Here’s a hint for the defenders of comic books against accusations of anything.
Incompetence is not a defence.
Now I know this is a complex concept, so I’ll explain it again.
Incompetence is not a defence.
Here’s the detailed explanation
If somebody writing or drawing a comic book has shown, over time, a demonstrable inability to draw different female characters, this is not something you defend by saying “Well, what do you expect? The artist is talentless and incompetent”. This is something where you say “We would like the artist replaced by someone with the appropriate skills required for the job”.
In the same manner, when faced with yet another storyline with a poor portrayal of female characters, justifying the portrayal as “bad writing” and saying “Well, this author is known for their low quality work, poor characterisations, and general inability to create female characters that are equally realistic as the male characters” is not a justification. It’s a reason to request the removal of the author and replacement with the requisite skill set to do the job properly.
Defending misogyny, racism, sexism, homophobia, discriminatory writing, abusive writing, or any other criticism of a text by saying “What do you expect? The author/artist is incompetent” is not actually a defence. Incompetence is not a justification, it’s a request for the person you are allegedly defending to be stood down from their position until they acquire the requisite skills and abilities to do their job properly.
I have a question for the writers of comic books and the writers of Heroes
You remember that the characters are fictional, right? Made up? Works of fantasy? That they don’t exist as real people? That they pose no threat to you, your manhood/womenhood, your credibility or pride or anything else?
Or are you so far lost into the fantasy worlds where they’re the powerful one and you’re not, that you have to resort to power crimes of having the character raped, mutilated, tortured or killed just to reassert yourself and your control? Do you have to play malevolent god just to feel comfortable with your own life?
Or more bluntly, what the fuck is your problem people? Can we stop victim of powercrime storylines as the default motive for women crimefighters? Can we stop saying by proxy it’s okay to violently degrade another person because they’ll turn into vigilantes sworn to do good to others?
Seeing yet another rape storyline in a super hero context is enough. If you’re writing this shit because you think I want to see it because I’m male, then I’m telling you.
No.
Stop.
Fucking respect those words for once. They mean what they say.
No more rape storylines because you’re too talentless to write anything else. No more default character origins of overcame rape to become supervigilante. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of it being in the medium that’s allegedly for my gender, and the medium that I grew up with as kid.
I hope these damn stories only keep recurring because you’re talentless hacks who trace stories as frequently as you trace art. That you’re producing the same “rape as motive” storylines because you lack the metaphoric and actual balls to be creative and move away from the damn cliche.
Because frankly, the alternative means you shouldn’t be trusted as custodians of storylines you claimed are intended for children and young adults.
You either need creativity or deep therapy. Either way, right now, you need to just stop.
“And while girls were being encouraged to question traditional notions of femininity, a tendency for boys to misbehave at school was perceived as “normal” male behaviour.” Canberra Times
That’s why I write Designated Sidekick. Because “Normal Male Behaviour” is a sexist cliche that needs to be broken down and beaten to a bloodied pulp when and where opportunity presents itself.
Preset societal roles for women were and are consciously rejected, and the battle to break those down continues minute by minute. Along the way, it’s time for the males who want to cast off the roles that society say are “normal male behaviours” to step up, speak out and undermine that status quo.
Otherwise, we’re letting our side down here fellas, and if we won’t put the yards in, who the hell will?
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Pitch-Black proudly invites you to submit to our upcoming anthology Lords of Justice 1. The anthology, to be released in December 2006, will be a professionally designed e-book, with high-quality art and illustrations, featuring 4-6 novelette to novella length super-hero fantasy stories.
Theme:
Super-hero fiction only. Preference will be given to stories that feature contemporary American settings. Stories need not be set in America, however. We are interested in tightly-plotted, fast-paced stories of heroic fiction that feature dynamic characters and dynamic villains. Female and YA super-heroes are acceptable.
That you had to say it was okay for them to be female is telling.
It’s okay to be a boy or a Lord of Justice, but hey, we’ll let girls in as well.
Place bets, I doubt there will be a dynamic female who’s not a hooker/whore/rape victim in the line up.
Unless, y’know, all you readers of DS just swamp the competition with quality content. Go get ‘em team.