I need White Feminism (which exists to benefit whiteness and white womanhood) to stop telling me that Black female characters are better off when they’re single.
I need White Feminists ™ in fandom to stop pretending that they’re protecting or promoting Iris West/Nyota Uhura/Abbie Mills/Eve Moneypenny by wanting these Black female characters to stay single and “strong” forever, pushing them away from the potential of canon romances with white male characters.Read More »
The X-Men franchise kind of proves how allegories for oppression often fall flat when it comes to being cognizant of stuff like racism. The in-world oppression that the characters do face is serious and important, but the series itself is terrible at handling or recognizing intersectional identities and the realities of life as a marginalized person with a mutation.
In fact, the thought that inspired me writing this little post was looking at how of Black mutants in the United States where the original comic series and the first film in the new franchise (that kills off the one Black guy (Darwin) in the first film and has Afro-Latina mutant Angel sexualized and then killed off in between films) was set.
Think about it: The X-Men franchise largely uses mutants and mutantdom to show characters dealing with racism (as in they are hated for being mutants and not “regular” humans)–
And yet, the series at no point actually and consistently addresses how the reaction to mutants in the franchise would be incredibly different when you looked between white mutants versus mutants of color.Read More »
Consider this a follow up to yesterday’s post about the fear and annoyance with Brian Michael Bendis writing Riri Williams when he has a clear track record of mishandling black characters.
Shortly after writing my post, I saw a series of tweets by Marvel editor Alanna Smith that really rubbed me the wrong way.
In the first tweet, one that clearly referenced Black anger and annoyance to BMB writing yet another Black legacy character in Riri Willams, Smith said that, “I strongly dislike the idea that people can only write comics starring characters that look like them. Leads to typecasting on both sides…”
She then followed the tweet with a big BUT (literally: “…BUT the industry always needs to do better and I’d love some recs of comics by black female creators. What are you reading/writing now?”) before moving into a series of tweets where she tries to explain her positioning but really doesn’t do more than get gummy White Feminism ™ all up in the gears.
I have a major bone to pick with her over the idea that “both sides” risk being typecast in the comics industry when it comes to writing diverse characters and it’s indicative of a serious problem.
Let’s be very clear here: There is no universe where white guys are typecast or pigeonholed into only writing white guys.
That is literally not how that works.Read More »
I’ve had comments moderated since I started this site because I don’t want the comment sections on my blog to turn into a mess when I talk critically about fandom or nerd culture.
That’s not going to change.
You literally couldn’t pay me money to allow that kind of access to some of the people I’ve seen salivating over the urge to get nasty on critical posts about nerd/fandom culture. My need for safety on the internet and self-care are more important than any stranger’s need to belittle me or insult me for being critical about something they like.
So yeah, when some dude on the internet proceeds to comment on a months’ old post (From October!!) condescending at me and being kind of a jerk on what’s actually a pretty poignant post about why I love romance comics despite everything they represent of the United States’ history with racism and sexism, of course I’m going to let it stay in the spam box. It’s my blog, I get to do that!
When he comments again with the same comment, I’m going to let spam handle it as well.
And when he comments a third time a few minutes after saying that commenting on my blog is useless (because he can’t belittle me in public, I guess), then I ban his IP address because I have done nothing to earn this person’s attention or his ire and I do not have to deal with it either.
Look, if you hate when people on the internet talk critically about the things they love, just talk up the things you love about that thing on your own website. You’re not entitled to a space at anyone’s table or a comment on anyone’s blog and to expect otherwise is rude.
I’ve done the “proper” methods of discourse.
I’ve written carefully sourced articles about problematic aspects of media and fandom where I lay out to the letter how something is racist and why that’s bad. I’ve played educator, lecturing via tweets or responses to tumblr messages that demanded my time, energy, and identity for free. I’ve stripped the snark from my words, pretending that I’m not angry about how people are not getting it and may never get it.
I’ve been nice.
Do you know what being nice got me?
Nothing.Read More »
My big issue with all of this “after the fact diversity” that we’re seeing around JR Rowling and the Harry Potter series is that she’s getting so much credit for doing basically nothing with regard to representation.Read More »
Here’s a newsflash for you my fellow slash shippers: Your male/male ships that focus almost exclusively on white men aren’t as progressive or as rebellious as you think they are.
Especially when (not ‘if’) they come at the expense of women and characters of color who have significant intimate relationships with one or both of the two white guys you’re shipping.
Read More »
It’s been two months and I still get the best reactions to my post “Dear Comic Fans: We Get it. You’re racist and racebending scares you.” And by best, I mean that I get some of the most condescending and willfully ignorant responses out there.
Way to prove my point, fellow comic fans. How weird is it that the majority of the people that have sent me nasty tweets or left rude comments on my blog (the majority of which have probably been eaten by my spam filter because it’s super strict) are people who have gotten so angry about racebending and my calling out racism, that they need to react angrily to them?
It’s like they read my post, didn’t register anything, and decided to behave in such a way that validated my comments on fandom’s racist reactions to people wanting or working on more diversity in comic canon or superhero media.
Wild, right?Read More »
The first thing that I want to do whenever I finish a series is to start writing fanfiction for it.
The series could be perfect, full of perfect plot twists and characters that I want to curl up with, but I’ll still feel like cracking open a Word doc and penning a little something for it.
That’s just how my mind works. For me, the best way to show off that I read and enjoyed a series is to write about it. I don’t have that many followers on my little blog where I do the occasional review, but plenty of people read my fanfiction.Read More »
I don’t get the point of many nerd fave franchises.
The first time I watched a Star Wars film, I was fifteen. The first time I cared about Star Trek was maybe when the first new movie came out. I started Buffy on its last season and gave up on Angel well before its last season was even a blip in Whedon’s radar. And despite being named Zina and being homophone twins with everyone’s favorite warrior princess, it took me most of my life to actually sit down and watch more than two episodes. I know Bruce Campbell not from any movies he’s been in, but from his role on Burn Notice.
And of course, I’ve never watched (or cared about) Firefly. Read More »
Content warnings for mentions of sexual assault/”so-called-seduction” and generally awful behavior from these main characters
Why is it that in many romance novels, the word ‘alpha’ is often synonymous with ‘asshole’?
I don’t know why we’re getting this influx of assholes disguised as romantic leads, but I’m so over it.Read More »
This post contains mentions of sexism-as-humor and uncensored gendered slurs.
I’m pretty sure that everyone that cares about the Avengers or hates sexism has heard about what happened with Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner when doing press for Age of Ultron.
For those of you that missed it, here’s a quick summary:
During an interview with DigitalSpy, Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner have themselves a nice sex shaming giggle over Black Widow. Because of her new relationship with Bruce Banner (who everyone figured out would be her love interest eventually because Whedon is predictable as hell and loves to humanize “monsters” through the love of a good woman), they got together and giggled over the only lady on the Avenger’s roster presumably because they’re both toddlers… or maybe they’re just turds.Read More »
Today, I woke up to two interesting things going on in comics. Both things revolved around women and girls in comics. I have thoughts on both but I’m a wee bit grumpy about them weirdly enough (thankfully, some commentary from and about my nieces helps soften that a bit I think).Read More »
As a long-time comics fan and someone with a very extensive comic book collection (in print and in digital form), one of my least favorite experiences is having to deal with gatekeepers in comic book culture — creators, fellow fans, and comic store staff — that think that comics belong to boys and quizzing fans on their knowledge is a valid way to “save” the industry.
From July through December of 2014, I was out of the country. I was 1100 miles away from everything that was familiar to me and a good thirty-minute flight away from the nearest comic book store (in Puerto Rico of all places!).
I was on an island with no bookstore, one movie theater, and RadioShacks that didn’t even sell video games. You’d think that I’d be able to get away from the unpaid and unasked for gatekeepers of comic book culture on an island like that right?
Nope.
Even on that island, I had to deal with unwanted comic book gatekeepers testing me to make sure that I belonged (and hoping that I didn’t) and it sucked.Read More »
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