Partly it’s because these issues are so big, that there is almost nothing worthwhile that can be said in a single blog post. You have to go deep on the subject to get anywhere. Some writers manage to dedicate their focus to specific issues, and have done a thoroughly worthwhile job of raising debate and pointing out problems, but it takes a lot of work to really get into the meat of the difficulties facing comics, and a long-term focus that I totally lack.
Sexism, racism and homophobia in the world of
comic books should never be tolerated, or ignored, or justified, but
they can still be bloody intimidating topics.
Taking stock of all the gender issues in modern
comics is a full-time job alone. Especially when the treatment of
both female creators and characters is fairly appalling, and
continues to be fairly appalling on a regular basis.
It’s almost impossible to see the solicitations
for any of the major comic companies without finding something
ridiculously sexist, from an impossible pose to the brutal treatment
of a female character. Strong female characters are abused or
misunderstood, and the blithe misogyny of many mainstream comics is
embarrassing for all concerned.
And the lack of female creators is even more
shameful. High-profile relaunches from both big companies recently
are been notable for their comparative lack of a female voice – DC
can find room in their schedules for 52 new titles, but couldn't find
much room for a feminine perspective, and then offered up things like
the gross climax to Catwoman #1 instead – a potentially complex character once again
reduced to cheap titillation.
That lazy default sexism, in both product and
attitude, filters all the way though to the convention room floor,
where many women can recall tales of deeply inappropriate behaviour.
It's certainly there in the venom directed towards the new faces
brought in by things like Twilight, insulting their vampires and
telling them they don't belong in the world of geek culture, instead
of welcoming the new blood.
These things are obviously wrong, and there is
almost no need to keep banging on about them, because they are
self-evidently ridiculous, and not worthy of any real thought. But
they do keep on happening, and it's only right that they should be
called to account.
But even though I have my own platform here, I
don't really talk about it, for three main reasons.
Firstly, it’s just so hard to talk about this
kind of thing without resorting to gross generalisations. When you’re
talking about 50 per cent of the world’s entire population, it’s
impossible to avoid making absolute statements. Not everybody likes the same
thing, not everybody reacts the same way. To say that girls just
don’t like comics as much as boys ignores the significant amount
who do bloody well enjoy them. There are girls who like The Punisher,
just as there are boys who are into Twilight.
But my own anecdotal experience certainly suggests
that fact – over the past three decades, I've found boys were far
more into comics than girls. I've tried to get female friends,
sisters, cousins, girlfriends and a wife into comics, with varying
degrees of success, but it's been competitively simple to hook boys.
I'm not entirely sure why this has been the case –
weekly UK comics for girls were outselling their male counterparts
healthily in the early seventies, and the incredible success of
authors like J K Rowling and Stephenie Meyer show that girls dig
fantasy as much as guys, if not more.
This personal failure to intice girls into reading
comics might be due to the fact that I'm coming from the male
perspective, and the kind of comic I really dig tends to involve some
kind of intense hyper-action, which they're not interested in at all.
But it illustrates the problem – it's temptingly easy to make the
bone-headed declaration that chicks don't dig comics when that's been
my personal experience, but that ignores a huge number of female
comic fans.
There is the creeping feeling that any kind of
conversation about women reading comics is inevitably going to be
some kind of generalisation, which only serves to antagonise those
who it lumps in with the masses.
Even the idea that modern comics is inherently
sexist is uselessly general, because it discounts the scores of
great comics created by women and even more that feature strong
female characters. We'll have no absolutism here.
There is also the obvious factor - so much of the blatant sexism seen in modern comics is just that: blatant. Pointing out that something like old issues of Lady Death is sexist is like pointing out that the sky is blue.
It still shouldn't be tolerated, but a lot of
sexism stems from an extremely misguided attempt to be noticed, so
why feed the fire and give idiots a platform they don’t deserve?
Ignoring it won't make it go away, but it won't
encourage them, either.
The third reason why I don't really talk about
gender problems with the comics medium on this comic blog is the most
naked of truths - I am a painfully white and tragically heterosexual
male. My people have had their say. Let other folk talk about the
issues that actually affect them.
The only real solution for something as complex as
this is time – attitudes change over the years, prejudices fade and
innovators take major steps forward. No medium can survive on such
blatent sexism, and the comic medium is certainly getting better at
dealing with these issues, over and over again.
And a lot of that is due to the criticism and
discussion that is generated by people who aren't willing to let
these things lie. Catalogues like the often misunderstood Women In
Refrigerators provide data, and the superb Hawkeye Intitative proves
that ridicule is the best way to deal with ridiculous attitudes.
I can't talk about these things properly, but I'm
so glad others do.
Change can also be seen in webcomics, where a
pleasingly large proportion of online comics feature female creators,
who aren't constrained by institutionilised barriers against
diversity, and just get out and do it.
There is the future, and it might be a bit girly
for some boys, but they'll get over it.
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