A vague collection of thoughts…

Not knowing what to post today I hemmed and hawed. There’s a lot going on. The new Wonder Woman DVD, the Watchmen movie…all of that’s been covered very well on this site.

But this week, I, along with a friend and two people I do not know, offered to replace Ragnell and Kalinara on “When Fangirls Attack” when they sent out a call to arms.
WFA is a linkblog. The theme of it’s linkdumps have always been the issues of gender in comics, both superhero and manga. It’s a great resource, and I’ve been following it for a while. Check it out here

I hope you guys check if out as I and my friends try to update frequently.

I know I often drop in a reference to my feminist beliefs and whatnot in my articles, and sometimes my reviews. It must be annoying, like I’m harping on an agenda or something. I hope it’s not like that.

I don’t know why I’m a feminist. Technically, the definition of feminist is someone holding the belief men and women are equal. Nearly everyone will vehemently say they embody/support that statement, but shy away when the “f” word is used. I don’t know why that never affected me. Why I took such a passionate interest in woman’s rights. It just seemed natural.

I carry my tenacious belief in equality and hatred toward injustice anywhere I go, not just comics. I don’t think I have it bad. I am amazed and proud of the progress the woman’s movement made, and I cheer every time comics make an awesome female character (which is a lot). I just think it could be better.

It’s very much a part of me.

One of the first comic sites I joined was Girl Wonder. People get the impression that they’re a bunch of comic-hating rabid, radical feminists. I’m pretty sure anyone who thinks that has never spent more than two seconds at the site. It’s a place for intelligent discussion about both where comics succeed and fail dismally at portraying diversity. It combats not only sexism, but racism and homophobia in comics. It’s one of the only message boards I can go to, and not worry a debate is going to turn into childish name calling and wanking and whining. They are that cool over there.

But you have people at TV Tropes and whatnot (and I consider TV Tropes to generally be female positive) saying GW buys comics because they hate them, (Ctrl+F “Comics” and scroll). Which of course, makes no sense.

It’s sad. I wish GW got more traffic too, it’s been dwindling lately.

I got the “Re-Gifters” and “Emiko Superstar” from the Minx line in the library yesterday. They were both good, funny and cute. When I was twelve, I would have freakin’ adored them. DC said Minx failed because of some bullshit “girls don’t like comics”. Yeah, tell that to the manga industry. Truth is, DC doesn’t know how to market to teen girls. First of all, they named the line “Minx.” Look that up in the dictionary. Second, they should have advertised in magazines, or at places girls READ, or GO. And don’t put the novels in the graphic novels section at a bookstore, only comic geeks go there. Put it with YA Books, sneak it in with the Manga, something like that.

DC claims they tried, but they really didn’t. Were I not a comic geek, I would have never heard of “Minx.”

Last random bit of feminist info, Silk Spectre’s not my favorite Watchmen character, but the fact this super crazy lady called her a “whore” (she’s like Rorschach!) for being confident in her sexuality and being the one “on top” made me love her a little suddenly! Silk Spectre IS the instigator in the relationship with Nite-Owl, she is the confident one there, and she IS “on top” in every way, and you know what? That’s pretty cool. Cool enough for this lady’s crazy little mind to be blown.

Go Laurie!

(For more of crazy lady on Watchmen,check out this fandom_wank entry.)

Ciao!