Joss Whedon and feminism part 4

Ok so first of all I want to say thanks for everyone who's left comments so far. I really didn't expect my posts to get picked up or have people responding, especially not multiple times. I'm surprised and flattered! Also, these last two posts have been focusing on Firefly because they've been prompted by Allecto's writing. I will do another one on Buffy, but I'm not sure when - I've had the last week off work so have had a lot more spare time than I usually do.

I also wrote those last posts quite late at night so again I'm stunned they made sense ;) And a qualifier - my views sometime change day to day so I may contradict myself today.

In response to people's comments so far:
Male feminists - I don't think I explained myself clearly enough before. I have said in post number 1 that I know men can be feminists, I know men who are. This is a good thing, a very good thing! I said before:
"I do not think that they are well placed to pick up on and recognise internalised misogyny and societal sexism because by and large it doesn't affect them."

I'd just like to clarify that I don't mean men can't pick up on blatant or subtle misogyny and sexism, they can and do. It's just that unless discrimination affects someone directly. or they are specifically looking out for it, then I think it usually gets missed. HOWEVER, many women also do not pick up on discrimination, or will disagree on what discrimination is. Some men will be better at getting it than some women, and vice versa. I also think that there is a danger in stating that the men will never get it like the women do, because it implies that if you're a woman your opinions are automatically more valid than a man's. And that's bollocks. Everybody's opinions are valid and everyone can learn from each other. There are as many different views and takes on feminism as people and that's great.

To me, feminism can also mean humanism, i.e. treat people, both men and women, like human beings. This means do not objectify, do not buy their bodies, do not beat, do not dismiss. Both men and women are perfectly capable of doing this. I consider all my friends, male and female, feminist because they are not jerks and they believe in treating people fairly. If they didn't believe in this I wouldn't be friends with them.
To say that one sex cannot understand a whole raft of theory is divisive and patronising. I do not believe there are inherent differences between men and women's personalities and make up - I believe we are socialized into gender specific roles from birth and it's damn hard to get out of the mind set.
I guess I do believe in Unicorns then. I hope they're shiny.

Ok onto Allecto's last post.
First off, I think people have got the hump with Allecto's posts for two reasons. The first one is that she's very confrontational and aggressive in the posts and the second one is that people have misunderstood the purpose of her blog. Her post titles are 'A Rapist's view of the world' and 'A wife-beater's view of the world', both referring to Joss Whedon. However at no point does she explain why she thinks Joss is a wife beater or rapist. And y'know, I think her lack of an explanation is ok. This is her blog, it's not intended to be a radical feminism 101, it;'s not intended to educate people to radical feminism or convert them to her way of thinking, it's Allecto putting down her thoughts about issues she sees in the world. I think the intended audience are those people who already share her world view.
On this page she writes:
Men who know little of feminism, this is not the space for you. If you wish to educate yourself further on the women’s liberation movement then, by all means, read what I have to say. Until you have a deeper understanding of feminist thought, however, I do not welcome your comments or questions. I am not here to educate men on feminism.
(Emphasis mine).
On this page she writes:
The women who comment here come from all walks of life. We represent a highly marginalised and vilified group and we are often viciously attacked for our views. I will not allow comments from women who are not supportive of Radical Feminism. I will not allow male-apologist comments.
(Emphasis mine)

So I'm not surprised she hasn't published all comments received and I'm not surprised she hasn't responded to criticisms. That's not what she uses her internet space for. Unless a blog is described as an educational spot, or states that it welcomes discussions and sharing of ideas there is no reason to expect this to happen.

As for the rapist and wife beater descriptions - I assume that Allecto believes that all men are potential rapists, a view I think is shared by members of the radical feminist community, as opposed to accusing Joss of personally raping or beating his wife (or any other woman). (I happen to agree with it but I also think that all women are potential rapists (of men and other women) too, but that's a whole different topic).

Of course if I've got this theory totally wrong please let me know.

OK onto the actual content of the post. As I said before, I'm no literary critic and I don't know the techniques for dissecting texts. But I do know that I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea that all texts always represent the world view of the writer. To say this would surely mean that the writer can only create characters and situations they know? Surely people can write from the point of view of someone they despise in a manner they don't approve of? Or am I missing something more subtle? Please someone tell me if I am.

Allecto says:
"What makes me even more annoyed about this scene is the fact that Mal, as always, does all the talking, leaving Saffron’s potentially interesting history unexplored. This is typical of stories written by misogynists. They are not interested in women’s stories; women are only there to further understanding of the male characters."
Re Mal doing all the talking, I think the scene was written this way to demonstrate Saffron's character. She's meant to be submissive and think herself unworthy. Also, as we find out later, Saffron is a construct, therefore there is nothing real to find out about. So she wouldn't want to dwell on her male believe past.
In regards to women only being there to further understand male characters. This does happen an awful lot in fiction, and yes it is typical of stories written by misogynists. (For a comic centric view of this, see the Women in Refrigerators website.) But I don't think it is happening here. I think we are still getting to know Saffron and the exchange prompting Allecto's comments helps us do this. But again, I'm no literary critic and tend to look at things from within the universe, ie.e. if it makes sense within the boundaries of the story then I'm fine with it.

"the....scene where Zoe shows herself to be completely unsympathetic to Saffron’s slavery and blames Saffron for her own subjugation."
I am not one who believes in a sisterhood. I don't see any reason, given what we know of Zoe's character, why she should rush in and defend Saffron. Zoe is an military woman, she's a loner and she cares for her own, in this case meaning primarily Mal and Wash. Mal because he was her captain in the war and old bonds like that do not die, and Wash because he's her husband and they're in partnership together. Zoe cares for the rest of the crew because they're crew and the Captain brought them on board but she isn't going to take a new person under her wing freely. I get the impression that you need to earn Zoe's loyalty, it is not given freely.

Zoe says the Captain shouldn't be 'babysitting a damn groupie', well no, they've got jobs to do and he shouldn't be married to her - he shoulda realised what the ritual meant or Shepard Book shoulda told him. Zoe also calls Saffron trouble - well she did turn out to be trouble. This comment *could* be read as Zoe knowing something isn't right with Saffron's story, although I doubt it. I think she means Saffron's presence will interfere with the running of the ship and Mal's job.
Wash's inane geese juggling comment only serves to show up Wash - he hasn't realised the gravity of the situation and is trying to dissipate his wife's anger.

In regards to women not defending their own, when we first meet Saffron on the ship and Mal is being exceedingly rude, talking bout her like she isn't there or have ears, Kaylee comforts Saffron and calls Mal up on his rudeness. She does not get punished and if I remember right, Mal looks contrite at Kaylee's reprimand. But that's Kaylee - she cares for everyone, Zoe doesn't.

Allecto's comments about men abusing women for being born female I wholeheartedly agree with. I'm just not convinced that Our Mrs Reynold's so far demonstrates this.

Allecto's next comments are about the scene where Saffron is in Mal's bed. I pretty much agree with Allecto here. It does make submissiveness and vulnerability sexy, and you know, it's not! Saffron has been traded to Mal, Mal pretty much says just that:
"Just’cause you got handed to me by some couldn’t pay his debts, don’t make you beholden to me."

Therefore taking advantage of Saffron is utterly utterly wrong. You could argue that this scene is designed to show Mal being a jerk, but I don't hold with that. There's not enough made of Mal's jerkishness and far far more made of Saffron being teh sexy.

Allecto's comments about Joss writing that women lie about everything I think would only hold true if this were correct for all his characters. But I think that in Firefly (and Buffy) he's created a selection of diverse female characters with distinct personalities, mostly free from stereotypes. cough*except for River*cough. However I forgive River's cliche of mad super powerful teenage girl because she's so fucking awesome at it. And because his other female characters are truly diverse and strong.

Allecto's comments about the Wash/Zoe relationship:
"Wash openly admits that he wishes he could sleep with Saffron a woman who he has just met. He simultaneously believes that he loves Zoe despite the fact that he openly admits to wanting to fuck Saffron. And the primary motivation for him refusing to fuck Saffron does not seem to be because he loves Zoe, it is more because of his life may be in danger if he does. Wow, I really do just love these nice, white husbands. Whatever would women do without all these nice, white men?"
I'm not sure if you can love someone and truly want to screw someone else. I love my boyfriend very very much, I still crush on other people, but I don't think I could actually bring myself to sleep with someone else. I think most people are the same. Or am I naive? And the comment about Wash's life being in danger if he cheats on Zoe - if fear's the primary motivation for not sleeping with someone then you are lame. This seems to be representative of that old cliche that all men are driven by their cocks - kinda cruel and dismissive towards men I think.

The Inara/Saffron moment - Saffron is ruthless yes, Allecto thinks this is a good thing because Saffron gets to kick fuckwit men in the head. Zoe gets to shoot fuckwit men all the way through the series and River singlehandedly takes out an entire army of reavers. Saffron's ruthlessness therefore doesn't appear to me as a feminist moment because she's a bad guy. However, random titillating lesbian scene, yes. Unnecessary. But at least it's established in other episodes that Inara does actually like women.

Jayne's gun Vera is big and phallic yes, that's why Jayne has it. He likes big phallic things. Jayne is not a nice man. He's also not representative of all men because like Joss female characters, the male ones are also allowed to be distinct and different.

While Mal and Saffron are wrestling:
"MAL (cont’d)Looks like you get your wedding night after all."
Sex (rape?) jokes are not necessary. We get the comparison without the dialogue. Also, Saffron's pose and clothes are unnecessarily sexualised by this point. She didn't have to be wrestling with a tiny bra and low cut dress (top?) on. I do not hold that this is justifiable because it is in character, it would be nice to not include women as eye candy at every possible moment. Ok, Zoe, River and Kaylee are not treated as eye candy, so why does practically every other woman in the show have to be dressed like a tavern wench? I know it's a western style show but that's not an excuse. They could all be dressed like Zoe and still be in 'period' costume. Not doing so indicates laziness (and an inability to see women as other than sex objects) by Whedon, the producers and the costume department. (Inara not included her because her job is to look beautiful).

The scripted notes to this scene are pretty horrible too.

"She (Saffron) lets out a breath, smiles at him unfathomably."
"She (Saffron) looks at him… looks away, considering the question… — and he slams the butt of his gun into her chin, knocking her out cold. He stands, regards her genuinely vulnerable form. Says with a kind of sadness"

As Allecto says "The scripted description of Saffron in this scene make it abundantly clear that this scene is supposed to titillate." Titillation is not neccessary. Women do not have to equal sex. Why can't people see this?

"But perhaps most disturbingly this scene can be read as a justification for male violence in the home. Joss frequently references marriage in the scene, to bring on the funnies of course, having Mal acting like a spurned husband and Saffron the wayward wife. If we read the entire episode using this framework of reference we can see that Joss has constructed a vicious argument in favour of male violence in the domestic sphere."
This paragraph and the two following it I think are valuable. If you read the whole episode using the above frame of reference then I think Allecto has come up with some very valuable, interesting points. Of course if you don't think it's appropriate to use this frame of reference you won't agree with her.

"First up we have the innocent virgin wife. Mal romances the innocent virgin wife, teaching her to be strong and independent, but still ultimately subservient to him, and obedient to his authority. They come to the marital bed and it turns out that she isn’t quite so innocent after all. She transforms from an innocent country girl into a manipulative, callous woman, who is strong, capable and independent. She works for herself and bows to no one, not even Mal, her husband. In fact, she willfully betrays him and uses his faults and weaknesses to get her own way. It is clear that such a woman must be brought down. By any means necessary.

Saffron leaves Mal and Mal tracks her down, invading her home by force as a husband, pushing her to the bed, using his body to pin her down while he lectures her for not conforming to proper feminine womanhood, before slamming his gun in her face. "

If you view the episode like this, and I think you can justifiably do so, it revels in cliches and smacks of misogyny. It is this presentation which ultimately makes me quite uncomfortable with the episode. Mal, whilst being an anti hero, is still the hero. As such his actions are to be emulated and approved of. I also think Allecto is correct in presenting Inara/Saffron as the Wife(Virgin?)/Whore dichotomy. Again, making me uncomfortable with the episode.

So, while I disagree with the details of Allecto's interpretation of this episode, her overall view argument and conclusion I think has a lot going for it.

I also wanted to include some thoughts about Inara and Companionship. I think prostitution is wrong. The buying and selling of anyone's bodies is just plain wrong. I believe that the majority of prostitution is rape, because I believe the women are coerced into doing it. I don't know how to solve the problem, but penalising the punters not the prostitutes would be a good start.
Inara's job is not as a straightforward prostitute. She is a Companion. she sells her body and her services and her goodwill and her conversation and her ability to entertain. I get the impression Whedon was inspired by Geishas, except that they never ever sold their body.

The first thing I have a beef with is that prostitution, in whatever guise, is still in existence and is celebrated. And Companionship is presented as something desirable. Yes the Companions choose their punters but it's not a perfect system. The episode Shindig shows this - Inara's client does not respect her or her profession and hits her. Mal then wades in as male hero because 'his' woman has been hurt. I'm sure Inara can take care of herself, but by somewhat more subtle means. Unfortunately it seems that attitudes haven't changed much and men's first instinct is to challenger the other man. And when I say men here I mean men, not people. At any rate, Inara is not allowed to take care of herself, she stands quietly by whilst Mal partakes in an extremely stupid swordfight he can't hope to win. This episode could have been written differently with Inara getting revenge on her punter.

Alimaemia said in response to an earlier post of mine that Companionship is a high class social function, not like prostitution as we know it. I agree with both points but it does incorporate prostitution, Inara does sell her body. Now if she enjoys the sex every time then I'd be happier, but no one enjoys their job all the time. We also don't see any safeguards against hurting the women - there are repercussions in that men who hurt the women will be blacklisted but Shindig clearly shows that this doesn't deter some men. The reputation of the Companions does not prevent punters being rude and abusive.

I also wonder if the Companions have to pretend to be someone else in their job? I mean, do they have to grin it and bear it when they are with a boarish oafish punter, do they have to fake enjoying the sex? From the little I recall of a conversation between Inara and one of her female punters I think they do have to fake it. This could have been explored in so much more detail in the show, but it wasn't. Instead it was glamourised and portrayed as a respected profession.

I can see the paralells between Companionship and current day prositution. And I think that Companionship is morally and ethically wrong.

Comments and criticisms please, and thanks for reading!

EDIT: this page has Allecto explaining more fully her views on what constitutes rape and interracial relationships. Worth reading.

Joss Whedon and Feminism part 3

Ok onto part 3. Response to Allecto's second post here.
She's talking about the episode Our Mrs Reynolds. Synopsis nicked from her post:
Mal the captain of the ship finds out that he has married a woman when he finds a stowaway on his ship. The stowaway, whose name is Saffron, was traded to Mal as a gift because he helped the inhabitants of a planet to get rid of some bad guys.

First scene is Mal and Jayne driving a carriage. Mal's dressed as a woman. Allecto comments on the anti feminism of drag. I don't know anything about that myself, although it does seem to me that drag centres it's humour around caricatures of women and stereotypes of femininity. It seems the humour comes from contrasting the exaggerated portrayal of women with the tough natural manliness of men. I think this is what is happening in this episode. In which case, I do take issue with it because these portrayals of women are not real. Real women do not act like Mal-as-women does. And these caricatures piss me off, it's like a safe way to present a very one dimensional view of womanhood, and it presents this view as the truth. Plus yes, jokes about rape are not funny.

"A bit later Mal talks about how he likes to wear dresses with Inara. “Like woman, I am a mystery,” he says of his enjoyment of wearing dresses. Sorry, Joss, score zero for that one. Women aren’t a mystery, WE ARE FULLY CONSCIOUS HUMAN BEINGS."
Unfortunately I know lots of people who think the opposite sex are a mystery. Well they bloody well wouldn't be if people bothered to be honest with each other and quit playing games. Grumble grumble grumble.

"When Zoe is told that Saffron has been traded to Mal as a wife/slave she begins to laugh. She then calls the rest of the crew and invites them to join her in laughing at Mal’s newly acquired possession"
I think she's laughing at Mal, not Saffron. Laughing at Mal's predicament in acquiring himself a wife. (Not that's necessarily better). I also suspect that Zoe never thinks for one moment that Mal will treat her a slave. I think in this episode the mistake made is that the crew treat Saffron as if she has the knowledge, nous and experience to make her own decisions and choices when if she really were a slave, she wouldn't be able to do so. This storyline was not handled in a very sophisticated way.

I don't think that Mal shouting at his crew is indicative of misogyny or sexism, because I don't think he's shouting at them because they're female. I think he's shouting because he's the boss. I believe that the intent behind the action is important, but it does not always excuse the end result, if that makes sense. Of course, you can argue that the whole military set up is patriarchal and not women friendly, but to do that I think you'd have to argue that men and women are radically different beings. I don't think we are.

"And just a tip Joss....If you believe that women should kill men who try to kill them then, quite frankly, I agree with you. If you want to show your encouragement and support for women who defend themselves from men, then write a female character that kills a man who is trying to kill her AND GETS AWAY WITH IT. "
Agreed. Would not River Tam in Serenity count? She does kill all the Reavers. Something no one else has ever been able to do.

I don't understand why Allecto thinks Joss uses porn, and Hustler in particular, so I cannot comment on this point.

"White male husband wishing his black female wife was more submissive and cooked his dinner. Anyone else see a problem with this?"
I think it's possible to view this exchange without looking at race, that is, I don't think race is a motivating factor in Zoe and Wash's relationship, although I can see the symbolism of what Allecto is saying. And yes, this could have been written better, with more awareness.

Black female wife being jealous of a woman she terms a ‘slave girl’. Anyone else see a problem with this? "
I don't think Zoe is jealous of Saffron, I think she's pissed at Wash for acting like a dick and implying her cooking needs to be improved. Mind you, I can't see Zoe cooking anything for Wash. i reckon he does the cooking and household stuff.

"Given that Mal nobly believes in protecting the female members on board his ship from the ravages of ‘the world’ (read: men), I find it hard to credit that he allows Jayne to stay on board his ship. In this scene Jayne talks of women as sexual and domestic property, obviously unaware that women are human beings. Men who think like this about women ARE DANGEROUS. If Mal did care about the protection of women, he would have spaced Jayne immediately, or at least locked the fucker up."
Playing devil's advocate here, Mal does keep an eye on Jayne and watch what he's doing. But in a realistic setting yeah Jayne should be shot off asap. However, he's a good character to have on the show. From an outside, meta perspective, he's entertaining, his attitudes are ridiculous and we can laugh at him. And we know it's OK to laugh at him because we figure the rules of the show will keep him in line. He wouldn't seriously fuck up one of the female characters because that would be uncomfortable viewing.
From the view within the show we figure the women are safe because of this exchange:

JAYNE: Six men came to kill me one time, and the best of them carried this. It’s a Callahan fullbore autolock, customized trigger and double cartridge thourough-gage. He holds it out to Mal.
JAYNE (cont’d): It’s my very favorite gun.
MAL: The explosive diarrhea of an elephant, are you offering me a trade?
JAYNE: A trade? Hell, it’s theft! This is the best gun made by man, and its got extreme sentimental value! It’s miles more worthy’n what you got.
MAL: “What I got” - she has a name.
JAYNE:So does this! I call it Vera.…
MAL:She’s not to be bought. Nor bartered, nor borrowed or lent. She’s a human woman, doesn’t know a damn thing about the world and needs our protection.

Jayne is asking Mal for permission. He won't step out of line because he knows Mal will kick him to kingdom come if he tries anything. Plus, I think Jayne is a little scared of the female crew. He's definitely freaked out by River, he wouldn't dare lay a hand on Zoe cos he knows she'll kick his ass, Inara is out of his league and has the protection of Mal and the academy and I don't think he quite knows what to do with Kaylee. She's confident, clever and isn't intimidated by him.
Yes there are obviously issues with one man asking another for permission about a woman, but I believe that this used to highlight Jayne's sociopathic-ness (Is that the correct word?). The other characters do not treat women like objects so I don't believe the text as a whole can be read as endorsing Jayne's view.

OK one more to go. As usual, comments and criticisms welcomed. Especially as I'm not a literary critic and wouldn't know those methods of analysis if they bit me on the nose.

Holocaust gaming

So, there's a new console game being developed called Imagination is the Only Escape, and the subject is the Holocaust.
I promised in my earlier post that I would talk about this more extensively. I read the info about it in the magazine gamestm and at the time it seemed massively urgent that I write about it. Now, I'm not so sure.
My first reaction upon glancing at the article and seeing the subject matter was wtf? How on earth can you create a game about the Holocaust that is not exploitative and deals with the subject in a sensitive and appropriate manner?
I should add that my experience of gaming comes purely from the boyfriend playing. I don't play. I don't get the appeal and I have no desire to pick up a console. The Wii got me interested for all of 5 minutes, and yeah cow racing and the wii-lypmics are fun but there's no way I'll sit down and game all evening.
So with my limited knowledge I was very concerned that it would be a shoot em up beat em up chicks with huge boobs type thing - no I don't know how this'd fit in either but as I said, I have a very limited experience of games. Then I read the article - always a useful thing to do I find (!).

The game's designer is Luc Bernard. the storyline is comparable to the movie that came out a few years back about a father and son in a concentration camp, the father creates a a game out of it for the boy in order to shield him from the worst of the horrors. It was Italian I think. (And if anyone can tell me the name of the movie I'd be very grateful). In the game a child is taken to the camp and he creates an imaginary world in order to cope with what he's experiencing. Gradually throughout the game reality seeps in more and more. The game also contains facts about the Holocaust, including the one featured in my earlier post.

Here's an article on a Holocaust survivor's reaction to the game.

My thoughts on this? If it can be handled sensitively and appropriately then yeah, make a game out of it. use it to educate people. It'd not been designed for entertainment purposes, which is good. Shock people into realising what happened. I don't think we know enough. I've been to a holding camp in the Czech republic and I've been to Auschwitz. They were vile horrible experiences but people should go. When I read the fact in the magazine I broke down and cried. I do not cry at anything, I am not a weepy person. I read that and cried for half an hour. We had friends over that evening and I had to excuse myself whilst I went upstairs and cried for 40 minutes. If a game can do this then hell yeah, develop it, put it out, increase people's knowledge. And for god's sake don't forget that atrocities are still being committed in the world. Ethnic cleansing is still happening. Genocide is still being carried out on government orders. Use the knowledge people and start making little changes in your home towns, notice the people around you and stand up for what's right. Please.

Joss whedon and feminsim part 2

I've been re-reading Allecto's posts on Joss Whedon here, here and here. As I said previously when I first read what she had to say I was taken aback by the forcefulness of her feeling. I didn't understand what position she was coming from and the amount of hate in Allecto's text shocked me, nonetheless on first reading I was left feeling uneasy because some of what she was saying seemed to make sense. Now, I like having my views challenged, I like reading new things, but it does take me a long time to mull things over and get my thoughts in order. Anyway, the end result was my previous post.

Now I've had time to think I've decided I want to go through Allecto's posts and respond to them. This will not be an attack on her, as I've said I think a lot of what she's written is valid. I mostly want to get my thoughts in order and exchange ideas. Like Allecto, I think Joss as producer and in charge of concept development of both Firefly and Buffy he should be held accountable to the content of each show. Fine. Let's get some general points down first:

• I do not think that Joss is a misogynist, neither do I think him sexist. I think he is trying to overcome sexism and misogyny, however being male he is always coming from a vantage point of male privilege and so will always always overlook some issues and representations etc. Lacking the lived experience of being female he will also not be able to fully understand what it means to be female in patriarchal society.
• Buffy and Firefly are two very different shows, with different characters and different moral standpoints. Both demonstrate different world views and I don't think either should be used as an indicator of the writer/producers mindset and worldview. what goes for Buffy may apply for Firefly.
• No matter how much I love this show or others I think we should always call out those responsible when we see errors and offensive material included in the show. Both programmes were written by a man in a patriarchal society and will undoubtedly reflect that society.

Ok, let's go:
Post number one: A Rapist's View of the World: Joss Whedon and Firefly
Allecto stated in the first line that this a rant. To me this means it is angry and not necessarily well planned out. Don't give her grief over the presentation of her arguments ok? (Quotes from Allecto are in italics).

"Zoe runs around calling Mal ‘sir’ and taking orders off him....a white man tells a black woman to ‘shut up’ for no apparent reason. And she does shut up. And she continues to call him sir. And takes his orders... for the rest of the series."
I don't see this as an issue of race. I think it is clearly set up in the episode that they are in the army together and Mal is the Captain. In an army setting you take orders from your boss or you risk getting killed. You trust that your orders are good ones because if you start arguing and breaking the cohesiveness of the unit you put your squadron/unit/whatever in danger. Although we could ask why not have a black female captain and a white male subordinate.

I don't think Firefly is very good on issues of race, not because of scenarios like the one above, but because for a show set in the future where there's a huge Chinese/Asian influence on the culture there are remarkably few people of Asian descent included. This has been rectified slightly in the comics, but really should have been recognised and rectified when casting the show. Also, I suspect that a lot of the Asian cultural references, e.g., furniture, dresses, background stuff etc, are based on stereotypes and may not actually reflect the true diversity of Asian culture in existence today. I say suspect because I'm cynical - I know next to nothing about Asian culture.

"Jayne asks Mal to get Kaylee to stop being so cheerful. Mal replies, “Sometimes you just wanna duct tape her mouth and dump her in the hold for a month.” Kaylee responds by grinning and giving Mal a kiss on the cheek and saying, “I love my Captain.”
What the fuck is this feminist man trying to say about women here? A white male captain who abuses and silences his female crew, with no consequences. The women are HAPPY to be abused."
I read Mal's quote as Mal showing up Jayne's inherent ridiculousness. Jayne probably would see no problem with duct taping Kaylee and shoving her in the hold for a month. Kaylee recognises this, hence her response. Jayne is the counterfoil in a lot of Firefly - he's a real selfish git who doesn't give a stuff about anyone else and is something of a sociopath (I think that's the correct phrase). He's out for number one and he truly doesn't understand why duct tape and imprisonment are bad things. Mal is also flawed, he's got a dubious morality (more on that later) but he's not as much a low life as Jayne.

Now Mal and Inara. Mal behaves awfully towards her. He consistently calls her a whore because he's uncomfortable with her job. He says he respects her not the job and does stand up for her when another guy gets too possessive, yet he calls her a whore and ignores her requests to give her privacy. I'm totally with Allecto on her views on Companions and Mal and Inara's relationship. I diverge a bit regarding Inara servicing the entire crew.

I think there are implied differences between Inara with a client and Inara talking to the crew. I think Inara is a thoughtful, diplomatic person and that she talks to the crew and supports them because it's in her nature to do so, she also argues with them when disagreements arise. I don’t think she’s being exploited here, I think Inara and the crew are having natural normal relationships and I don’t read it as a problem. However you could argue Inara’s training has shoehorned her into being this way and as such she is being exploited, but on a more subtle level.

Regarding Allecto’s points about the series being action centred and homoerotic, personally I like action. I like gunfights, I like fist fights and I like explosions. Whether it is homoerotic I think is debatable. Mind you I have issues with the term homoerotic anyway – yet again it places sexuality with men not women. There’s a picture of a hot topless male – it must be homoerotic, because of course only men have sex drives! Women could never be turned on by pictures of naked or near naked men. ‘Homoerotic’ takes away women’s sexual legitimacy and engagement. It implies that we are passive. And that’s bollocks.

“Let me just say now that I have never personally known of a healthy relationship between a white man and a woman of colour. I have known a black woman whose white husband would strangle and bash her while her young children watched. My white grandfather liked black women because they were ‘exotic’, and he did not, could not treat women, especially women of colour, like human beings. I grew up watching my great aunts, my aunty and my mother all treated like shit by their white husbands, the men they loved. So you will forgive me for believing that the character, Wash, is a rapist and an abuser, particularly considering that he treats Zoe like an object and possession.”

I’m sad to hear that. Allecto’s experiences are terrible ones. Without meaning to denigrate Allecto’s experiences I would argue that it is possible for white men and WoC to have healthy relationships. Obviously not all relationships go well, most end badly (for partnerships of all colours), but in mixed race relationships problems and failure within the relationship may not be down to race. I don’t think race has an impact on Wash and Zoe’s relationship. However, I am white and I am coming at this from a position of white privilege and I am fully aware that this affect my readings of any text. As such, I will not pick up on all or any issues, particularly not subtle or hidden ones.

All thoughts and criticism welcomed.

Iron Man

Avoiding spoilers is too hard. *whimper*

Joss Whedon and feminism - part 1

I've reading Allecto's analysis of Firefly, latest installment here, and find myself reluctantly agreeing with a lot of what she has to say. I say reluctantly because I love Buffy and Firefly and am rather gutted that there is so much wrong with it.
When I read the first installment of Allecto's analysis I was rather taken aback. I didn't understand where she was coming from and as the piece was not intended as a radical feminist 101 it took me a while to understand it. Although I don't agree with everything she writes she makes a damn good argument for all of it.

I do believe that men can be feminists. I do not think that they are well placed to pick up on and recognise internalised misogyny and societal sexism because by and large it doesn't affect them. But men can identify as feminists. They cannot however preach to women about how the bets way forward to advance women's rights. They will never know what it is like to be a woman and to be treated as a second class citizen. When I went to get my mortgage with my boyfriend the mortgage advisor directed 90% of his spiel to my boyfriend. Despite the fact I was asking the questions, despite the fact that I earned the most. The boyfriend did not notice this, because he has never had to, because he's never been in that position. However, he fully supports feminism. This is fine. He, and all the other men out there, just don't notice 95% of the crap women deal with.

Anyway, I'm slowly going through all my Buffy videos, (I know, videos, get me not with the technology), and am currently on season 2. Bearing in mind what I'd just read from Allecto certain things, say, problems, were occurring to me whilst watching it.
During Innocence, where Angel loses his soul after he's slept with Buffy. The blame for this is put squarely on Buffy's shoulders. By Giles, by her other and by Buffy. By the time Willow tells her it's not her fault in I only have eyes for you, several episodes later, Buffy is thoroughly convinced it's all down to her. She's completely internalized the guilt and won't give any of it to anyone else.

She had been in a relationship with Angel for a pretty long time now. 6, 8 months, a year? She's 17 years old. In the UK, it's legal to have sex when you're 16. I'm not sure about the law in America. She knew she couldn't get pregnant, he couldn't give her STDs cos he's dead, they loved each other. She knew nothing about the curse. Jenny knew something, but couldn't tell anyone. What exactly was wrong with them having sex?

Giles later said to her "Do you want me to say you acted rashly and wag my finger at you? You did and I can." Buffy then looks destroyed. This is her one trusted and knowledgeable authority figure in her life, her stability, and he tells her that? She did not act rashly. Having sex is not a crime. Later on her mother finds out about it and is unimpressed. But that makes more sense, mother's don't like to hear about their daughter's having sex. But then in Passion Joyce puts the blame on Buffy again for Angel changing. How is this Buffy's fault? How is it ever the woman's fault? Angel's behaviour reads like a stalker. Yet this isn't picked up on, Joyce doesn't help Buffy stop it, just blames her. The two people Buffy cares most about have told her it's her fault that her boyfriend changed after sex. If she hadn't had sex with him everything would be still be all honey and roses.

Why is Joyce not showing her it's Angel's fault he's changed? Did he not have anything to do with it? Why is Giles not placing the blame squarely on the Romany tribe who put the curse on Angel? Everyone hates Ms Calendar but I get the impression that's because she wasn't open with them about spying on Buffy and Angel. Not because it's her tribes fault he's changed. Jenny calls her uncle out about the curse, but that's the only time it's mentioned.

This whole storyline makes a pretty shit morality tale - it removes all culpability from the man. I understand that maybe Whedon wanted to show how teenage girls feel after sex when their boyfriend turns into a jerk, but it could have been down without everyone blaming Buffy. She didn't know. How could she have known? And as such, how is it her fault? Angel wasn't raped, it was fully consensual.

Maybe there's other reasons the story was written this way. Maybe instead of intending to show how it's always the woman's fault and that sex for teenagers is bad, Joss wanted to show the difference between teenagers and authority figures (Buffy and Joyce/Giles) as opposed to peer to peer relationships(Buffy/Willow). Maybe.

Still, it's not all bad. Although in Firefly's Our Mrs Reynolds, Mal is obviously taking advantage of and abusing Saffron, in the Buffy episode Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, Xander cast a love spell and inadvertently makes every woman in Sunnydale want him. Including Buffy. He doesn't however take advantage, and he clearly states that it would be wrong and he does the right thing. So, I am thinking that Mal's behaviour in Our Mrs Reynolds is not symptomatic of Joss being a misogynist.
Mal is a bit of a grey area when it comes to morals. He happily kills people, he steals and he beats people up, and he enjoys it. His behaviour with Saffron then indicates further that he is a jerk. Contrast this with Xander, who is most definitely a good guy, though a bit of a sleaze, he generally does the right thing. Ergo, Joss can write good feminist texts. Except that the Buffy episode in question was written by Marti Noxon, and Our Mrs Reynolds was written by Joss. Damn.

New poster to tackle prostitution

Picked up from The F Word.

I approve. It quite clearly makes the link between prostitution and rape. I would say the vast majority of the time prostitution is always rape. I know there are some women who go into sex work because they like having sex. The vast majority don't. For the vast majority it is not glamorous or enjoyable. They do not make a lot of money. If you are coerced into having sex then it it is always rape. Most prostitutes are coerced into it. This poster places the emphasis and the blame on the man. Makes a nice change from blaming the women.

Note: When I say most or vast majority I mean 99%

DC hearing my prayers?!

Barda Figure!

That's pretty cool, check out the cheekbones! Link from Shelley's Bookshelf, she has a lot of figures.

I'm getting more and more. At this rate I'll be drowned in toys. I've got my eye on several:

All star Batgirl. Lame comic, great figure. Love the stars.

Batwoman. and the minimates version.

Supergirl. To complement my Linda Danvers figure. Who won't stand up unfortunately.

Flamebird.

A decent Black Canary one. Is this real leather??

A good Green Arrow one.

Impulse.

Rose Wilson. Please?

Wonder Woman in full Amazonian battle armour.

And by good I also mean affordable. I can't afford the women of the DC Universe busts. :(

When did this come out??!! And dear god this is awful. Take the man away, please.

Here's a fun photo of some of my toys:

I must get a newer one to show booster, blue beetle, catwoman and Nightwing.

Wally West is a dick.

I've been reading volume 2 of the Flash and come to the conclusion that Wally West is a bit of a dick. Flash number 2 ends with Wally inviting then girl friend Francis Kane to move into his house. Next issue he finds a note from her saying she's left, things were moving too fast etc. Fine. 5 pages later (and about 2 hours within DC Universe time) he meets Tina McGee. And starts hitting on her. Next issue they're kissing. He has a dilemma about her being married.

Then follows some really awful storyline about her husband beating her up because he's been taking some super serum rubbish. Yet she still loves and defends him and finally ends up leaving Wally for him. The husband is fully recovered by this point by the way. And there's some excrutiating dialoge and tension between Wally's mum and Tina because they're all living in the same house. Yadda yadda yadda. It's really bad writing. I blame the 80s.

And then in this lovely page Wally's shows the senstivity and intelligence of a dead rodent:

A few comics before this he's also hitting on his hot young neighbour and only stops cos he realises she a criminal. Wally, you are a dick.

And this page just confuses the hell out of me:

I think the dancer is a caterer. He shows up 2 panels before to talk about this issues monster - the Kilgore - is disbelieved by the scientist and then the above panel happens. Huh?!

Fun things

In an effort to focus on the good things in life I bring you the following:

Bears and Menstruating Women. Should you camp?
This reminds me of my friends corgi, who recently went to the trouble of digging out her used tampons from the bin and eating them. 3 of them. They had to take the stupid thing to the vet and it was prescribed it some sort of laxative. I was thoroughly grossed out.

Pac man pie chart

Menstrual Painting
I like the one done on the bathroom floor.

Optimash Prime! Best. Toy. Ever.

Lolcatz

Power Girl gets own series Now please lets make it a little more consistent than the Supergirl one, ok folks?

Women of the DC Universe poster 'tis wonderful. (In my head this is a kind of alternate universe where Kate Kane isn't a total femme and would wear trousers. Everything else remains the same though) And Adam Hughes manged to draw the hands ok. Ivy and Harlequin look like they are lovers sharing an intimate moment. Kara is spot on. Power Girl looks like a goddess.

Edit: Also the pirates app on facebook, awesome!

The menstrual posts and Optimash Prime toy were first seen on Occasional Superheroine's blog. the Optimash Prime toy had me giggling on the floor for 5 minutes.

The Holocaust

Nazi doctors at death camps tortured children, they were exposed to several inhumane surgeries without anesthesia. Some of those 'experiments' were injections of lethal germs, removal of organs and limbs, sex change operations. The victims were then murdered after the experiment was over.

Something is very wrong.

The text in bold is taken from the new game Imagination Is The Only Escape. This is a story of a child's struggle to survive the concentration camps of WWII. I will blog about the game at a later date. Right now I can't. This post is to highlight the atrocities committed by the Nazis and any comments about the existence of the game will be deleted from this post. This footnote ic included to give legitimacy to the above text.

Worth highlighting

Open Source Boob Grab. A summary from Feminist SF -The Blog.
My brain certainly can't cope with putting thoughts together. I say, Grarrrggghhh!

OGC cracks one off

OGC. The Office of Government Commerce, part of HM Treasury. Specialists in procurement and programme and project management. Interested in efficiency gains for central civil government. They've gone and got themselves a new logo, for 100,000 pounds, no less. Here it is:

Can you see the problem? I'll rotate it for you.
Oh dear. Oh dear dear dear. I wasn't entirely convinced this story was true, so I emailed some colleagues still working there and they assure me that yes it is real and they are going to continue using it!

Yep, that'll look lovely on all those books they produce (PRINCE2, MSP, ITIL etc..)

Retirement

I have decided to retire my nostril piercing. Voluntarily. This is unusual for me, I have had a large number of piercings and the few I have retired have been done under duress. (how's that for bad english?). My surface wrist piercings were rejecting, my nipple piercings weren't healing and my ear ones were giving my massive gyp. My vertical labret was removed as I had to get a job.
I still have my upper and lower navel bars, my septum, both tragi and 11 running down my ear rim. Including each lobe stretched to about 6mm *beams*. I would like those bigger but again, having an office job where I meet funders probably meas I can't have much bigger lobes.

Anyway, my nostril piercing. I've had this about 8 years now I reckon. I told my mum I had it done and she cried. OK, she was a bit mad at the time and I was living away from home, at university so it's not as big a deal as you'd think. The reason it's coming out is because I can't find a stud that will stay in and fit comfortably, and having a hoop in just irritates it. In the last week it's gotten a bit sore and red and I have come to the decision that it would be better to lose it than continue to risk irritation or infection if it catches on anything. Very mature of me I think.

On the bright side once it's settled I could have two parallel studs put in :D

Whorewhorewhorewhorewhoreswhoreswhores

Just found this web comic about Frank Miller. True. People, just because the ladies in Sin City have guns it does not make it a feminist movie.

Monster Comic buying session part 1

I got my Nightwing figure! It's very cool :D Although the slots at the back where her wings fit in and not level :( Oh well, it's still pretty awesome :)

I've bought a ridiculous amount of comics recently. Orbital comics in London has loads of 50p back issue comics, (it's also where I got my figure from), and Forbidden Planet does a grab bag of 5 back issues for a quid. You can only see what two of them are and the second time round I did end up with duplicates but it's still a bargain. I may now attempt a super short collection of thoughts of each comic. I won't say review. Team ups first, then individual books, then Infinte Crisis tie ins. Then non DC books.

Justice Society of America \2: Nice. Features Kingdom Come Superman. I'm thinking of picking up the title on a regular basis now. Previously I haven't gone near it cos all the JSA heroes except Power Girl have bored me senseless. I am ready to concede I may be wrong.
JSA Strange Adventures \5: I remember enjoying this. And the cover art is great. And it's got Hawkgirl. Thumbs up.

Justice League New Frontier special \1: Lovely art. Didn't really like Superman in this. Liked Black Canary and Wonder Woman in the strip club, even if Diana did come across a bit mental. Dinah's reactions to her and the situation were great though.

JLA \67: I do have a soft spot for this run.

Teen Titans\57: An issue devoted to Rose, my favourite of the titans, hurrah! I must get the 5 or 6 issues I've missed of this.
Teen Titans Year 1 \1 to 3: Oh poor aqualad, he's rather pathetic isn't he? I like this mini. A lot.
Titans \1: Yes so it's Michael Churchill's art and it's pornface all over, and Supergirl and Wonder girl are clones of each other, but the story is good. What's everyone's beef ??

Green Arrow/Black Canary \6 and 7: Oh hell yeah. I love these two. And I like Judd Winick's writing. Oh Ollie, you're such a twat, you didn’t' check the aliens. *shakes head*
Green Arrow \48: Dire.

Brave and the Bold \10: Oh Robin and Wally, you’re so mean to Aqualad.

Wonder Girl \1: Oh I'm definitely getting the trade of this. Oh yes.

Black Adam \2: The end of 52 promised a better book than this. And the cover is lame. But hey, Black Adam's back!

Batman Legends vol 2 \2: A British reprint of stories from ASBAR, (Ninja) Man Bats of London and Superman/Batman Public Enemies. Hey, it's the goddamn Batman, what can I say, I love it!

Robin Annual \7: Shiny. The bat family has always interested me more than batman himself, and this was an enjoyable read. The festival of the hungry ghosts story was the best even though I know fuck all about Damian. Maybe that's why?

Superman \661: Tagline on the cover reads - (Khyrana) 'No one can stop Khyrana, Superman--no one!' (Wonder Woman) 'OH?'. The boyfriend finds this funny in an American comics are really utter dross way (he's a manga snob). I find it funny in a cheesy overly dramatic way. Lois was acting rather jealous in this though. Is that a normal part of her characterisation recently?
All Star Superman \10: Definitely not as awesome as I'd been led to believe. I will not be rushing to pick the hardback of this anymore.
Superman \185: Gorgeous cover. Really enjoyable read, although Superman getting snarky with villains does always seem a bit contrived. Like the writers are trying to move away from the gentle boy scout image, it's not always handled very well and this issue is an example of that I think.
Superman \207: Can't remember a thing about this..
Action Comics \10: Yay! I especially liked the terrible editing job. In the Criminals of Krypton we find out why the ugly silent one - Non - of the Zod + Ursa group is so grunty. Turn the page and Superman's Top 10 Most Wanted reads Non’s fall from grace and current condition remains a mystery. Err, no it doesn't!
Superman The Man of Tomorrow \ 13 and 26: Mulletman. Rubbish.
Superman The Day the Earth Died \658: The start of the Camelot Falls saga. Oh I want to read it all.

Supergirl \28 : we’ve finally had a run of several decent issues! And good art, thank god!

Nightwing \137: Not good as an intro to the Nightwing books.

Plastic Man \9: New, refreshing funny. I'm amazed I like a Plastic Man title.

Aquaman \48: Oh my god this was brilliant. Have they put this into trades? Must get all back issues. And the art is simply lovely.

Booster Gold \1: 52 pick up. Great! Booster's a brilliant character, a bit of an arrogant cocky jerk but he generally does the right thing. I'm now gonna be getting this one regularly. \8 also followed on pretty well.

Countdown to Mystery \2: Well it's nice and shiny and flicking through it I can see it features the Spectre and a guilty Plastic Man but for the life of me I can't remember any details.

Countdown to Adventure \3: Oh I like this. Go Starfire. I liked how the 3 way relationship between Starfire, Animal Man and his wife was handled.

Infinite Crisis aftermath The Spectre \2: and Tales of the Unexpected featuring The Spectre \1-4: I think I've got the individual stories of these mixed up. I wasn't aware of this new incarnation of the Spectre and it has piqued my curiosity. the Dr 13 stories at the back of tales of the unexpected were far superior though. Mad and very very funny.

Checkmate \15: Did I even read this?

Showcase \1: Cyborg, Blue Devil, Catwoman: I did not care for Catwoman. I think they may have wanted to make her more edgy and mean and 90s. The Blue Devil story was entertaining, the Cyborg one was a good opener but without the follow on issues I've lost interest. Overall, rather forgettable.
Blue Devil \22: From 1986. Funny, a keeper.

Midnighter \14: Do not care for. I picked it up cos I thought Midnighter was a gay superhero and I'd heard interesting things about it. But it didn't grab me. Maybe it will on a future re-read.

Serenity Better Days \2: Of course I like, how could I not?

Buffy \13: Not as good as last issue. Loved the Xander/Dracula dialogue though.

Wolverine \58: Wolverine is one of the few Marvel characters I care for. This was ok; I’m a sucker for random religious/spiritual experiences so this drew me right in. And of course it’s got Doctor Strange in it, who rules. However, do they really think that their audience needs the word anagram explained?

X-Man \49: Fucking shite. oh Marvel you suck.

And then there's the Impulse run as well. And more 52 spin offs. And 5 of a kind books. And Empowered. And Superman 3,2,1 action. And probably even more. *Sigh*

So, that meme thing then..

As promised, here goes:

Black Canary
Kara Zor El
Linda Danvers
Sarah Connor
Babs Gordon
Renee Montoya
Kate Kane
Misfit
River Tam
Zoe Wash
Kaylee
Buffy
Anya
Fray
Faith
Big Barda
Impulse's friend Carol
XS
The female half of runaways
Rogue
Shadowcat
Power Girl
My mum
My Sister
Wonder Woman
Cassie Sandsmark
Rose Wilson
Mia as Speedy
Raven
Manhunter
Katie and Julie Power
Isis
Lois Lane
Arrowette
Secret
Mighty Endowed
Empress
Mary Jane Watson
Zinda Blackhawk
Thunder
Grace
Huntress

I thought I'd be able to come up with more. I guess I have a narrow range of geeky interests. Or my brain is failing me. That's more likely.

The Fuck You She's Awesome meme

Here. I shall contribute. Oh yes. But not now. This weeekend when brain is working again.

Interestin' debate about immigrants

going on at the f word. I must say I'm amazed all London mayoral candidates are supoprting the amnesty policy. I think it's a good idea and I agree with the comments of Julie, Anne Onne and Lynne.
Being anti immigrants is frequently framed in racist language and I think people forget or don't know that the percentage of minority ethnic people in Bitain is 7.9% (from the Office of National Statistics Website). To my mind that's not a lot. Of course illegal immigrants won't show up in that figure, but sometimes I think people confuse illegal and legal immigants.
It irks me when people blame immigrants for taking jobs away from the British folks. If you've got a beef that someone is taking a lower wage than you'd be prepared to work for, well that's just market forces in operation. Blame capitalism. Look at the bigger picture.

eurgggghh

Sittin' in my room, listenin' to the Gin Blossoms and about to read the Impulse run. Dear god I've got a nasty hangover. eurrggghhh. I think I need to change the music, it's not helping. eurrgghh.

Edit - have changed the music to Sepultura. Much better. Ahhh.

DC figures are lame

OK that's a lie they're not all lame. Only the ones I want are lame. I went to the big smoke yesterday to meet with friends, see some art and do some comic related shopping. We got down to London especially early so we could go to Forbidden Planet and I could buy some toys. Big fail.

We got the tube to Tottenham Court Road, turned onto Charing Cross Road and noticed a shop called Orbital comics. This was the awesome - lots of 80s to the present stuff for 50p, a manga selection my ever picky boyfriend was impressed with, to the point of going back later and purchasing 2 books, and this awesome Nightwing figure:

Which I'm now kicking myself about not getting. I'd just spent 12 quid on comics and thought I'd see what Forbidden Planet had to offer.

We got to Forbidden Planet and the DC selection was rubbish. The 12 inch batgirl dolls looked liked men. the material for the costumes all sucked, and the Women of the dc universe ones were rubbish. The expressions were all wrong or they were naked (hello Big Barda). The Zatanna and Donna Troy Wonder Girl ones were good, but not 50 quid of good. Anything of Power Girl and Wonder Woman had the expressions all weird.

I looked at the Marvel section, specifically the Marvel zombies, and they were awesome! Zombie spidey and Mary Jane? Check. Zombie Spidey about to beat someone to death with his own leg? Check. Zombie Cl America? Yep! Even the Harry Potter ones were better!

So I bought bundles of comics for a quid each. I'll wait for the next wave of mini mates to come out instead. And buy the Nightwing one.

Sort it out DC.


Wow. That was a boring post.

Barbie Supergirl. In pink. ehhhhhh. And man tackle.

Looks like I'm in a blogging mood tonight, Must be all the nervous energy from the chocolate egg I ate earlier.

Barbie Supergirl? Barbie's are fucking horrible. My particular brand of feminism hates them, they're fucking bimbos. And you want to make the DC female superheroes into Barbies? You want to take away all their individuality, their distinctiveness and separate identities and pour them all into one hollow plastic identikit shell? Fuck. Off. My beef with Barbie is they are sold as the ideal woman, the prettiest, the most slender, the tallest, the best shape you can be. And there's only ever one shape. From the website - From urban teen to fantasy queen she's every girl! Not mine she fucking aint.

From Valerie D'Orazio's blog, I bring you Pink Supergirl.

I am not making any comments on the validity of pink as a colour. It has as much place in our world as red, blue, green, brown, black and yellow.

My beef is not so much that Supergirl has never worn a pink outfit. I'm all for adapting costumes to make them your own. I couldn't give a shit how popular they are with kids. My problem is that it seems whenever companies are trying to sell something to women and girls they make it pink. Car Insurance. Mobile phones. Air travel.

It seems that pink is what being a women boils down to. It's lazy, it's condescending and it assumes we all like pink. And are shallow enough to buy something just cause it's pink. And I'm not the only one who thinks so.

On a brighter, less sweary note, lets see more man tackle in our comics:

Thanks Messrs Ross! Keep producing these and if I ever meet you I'll buy you a drink!

Because this post deserves more exposure and linkage

This post.
Geek girls rule. Girls rock harder. And we come in many different body shapes.

Oh Noes! Fantasy geeks! Fantasy GEEEEKS!

That's kind of a stupid headline isn't it? Oh well. Imagination equals fail for me. Anyway, onwards and upwards to the point of this post.

Whilst watching a documentary about the history of fantasy fiction, (which incidentally failed in two ways I think, because -
1) it started with Tolkien. Now fantasy to me goes back many many many centuries and truly starts with tales such as the Mabinogian, and the ancient myths. OK, so the myths are religion and not strictly speaking fiction, but I'll betcha they spawned many folk tales told as stories, and I'll betcha they featured wondrous fantastical creatures and magic.
2) They said Lord of the Rings was intertwined with and partly responsible for the hippie movement. I think because lots of people dropped acid and thought they were on middle earth, or something. That seemed to me to be a stretch and I think they just wanted to show naked people on the telly. Anyhows)

it struck me that people refer to fantasy, and sci fi, as escapism, and seek to understand why all the fans want to escape form their daily lives. they need to find a reason, such as weariness with the daily grind, abuse or poverty, that explains wanting to read about dragons and elves etc.

This seems to me rather daft, because isn't all reading escapism? Why not ask the question of anyone who reads any book? Even history books and autobiographies and misery memoirs. It's all escapism. Yet there doesn't seem to be a need to justify why other forms of fiction and non fiction are read. This seems to be unfair.

The other thing that struck me was why do people look down on fantasy and not on historical fiction? Take Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy I'm re-reading now. There's very little actual magic in it. It's all court intrigue and conspiracies and politics and war and murder and treason. Isn't that what books like The Other Boleyn Girl focus on too? Add in that Robin Hobb is a beautiful writer and the language spoken by the characters is so poetic at times, this results in a very satisfying, well written, immensely enjoyable, sophisticated book.

So why the snobbery surrounding fantasy? I say, nay, this is unfair.

I saw this on Heidi Meeley's blog, and thought I'd join in. Hey it's this or housework, OK?

Here are the rules:
"List 7 random things about yourself that people may not know. Link the person who sent this to you, and leave a comment on their blog so that their readers can visit yours.Post the rules on your blog."

You'd think this wouldn't be too hard, it's not like I've really got an online presence after all. Here we go:

1. I'm deathly scared of dark bathrooms. The second the light's turned off and I'm still in there my heart races and I rush to open the door and get out into the light.

2. I always develop an inappropriate crush on at least one of my co workers.

3. I have only just come to accept my body as it is and realise 3 pounds either way isn't going to make a lot of difference.

4. I sometimes have to ring my partner and ask him where the cleaning apparatus in our house is kept.

5. I get stimulation overload. By this I mean when I have the choice of reading a book, watching repeats of my TV shows or going on the Internet I cannot decide which to do and either try to do all 3 at once or wander around in a confused daze. For this reason I try not to have too many options.

6. I'm terrified of having children.

7. I'm going to get a driving licence purely to use as ID. I have no desire to learn to to drive I am merely sick of people questioning me.

Hands, porn, lesbians, libraries, voodoo and lip reading

So, I finished reading Young Justice. As people may have noticed I think it's rather good. But there's always a but, right? Take Empress - cool costume, cool power, cool character background etc etc. I feel that making the sole black chick's power a voodoo one is, how shall we say it, racial stereotyping? And then on top of that she gets naked to cast a spell? Jesus. I call that racist. Probably not racist through maliciousness, more racist through lack of imagination and thought, but still racist.

My other problem with the run is the deaf girl Arrowette makes friends with on the way to the games. I'm fully supportive of including more (any?) deaf people in comics and literature but i think it should be handled well. It should not be inferred that deaf people are experts on lip reading. Only about 30% of all words are formed on the lips, the rest are formed with the tongue and throat. So, it's impossible to lip read 100% of all speech. It really would be nice to see communication issues reflected accurately.

Given Peter David's inclusion of a couple of deaf characters in Supergirl and Young Justice
I wonder if he suddenly came in contact with deaf people at some point, maybe a member of his family or a friend went deaf suddenly? It reminds me of Judd Winick bringing in HIV positive characters. Which again I fully support. Comics can provide a good forum to educate people about illnesses/disability/social issues so bring it on. Just do it right. Please? Do your research first.

(And on another note, I really hate Cassandra Cain's ability to read body movement like a language - it doesn't make sense! People growing up without speech and without hearing don't communicate as she did. It's a stupid plot device.)

On to Buffy issue 12. So she slept with Satsu. Big deal. This doesn't make her gay, or even bi. This simply means she slept with a chick. Some of the blogs I've read that have looked appear to be getting hung up on whether this makes Buffy gay or bi. I say, does it matter? It's just sex. And I don't think you can draw parallels between Buffy's previous unconventional relationships and sleeping with a girl. So Angel and Spike were dead vampires. They're still hot male dead vampires. That's quite different from women. I'm quite offended that some people think women and dead male vampires have something in common.
I should add that fro Buffy to be gay or bi she'd have to actually crush on women. I doubt she has a proper hard on for Satsu, I think she needed comfort and closeness and orgasms. You don't have to fancy someone to sleep with them.
And the rest of the comic? Awesome. This series is getting better and better each issue. But Willow flying really pisses me off for some reason. I'm picky and don't think anyone in the Buffyverse should be able to fly. It just doesn't seem to fit.

And I also just read the whole Genshiken series. I liked. One of the more notable parts of it was the abundance of porn for women they' showed. And showed it as part of everyday life for the characters, it wasn't anything to be ashamed of. It was read the same way the men read their porn, it was discussed openly, and recommended to friends and it was normalised.

By extensions this normalises female sexuality and realises women do have sex drives and desires and fantasies. Compare that to Western attitudes towards porn and women and I see that Genshiken deals with this in an incredibly mature and praiseworthy way. It's a relief to see women reading and buying porn without shame, without being subject to ridicule or name calling. Bring it on.

Superman 674
Their new house. Want want want! Check out that library space. *drools*

Serenity 1
Hurrah for the explosions and the guns! Boo in a big way for the cover. That's an Adam Hughes cover? What, did he draw it blindfolded? Look at the hands! And Mal's neck, and Zoe's very very forced grin - she looks like somethings pinning her cheeks back.

Comics roundup

So, I'm working my way through the Young Justice run at the moment. Written by Peter David, which I hadn't realised. It's really really good. Infantile, funny and features Mighty Endowed. Who? I hear you say. She turned up in issue number 1.

Awesome sendup of superheroines and villanesses. Michael Turner take note. WUMF! I hope she turns up again.

And then there's the issue where Arrowette yells at the JLA. Apart from her reaction being pretty cute and somewhat similar to what I reckon any of us would do, the artist covers up her groin with her skirt. See?

Yay! Ok so this is somewhat spoiled by the gratuitous pool and thong/bikini scene later on in the series, but I'm ignoring that.

And just because I have a soft spot for Impulse:

EDIT - Pls bring Arrowette back. She's great. Yes I know we have another teen girl archer - Speedy (and thank god Judd Winick didn't kill her off in GA) - but they are both quite different characters and there's a space for them both. Pretty please?

And while I'm on the topic, why aren't there any decent Big Barda figures out there?

Smallville - Persona

Oh lexy. Lexy Lexy Lexy, what have you done? Oh my heart bleeds for you.

Language and sexual violence

A couple of posts I've read today that caught my attention.
One from Karen Healy's blog: Girls read Comics (and they're pissed)
She's talking about Garth Ennis' the Pro. I must admit that when I read this I wasn't overly impressed. But one thing that Karen has said really struck me:

The thing about prostitution – and here and henceforth I’m referring specifically to female prostitutes – is that the culture of the West goes on and on about sexy being great and empowering for women.()...and then the worst thing you can say to a woman is to call her a whore.

This is part of what I was trying to say in my earlier post - Language, Sex, Wonder Woman. or at least I was thinking it in my head or something. I don't know, this has been a particularly crappy week.

Anyway, the second post I saw on this topic was from the f word. My brain's too fried to read or take in all of it but it's an interesting article. I think.

angry sarah

grrr. anger. I miss Dan.

edit: angry sarah has now up(down?)graded to crying Sarah. This will quickly turn into must stay away from knives sarah. sob.

52 - Black Adam

Spoilers....


So I just finished reading 52. I was rather unimpressed with how Black Adam's story panned out*. I liked his relationship with Isis and Osiris. It was mellowing him out, bringing him back his humanity. I thought this was a good development for him. Now when they killed off Isis and Osiris, it seemed to be purely for an excuse for Adam to go evil again. *coughWircough*.
Now I appreciate they were writing cliches, the commentary said as much, and yes suddenly finding love and even more suddenly losing it does create conflict which is the basis of a good story. But, it's a crying shame that this relationship and Adam's personal growth was confined to the pages of 52. It makes it look like some sort of silly experiment.
Black Adam has now reverted to type and the status quo hasn't changed. I think it's lazy. was it all done so that Adam could be depowered? Did the end result drive the story or did the story drive the end reuslt?

And a special shout out to Greg Rucka - don't refer to Isis as an acquisition of Adam's. Don't compare her to a cape. Not cool, Greg, not cool.


*I very rarely read about the Marvels so didn't know Adam had disappeared or murdered a country or two. So this story was a lovely surprise.

Smallville Gemini

Ok so I'm a little behind the times with this one.
Oh Lana, Lana Lana Lana, I realise you're rather mad but shouldn't you know Clark will never go for spying on Lex like that? You've met his morals right? Oh Lana, you're so fucked up in the head. And didn't Lana and Clark have a break up at the end of episode 8? Or some sort of heavy cooling off discussion?

I did like Chloe and Jimmy being discovered in the lift. The looks on their faces. It was just squishy.

Have I missed Chloe experimenting with her powers? Last I saw it was all with the tears of healing, now it's the firey glow of healing? Well I can go with that.

And lastly, yay for Bizarro! Quite excited about next weeks installment now. More excited about Black Canary though. I feel a crush coming on. Pity the set looks so cheap. I'm not sure about the actress's face though. It's a similar feeling with the Kara actress. They just look a bit wrong . Maybe it's just the short hair. We'll see. And with any luck they'll bring Ollie into it, by which point I'll be so excited I may just wet myself.

Language, violence, Wonder Woman

So, I've just been away visiting some friends overnight and somehow the talk got onto my feminism. Gee, I can't think how. Possibly because it was me talking.
Anyway, my friend is a linguistics professor so we talked about gendered language. I spoke about how I really hated swear words like slut, slag, whore etc. All those sexual ones which really only apply to women. My hatred on these rests on the fact that the use of these words rely on the basic idea that women having sex is bad. It's an attempt to control other women's sexuality. Well you know what? Fuck you. My body, my sex. It's got nothing to do with anyone else. Having sex is not bad. It's not wrong, it's not evil. Not having sex is not virtuous. Not having sex does not make you a better person, or a good girl.

And it is significant that there are no equivalent insults for men. If we want to criticise a man for having sex we call them slut, slag, whore. These become insulting not so much because of the sexual aspect of the word, but because by applying them to men we are feminising men. It's like calling a man a big girl. It implies that being female, being a woman is a bad thing, it is inherently a worse state of being than to be a male. Riiiiighht.
My (male) friend agreed with all this. And then said that he believes that we've achieved equality. This makes me so tired.

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Then today on my browsings around the internet I visited The F Word's site. From here I was linked to an Abbey OReilly post on The Guardian's blog site. She talks about being harassed in the street. About being stalked at a London train station. About being groped on the tube. About requests for a blow job from complete strangers. This is violent and threatening behaviour. It happens to all women. It is scary. It is why Reclaim the Night exists. It shouldn't fucking happen. We shouldn't have to put up with this shit. Seems simple right? Apparently not. If you read the comments left on Abbey's post it seems many people cannot tell the difference between chatting someone up and abusing them. This makes me want to weep.

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This behaviour makes me sick.

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To people who say Feminism isn't needed and we've attained equality, may I direct to Ain't it Cool News. In this article, Capone chats up Loretta Devine. She's not interviewed, she's chatted up. This is not about her work, it's about her sexual status, her availability for a shag. It's like putting a big neon sign saying it's ok, she's still a sexual object, we don't have to take her work seriously, we're thinking about her in terms of sex. This doesn't happen to men. Maybe it's because it's mostly straight men interviewing other straight men. But that highlights another problem doesn't it, where are the lady interviewers?

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One good thing can come out of the Wonder Woman Playboy shoot. Provided they haven't photoshopped and airbrushed her pose, comic artists could use this as an example of how spines work.

Hillary Sexism watch

So I've just checked in at feminsting (http://www.feministing.com/) and gone through their recent hillary sexism watch stuff. and now i'm really fucking angry. Iron my shirt? Pinching her cheeks. Ugh. So so angry. Must go seeth. God I hope she wins.

merry season

happy fucking xmas everybody. hope you all enjoy it. bring on the comics cheer.


I really wanna be a slayer. a sober one by preference. or maybe a kick ass fuck you one. yeah. I wanna be Kennedy.