Comic Reviews for week 3rd April 2013

Spoilers ahead for Animal Man 19, Batwing 19, Action Comics 19, FF 5, Princeless Vol 2 issue 1: get Over Yourself and the Superman vs Shazam trade.  The best ones are Princeless and Superman vs Shazam.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Gender Through Comics

On April 2nd a free online course about gender and comics is starting! Gender Through Comics is a massive open online course and anyone, from any area of the world, can enroll. The course is not accredited and homework will not be marked. What it does have going for it is an interesting syllabus, interviews with creators and online lectures. As well as being free of charge it should provide a great, structured forum for people to discuss gender and comics. Obviously, I have enrolled in it.

The required reading can be bought in digital format from Comixology, or you could get the books from the library. There is an excellent choice of texts here - Strangers in Paradise, Superman: Birthright, Action Comics #1, 2 Wonder Woman issues, Secret Six: 6 degrees of Devastation and Y the Last Man are the ones I am currently familiar with.

When I was at Uni I wasn't reading comics, and my gender analysis skills weren't developed enough to make informed, convincing arguments. I knew next to nothing about intersectionality, and I wasn't really able to apply real world experience to feminist theory. I identified as feminist, but wasn't anywhere near as sophisticated in my arguments and understanding as I am now. Blogging for 6 yrs has really helped me & now I'm ready to do more structured thinking. So I'm pleased the course exists and is running.

My hopes for this course are that people will engage with the topics and discuss it as they would in an academic setting. By that I mean take it seriously, listen to each other's viewpoints and not devolve into mud slinging (this happens quite a lot in the comics blogosphere). I love learning and I would dearly love to do an MA, but there is no way I can (money, mortgage, work etc..) so I'm really glad I can study online, in a (hopefully) academic environment.

I would love to arrange a UK study group (I am particularly interested in the UK perspective on this), so if anyone would like to join in could you leave me a comment, tweet me @sarangacomics or email me paicomics at yahoo dot co uk.

Follow the course leader on twitter @christyblanch, follow the course account @supermooc or the hashtag #supermooc. The course website is here and the reading list is here.

You have until 6th April to enroll.

Other comics related 'things' people might be interested in are:

Women in Comics Europe - a facebook group promoting women in comics.

The Beat website is doing 24 hours of Women in Cartoonists -

Comix 4 Equality - an EU funded project providing an award for the Best Unpublished Comic Strip Authors with Migrant Backgrounds. Women are submitting stories and women's stories are being told. The website is here.  The facebook group is here.

Thoughts on the gender binary and religion

So, when looking up Beltaine stuff recently I came across something called The 13th Principles of Wiccan Belief which I found quite interesting.  As the webpage is blue text on a black background (whoever thought that was a good idea?) I will repost the principles here:

1.     We practice rites to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm of life forces marked by the phases of the Moon and the seasonal Quarters and Cross Quarters.

2.     We recognize that our intelligence gives us a unique responsibility toward our environment.  We seek to live in harmony with nature in ecological balance offering fulfillment to life and consciousness within an evolutionary concept.

3.     We acknowledge a depth of power far greater than that apparent to the average person.  Because it is far greater than ordinary it is sometimes called ‘supernatural’, but we see it as lying within that which is naturally potential to all.

4.     We conceive of the Creative Power in the universe as manifesting through polarity – as masculine and feminine – and that this same Creative Power lies in all people and functions through the interaction of the masculine and the feminine.  We value neither above the other knowing each to be supportive of the other.  We value sex as pleasure as the symbol and embodiment of life, and as one of the sources of energy used in magical practice and religious worship.

5.     We recognize both outer worlds and inner, or psychological worlds sometimes known as the Spiritual World, the Collective Unconsciousness, the Inner Planes etc – and we see in the interaction of these two dimensions the basis for paranormal phenomena and magical exercises.  We neglect neither dimension for the other, seeing both as necessary for our fulfillment.

6.     We do not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy, but do honor those who teach, respect those who share their greater knowledge and wisdom, and acknowledge those who have courageously given of themselves in leadership.

7.     We see religion, magick and wisdom in living as being united in the way one views the world and lives within it – a world view and philosophy of life which we identify as Witchcraft – the Wiccan Way.

8.     Calling oneself ‘Witch’ does not make a Witch – but neither does heredity itself, nor the collecting of titles, degrees and initiations.  A Witch seek to control the forces within her/himself that make life possible in order to live wisely and without harm to others and in harmony with nature.

9.     We believe in the affirmation and fulfillment of life in a continuation of evolution and development of consciousness giving meaning to the Universe we know and our personal role within it.

10.Our only animosity towards Christianity, or towards any other religion or philosophy of life, is to the extent that its institutions have claimed to be ‘the only way’ and have sought to deny freedom to others and to suppress other ways of religious practice and belief.

11. As American Witches, we are not threatened by debates on the history of the craft, the origins of various terms, the legitimacy of various aspects of different traditions.  We are concerned with our present and our future.

12.We do not accept the concept of absolute evil, nor do we worship any entity known as ‘Satan’ or ‘the Devil’ as defined by Christian tradition.  We do not seek power through the suffering of others, nor accept that personal benefit can be derived only by denial to another.

13.We believe that we should seek within Nature that which is contributory to our health and well-being.

As you can see, it's an American charter.  More info on the background regarding how it was drawn up etc can be found on the website.  I should also point out that wiccanism is a sub branch of paganism, so not all pagans refer to themselves as wiccas, but all wiccas refer to themselves as pagans.

Anyway, what particularly interested me was principle number 4 -
"We conceive of the Creative Power in the universe as manifesting through polarity – as masculine and feminine"

See, this is where I fall out with most pagan teachings.  So much reference is made to the polarity read: binary) of masculine and feminine gender.  What about intersex people?  Trans people?  Those who regard themselves as gender free?  This polarity doesn't seem to allow room for them.


I think that most pagans would argue that the masculine and feminine labels are ways of understanding human and divine nature and don't mean that only male and female people (or Gods) exist.  That, for example, a man can identify with feminine traits and a woman identify with masculine traits (or that many people will identify with both).  Certainly pagans believe that both the masculine and feminine are worthy, that one isn't superior to the other and that both are important facets of life and should both be embraced.


My issue is that we are only human and we frame our ideas and understanding with human values and experiences.  We cannot know the absolute divine truth because we are only human.  Along with that, we (in the West at least, I am not qualified to talk about different cultures) live in a patriarchal society which is obsessed with the gender binary and tries to rigorously enforce it.


So, when pagans talk about the masculine and feminine aspects of the divine, I can't help but feel that
they are feeding into this ciscentric view of gender.  It prioritises conventional gender presentation over other 'hidden' genders (intersex, trans, gender free etc).  Either/or.
Ok, so there are some Gods who are a mixture of both sexes, Hermaphroditos (the son of Hermes and Aphrodite) comes to mind.  However, this God is mostly referred to by the male pronoun and often is presented as being more about a mixture of sex (and sexuality) than gender.  Of course the confusion between sex and gender and their linkage tends to confuse most cis-gendered people (I include myself in this) and I think helps feed into this obsession with the male/female binary.


I am just not comfortable with that.  This creates a conundrum in my mind and I have trouble rationalising where I fit amongst these beliefs.


In my (limited) readings I've come across some authors who state that past pagan societies weren't sexist, women were revered and not treated as second class citizens and part of the evidence for that is the worship of the Goddess.  It will surprise no one to read that I think this view demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of history, culture and gender relations.  Having said that, I haven't found another religion which has as much pro-feminist leanings as this one.  Plus, the lack of structure and ability to choose your own way is very appealing to me.


I don't know, if anyone reading this considers themselves pagan and has thoughts on this masculine/feminine binary I'd be really keen to read your thoughts.  Please no one comment to the effect of paganism being wrong, or cisgendered people being the only real people.



Note: I really hate the way blogspot's spellcheck doesn't recognise 'cis' or 'cisgendered' as words.  Rubbish.

Musings on female space vs male space on the radio

On, of all the places, radio 4's Just a Minute programme, today's show. It is very good incidentally.

Anyway they had a new contestant on today, Josie Long. Now I've never thought of the show as being a male space before today. Josie has not been on it before, and at one point, fairly early on, she interrupted because she hadn't had a chance to speak yet and wanted to say hello (her words). Historically many people on the show have interrupted because they want to get a word in and haven't managed to do it according to the rules of the game, and that's OK. Sometimes they are pretty arrogant about it, using it as a platform to show how funny they are (usually in that case they aren't), sometimes they are good and it works.

The way Josie did it was weird, she said she wanted to say hello, so she did, it made her sound like an outsider, like a spectator, not a contestant. Then she said she had made cakes and brought them in for people to eat. Which was where I went huh? She sounded so self effacing, and wanting to make friends with the others, and fit in, and very nice, but my god it sounded out of place.

The action of bringing in cakes, admittedly with a not-really-funny-at-all attempt to bribe the chairman or make sure the other panelists couldn't speak due to eating, framed her as being girly and female. She sounded like your pleasant middle class clad in pink mum who wanted to make sure all you're mates were comfortable when they came over but was actually just embarrassing and fussy.

And this sounded bad, and I don't think the other contestants liked it, in fact for the next 15 mins until she regained some credibility through playing the game, they sounded like they were humouring her, patronising her.

My impressions were that she'd created a female space and structure for herself on the show, which was at odds with the other contestants, and therefore they *must* be in a male space. I mean, there's only ever the gender binary right, one or the other??!! (sarcasm off)
It seems I still think in binary, which indicates how deeply ingrained the binary system is, in me, and I would hazard the majority of people.

I'd never thought of Just a Minute being male space before. They regularly have women on, so it's not the physical presence of the female sex, but how people use the show, how they interact with each other. It's full of ribbing and insults and badgering each other and sneaky attempts to gain more points. Roughhousing. Stuff we traditionally associate with men. Not the gentle caring supportive feelings we associate with women, which was the role I saw Josie putting herself into. A nurturing role, bringing in cakes and being all sweet about it. And I still have that impression even though she said she wanted to use it shut up the other contestants.

Why do I still have that impression? Is it because she wasn't an aggressive presence on the show? Is it because of the way the other (male) contestants interacted with her? Does this indicate that I value 'male' behaviour over 'female' behaviour? Actually the answer to that is yes. But that is because male behaviour is the default and encompasses a wide range of behaviours and attitudes. 'Female' behaviour covers a narrow range mostly concerning make up, pink , clothes, talking about boys and fretting about your weight, putting others first and putting yourself down. In actual fact, female behaviour covers just as much as male behaviour does, i.e. everything, it's just that we try and construct a little narrow box and condemn women for being un-ladylike when in reality they are just being human.

And that point of view can probably be applied to the radio show. Because Josie's behaviour was different to the norm, and because it involved baking I have labelled it female and therefore less worthy.

Or is that being friendly and supportive doesn't work in a game show setting? To answer that I'd have to listen to reams and reams of old shows and sit down and dissect the language and actions of everyone on it, taking into account the era.

Thoughts?

Link round up stuff

I feel like I should post. I still have a cold so don't have a lot to say, so you'll get a lot of links instead.

Pink is for boys and blue is for girls

Shooting down crappy self help books on Amazon

Wizard does Favourite Hero, Favourite Villain and Favourite Female

Jim Balent writes tarot (Why did I not realise this before?) Chris Sims reviews it. Includes haunted vaginas.

Josh Tyler writes how women don't like the comics, or the action females and we don't needs the female superheroes. The whole internet rises up against him.

Christmas time and catching up.

Topics discussed:
Christmas busy-ness, shoe throwing in Iraq, homophobia from the Pope, blog awards.

There has been so much I’ve wanted to post over the last few weeks, but due to Christmas and an extremely manic period at work I haven’t felt the inclination to write or post anything, and I haven’t had the time.

In personal news, work has now calmed down, at least for a short period, but I fully expect it to remain stressful until the end of January, at a minimum. I feel like I have to learn how to manage my superiors, which I feel uncomfortable doing, because I think they should know better. But it looks like I’ll have to get over that.

I spent a weekend visiting the family and friends 2 weeks before Christmas. 5 destinations in 5 days, all around Kent – between 1 and 4 hours travelling each day. I guess that may not seem a lot to my American readers, but it’s a long time to spend on a train or in a car for me! It was fun seeing friends and family so overall worth it.

In public news, I’ve had my ear and eyes bent by various incidents over the last month. Number 1, the shoe throwing episode in Iraq. Now I know on a mature level that stooping to violence is a bad thing. But on a personally aggrieved level I am supportive of the shoe thrower. I become more supportive when I heard Bush’s response of the facts being that the shoe was a size 10 (or whatever) when the newsreader then pointed out that throwing shoes in Iraq is a big deal – it’s a culturally recognised form of disapproval and dissidence. And for Bush to respond as he did shows a complete lack of understanding of Iraqi society and norms. In context, i.e. that America invaded Iraq under Bush’s say so, it appears that he just doesn’t care one jot about the country. Even in the middle of a speech stating what America’s future in Iraq will be.
I was also pissed off by the TV’s account of this. I really wish I could remember what channel I was watching, it would have been BBC1, 2 or channel 4. Anyway, they finished the article by talking about how under Saddam Hussein no one would have been able to throw a shoe. Well, yes, that might be true, but the implication of the article was that the Iraqis should now be grateful for their new found freedom (supplied by Westerners) and we should focus only on this capability, rather than what they are angry about. I could argue that this conveniently sidesteps the shoe throwers complaints and allows the Westerners to feel smug about liberating a dictatorial country. (Maybe I already have?) I wish I knew which channel it was so I could find a link to the article, so that you can all know I’m not making it up. Or at least, so that you could view it and decide for yourselves.

I heard bits about the hoo-ha from the Pope recently, where he says that homosexuality will be as much of a disaster as the destruction of the rainforests. Yes well, whatever (face). The first news article (on BBC Radio 4 no less), said gay rights groups were angry because of the Pope’s declaration on gender roles. Well, that’s awfully funny, thought I, because homosexuality/bisexuality has fuck all to do with gender. I know that gender issues cross over with gay/bi issues, but they do not define it.

Sexuality is to do with who you crush on. No more no less. Gender is to do with femininity, masculinity, identification with male and female roles and all those in between. I recognise that historically (and in the present) many gay men and women (fuck knows about the bi contingent) have blurred and mixed up the gender roles, but that is not an inevitable part or being outside the heterosexual mainstream. The two issues are separate, but can conflate.
After having listened to two more news broadcasts and reading stuff online I gather that it may have been the news broadcaster confusing the two areas, rather than the gay rights groups.

Lastly, Chris at ComicsAllTooReal gave me an award a few weeks ago! :D I would like to formally say thank you to Chris, I was very touched by it and pleased to hear that you value my ramblings. J
Now, this award is sort of a meme, and I’m meant to nominate my favourite 7 blogs as well and publicise them here, so that we can expand the reading pool and awareness of the blogosphere.

Eeeek! Who do I choose? Who indeed. As you can see from my link list and also the blogs I follow section I read a lot of stuff on the web. The internet forms of a large part of my weekday evening social life and I thoroughly enjoy the social interactions formulated within. Where else can I gleefully exclaim (with appreciative peers) about my comics and the recent events contained within etc?

But what criteria would I choose to nominate just 7 blogs? Initially I thought I’d focus on the ones providing social commentary. So I came up with Willow at Seeking Avalon, for her scathing dissections of race in popular culture, comics, movies, and well anything really. Also check out her post on why feminism isn’t for her. I also thought of maybe Ami Angelwings super cute rants of doom. Ami talks about lots of personal and public issues, often around - racism, transphobia, sexism and homophobia. I know some people don’t like her writing style, lots of internet speak, but if that bothers you I would urge you to get past that and focus on what she’s saying as she’s very bright and eloquent and honest. I value honesty. Oh and Digital Femme. Amongst other things she covers comics and racism. She's a very good writer.

Maybe I should be focusing on blogs that are updated regularly? The above two aren’t updated uber regularly. So lets look at others. Do I want comic based bogs? Or fun blogs? Or innovative ones? Or specialist ones?
For comic based blogs I recommend Green Lantern’s Butts Forever (75% due to the name and the devotion to the cause of locating a good GL ass), Hoosier Journal of Inanity (because it’s a fun light hearted read), Comics Fairplay (because of the Is this Gratutitous? feature, which admittedly hasn’t run in a long time but was very much welcomed and generated interesting debate when Heidi did run it), Supergirl Comic Box Commentary (because it’s a nice clean layout, what posts I have seen look good, and it’s a Supergirl blog. There cannot be too many of these. Ever). Lastly I’d like to mention When Fangirls Attack – not a typical commentary style blog, but a link blog. I’m not sure if this counts, as the contributor’s own views aren’t included, but it’s a wonderful and reasonably detailed resource to all posts concerning women and comics on the web.

I’ve recently found this DC Elseworlds fan videos blog . The costumes are pretty cool and I love the fact that people dedicate all this time and effort into producing this stuff.* Yes, it’s cheesy and clichéd in places, but the acting, direction and effects are no worse than say, oh I don’t know Smallville. It’s essentially cosplay on a larger scale and I feel that should always be encouraged.

For feminism, I recommend The F Word blog (for being the probable number one catch all daily resource for issues affecting women in Britain, and for stimulating good arguments in the discussions), and also Feminist SF – the blog! (does what it says on the tin).

For innovation I think ComicsAllTooReal Chris’ own blog deserves a mention, because it’s quite clearly a project utilising blog technology to get it’s voice and aims out there. I haven’t seen anything like it elsewhere.

For specialist stuff one of my friend’s has a progress blog about his model soldiers and imperial armies. I don’t understand most of it, but I appreciate his enthusiasm, and I think some of my readers may also appreciate it. Plus Drax plays a mean game of Scrabble. And Carcassonne. Kicking my ass every time.

For fanfiction Like Scratches in the Sand writes some beautiful one sentence fanfics.

So that’s 14 of gthe very best. I knew I couldn’t pick just seven. (Sorry Chris I broke the rules!) If you want more recommendations look at my linked blogs and the blogs I follow, on my profile page. I think they’re all worth taking a peek at, otherwise I wouldn’t have linked them.
Hell, if you want more recommendations, read other bloggers linked sites, follow the comments bakc to bloggers own sites, mooch around. In my experience active commenters equal (fairly) regular bloggers.


*If you like the idea of that you should also check out Gotham Public Works. Fucking wonderful.