1. Captain America was shot by Winter Soldier.

2. The dead Captain America is later reveal to be a Life Model Decoy (or yet another shaping shifting mutant). In the interim, Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers are back on the same page being heros against the oppressor state.

3. Batman gets killed at the end of World War 3, just to prove that DC is still edgy. Batman’s death is counteract by Tahlia’s last remaining last remaining last remaining Lazarus pit, (y’lknow, the one of the five hundred last remaining pits that weren’t sealed up during the great Pit Covering of pre-Red Hood), thus proving that edgy != creative.

Well, you know that Tony Stark had to live because there’s an Iron Man movie, Bruce has to come back for the Batman movie and and Reed need to be around for the Fantastic Four movie. Pity there isn’t a Captain America movie.

If Only I’d Become [strike]Robin[/strike] the Designated Sidekick because some burly man in a rubber suit drafted me into a war on misogyny in comics.

Alas, it was not, and never to be.

Designated Sidekick, being retconned out of the cave again by Dan Didio

However! During this brief down period, I am taking requests and suggestions. So if there’s some mind blowing level of stupid in a post somewhere you think I should pick apart with a crowbar, or some issue you’d like to hear/read me write about at length, drop me a comment.

I’m calling for a continuity reboot for reality for the year 2007. All those in favour?

*Insofar as a dead offscreen character and a grave makes you a cast member. Should I say “Member of established continuity” instead?

• Patriarchy exists. We’re soaking in it and benefiting from it. Even the fact I can write this post is part of the patriarchy’s benefits. I’m male, and that gives me a socially conditioned belief that I have a right to voice my opinion and make it other people’s opinion.
• Privilege happens, is real, and is mostly invisible to the privileged. It’s also got huge benefits, and it’s really really powerful, and it lets me do lots of neat things. Seriously, it’s called privilege for a reason. Male privilege exists in a lot of forms, and one of the big ones is our male derived ability to speak out, speak our minds and not receive a range of gendered threats. I’ve been blogging Designated Sidekick for ZERO death threats, rape threats and no derogatory comments about my sexual attractiveness or capacity for marriage.
• Privilege is fucking awesome. No, seriously, it is. I have an idea of just how much more I get away with in life because I’m part of the dominant power structure. I can’t complain about the benefits, but I can complain that these are exclusive benefits that should not be granted to me because I was born male (It is not a hardship for me to be promoted ahead of a better qualified female candidate. It’s an injustice, not a hardship. There’s a difference). Just because it’s awesome doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work to either share it or hell, give the damn thing up because it’s damaging to other people’s lives.

On the subject of feminism

• It takes more than a t-shirt with “This is what a feminist looks like” to be a feminist. It’s bloody hard to be a feminist, it’s work, and it’s hard work. That’s the point though – it’s worth the effort and the price you pay to live a life this way. Merely saying you’re a feminist doesn’t make you one (male or female). I walk around wearing priest shirts (seriously, collarless shirts bought from a Catholic Supply Store), that don’t make me part of the clergy even if I’ve got the book, the shirt and the little crucified christ on a string props. Takes more than the external apperances.
• There is no hive vagina. Feminist is an adjective and a noun, not a collective.
• There is no hive penis either. If there was, it would probably be annoying the hive vagina right about now.
• Feminists are people. They’re capable of screwing up, being inconsistent, and they’re every bit as likely to subscribe to stupid ideas as anyone else on the planet. You get smart and dumb in this gig, just like everywhere else.
• Actually, that bears repeating. Feminists are people. People do good, bad, smart and dumb.

On the subject of gendered violence (male against female)

• Women have heard of self defense classes. Suggesting it to them is dumb. Why be dumb in written record?
• Telling a woman she should take self defense classes to avoid rape is blaming whether you wanted to blame her, think you’re blaming her, or think you’re presenting some radical new idea. You’re not, and you’re saying that unless she takes active steps to defend herself through training, somehow, it’s partly her fault.
• Being a guy making a suggestion on how women can avoid rape happening is pretty bloody likely to be either implicit or explicit blaming. That’s because the best person to assist in avoiding rape happening is the perpetrator. Anyone other than the perpetrator isn’t in a position to make a contribution that’s ever going to be 100% effective.
• If X was different or “If you’d done X” is blaming.
• The current socio-economic political dynamic of ‘enlightened’ society* presumes fault and guilt on women in the event of sexual assault. More effort is expended on exploring the “What She Did Wrong” options than on the “Why did he had act like that?”. I say he, because if you’re talking about gendered violence of man against woman, then there’s a he involved.
• I am aware of gender violence of woman against man. I know, I’ve experienced it. It’s real, it happens, and it’s every bit as wrong as male against female. It’s just a lot less visible, and until society equals the divide, it’s hard for male victims of female violence to be taken credibly, because “she’s just a girl” is dismissive of the power of the person in the perpetrator role, and a form of denial of the power/strength/humanity of the female perpetrator.
• Telling a woman to buy a gun as a solution to gendered violence is stupid. If she wanted a gun, and lived somewhere she could get a gun, she’d have a gun. Did you really think that as some random male on an internet message board, you’d be the tipping point?
• Your opinion is noted, but that doesn’t mean you’ve generated a brand new world view for the whole of the internet to see. Chances are, she’s heard of self defence classes, or guns, or knives, or whatever blindingly obvious statement you’ve just made. See above. You are not the tipping point.
• You are not the tipping point. Your male privilege laden authoritive declaration is not the tipping point for the woman you’re talking at (but rarely talking to).

Other useful advice on the way through feminist boards and blogs…

• If called on a statement, listen (or read), then rethink, then actually think, then sit down, shut up and think again, then respond. If you really, genuinely, seriously did not mean to say what was interpreted as said, you’ll WANT TO HEAR THAT YOU’RE MISCOMMUNICATING. If you’re going to get pissed off and just repeat the same statement again and again, you’re missing the point, and frankly, you’re probably not actually serious about what you said if you’re not prepared to listen to someone explain why what you though you were saying wasn’t what you actually said.
• Also, seriously, when it comes to male perspectives on female issues, any guy who’s serious about it should listen to the women. They live with it. 24-7. We blog it, talk it, maybe inadvertently cause it, but it’s not us in the firing line.
• When it comes to declarative statements of “What Other People Should Do (TM)”, one rule – no body part, no entry. This should cover the cisgender male desire to say just how the rest of the gendered spectrum should live when it comes to declarative statements involving vaginas (for reference, that includes periods, pregnancy, contraceptive devices and who gets to decide what gets put in there), transgender issues and anything else. If it’s your testicles on the line, then feel free to put forward ideas about what can and can’t be done to them by other people.  If not, then the body part’s ownership goes to the body attached to it. The final word always goes to the person with the body parts – I don’t get to make the call on what fate befalls your testicles, you don’t get the final call on anyone’s vagina.
• You are probably a real nice guy, genuine and decent. In which case, a) it’s a shame you just suggested to someone they’re to blame for being raped/being a target for rape but b) if you are a really nice guy and genuine, you’ll be mortified you said that, remorseful about that screw up, and you’ll take action on your behalf to not make that screw up again (and again and again) in the same thread and in the future. Own the mistake, change the behaviour for the future.
• The person who inflicts the violence owns the violence. Men are to blame for the own actions. It may come as a surprise to many, but women are not to blame for the actions of men. This is because men are capable of self control, independent thought, resisting visual stimuli and all sorts of wonderfully sophisticated mental processes. If men couldn’t do that, there would be no sport. There’s a lot of sport, so men are quite competent in this region.
• Yes, I know. You’re not one of the bad guys. Neither am I. However, due to the fact society has thus far failed to create a credible identify friend/foe system for reality, the person in the forum, or on the street, or at the bus stop on their own has no way to externally verify whether we’re good or bad. What you say and do often has to be interpreted without the context. I’m a nice guy, friendly, trustworthy and an active feminist blogger, but without context, all that people can do is interpret what I’ve said or how I’m acting. If I look threatening, then I am threatening, even if I’m a really nice guy and a feminist.
• Did I mention that society sucks in the fact that we have to identify friend/foe? It does, and that doesn’t change the fact that if you’re a male on the friendly/ally side, you have extra work to do. But then again, whatever men have to do to make the patriarchal orientated world into a more evenly balanced arena is a small price to pay for a better world. Face it, we were never getting this for free.

In summary, three keys

• You are not the tipping point. Your male privilege laden authoritative declaration is not the tipping point for the woman you’re talking at (but rarely talking to). Seriously, stop assuming that just because you’ve typed it, that’s reason enough to make the difference to the woman’s decision. This applies to decisions to have children, marriage, sexual preference, gender roles, decision to own a macintosh or any other issue. Sure, you can suggest, you can recommend, you can say “Well, there’s these good points”, but only if the issue is up for debate. If it’s not up for debate, it’s not up for debate. Don’t debate it.
• You are not a woman. Seriously, guys, you’re not women. If it’s an issue that’s likely to be part of a woman’s life, she’s probably thought about it, formed an opinion, and probably has her own decisions on it. You’re not going to be the tipping point, and you’re not going to be the decision maker. If you want to talk to her about it, talk to her, not at her.
• No, we do not have a worse deal than women. We don’t. Quit trying to say we do, or trying to equate non-hardships to hardship or whatever the hell demeaning thing you’re saying this week (for the record, having to wear a suit and tie to work is not the equivalent of a being under the requirements of hijab). Having to sometimes check our privilege at the door is small price for owning the privilege and being allowed up to the door in the first place.

*Enlightened society is the one you’re living in. Other people are the uncivilized outsiders, right?

Bonus Point : If you engage in behaviour on a feminist blog, board, forum or any other location that contravenes the rules of the board/blog/location, and you get warned or banned, you are not being persecuted. You’re being banned for breaking the rules of the venue. If you try that sort of crap in a pub, you’ll get bounced, and thumped one for your troubles. On the internet, you only get bounced.

Three Notes to a Rant:

Note 1: Men can control themselves.
One thing we need to seriously deal with as males is this horrific notion of ourselves as being lesser creatures than animals. The idea that “Men can’t control their urges” is a disgusting degrading and reprehensible way to describe men. It’s also absolutely wrong. We can. Society may establish normative frameworks that allow us to escape punished when we act inappropriately, but that does not mean we’re animals. Saying men can’t control their urges is to place the male human lower in the cognitive pecking order than a guard dog. Dogs can be trained by men to resist the dog’s instinctive behaviours, but the males can’t be trained? I like to believe that I have a slightly higher cognitive firepower than a dog.

We’re guys. It’s our job to control our behaviours, take responsibility for our actions, and to front up and own our gender’s over entitled position of privilege. We’re not blamed when its our actions, and that’s a cop out by society, and a cop out by each and every male who doesn’t step up and say “Hey, our actions, our responsibility”.

Note 2: My credentials in this matter

I’m a guy. I’ve been through all-male highschool, I’ve been on the receiving end and delivery end of male on male school violence. My blood literally stained the floorboards of the school walkway, and that remained that way for many years. I’ve been hit from behind in a class room and had my nose fractured, I’ve got a broken finger on my right hand from where I screwed up a haymaker punch on another guy at school. I’ve done the fight in the gym locker room to settle a score. I’ve carried a knife for self protection (and thankfully, I never had to use it). I’ve trained in Tae Kwon Do, I’ve done full contact sparring. I have a collection of pointed and bladed weapons. In short, if I didn’t have an ideological objection to guns based on my distaste for the dishonourable nature of ranged weapons, I’d have fired a gun, and probably would own a couple of them.

I’ve looked at a woman and seen her for her physical appearance ahead of who she is (sometimes I find myself going “wow! She’s cute” in my brain, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s influencing and skewing my behaviour). I watch porn, and I freely admit that on the internet. I play violent video games with male leads, I watch action films and my toy figure collection consists of male figurines with the exception of Black Canary. I mark out for patriarchy enforcing gender role enforcing stereotype enforcing entertainment on TV, in the cinema and on the PC. I’ve paid money to watch the WWE live shows and PPVs, been to strip clubs, and bought into the patriarchy’s party line at various times.
In short, I’m a guy, flawed and prone to screwing up. But one of the best things I found about feminism is that it’s a lot like first person shooter video games. You’re gonna screw up, get your arse handed to you, and get the shit kicked out of you. Then you’re going to get back up, and do things differently until you get it right, get through, learn from the experience and tackle the next level and the next challenge. Sure, there aren’t that many quick saves in reality, but there’s also more walkthrough guides and better cooperative play. So take the skills of adapting, learning and trying again out of the FPS and into making the world just that little bit better.
We’re guys. We’re socially conditioned to believe we can make the world a better place by our individual actions, so let’s use our privilege induced conditioning for contributing to a more balanced society. It’s just like when you use the fallen opponent’s weapons in FPS games innit?
Note 3: I’ve probably screwed up in this post.

I just don’t know where, because I can’t see past my own world view. That’s why if I have, I rely on people calling me out on it, assisting me to see beyond the boundaries I currently have, and so I get to go “Ah hell, I said WHAT?. I thought I said X, and it came out as Y? OH CRAP” . So call it if you see it.
Also, I know I keep switching between male/female and man/woman. Which is the more useful or better way of phrasing the gender? (Also, please tell me I didn’t swap sex and gender interchangeably)

And yes, this is a long post. Anyone really surprised by that fact?

Note 4 of 3: Props.

Thank you to Jen, Karen, Mary, numerous posters at Girl-Wonder’s bulletin boards, zuzu, piny & jill @ feministe and the crew at feminist allies. Without you, I’d never been thinking about half of this stuff, and certainly wouldn’t have traded a night of videogaming for a night of feminist blogging. Thank you.

Note 5 of 3 (edit date, Feb 2008)

I’ve received a couple of comments about the “no vagina, no comment” approach indicating that it doesn’t sit right in regards to transgender female.  As much as I’d love to be all defensive, I was wrong in how I put that line out there. I drew a line in the virtual sand that wasn’t necessary.  So I’ve redone the section as “no body part, no declarative statement”. Partly, because y’know, I have no desire to have my body parts fates determined by people who don’t have them, and that’s a mutual courtesy I’d like Team Cisgender Male to pass onto the rest of the community.

That said, the basic premise is that if you don’t have it, you’re not experienced with it, and what makes you believe your inexperienced position is more authorative than the position held by someone with the experience. It’s still clumsy and inexact, and this is a work in progress, and I’m willing to update and change it over time.

Plus, to be reflective and honest, I knew very little on the gender spectrum back when I put this piece together. I’ve been reading a lot more, and, yeah, cisgendered declarative statement on what constitutes “womanhood” *facepalm*  Told you I was capable of screwing up didn’t I?

DS

Girl-Wonder.org is a collection of sites dedicated to females in mainstream comics. Our goals are to foster an attentive, empowered audience community and to encourage respect and high-quality character depiction within the industry.

Point 1. Slash fiction is not mainstream, nor is it mainstream comics. In fact, it’s a small breakaway movement on the internet that’s largely more self congratulatory than it is noticed by the outside world. As an art form, it’s also old news – Kirk and Spock slash fic is credited as the big break through moment for the sub genre of fan fiction.

In short, slashfic is not mainstream comics. It’s not actually on our watch.
Point 2. Feminism, and girl-wonder.org, are not the borg. As part of Girl-Wonder, I am allowed to hold opinions that differ from other Girl-Wonder staff, and the CEO. This is what makes Girl-Wonder an interesting place. It’s also so far obvious that we’re not the Borg that I have to give back my latex body suit and laser pointer eyepiece before I’ll be allowed in the group photo for the annual report. We can differ in what we do, think, read and write.

Point 3. Girl-Wonder’s mission is to be a clearing house of related themes, starting out like a local store, and maybe one day being the Wal-Mart sized megalith of comics critique work. Maybe. We don’t know, because maybe we won’t need to expand beyond the core of dealing with women in mainstream comics.

Point 4. If you want to start up a site that deals with the portrayal of male or female characters in fan-fiction, you should do that, and you’d probably get a few supporters from fanfiction, mainstream industries and some of the people writing here and reading here might join you. However, the role of Girl-Wonder.org does not currently include fan-fiction. Maybe in the future, maybe not. Right now, Girl-Wonder deals with women in mainstream comics

Point 5. Portrayals of hyperviolent women who castrate men, published under an X-Rated publishing company are outside of the Girl-Wonder gambit, definitely don’t come into Project Girl Wonder, and really, not what we’re dealing with here at Girl-Wonder.org where we deal with women in mainstream comics.

A point of personal opinion. I don’t read slash. I don’t read yaoi, yuri, femmeslash or any other form of slash. That said, I regard slash as a form of fandom, and one that I plan on actively encouraging when I get my fiction writing published. I plan on having a slashfic/fanfic license agreement built into my novels because I regard the fandom (and fanon) as an interesting exploration of the text. I don’t read Harry/Draco or Bruce/Jason because I don’t read any slashfic.

That said, I don’t regard slash fiction (or fanon) as mainstream comics. In fact, I really don’t worry too much about non-mainstream comics here at DS, because I accept that niche markets will serve niche interests. I don’t have to agree with the interests to accept that they exist, or even personally support those interests (personally, I find the whole XXX porn comic industry to be bizarre. Black and white, difficult to hold in one hand? That’s meant to be art isn’t it?).

My reason for wanting to see an improved lot for female characters in mainstream comics has been documented before here on DS. Whether or not my fellow bloggers, my CEO, my readers or anyone else produces content for niche non-mainstream markets doesn’t matter a rat arse to me.

In fact, my response is this – so?

I joined Girl-Wonder.org because I want to contribute to improving the portrayal of females in mainstream comics. What anyone else from this domain does with anything else in their life is their life, and I don’t give a damn whether you like that, agree with that or what you think. Because so long as they’re pulling their weight on this project, kicking some arse on their end of the cause and being willing to let us disagree and be different people outside of the G-W.org work, then I’m damn glad to call them allies, friends and fellow travellers. The world ain’t black and white, it’s a full spectrum of gray scale, and that’s the gorram point to it all.

People can and do hold contradictory positions on issues. It’s human nature. So teh_no? I’m over here if you want to fight me about that. Except that I can accept you can have a different opinion. Can you handle the fact I’m not agreeing with you?

The machine had been invented a few years ago: a machine that could tell, from just a sample of your blood, how you were going to die. It didn’t give you the date and it didn’t give you specifics. It just spat out a sliver of paper upon which were printed, in careful block letters, the words “DROWNED” or “CANCER” or “OLD AGE” or “CHOKED ON A HANDFUL OF POPCORN”. It let people know how they were going to die. …

WHAT ARE THEY LOOKING FOR?
The premise of the anthology is covered in the book’s introduction, above. Your mission, as a writer, is to come up with the best possible story that fits in the world described in the introduction. The only major difference between THAT world and THIS world is that people in THAT world can undergo a cheap and easy blood test to find out how they are going to die. So the stories that we’re interested in are those that somehow explore that idea in an interesting or entertaining way.

I have but one thing to say – I lack time and opportunity to write it, but I would love to see a story where the machine says “EDITORIAL MANDATE” contest for a spot in the anthology.

Consider this a call to arms, undead helper monkeys of the G-W.org universe.

Go on. It’s a chance to (make fictional characters) die for…

“I think comic strips are an interesting place to see how gender is reinforced in our daily lives, and how that reinforcement often affects us all negatively.”

it’s an interesting piece, and one that’s noticeable in a quick scan of the black and white single panel to three panel dailies. Gender roles are reinforced or if broken, are broken as the form of a punchline.  “So MaleRole was done by A FEMALE *cue audience guffaw*” Oh Beetle Bailey, how wacky art thou! I mean, I gave up reading Cathy years back because it started to grate raw nerves with me. Don’t get me started on the creep out inducing stuff that goes on in For Better or For Worse (for worse actually) since there’s enough other people on the internet covering that watch.  There are problems in the funny pages that reflect society and show both comic and society needs work.
What got me thinking was jeff’s last paragraph….

Mountains and Molehills
Some might say I’m trivializing gender stuff by focusing on a small segment of pop culture–comic strips. But again, these are solid parts of our day-to-day lives (ok, of my day to day life, and I think this is where a lot of the work on recognizing gender norms and how they might negatively affect us can be done.

In short, I think jeff’s nailed the importance of this in a nutshell.  This is reality, real life, day to day, common touch ordinary people territory – the funny pages.  I’m an academic, I hang with an elite crowd at work, teach at a university (highly ranked one at that).  I don’t run with the average person in a lot of respects, but I do read the same comics in the paper as they do.  It’s the one point where I can say that I intersect with a lot of other people.  Sure, I read Cathy in preference for the Phantom, but still, I could talk about the Phantom to the other boys at school.  It’s more real to a lot of people than big issue changes like social reform or equity or equality of wage, or domestic violence shelters or war in Africa.  It was a common ground, and a part of people’s real daily life (go on, tell me that reading the comics isn’t important because it’s done by ordinary people)
The so called small issues are places where you can intersect with the real life of people, yet we’re forever on the defensive about whether we’re trivialising the big picture by addressing these smaller real life issues. So this got me thinking about the “But you’re trivialising…” concept in other contexts, namely the fact that I’m in the process of moving apartments.  Did I trivialise the apartment moving by packing the small objects before moving the bookcase?  Or was it a hell of a lot easier to move the bookcase once I’d dealt with the raft of smaller objects, freeing me up to take on the bigger issue of the bookcase as part of the biggest issue of moving the entirety of my possessions?

Tackling what we can, where we can, and bringing about incremental improvement in all areas of society isn’t trivialising the major cause.  Assuming that the only change is big change is that none of us can really ever feel that we can acheive is to make what we work for into something of little significance or value.  Getting to people’s self interest in small ways each and every day is much more significant, and a hell of a lot more valuable.

That, if you want to take Answers.com’s second meaning of trivial, is the whole point of well constructed social change – taking it from the unachieved and unachievable and making it something ordinary and commonplace (and achieved) is the endgame scenario.

Change enough of the smaller parts, and the composition of the bigger picture alters. If making a better big picture isn’t significant and valuable, then what is?

Oh man. The levels of issue I have with this interview is long. Very long. I know what Dixon is thinking he’s saying, and what he’s actually saying aren’t meshing up. I know there are Chuck Dixon fans, and Chuck Dixon himself on the Internet. That said, I don’t have any problem going to the dance with anyone who wants to to reply to me here and discuss my reading of the interview and my interpretation of the chasm between wanting deniability and stating support for the sexual orientation or existence of relationship between two characters. If you want to write for the deniablity, then in my view, you’re not writing for the support of the existence of ANY aspect of the character.

Onto some quote by quote work after the jump

“Maggie Sawyer, in Superman, was obviously being portrayed as a lesbian. But there was a level of deniability because she wasn’t always being shown in romantic clinches with her girlfriend.”

Because deniability is important. Mustn’t forget that denialability of sexuality is more important than any other aspect of sexuality. In fact, so important…

“When I was writing Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon’s romance I stayed away from stating that they were in any kind of sexual relationship. You could absolutely imply it. But you could just as easily tell yourself they were saving it for marriage.”

Yup. One of the most important things Chuckles has given us was the deniability of Dick Grayson’s heterosexual liaisons with Barbara Gordon. That way, we can deny Dick to Barbara, and it’s only implied they were an item. Thus sating Dan DiDio. Double points!

“Astute readers picked up on it.”
Anyone who’s ever picked up on Dick Grayson’s deniable heterosexuality is an astute reader.

“Others either didn’t notice or chose not to”

Thanks to Chuckles Dixon, you can now chose not to notice the heterosexual orientation of any character he writes. Thanks Chuck!

“Maggie even appeared on the cartoons with her girlfriend.”

They were just good friends who enjoyed hot tea together. In a deniable way.

“I much prefer this kind of characterization over Northstar’s “I’M GAY!””

That’s because Marvel doesn’t have any truck with deniability as a core to character sexuality in this instance?

“The important thing, for story purposes, was that Maggie was a good, three-dimensional character first and a lesbian second.”

This statement bothers me to the point I won’t mock it. What Chuck Dixon says here is that the sexual orientation of a person is an add-on pack to their character. That who we are as people is something that consists of everyone but the way we would love people, form relationships and bonds with others, and who we would choose as our partners, lovers, soulmaters, and marriage partners. It’s saying that the deniability is more important than the reality. It’s detaching Maggie’s capacity to love another woman as a partner from who Maggie is, and making it not part of her being.

Chuck Dixon didn’t say ” The important thing, for story purposes, was that Clark was a good, three-dimensional character first and a heterosexual second.” when talking about Lois and Clark.

I know Chuck Dixon was asked a set of questions about issues of sexuality being raised in comics, and I know the context behind it. The problem is, Chuck Dixon says some bloody stupid things here, and that’s when as far as I can see, he’s trying to be supportive.

As far as issue comics and real life issues being raised in comics… look, it’s okay to have a dissenting opinion on whether that’s the best place for it – but the reality is, it’s the place it is happening. The heterosexualised normative values of the comic book is a reality that is used by artists and writers to convey messages that are sufficiently grounded in today’s reality to make sense to today’s readership.

Try going back and reading the comics of the 1950s and you’ll see an alien world. If the contemporary comic books characters have mobile phones, iPods and Myspace equivalents, then they make a connection at a base level. Characters interacting in social stratas that make sense to the contemporary reader.
“But why can’t that be outside the pages of a superhero comic? Why do comic writers have to take on the mantle of social engineer?”

They don’t, but they do have to then accept that comic books are for kids, and that the stories they tell will have an upper age limit. Comic books would be just for kids, and that market has talking ducks.

“I haven’t met a comic book writer yet I’d let talk to my kids about sex. Why would I want them doing it as part of a story about super-powered men and women in tights?”

Because they have been since the creation of the medium? This is an art form, a communications medium, a mechanism for broadcasting ideas, stories and characters. In short Chuck, the reason this is happening is that you’re working in a popular culture medium that addresses the contemporary culture, shapes and frames stories against the current world and filters these events through the lens of Batman, Wolverine and every other franchise character.

What we become as people is informed in part by the media we consume. Comic books aren’t given a get-out-of-influence free card (nor are they solely responsible). They’re part of the package deal of content and informational influence that shapes us.

“It’s of paramount practical concern that the comic companies guard and shepherd their franchises even more carefully than before.”

By ensuring that all sexual and/or relationship elements are deniable?

“They’re being seen more and more by audiences of casual readers who have an expectation of who these characters are. This is no longer the sub-culture hobby that it was even ten years ago.”

Some of those more and more readers might actually want to see characters that speak to their lives, their desires, their hopes and their dreams. When I was in high school, having Oliver Queen and Dick Grayson was to have characters who I could identify with, and to use to pin my fantasied reality of an ideal world to my reality. I wanted to be Oliver Queen, muckraking journalist by day, costumed crime fighter by night. I had that character, and the white male middle class entitled and privileged costumed hero to call my own.

For me, Ollie Queen wasn’t about being deniably ambiguous. He was about being identifiable and unambiguous.What’s wrong with wanting the rest of the place to have characters they can call their own without having to permanently wear a shadow of deniability?

Slightly More Serious Note: Success or Failure?

So, it’s the end of 2006, and there’s no Robin-in-jar for Stephanie in the Batcave – does this mean Girl-Wonder has failed?

No.

One of the things I realised when I signed onto this gig is that my day job as a marketer meant that I was rather useful for the cause, if nothing else, for the fact that I really don’t expect to see name recognition achieved inside 18 months, and substantive shifts in marketshare inside of 10 years. Girl-Wonder’s name recognition alone is fabulous success.

Girl-Wonder isn’t a year old yet. That people know of the existence of the site, that the first letter campaign was met with letter writing and letter responses is a success. This roadshow is on track for the timelines that commercial marketers use for judging success. Y’all can have variable mileage on what you expect by what date – I’m just going to cheer on the success that we’ve had in the short time frame we’ve been operating.

Bumps in the Road: Looking forwards

At some point in the next 10 years, several of the crew at G-W are going to leave. This is because 10 years is a long time, and any organisation will turn staff over in that ten year period. My prediction of G-W is that one staff writer/blogger/contributor/hard-core poster to the board will leave in a manner akin to a slam-the-door-I-quit! resignation. This to me is par for the course. Every organisation has these moments. In the world o’ privilege where I operate, this is so par for the course that you worry if you hit year five of ten without a stomping of the feet from someone on the squad. When it happens here, I’ll breathe a sigh of relief. It’s life as usual.

That said, it’ll be taken as an omen of dark times and gloom, spawn countless OMG!TheEnd! posts, and it’ll be a bit like finding out the drummer is leaving Matchbox20 – tragic at the time, but later we’ll wonder why we thought it was the end times.

Things I can pretty much expect to happen next year

• Somebody will say there’s no point to the Girl-Wonder.org mission.
• Failure to deliver radical and long lasting change in comics will be deemed to be the fault of Girls Who Dare To Suggest Things Could Be Different (ps: That title free for a blog)
• Some male comic book readers will defend their comics with impassioned outbursts against feminists who want comics to be decently written, well drawn and not traced from porn
• Some female comic book readers will defend the same comic books for different reasons
• Somebody will notice that not every woman is agreeing with the female bloggers and declare this to be proof of something. The fact that I’m around as a guy disagreeing with other men will be ignored for being inconvenient .
• At least one person who’s working hard for our side of the argument (ie the argument you, the reader, cares about) will have some self reflection and doubt. At least one person on the other side of the argument will do likewise. Blog posts from both parties will be treated in diametrically opposite statements of “The cause has failed” and “The cause has succeeded”.
• Greg Land will draw Sue Storm with a porn face.
• Greg Land will draw Black Canary as Sue Storm as Black Canary as Sue Storm.
• Transformers:The Movie will lack any decent female characters, spark a rift in the fandom between those who saw their childhood trashed by the new movie, those wishing it was possible for a Transformers franchise in 2007 to include positive portrayals of women, and those people who wrote massive tracts of Optimus/Megatron.All claims on ruination of childhoods will be met with “We called dibs on that issue” by Star Wars fans. In conclusion, another fandom will feel the pain that is X-men3.
• Marvel, DC and Dark Horse will produce one or more “For Women” comics special events. Marvel will make it pink, DC will sell special issues with a refrigerator on the front cover, and nobody will notice Dark Horse.
• At least one male character (deceased) will return to life. To redress the balance in the force, six female characters will be killed. Two of those characters will be created for the express purpose of being killed. One of those characters will be killed onscreen at the end of Marvel’s Crossover-a-thon, and one will die at the end of DC’s next crossover arc.
• DC will admit that OYL was a bad idea. Plans for One Really Long Year (ORLY) will be launched.
• Dan Didio will hate the player (Dick Grayson) not the game (Crossoverarama).
• Designated Sidekick will be fined by the Internet Bureau of Blogging for excessive word counts and sentenced to actually pay attention to his day job.

On reflection: Playing with the Full Privilege Deck

One thing that I have encountered over the past few months being involved in G-W, and then by extension feminist blogging has been the issue of privilege. Thanks to Karen (GRC) and the remarkable patience of arielladrake, I’ve been working on dealing with the fact that a lot of my responses are privilege based because I’m playing with the damn near full deck of privilege cards. I am middle class, highly qualified, work in an elite end of an elite industry, live in a nice suburb in the national capital and I went to a nice elite all male school. In theory, I’m one of the poster boys for the patriarchy on paper. In reality, I’m blogging for Girl-Wonder.org.

Along the way, I’ve noticed various things that I freely admit confuse me, and then when I start unpacking the whole thing, it quite often “Okay, so that’s the non privilege position” which is followed often by me saying “The privilege position of going “Yeah, and?” seems a bit easier”. The longer I stay in this role, the more I think I’ll come to terms with the difficulties faced by those operating from a non privileged position. It’ll take time, and it’ll take effort, and I’ll get it wrong on the way. But that’s just reason to try again, not reason to give up (and that my friends, is an interesting statement – I assume I have a right to succeed through trial error and effort. Not everyone feels that way do they?)
I came into the DS role because I also knew that having one of the bloggers operating from a white male privilege position gives the G-W squad a set of options that wouldn’t be available without my presence. In 2007, if there’s any time anyone on the G-W (or comics feminism) extended allies network thinks that a message coming from the Designated Sidekick would hit harder than from the other members, drop me a line. At the risk of going Boromir here, it’s an option, let’s use it if we need it.

Why I still want the Memorial Case

It’s been a while since Stephanie Brown died through editorial mandate. I have many reasons for wanting her recognition in the Batcave, but for now, I want to focus on one reason. As a young boy reading comics, I believed in what the characters stood for, believed in the notions of heroism, and the acceptance of personal risk for the greater good. Robin was an iconic role model for me, and I found myself identifying with him (and with Green Arrow).
I want the future young male readers of the Batman comics to know that there was once a female character, a girl of their age who believed in the things they believe in, who fought for the things they would want to fight for, and who was killed because she stood for what they believe in. I want them to know that when faced with the choice of owning the mistake, Stephanie Brown stood her ground and didn’t walk away.

I want the young male readers of the future generations to have the chance to honour Stephanie Brown because she was a Robin, and she stood for those things I believed in when I read those comics, that they believe in when they read those comics, and to know that yes, being willing to sacrifice safety, security and self for the greater good isn’t just what boys would do -it’s what heroes do.  Heroes like Stephanie Brown.
I want them to have a chance to know firsthand that capes aren’t just for boys.