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Article by Alpha-Girl
Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 63 Comments
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Whoa, now! I adore PR, but I read a lot of other chicks-on-comix sites as well, and I gotta tell ya, a lot of that rage out there isn’t manufactured. It’s real, it’s legitimate, and the fact that they’re so defensive tells me they know that sometimes their product has a problem with / creates problems for women.
Granted, I have a pretty high tolerance for outrage, but that doesn’t mean comics is getting a free pass from me. I think the tendency is to hold those we love to a higher standard.
I think there are a lot of women who make excellent points and argue intelligently -the gal who write Girls Read Comics and They’re Pissed, for example – however, there are numerous other sites that don’t add anything intelligent to the discussion and resort to sensationalism and the type of screaming typically hurled at the heathens on university campuses. Because they’re the loudest, they’re the ones who get noticed. Unfortunately, because the intelligent argument gets drowned out by the shrieking, those making thoughtful and thought provoking responses get stuck under the same umbrella in the eyes of those who are outside of this community.
“chick + comics = raging female”
No.
“Comic Company + Pandering Output = Guilty Conscience”
Given that these guys seem to receive death threats from non-female fen based on character choices and all that, I don’t see why they should be so nervous about female fen.
Unless they know they’re doing something wrong and don’t want to be called on it, anyway…
“It also makes me work harder to gain trust – trust that I won’t ask leading questions, that I won’t set traps and that I won’t misrepresent what was said.”
Welcome to my world circa 1995. I was writing the anime/manga column for Wizard (WIZARD!), and getting anime and manga companies to talk to me was like pulling teeth. Why? Because so many anime videos sent out for review were savaged, the companies (save Software Sculptors) weren’t interested in being reviewed.
I spent the year I wrote the column gaining their trust.
I’m wondering if some of the wariness wasn’t due to your very own feature highlighting the Heroes for Hire #13 cover and the Mary Jane statue, to mention just two.
That’s quite possibly true – the exception looming largest in my mind was Girls Read Comics – but Furikku also has a point. There’s a lot of shrill flaming in comic fandom, by both genders. But the kind of blanket apprehension (or hostility – hard to read, as I wasn’t there, but that’s my suspicion) you described is kinda aimed only in the XX direction.
That’s mildly disturbing, at least.
I really enjoy Pink Raygun’s positivity– Sometimes it’s hard to maintain enthusiasm in face of all the criticisms of comics that come up. But when you talk about manufactured outrage, it sort of sounds like you’re dismissing all criticism of comics coming from women– am I misunderstanding you? Because I find criticism of comics coming from women to be of variable validity, some of it well stated, some of it perhaps not so much. But I think it deserves to be taken case by case.
“Given that these guys seem to receive death threats from non-female fen based on character choices and all that, I don’t see why they should be so nervous about female fen.”
As a male who’s done the “comic news and commentary” style of blogging in the past, I can say that folks in the comic industyr are a bit leery of ANYONE online who makes claims like “I run a genre entertainment site”, no matter what gender you are.
I’ll admit i never got a reaction quite as strong as the one she says she did, but I did notice in my time when I’d mantion i wanted to do a Q & A for my blog, creative types would seem a bit more “on guard” with what they said around me after that. Like I was no longer just a typical fan, but someone who could do them real harm or something.
As for why she got an ever more intense dose of that, well, let us face the facts: Women/Female issues with comics (and lets be straight here, comics means SUPERHERO comics) is pretty much the hot button topic. A large number of creators have been called misogynists and worse, over little more than someone not enjoying a work of fiction. Is it really so odd that someone claiming to represent a site that would be a prime candidate to talk about those issue, would be seen as someone to be guarded around? That it would take a large amount of assurences for them to feel comfortable talk to them, given the amount of rage that have focus on them over this issue?
See, it’s almost comical, because I saw this coming a long time ago. Everyone keeps spewing all this negativity online at people (because comic creators ARE people, not just the sound bits you see in interviews or the fictional stories you read by them), hiding behind the vaunted “right to vent”. Yet, they never see the inivisible damage they are doing. The bridges they are burning. The people they are turning against them. Good people. People who aren’t out to harm anyone, but get caught up in the groundswell of those who let their outrage do their talking for them. And then, when they do approach them, they wonder why that comic insider isn’t all tickled pink (no pun intedned towards this site) to be open and direct with them. Worse yet, are those who don’t do that, yet get lumped in, because “it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
I’ve seen people (women, in fact), who’ve recently claimed that blogging purpose is for people to have a place to rail against what they don’t like and loudly and insultingly as they want. While it’s true you CAN do that, it doesn’t mean you should. And it doesn’t mean it will come without a cost to do it. A cost that we all end up paying. I’m sure we are all familiar with the fact so many creators have cut down (or cut out) the time they spend online to interact with the fans, because of such large amounts of negativity being flung at them (wether justifed or not). This incident (as well as my own experiences) is just another example of the price to be paid for people who lack the ability to control their rage and see no problem in spewing negativity whenever and on whoever they want.
I still blog today. Although, I don’t really do commentary anymore. It’s just a fun little thing I do, using cover images to play up a theme. There’s no negativity coming from it. It is all meant to be seen as a fun stroll through comics rich history. I felt that the best way to counter the negativity so many seem intet to spread, is to do someting that is positive to try and bring back some balance to blogging.
Blogging can be a really great way to express your thoughts and ideas and communicate them to others. Sadly, though, the only thing more and more people seem to want to communicate to others is their disdain, anger and outright hatred of someone, whom they probably don’t even know, over a matter as trival as a work of fiction. Worse still, I don’t see it changing any time soon.
Furiku- Fanboy death threats are one thing, but being called a misogynist or a sexist is a completely different beast – it’s not an attack on the work, it’s an attack on the individual as a person.
Lea- The MJ bit we did was tongue-in-cheek and our H4H pieces went in a totally different direction, primarily responding to the online response. However, if they recalled those specific pieces upon hearing my name and seeing the Pink Raygun logo, that means we must be doing a good job with marketing and promotion.
And fortunately (at least for me), I expected to have to prove myself when we started.
Angelle- I perceived apprehension and caution, rather than hostility. Hostility would have generated a much different piece.
Betty- I’m not dismissing all criticism coming from women. I stated in an earlier comment that there are a lot of women who make excellent, thought provoking points. Some examples are Karen Healy’s Girls Read Comics and Cheryl Lynn’s Digital Femme. I may not always agree, but they’re very good at what they do.
James- I think part of the problem is that a lot of the reaction is coming from personal blogs where people are venting. One of our missions is to differentiate ourselves from that group because Pink Raygun isn’t a personal blog. It also isn’t just a comics site – we cover a lot of ground within genre entertainment and original content. This is a business; we treat it as such, and at events like the Con, we present ourselves as such. I think that’s what will set us apart.
“James- I think part of the problem is that a lot of the reaction is coming from personal blogs where people are venting. One of our missions is to differentiate ourselves from that group because Pink Raygun isn’t a personal blog. It also isn’t just a comics site – we cover a lot of ground within genre entertainment and original content. This is a business; we treat it as such, and at events like the Con, we present ourselves as such. I think that’s what will set us apart.”
Alpha-Girl:
I wish you much success in your goals. A balanced and well-stated site on comics (and other entertainment media) is always a welcome thing, no matter what gender it is geared towards.
I just hope you understand that, until such distinctions are made, between your type of operations and the thousands of “personal blogs” which has generated the mistrust and fear you saw at ComiCon, that you will probably get that type of initial reaction for some time to come (because, as I noted, I doubt you can expect those personal blogs that have created that mindset with those industry insiders to change their tactics any time soon). Best of luck and continued success.