I've been
doing a lot of writing, rewriting, and rearranging for these last few posts. I
will probably still wander a lot.
Monday's
reviews were built on a few things, including some really nasty writing about Pretty
Deadly, but also frequent slurs against female writers and artists, and
against female characters. I thought about four female creators who mean a lot
to me, realized they all had current projects, and so reviewing them seemed
like the most natural thing in the world.
I came to
Becky Cloonan because of Killjoys, but once there, she is the reason
that I took any interest in Swamp Thing. Not only did she draw some of
the most beautiful work I have ever seen, but she promoted it. Just seeing one
page of Amy Reeder's art on Halloween Eve, I had to track it down. I did
not know the name, but it was so visually compelling I had to know.
Back at the
time of the MOOC I was still unfamiliar with a lot of this, but I was instantly
drawn to Kelly Sue DeConnick's passion in talking about not just her work, but
other work. Listening to her at ICAF has taught me so much about collaboration,
and writing. Gail Simone has not just been a key figure in writing comics, but
she is a consistent cheerleader for them. Comic stores need help, and she
reached out to them, offering to re-tweet sales and specials, and then doing
it. (And yes, I love her for her work on Women in Refrigerators, but that is
not all she knows or does.)
So my first
thought when I see any criticism of any of them is "What kind of idiot are
you?" And I thought this might end up being a feminist piece today, but it
appears to be getting a bit more complicated, because I nearly got sidetracked
by a Facebook post.
It was a
friend of a sister, but she read it to me, and it was so appallingly ignorant.
It was wondering why young black men were so violent, because the jails are
full, and that can't be that all the police are racist, and we really need to
start using the death penalty.
That was
just what I remember. Initially we both felt like there was too much ignorance
there to even start, and then I decided I did need to say something, and wanted
the exact text, and she checked back and it was deleted.
(Let me
just throw out there that prison population is largely due to drug enforcement
policy, which is very racist, the death penalty is not a deterrent, and many
things correlate more with economic factors than race, though don't think
racism didn't play a role in creating some of those economic factors.)
It is easy
to be stupid about people you don't know, and it is easy to not get to know
people outside of your own walk of life. It is a really good thing to get to
know people who are different from you. That does mean race and gender, but
also it means ages, jobs, religious background, economic status, and
everything. It is good, but it doesn't happen enough.
Something
that can help with that is seeing a variety of images in media, because that
affects what we can imagine for ourselves. If the magazines only show tall,
dangerously thin girls, which is a pretty unusual body type, it is hard for the
rest of the population to feel attractive. If all of the professional positions
are white males, and all of the heroes are white males, and girls only exist to
be in distress, and black people only exist to die and provide some emotional
resonance, that really only works well for white males. If you only see one
story about your group, whether that story is crime or academic achievement, it
feels limiting,
One of my
teen girls is black, and she has written that she hates being black because
people always look at her with suspicion. That is unacceptable. It is
unacceptable for the human cost to her, because surviving adolescence is a
difficult thing no matter whom you are, and no one needs added layers of
difficulty. But there is also an unacceptable cost in terms of the loss to
society of developed talents, service given, and resources provided.
(Half
the Sky, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wu-Dunn is a pretty good book on
this, but also right now I am thinking of Dasani: http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisible-child/#/?chapt=1)
There are
thousands of factors at work here, so the comics portion of it is only a small
slice, but it can be an important one. Seeing Dayoung fly in Rocket Girl
and be herself, yes, that is a great comic for young girls. I don't think the
enjoyment has to be limited to them, but it is important for them to see.
Returning
back to one of those annoying threads, an article about potential developed
projects from comics mentioned White Tiger, specifically Angela Del Toro. One
person, no matter how many points others made, kept arguing against it. She has
no following, no strong story arcs, but yes, there was this undercurrent of
"Cooties!"
What I say
next may be hurtful and offensive to some, and I am sorry, but comic fans do
not make movies successful. If a movie only gets people who read the comic
there, it is a flop. It would be nice if each movie broadened the base of comic
readers, but there's no guarantee there.
Also,
movies based on comic books don't always adhere strictly to the comics.
Sometimes they borrow plotlines or people - I love what they did with Lucius
Fox in Batman Begins, but if someone sees just a spark of a character
that may resonate with film or television audiences, that can be enough. They
may end up creating a mess, or they may create something that doesn't find a
big enough audience, because there are always those risks. However, sometimes
an idea to turn a stereotype on its head can lead to a movie that while not
incredibly successful on its own, spawns two successful series, several comics,
and careers. There's always a risk, so why not try and do something good.
So I would
love to see something happen with White Tiger, and something with Daughters of
the Dragon. I could see that being a good television series. It doesn't have to
be fictional. I would love to see a comic book series about Apartheid and the
ANC. Feature Mandela of course, but also Biko and Mbeki and de Klerk and
Esterhuyse. There's a lot to tell.
You know
what other things could be good? Series based on Chang Apana (loose basis for
Charlie Chan) and Bass Reeves (possible inspiration for the Lone Ranger).
Because it's not that people of color have not been contributing all along, but
their stories don't get told. The Old West has been especially white-washed.
And then we
take that, and we create this idea of how things are, and whether it comes to
various individuals as virulent racism, or a fairly "benevolent"
racism, or an internalized idea that amounting to anything is impossible, none of
it is good enough.
Comics know
heroes really well. They can also be them.
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