Nil comics

I bought no comics this week so I have no reviews.  Instead I am going through the boxes of comisc (all 5 of them!) that a friend gave me a while back and reading stuff from there.  I read Grendel: War Child yesterday which was great.  Read a Lords of Misrule and Challengers of the Unknown mini today.  Then started Morrison's JLA run (again).  I am not too enamoured with it (again).

I read 50 Shades of Grey last week and it's absolute shit.  It's a terrible romance, a terrible porn book and terribly written.  Grey is a controlling manipulative stalker, the story IS a story of domestic abuse, Ana can't and doesn't consent and the BDSM stuff is pretty light.  I'm pretty sure I've read blogs about how the BDSM in 50 Shades isn't true BDSM and I can well believe it.  It reads like someone's warped idea of it.

It's awful.  I am disgusted that this book is being marketed as acceptable porn for women.  It's awful.

If you don't know why the book is a domestic abuse story look at this website and this twitter.

I am also thinking about writing another update on my gym/diet progress. I am so near to my goal weight I sort of want to celebrate and I have lots and lots of thoughts about the dieting industry, calories and exercise, and support from others, but it seems a big topic to tackle.  I also need to do more New readers... reviews and get back to signing, but uhh, everything seems so big.  I'm not sure how to break everything down into manageable chunks.  Life seems full of work and gym at the moment, and worrying about weight. Anything else feels too big.

Anyway, I hope you are all well!

Women in politics

Responses to the Australian PM, included in the following linked article, calling out misogyny in her Parliament have led me to conclude that it’s ok for men to play the gender card, but not women.


http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/catcalls-cuties-and-blow-up-dolls--a-womans-place-in-politics-8213117.html

Fuck that.

My eyes! Can I unsee this please?

Not safe for work.
Contains images of sexy sexy sexy sexy mcsexy from sexytown Catwoman #1.
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It's not really sexy.
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I did not buy Catwoman #1 this week. Or red Hood #1.  I am pleased by this.  Why you ask?  Well first there's the preview pages where she appears to have turned into insectoid woman (shudder) then there's this:

Selina and Bruce, fucking, quite explicitly, on the last page of Catwoman #1.  I concede that's in character for them to screw on a rooftop, but the art is horrible.  The art makes it objectifying.  The art makes it thoroughly for adults, and not because it's mature or complex, but because you wouldn't want a 9 year old reading that.  It's crude, it's vulgar and this is not a fecking porn comic or an exploration in fan wank, so this doesn't need to be in a damn superhero comic.

And ugh I can't even be arsed to go into the Red Hood images.

Good Old John.

Brightest Day (ooh I get a bit cross)

Ok, so it's now all over.  I can't say I was too impressed.  I expected something bright and cheerful, perhaps along the lines of the (old) JLI.  What I got was more of the same (mostly) dull dramatics, misery, death and angst.

I liked the Hawks' story (to a point), and also Aquaman's (mostly because of Aqualad, who is a fantastic addition to DC's universe.  I didn't see any of Osiris' or Captain Boomerang's story in these pages.  That was disappointing.  Deadman's, Firestorm's and the Martian manhunter's story also did not intereste me much (and I thought I was J'onn fan).

If this story was designed to hook new readers into less popular B-list characters, it didn't work on me.  I was already an Aqua and Hawk fan.  I am not drawn into reading up on Swamp Thing or Constantine either.  I was however highy HIGHLY amused by the black and green Swamp Thing fight scene.  I guffawed.

The elementals idea was perfect, and it's a damn shame it wasn't continued.

Of course, this was somewhat ruined by the fatc that they killed off Sheira.  I sincerely hope that she comes back soon, and in her own right, because her death did nothing for the story except to provide another reason for Carter to angst.  Like he doesn't angst enough anyway.    It looks like a classic case of Women In Refigerators syndrome.

For Gods sake why didn't they kill off Carter and make Sheria angst?  Oh right, that's because male characters can exist in their right whereas female characters only exist as motivations or plot devices for the male characters.

*fumes*

Oppression Judo

Ami Angelwings wrote a really great post on oppression judo and how it benefits nobody.  She wrote it in response to the fall out from a racist video rant by UCLA student, that then generated a lot of sexist abuse from supposed progressives, criticising the student for being racist.  I highly recommend that you Ami's post.

The student is very deserving of criticism, because racism isn't ok, but when you criticise someone for being racist, when you point out to them that they are in actual fact racist (and that this isn't a desirable thing to be), it doesn't help your cause to sexually harass them and reduce them to their body parts.  Doing so doesn't make you better than the racist person, in fact it makes you as bad as they are.  It also doesn't reduce oppession and discrimination, which surely, by calling the racist out on their views, is what you wanted, right?

Anyway, Ami says this much much better than I and the piece is a joy to read.  So go read it already.  Or I'll get John Stewart involved:

Some really good posts about Sex Work

The first one I shall repost in it's entirety. Written by @harleyquinnaid it is titled, Sex Worker Characters in Comics: What not to do.  Here we go:

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This list is not intended to be exhaustive, more a crash-course in the simplest things you can do to avoid coming across as a vile whorephobe in your work.
What this list deals with is overused tropes and cliches that contribute to widespread misinformation and pathologisation of sex workers.
It’s not that these things never happen or are beyond the scope of possibility.
It’s that these things are depicted to the exclusion of all other experiences and that has a negative overall effect on society’s perceptions and understanding of sex workers and the sex industry.
When you come from a marginalised group of people who are discriminated against and oppressed within society, depicting them in a very limited and narrow range ultimately has a hugely detrimental impact because people begin to overwhelmingly believe this is the default experience.
And when that perceived default experience is also overwhelmingly NEGATIVE, it enables society to continue to marginalise and oppress, to pathologise and VICTIMISE.
And this plays into an overall culture that perpetuates the discrimination far beyond Law & Order: SVU - but into the very laws and governings that impact the daily lives of sex workers. The laws that create unsafe environments for sex workers to work in. The laws that mean sex workers have to be terrified of being outed as it may uproot their entire life. The laws that mean sex workers have no legal recourse if something bad DOES happen.

What NOT To Do When Writing Sex Workers
1. Give them a childhood filled with sexual abuse
No really, this is paint-by-numbers pathology. Not everyone who works in the sex industry was abused as a child and not every person who was abused as a child goes onto become a sex worker. By giving your sex worker characters an abused childhood you are basically saying you believe that sex is so broken, ugly and wrong a thing that only damaged and broken people can do it commercially. This is bullshit.
Were some sex workers abused as children?
Sure.
But so were some lawyers and some doctors and some psychologists and some hairdressers and some salespeople and some jewellery makers and so on and so on.
The idea that abused people become so denigrated that they end up ‘selling themselves’ is offensive on a couple of levels - it demonstrates the most superficial understanding of what is a very complex reality which is dealt with in myriad ways AND it demonstrates that you believe sex work is the last refuge of the degraded, which means you have no respect for sex workers.
So how the fuck do you expect to write about them in any sort of real and sensitive way?
It also means you have some pretty fucked up ideas about sex.
No, really. If you believe sex is inherently corrupting and degrading simply because an exchange of money is involved you have some really fucked up paranoid, phobic ideas around sex. And guess what? That’s about YOU, NOT sex workers. So. Stop projecting, okay?
Either way, you clearly don’t regard sex workers as human beings enough to give them anything but a lazy and cliche background in lieu of actual character development. -Insert tragic childhood here- is just as sloppy and unconvincing a way to build character as we have all discussed ad nauseum that having a female character be raped to give her an agenda is.

2. Have them raped by a client and/or a pimp
Believe it or not, hookers and strippers do not get raped on a nightly basis. What happens between a client and a worker is negotiated beforehand and the entire process usually involves an ongoing negotiation if necessary (just like recreational sex generally does!). Sex workers develop methods of communication with clients in order to maintain boundaries. If drunk or disrespectful clients are pushing boundaries, sex workers have ways of distracting them and their attention in other ways to maintain control of the situation. Flirtation and coyness is a tactic, not a default state of being. Sex workers are not obligated or forced to see clients. Sex workers can walk out of a booking without giving a refund if the client is disrespectful.
More sex workers work without pimps than do. Pimps are largely an overblown media fantasy. They exist, but they are nowhere near as prevalent as media would have you believe NOR are the relationships between hookers and pimps always as simplistically abusive as is ALWAYS portrayed.
But once again it is reinforcing dangerous, harmful and bluntly insulting preconceptions about sex workers because it is placing us into the fixed state of perpetual ‘victim’. And we’re NOT. Okay? We’re REAL people, with agency, with complexity, with diversity, with varied lives and experiences. Stop imagining our lives as this grotesque excursion into endlessly-violated depravity for your own sheer VOYEURISTIC satisfaction. Because that’s what it is. You like to imagine us as constantly raped because rape culture has characterised sexual abuse as something almost fucking *sexy*, something *juicy* and it’s easier to imagine it happening to sex workers because you don’t think of us as truly human, not really.
The other reason not to do these things, apart from the fact this ‘plot’ device once again forces sex workers into a permanent victim position, is that it demonises clients and pimps.
Now, MOST clients are just average people who want a service.
No, really. It’s really as simple as that.
They’re not base, grotesque, anti-social, disgusting perverts who just want to degrade women, trans* folk and other ‘cast-offs’ of society.
They’re just regular shmoes who want to get their rocks off. Or who want to talk. Or who want to be taught something. Or who want to experiment with something they have no one else to ask about. Or who just need a goddamn hug.
No. REALLY.

3. Give them a stalker
This also reflects the ‘permanent victim’ fixation and again demonises clients.
Stalkers, it has been proven time and time again, do not simply fixate on ‘loose’ women. Anyone at all for any reason at all can become the target of a stalker.
Do sex workers get stalkers? Sure. And yes, they’re often clients who have become obsessed.
BUT once again, it’s about BALANCE.
I SHOULDN’T have to be afraid of admitting that sometimes, now and again, some sex workers (out of the millions worldwide) will get a stalker. I shouldn’t have to be afraid of admitting that, but I am because I KNOW a whorephobic audience is going to pounce on that one concession and conflate it with reality.
And when you are CONSTANTLY depicting sex workers with inherently negative lives - lives that are constantly violated in one way or another by boogeymen like stalkers and pimps and drugs - and associating those lives with our work, YOU ARE contributing to the ingrained societal mindset that sex work itself is inherently negative and that is really, really dangerous. Because it allows people to continue to justify their pathologising, victimising attitudes to sex workers, allows unfair laws and discrimination to remain intact and protected, allows the continued popularisation of false information and allows fantasy to stand in the way of fact.
And this allows the world to continue to not think of us as really human.
AND it ALSO is just another facet of the old virgin/whore dichotomy - of rape culture. The patently FALSE notion that if you lead a certain kind of life, you will naturally attract violation and assault. That such terrible things can be avoided if only you toe the line like a good virtuous, well-behaved, complacent little virgin - but is only to be EXPECTED if you are ‘loose’, ‘slutty’, ‘trampy’ - indeed, if you’re any of the latter, well, you just DESERVE it, don’t you? Not only is this dehumanising of sex workers and permitting people to hold discriminatory and prejudicial attitudes towards us, it creates a false perception of reality, a blame-the-victim mentality that deceives people. The truth is, predators like stalkers and rapists are not exclusively ‘attracted’ to sex workers. Anyone could be targeted by them at any time. It just allows society to ignore the real problem - that BEHAVIOUR by predators and how it is nurtured and perpetuated by society - which just loves to blame the victim.
How hard is it to really imagine a sex worker without some constantly horrible thing happening to them, just leading an average life, working hard to pay the mortgage and the bills and the kid’s school tuition. Truth? That’s the most common reality. Oh, but that lacks drama, right?
You know, if you REALLY want to violate your sex worker character over and over, how about you examine how that is done LEGALLY, within the very infrastructure of the law? How about you look at the laws and institutionalised statutes that make a sex workers life and work harder for them, the stupid rules and obstructions we have to navigate just to make a living? That’s a violation too! A violation of human rights and freedom to work. But I guess that’s just not as sexy as a crying woman in her underwear tied to a bed whilst getting threatened with a knife. Vomit.

4. Have your hero save them from a stalker/rapist/serial killer/pimp
To put your sex worker character in a horribly abusive situation just to have your hero be more heroic is one of the more petty, grotesque, lazy and discriminatory plot devices you can come up with.
It’s become colloquially known as ‘fridging’. For fuck’s sake, don’t do it.

5. Kill them
Another dehumanising technique, used with rash abandon over the years on promiscuous women, queers, trans* people and sex workers alike. Even in ‘sympathetic’ stories, these ‘underdogs’ must die tragically and preferably horribly for their cause - to make a point. And that point is? To atone for their sinful lives by being scrubbed out of existence.
GOD, IT’S SO FUCKING BORING, TRITE, ARCHAIC AND UNCREATIVE!!!!


6. Do not have your non-sex worker characters use words like ‘whore’, ‘ho’, ‘hooker’, etc
I know it tends to invite ridicule to say things like ‘don’t use those words! Those are our words!’ but - well - how else to say it?
Like racial or homophobic or ableist slurs, or any other slurs focused on a particular aspect that is the direct reason for discrimination against a marginalised group, the ownership of those words with the purpose to reclaim is exclusively that of the group they are used against.
This is not your language. It’s OURS. You don’t get to use it. No, not even through your characters unless your point is to draw attention to the fact your character is a whorephobic douchebag.
And THAT has to be very clear.
Words like ‘ho’ and ‘whore’ are offlimits. We use them amongst ourselves (though, like any reclaimed slur, there is debate around this), but it’s really not okay for people outside the community to adopt them, certainly not in the grotesquely casual way that so rarely goes challenged.
And no, don’t go telling me that will make your character’s dialogue ‘unrealistic’.Comics are unrealistic!!! By nature!! In intent! No one reads comics for realism!
And don’t try and flip THAT around by arguing that ‘if comics are unrealistic, you have no obligation to not write seedy, gross & exploitative stories about sex workers’. Both the issue of language and of plot choices comes back to the fact that they reinforce negative stereotypes which feeds into a broader attitude of active discrimination that has real negative impacts on sex workers’ lives. And that’s not acceptable.

7. Don’t give them HIV/AIDS
The rate of transmission of HIV/AIDS between sex workers and clients is so miniscule it doesn’t even register.
That’s not to say there are no sex workers with HIV/AIDS, but the likelihood of them having contracted it on the job is extremely low, as is the likelihood of them contracting Hep C or STIs.
Why?
Because a sex worker’s body is literally OUR BUSINESS in most forms of sex work, excepting phone sex. Without our health, we cannot work. And we live in a capitalist society. We gotta be able to work.
Furthermore, because of the pervasiveness of discriminatory laws against us, we are obliged to take measures on our own initiative to protect ourselves.
This means that sex workers aggressively and consistently practice safe sex. We are educated, informed and aware about the risks, we supply our own condoms and other PPEs (personal protective equipment) such as gloves and dams, and we use them in our work with our clients, often times educating them along the way as well.
Sure, accidents happen, as they can do to anyone. But, overwhelmingly, sex workers have better sexual health than the rest of the population.
(Incidentally, in places where this isn’t true, there is also a marked lack of condoms & safe sex education available to access - which is the fault of archaic law and governments, not sex workers)
So once again this trope is perpetuating false information and actively contributing to the ongoing negative stereotypes about sex workers and sex work.

8. Write them with respect
All of the above are crucial factors in depicting sex worker characters with respect, but considering how you place them within a story and how they interact with other characters all contributes to the sense of respect shown for the sex worker character - by the other characters and by YOU.
If you have your other characters-  particularly your leading characters, the ones the audience is meant to empathise/symapthise with - making snide/discriminatory/abusive remarks to the sex worker character about their ‘sluttiness’, about their work, about their lifestyle - without those remarks being corrected/chided/called-out/slammed and without that character facing any sort of censure or exile for their whorephobia you are sending a pretty fucking strong message to your reader and that is that it’s totally okay to debase and degrade a sex worker because of their work.
So WHAT if some stripper did topless movies? So. Fucking. What? If you have to write a character being evidently offended by that, rather than pass it off as comic relief - or worse, as righteous moralising - why not have another character ask them what their fucking issue is? Point out how fucking ridiculous they are being.
Like any marginalised group, sex workers simply need more balance in the way we are depicted. Overwhelmingly, our depiction is done in the most negative, fetishising and trivialising way possible, preventing any understanding of the true diversity of our experience and reducing it to one exoticised, voyeuristic cliche, used mainly to satiate some perverse ‘normal*’ person need to see horrible things happen to those they conceptualise as sub-human as well as reassure their own smug and complacent sense of self-satisfaction in what they believe to be their superior lifestyles.
If you want to ring the bell for anti-racism, anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia, anti-misogyny, anti-ableism, anti-classism and anti-fatphobia, then know this: SEX WORKERS ARE OVERWHELMINGLY OF COLOUR, QUEER, TRANS*, FEMALE, DIFFERENTLY-ABLED, POOR AND WITH A WIDE VARIETY OF BODY TYPES.
Sex work offers a flexibility and income for people with varying intersections of marginalisation that many other industries simply do NOT. In the sex industry, people can make a good income for being ‘different’ compared to other industries where that ‘difference’ will see them discriminated against. It is VERY complex and not at all perfect but part of the solution is TO NOT:
- demonise
- pathologise
- victimise
us, not to reduce our existence to the easiest and simplest trope to write.

And all you tumbloggers out there, the ones who are sharp enough to see the subtlest discrimination in comics when it comes in form of homophobia, racism, transphobia, misogyny, ableism, classism and fatphobia then I am, as of right now, calling on you TO SEE THE WHOREPHOBIA AS WELL. If you are really serious with this anti-discrimination, struggle-for-equality objective, then you need to broaden your gaze still further and that may involve taking a really hard look at some of your own preconceptions and ideas. I am sick of feeling like I am the only person to see this stuff. It is just as important and just as relevant and just as intersectional. 
And you know what? It’s great to like this but… reblog it. This issue gets nowhere near the exposure that other issues do and it SHOULD because it intersects with all of them AND deals with humans being treated as sub-human in a variety of ways. Get it out there and try and participate. Put your politics where your mouths are.

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I recommend you go to the post and have a look at the comments, as some interesting discussions have started, for example see here for someone not really having a clue, and here for Gail Simone's response to the post, referencing the recent Secret Six book.  And on top of all that great stuff The F Word have a guest poster talking about 'Tera Myers and the Anti-Porn Folks'.  Which, with harleyquinaid's posts, is probably the best thing I've read in weeks.  Until you read the comments, and then it gets incredibly depressing as it's feminist vs feminist, and it makes me sad that my community infights in that manner.

Abortion

I just found this post on what life was like before abortion.*  I urge everyone to go read it.  Sadly I don't think it will change any anti choicers minds.  There has been quite a lot of stuff on twitter lately about abortion rights being potentially restricted in the US, and then there's the British Abortion Support Network who are (were?) running out funds.  It's all making me rather sad.  Then I remember my default response:

And I feel a little more energised.  But still pissed off.



*Thanks to Ami Angelwings for providing the link.

In more screwed up news of the day

Norfolk Eating Disorders Association is under threat of closing, or at the very least of running only skeleton service.  See here for the article from local newspaper the Evening News and see here for the blog an ex service user has set up.  I would rfecommend that you go through to both links but be warned - both links have a picture of an extremely anorexic man, and text that may be triggering.  It's not sensational, it's straightforward, but could be triggery.

You can show your support for the service by signing a petition here.

In other horrific news, South Dakota want to pass a bill that will make it legal to kill abortion providers.  I just... words fail me.  Wait, no they don't - why is it that the pro life lobby won't accept the death of a fetus but they will accept the death of adults and children providing and accessing abortions?

Meanwhile, in England the Abortion Support Network (ASN) is about to run out of funds.  ASN is a volunteer-run organisation in London that provides accommodation for women living in Ireland (Northern and Republic of) who need to stay overnight when travelling to London for an abortion. 
From the ASN site:
"In both Northern Ireland – despite being part of the UK – and the Republic of Ireland, abortion is illegal except under extremely limited circumstances (although it is not illegal for women to travel abroad for an abortion). Even if women meet the strict criteria for a legal abortion, it is virtually impossible for women to access a safe and legal abortion in Ireland."

Please consider donating to them.

My heart hurts

Found this on Ragnel's' tumblr page:
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justaguywitharrows:

kiriamaya:

[TRIGGER WARNING for murder and trans-hatred]
[Image is a black-and-white picture of Tyra Hunter, a short-haired black woman, wearing what appears to be a turtleneck with a necklace]
abbyjean:

It was the morning of Aug. 7, 1995, and Tyra Hunter, a popular African-American hairdresser, was on her way to work in Washington, D.C. Suddenly, the car she was in was broadsided. In this situation, one would expect that Hunter would have promptly been taken to a hospital, where she would have received whatever medical care she needed. But tragically, and outrageously, that is not what happened. When emergency personnel arrived on the scene, they helped the barely-conscious Hunter out of the car and began treating her, but only until one of them realized she was transgender after cutting open her clothing. At that point, they backed away from her, began laughing at her and taunting her with anti-transgender slurs. They stopped treating her in a life-threatening situation. In what world does someone sworn to help others in emergency situations stop treating them to attack them? When she was finally transported to a hospital, her ordeal didn’t end. Doctors refused to treat her, and by the time she was finally granted medical care, it was too late. Hunter was pronounced dead the same day. (via COLORLINES)

Mandy Carter, “Still No Freedom Rainbow for Transgender People of Color”

may actually start weeping

What the fuck is wrong with people?
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I'm speechless.  Fuck I hate people sometimes.

Oh do go away

Also from the Golden Perfect story arc, this time it's JLA issue 64.

This was the only reference to sexism made in this story, sexism didn't seem to be part of Jarhanpur's culture so it seemed like this was thrown in to a) rile up Wonder Woman, b) set him against the heroes, and c) show how much of a bad guy he is.   A hint - decrying sexism within your comics is most effective when you decry all sexism, and not just when it suits you.

I'm guessing that Jarhanpur is meant to either in the Middle East, or in Asia somewhere.  It's not entirely clear what country it is modelled on.  Which is part of the problem.  America gets to be defined as America,  Britain and Western Europe get fairly distinct identities, but as soon as you get past the old iron curtain, or head into territories not dominated by white folk, superhero comics seem to put each culture and society into one giant melting pot and you end up with generic ex Communist country or generic non white country.  Characters become caricatures and the creators seem to have done absolutely no research on said country.

It's depressing and more than a little racist.  Because hey, they are all the same over there.  Not like us.  And their evilness can be shown in just a few offhand statements that us in the enlightened West would never ever think, no sirree.

Bah.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

From the UN, see here: http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/violence/

It depresses me that we need a day like this.  It depresses me that the media (usually) don't report on it.

You know what also depresses me?  that due to the gender wage gap, from the 2nd November I am effectively working for free.  Eh.  How rubbish is that.

Superman/Batman: Apocolypse or, let's not publicise what the story is actually about

Ooh this made me angry. Over on Anj's Supergirl blog he posted about the Superman/Batman DVD that's coming out.  You know, the one that features Supergirl's arrival on earth and in the comics was collected as Superman/Batman: Supergirl.  The arc that's all about Supergirl.  Sure, in the comics we got to reflect on and consider Bats and Supes different upbringings and trust levels, but this came about because Kara landed on earth.  So you know, it's all about Supergirl.

Anj included a quote from an interview with the director Lauren Montgomery, which states:

"Montgomery discusses how Supergirl's name was taken out of the title of the story, which was called "The Supergirl From Krypton" in the comics. Montgomery said it happened after the Wonder Woman DVD-release animated film didn't meet sales expectations. "We had to fight to even put her on the cover, and then they put her skanky version on the cover. So 'those' boys would buy it." "

Motherfuckers.
THE STORY ARC IS ABOUT SUPERGIRL.


If they don't think she can sell a movie why do a movie about her?  For fucks sake.  I despair I really do.  As Anj put in the title of his post - Happy Birthday Supergirl, now let's get snubbed!


When will people learn that films don't fail because the lead is a woman.  They fail because of bad marketing, bad producing, bad casting, bad directing, bad dialogue, bad ideas.  Having a woman feature prominently in it will not make your film fail.


Men will buy films with women in them.  Men will even buy films (and books and comics) with women where the women aren't sexed up.  Look at the Aliens franchise.  Look at Whiteout.  Both feature tough women who aren't conventionally sexy.  Both did really fucking well and are extremely well respected.


Arggghh.  I think I'll be channeling John Stewart here.

I'm fucking fed up with this shit.

On Stories

Glamour magazine recently did an article on 'The weird sex things he secretly wants to try'.  Number 6 was female superhero sex*.  The text reads:

'Our female superhero crush isn't only about the fact they are drawn with proportions so pneumatic they make Barbie look like a Dickensian waif.  They project power and confidence, yet they are always troubled.  Sometimes they need rescuing, if only from their personal demons, and we're just the sensitive he-men who could do it.
The great thing is, any real-life woman can be a superhero - just be strong and confident, and let us know you need what only a man like us can give'.

Emphasis mine.

First off, let's get John Stewart's views on this:

Secondly, that isn't a description of any superheroine I know of.

What is really bizzare about the text is that it's turning the costumed woman into a doll, existing only for the male lover.  In the view expressed, the woman has no autonomy, that's all taken away to make all her actions, desires and characteristics about the man.  She needs to be rescued by her great manly lover!  He can soothe all ills and pains!!

This is a good example of how even women's magazines, supposedly writing for and about women, still publish stuff explictly from the male gaze point of view.  They could have taken another approach to (or indeed criticised) this point of view, but no.

I realise that it is a fantasy, but fantasies reflect reality.  Glamour talks about feminism and tries to put across some sort of pro womens rights agenda, yet they also include articles like this.  Reading it I can't help but recall all those examples of bad anatomy, all Greg Land's pornface art and all those times when women's fierceness and independence is destroyed by comics such as Superman/Batman 72 (more Lois from that issue here), or other books where women's roles are relegated to the sidekick, or downgraded to being the love interest.

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I recently read Going Under by Justina Robson.  This is the third book in the Lila Black series.  Lila is a cyborg on an earth where ther Quantum Bomb of 2015 brought the human, elf, demon and faery planes into co-existence.
On page 116 of the first paperback edition the nature of the hero and the heroine is discussed:

(This conversation takes places just after a female demon has died in a dramatic and senseless manner. She demon was young, beautiful and talented and so has been labelled a hero).

(Lila speaks) 'Heroes can't be self-doubters Malachi,' she told him.  'I read it in the book of rules.  That means I can't be a hero.  So at least I'm safe from that one.'
(Malachi speaks) 'That's the spirit!'. 'You could probably be a heroine though' he added. 'You're in love, you're racked with self-questioning, you're at the mercy of society's higher forces and you're riddles with a form of consumption.  That's quite gothic'.

Why are the two definitions so different?
I'm fairly certain the description of the heroine is meant to be tongue in cheek, whilst still being a valid comment on Lila.  Nevertheless, that idea of the weakened heroine is taken from a lot of literature, so why have female protagonists in literature been given this damaged role?

Given Lila's personailty and abilities you could add super to the front of heroine and still be making an accurate observation.  By this book, Lila's machinery is melding with her fleshy bits and she can produce guns and other weapons out of her arms just by thinking about them.  A bit like Guy Gardner as the Warrior.  Lila may question herself and the motivations of those around her, but she's not a passive person drowning in her own worries.  She gets on with things.  She does what needs to be done.  She's pro active.  She may not like what she's become but she does know who she is.  She's a pretty darn good fun character actually**.

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Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett.
Withces Abroad is a Discworld story about stories.  On the Discworld there is an element called narrativium.  It ensures that stories happen according to basic fictional tropes, such as wheels that roll out of fires and gently come to a stop, or third princes embarking on and succeeding on a quest where their elder brothers have all failed.  Page 8 of the 1997 paperback edition says this:

'Because stories are important.
People think that stories are shaped by people.  In fact, it is the other way around.
Stories exist independently of their players.   If you know that, the knowledge is power.'

One of the main themes of the book is how you shouldn't treat people as if they are characters in a story.  You can't make happy endings for people.  It's immoral to attempt to do so.

The flip side of this is that as the text says, stories are important, they do have power.  They give us a framework to navigate through life.  They reflect our experiences and value within society, even when they don't feature us.  When we have fiction we don't entirely like or agree with, we create our own stories and narratives to satisfy us.  Any long time comic fan knows how this happens.

This role of stories is why I have included Witches Abroad in this post.  What does it say when Glamour tells us a story where women will always need and depend on men?  Where Going Under tells a story of how heroes are strong and heroines are indecisive?
And what is the significance of books like those in the Discworld series which highlights the existence of these narratives and give us a different kind of female protagonist?



*Yeah, cos that's really weird.  I think Glamour may be jumping on a bandwagon here.
** According to the blurb this book is 'the work of a smart and sexy novelist having smart and sexy fun'.  This description tickles me and so I mention it whenever I mention the book.

Where stuff that gets made public reveals a nasty side

Having joined up on twitter recently I have been following various people.  Some are famous, for example Gail Simone.

Following Gail Simone has increased my respect for her a thousandfold.  Her tweets are funny, and she's so far exhibited only decent-person ideas.  Today (Tuesday 8th June) she has been talking about The Killing Joke, y'know, that comic where Barbara Gordon, then Batgirl, got shot in the spine by the Joker and paralysed.

When editorial approval was sought for this particular plot, the editor (Len Wein) reportedly yelled down the hall:

'Cripple the bitch'

Isn't that hateful?  Isn't it venemous?  Granted, I do not know the tone in which it was said, but the words are ugly.  What struck me after asborbing this bit of (old) news, was the way in which feminist are accused of treating characters like real people.  Isn't that just what this editor is doing?  Why ascribe the word 'bitch' to a fictional character, in that context, if they are not in some way real to you?

And if Barbara Gordon is indeed real to you what does this say about your attitude to real flesh and blood women and wheelchair users?

Which is why I find the statement 'Cripple the Bitch' quite disturbing.  It's along the same lines as Bill Wilingham saying:

"I wanted to gun down those girls who kept asking about the memorial case"

at the recent heroes con (reported on here).

I am someone who believes words are important.  I think those sort of casual throwaway line regarding violence usually betrays some feeling of anger, hate or violence within a person.  Or at the very least some sort of detachment towards others.  You certainly can't fully appreciate and support the full meaning of those phrases without being a very malevolent person.*

So this leaves me kind of sickened.  And this is exactly the sort of thing that says women (and people with disabilities) are not welcome.  It's the same mentality that puts rape scenes into comics (or any popular culture medium).  It's the sort of shit that makes me very wary about the types of internet sites I inhabit and makes me distrustful of any new people I meet (men and women, because these views permeate all genders).

*I am not in any way stating that using a wheelchair is a negative thing.  But I believe that the editor who uttered those words thinks that it is a punishment of some sort.

Respectful to crass

Remember what I was banging on about in my Superman/Batman review last week?  Well I scanned the offending artwork.

Seriously, how do you go from this:

To this:

I ask again, why has Lois got her bra out just when she's about to be burnt at the stake?

Ian Sattler is a prat

"It’s so hard for me to be on the other side because it’s not our intention. There is a reason behind it all. We don’t see it that way and strive very hard to have a diverse DCU. I mean, we have green, pink and blue characters. We have the Great Ten out there and I have counter statistics, but I won’t get into that. It’s not how we perceived it. We get the same thing about how we treat our female characters."

(emphasis mine)

I would use a stronger word than prat but I don't want to fill up people's blogrolls with rude words.

I'm not going to even bother explaining why that's such a stupid thing to say.  (Besides DCWomenKickingAss has already doen it rather well).  This is the kind of shit that makes comics seem insular and not for the everyday person.  These ridiculous arguments are the reasons I started up New Readers.., to prove that there is good imaginative, progressive, quality comics out there.  And I'm still having difficulty finding decent comics with non white characters, (but that's a more a reflection on my reading tastes than on the state of comics today).

Anyway, Ian Sattler. you are a prat of the highest order.

Massacre in the Phillippines

(Crossposted from Heroine In Training)

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Major trigger warnings.


This is "old news" I suppose; truthfully I haven't had the strength to post about it until now. I kept getting too upset and not being about to write.

On the island of Mindanao in the Philippines on November 23rd last year, in the approaching Maguindanao provincial election (part of the national elections in the Philippines), vice mayor of Buluan town Esmael Mangudadatu was attempting to file a certificate of candidacy. Mangudadatu was politically challenging mayor of Datu Unsay, Andal Ampatuan Jr., running for governor and patriarch of the powerful Ampatuan family. After death threats from the Ampatuan family, Mangudadatu organised a convey of female family members, lawyers, aides and journalists to file the certificate for him, believing the women would not be harmed and that the strong media presence would be an added protection.

57 members of Mangudadatu's convey were butchered, murdered and buried in mass graves after an ambush by 100 armed men.

Of the 57 massacred, 22 Filipina women suffered brutal rapes and sexual torture before their murders. Some had their genitals slashed and bullets fired into their private parts. Mangudadatu's wife, three sisters, female cousin and aunt, died in this way. Two female human rights defenders, Attorney Concepcion “Connie” Brizuela and Attorney Cynthia Oquendo, were among the victims, as well journalists and one woman whose car was mistaken as part of the convoy.

From Filipinaimages.com:

The massacre of 57 people in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao goes beyond a rido
or clan war. The sheer scope of barbarity, the brazenness of the murders betrays the perpetrators’ belief in being beyond the reach of the law. Women, lawyers and journalists – no one escaped the butchers’ wrath. Fifty-seven people killed in broad daylight. The murderers had planned the deed, down to the mass burial of victims. That is the mark of the untouchable.

"Untouchable"? Oh, we'll see about that, murderers. I might just be an angry little Filipino-Australian woman on her computer, while you might be an evil monster with a thousand faces and thousands of arms and legs, used to brutalising women like they're extensions of your enemies in your clan wars, supported by firearms, rich families and a culture where you enjoy raw power. I might just be getting started in this world, while you've been festering and growing and terrorising for generations. But I will find a way to fight you.

Starting with raising awareness outside of your world, where you can't silence me or those I love.

Show your indignation and protest by signing an online petition on Strike against Impunity, Strike for Peace and Democracy.

I condemn the brutality of the Maguindanao Massacre. I will NOT let this pass. I want the whole the world to know, especially the Arroyo government that we will not stop until justice is delivered to the victims of the Ampatuan Massacre (otherwise known as Maguindanao massacre) . I grieve for all the women, journalists and other innocent victims who suffered extreme violence and the brutal slaying.

I will make sure you did not die in vain. We should not let allow this to happen again and we cannot allow this climate of impunity to reign.

The Pope's visit to the UK later this year..

The F Word has an article up about it, cross posted here:

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The Catholic Church has contributed more than most to the oppression of women. Whether it’s the deaths of women in childbirth and of HIV / AIDS due to their commitment to preventing safer sex, or covering up the abuse of girl and boy children and protecting the abusers, they have consistently chosen paths which keep women controlled and ‘in their place’.
This is the church that ordered the excommunication of everyone involved in helping a 9 year old girl, who was pregnant with twins after being raped by her stepfather, to have an abortion. The church actively tried to prevent the termination, and when it failed it ordered that the child’s mother and the doctors involved be excommunicated. (Not the step-father, tellingly).

“If the B52 bombers flying over Vietnam were dropping contraceptives, the American Catholic hierarchy would have condemned that in a minute, but they were dropping napalm”
— James Carroll

The Pope has also been in the news this week for speaking out against the UK government’s equality policies, which would have required churches to stop discriminating against LGBT people. This is a man who, when he speaks, people listen. Just think what he could use his voice for. He could protest poverty, he could condemn domestic violence. But no, he speaks out against equality. Later this year, the Pope is planning a visit to Britain. Not only do I not want him here, I was really disgusted to hear that the £20 million cost of his visit will be paid for by public money. Just think how many Rape Crisis centres could be funded by that money!
The National Secular Society have started a petition to ask the Catholic Church itself to pay for the visit. As I write, it has 17,457 signatures, one of which is mine.
The Catholic Church, contrary to the guidance of many passages of the Bible, is a very rich institution. If this man, who played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, wants to come here, let him pay for it himself.
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When he speaks out against UK equality leglislation, when he colludes in the abuse and oppression of UK women, his visit should not be paid for out of UK public money.  Particularly not when we're in a recession, particularly not when there are funding cuts made across all manner of sectors.  Please consider signing the petition.

I would recommend reading the comments, if it were not for the seemingly inevitable feminists vs religion bollocks that always seems to occur.  Surely it's not too difficult to accept that feminists can believe in deitys, right?

Buffy Omnibus volume 6

Set in season 4 and 5
Various writers and artists

Another mixed one. The volume starts with some short stories, which are generally enjoyable, even with the inclusion of Angel.  Of note is the Jonathan story, set during that time period when he was uber cool leader of Sunnydale and possibly the world.

Punish me with Kisses is a Willow and Tara story with some adorable art - Willow becomes sort of pixie like.  They have to banish an argumentative old ghost couple from a hotel.  It’s sweet, and similar in feel to the story in volume 7 where they take Dawn on a tour of magic sites of America.  Tara makes the most beautiful and suave butch!

Next story features the return of a typical comic book female villain.  By typical I mean a horrifically, clichéd and sexist interpretation.  She has pointy heeled stripper shoes*, pvc trousers with buckles on, lots of weapons (including mini arrows strapped to her legs), corset style lacing over her crotch**, bare shoulders but covered arms, and a cross shaped section missing from the front of her costume so we conveniently get a hint of boobs.   I have no idea why her boobs aren’t making friends with gravity.  Because usually bras are the only items of clothing that prevent that.

So, that ruins an otherwise good story.  I mean, if I have to include a ‘misogyny’ tag to any posts concerning the Buffyverse the creators are doing something wrong.

Next up is a ghost/bugs/Giles on a date story which is pretty forgettable.

Then another Willow and Tara story, where the cover painting looks eerily like Willow and Amy.  Another witch in the college coven wants to do real magic and inadvertently summons the Morrigan.  I have some issues with how the Morrigan is portrayed, but other than that this story is good and the art is pleasing.  Simple and uncomplicated, and the colours match the feel of the scenes really well.

Then there’s a 2 page story about evil video games.  It’s not really worth mentioning.  So, onto the Dawn story.  This takes place shortly after Dawn has arrived and Buffy is agonising over what is real and what isn’t.  We also see how Dawn fits into key events in Buffy’s past, like her first death.  Dawn proves she’s got brains and identifies that there is a missing slayer from the Council’s archives.  It turns out that the slayer was turned into a vampire.  Since I’ve always wanted to know if this had ever occurred, and if not, why not, I was very pleased to see this development.  And this slayer as vampire wants to resurrect the master.  This is a brilliant thing to end the volume on.

Should you buy this omnibus?  I’d say buy the last story in single issue format.  It’s called False Memories.  The rest isn’t too special.



*not a derogatory comment.  I love stripper shoes but I don’t have any as I a) have nowhere to wear them, and b) probably wouldn’t be able to walk in them.  More's the pity.

** which sometimes I like.  Christina Aguilera had some trousers like that.  But there's a world of difference between a rl woman picking out an outfit like that, and a comic character being deliberately given an outfit like that.  Context, folks, context.

Buffy Omnibus volume 2 review

Writers: various
Artists: Various
Set pre season1 to season 3
Awesome mixed with downright misogynistic

This started really well.  Two of the stories feature Dawn, which is a nice touch.  The first one is fabulous, 7 pages long, and I'm, wrestling with whether it's ethical to post all of it.  It's a good ad for the book, it might convince some people to buy the book, but is it right for me to post all of it? How about some of it?  What do any industry professional types think?

The second story is about Buffy's folks divorcing and the 3 women moving to Sunnydale.  Angel is a creepy stalker (perfectly in character then) and attempts to draw off Buffy's pain into himself in soem sort of secretive romantic gesture, (seriously, wtf?) but manages to conjure up demons instead.  It's a good way of seeing how Buffy, Dawn, Joyce at all coped at this time.  The art's not bad and there's some lovely painted scenes.

Next story features Buffy being tested (again).  It's just good fun and she turns the tables on Giles at the end.

Next features evil Angel summoning a Kelgore - I was reminded of the Kilgore (spelling incorrect I know) from the early issues of Wally West's run of the Flash - Kendra turns up and Giles deals with Jenny's death.  S'okay.

Next one is a Spike and Dru story, horrible art but at least the characters are recognisable, so my beef is just that it's not to my taste.  Not bad art per se.  Not like volume 3.  This showcases how fucked up Spike and Dru are, how obsessed they are, how they're not human, how they are in fact evil, something I tend to forget sometimes.  I always think it's good writing when we see aspects of personality that flesh out the characters, give us a reason for believing they are evil.  All too often we are told some dude is evil but there's actually no evidence for it.

The last story, well it's just dire really.  The art is foul (like Volume 3's art) and it ends up incredibly misogynistic.  Not what I expected from a Buffy comic.  It features Lilith as the mother of all the demon spawn.

A little background - Lilith is supposedly the first wife of Adam.  She may have been created from filth and sediment, not dust as Adam was.  There are lots of stories about her, one is that she was thrown out of Eden for not obeying Adam.  Another is that she bore Adam lots of demon children.  Some say that when she left Eden she then slept with the demons on the shores of the world and birthed their children.  Others say that she murdered children to get her revenge - either for being thrown out of Eden or for being forced to return.

There are more, and combinations of the above.  Google Lilith, and Lilth demon, and Lilith vampire and see what you find.

Anyway, I find the stories about Lilith quite misogynistic, given that quite a few start with her being punished for disobeying Adam (the shame!) and others seek to show her evilness by talking about how she likes having sex (women, know your place and curb your desires!).  Mind you, I also find Eve's story misogynistic (the evil in the world is all down to women), which probably tells you why I'm not Christian.  That kind of shit hasn't come from the Gods, it's come from old men many years ago trying to form some semblance of control over their lives.

I digress.

For a Buffy comic to feature Lilith, when Buffy is generally considered to have some feminist sensibilities, I'm quite offended.  Especially when she is literally the mother of all vampires in the story.  And yes yes I know, the writers were drawing on current vampire legends, like they did with Dracula, they didn't invent it out of thin air, they're just drawing on mythological sources, yadda yadda yadda.  Doesn't mean they had to include it.  Certainly doesn't mean that had to put her in something slashed to the thigh that is comparable, bust wise to this Arisia costume, but in blue and spikier around the boob bits.  I mean, what the hell?  Since when has the buffyverse had superhero costumes?  God, this would be crappy even in a superhero world, but in Buffyland, people and demons dress normally.

Jesus, this story sucked.  If this wasn't so bad I'd reccomend buying this volume, but it's just crappy and means the 18 quid price tag is relay not justified.  I'd buy the volume if it were 12 pounds, because the rest of the stories are worth it. But The Dust waltz juts ruins it for me.  God bless the library for letting me try it out for free.