized sexism/misogyny is more complex than that.)
- Then we get into the people who maybe agree with you, who maybe do want change, but who like to shift all the responsibility of change onto those who voice complaints. “If you don’t like it, go make your own comics!” Some readers are just readers, who don’t want to make comics. Some already have jobs or are pursuing careers totally unrelated to their comics hobby. It is not their responsibility as readers and consumers to make good feminist comics, and even if it was, that suggestion kind of assumes that anyone doing so will have the same power, influence, and exposure as mainstream comics, when in actuality they will not.
- Sometimes the idea, that those discussing sexism in comics want to make comics themselves, is used to try and invalidate anything they have to say. “Oh, you’re not mad about sexism, you’re just mad that your favourite character isn’t adhering to your fanfic-y ideas about them!” As if it is impossible to be a fan of a character or write fanfic about them, and simultaneously have legitimate concerns about how that character is portrayed. As if creatively participating in comics fandom automatically invalidates any opinions you have about the comics you read. And if you actually do want to make comics—-or, god forbid, you want to make comics and you dare to exercise your creative muscles by writing fanfiction—-well then, all your arguments are invalid! Because clearly you’re merely frustrated that you’re not in charge, and apparently you never ever simply want to read comics about characters you love without finding their content offensive. (This one is especially amusing when it comes to superhero comics, considering the majority of creators working at the Big Two write and draw characters they did not create and are therefore making fanfiction themselves, albeit funded and legal fanfiction.) And you can’t be frustrated you’re not in charge and have legitimate complaints, oh no.
- The cries of “censorship!”, “prudes!” and “uptight puritans!” are laughable. They oversimplify and ignore most of what’s said about poor portrayals of women and sex in comics. Comics should be for everyone. That means comics for all ages. That means comics for girls and women (and boys! and men! and non-gender-binary-identifying people!) who like the superheroes they saw in cartoons on TV. That means comics for people who want dark or mature stories that don’t demean whole categories of people. That means porn comics for adults, even adults who aren’t male and straight. It’s not uptight prudery to wish that a female character’s history and personality be preserved and respected, and that her male friends/allies not be turned into sleaze bags. (Let’s not forget sexism cuts both ways, all ways, always.) Complaining about a problem in a comic is not censorship. Asking if taking a character that was popular in cartoons, sacrificing her character to try to pander sexually to the straight male audience, is really a good business model in the current industry climate is not censorship. (The other side of the coin is those who are actually slut-shaming, or insisting that all female characters have to be perfect role models. That’s not helping anything either.)
- The more mundane, overused assertions that men are idealized or objectified as much as women are in superhero comics are quite boring and tiresome at this point. Especially when there have been so many visual counter-arguments to demonstrate that men and women are generally not idealized and objectified in the same way. Men are idealized as strong, women are idealized as “sexy”. It reinforces the idea that male characters are the active participants, the heroes, the ones who are super, and that female characters are just after-thoughts designed to be trivial accessories to complement the stories of male heroes (you know, the ones that actually matter).
This doesn’t even cover all of it. I’m sure I’ve left out other crap that people commonly say in response to complaints about how women are treated in comics. What’s funny is that the majority of people saying the things listed above also act like they are the first person in the world to have ever expressed these totally unique and insightful arguments. If you’re new to these discussions, maybe you haven’t heard them a million times. But it doesn’t take long to encounter them, or to have them repeated so often they sound like a broken record.
I don’t know the way forward. I know I’m tired of seeing arguments go in circles with nobody really listening. I know there are problems in the superhero comics I love. I hope things will change, and I hope the discussions about these issues will change. I also hope that progressive change is not limited to women in comics, but to everyone who finds themselves marginalized in this medium. I hope that in addition to arguing and fighting against sexism and misogyny, that we also fight and argue against homophobia, racism, ableism, and transphobia. And most importantly I hope that people listen to those who are directly affected by those things first, before assuming they already know and understand the complexities and nuances of those forms of discrimination and how they affect people.
I know superhero comics can be fascinating, inspiring, frightening, empowering, funny and silly as hell, and endlessly imaginative. I know that comics is probably the most dynamic, flexible, limitless, and creative mediums of communication and storytelling that humans have invented. It’s beautiful and amazing and I love it. There is no reason why comics, of any style or any genre, can’t be for everyone.
