hey so ive decided to releg8 this blog into a reblog-only blog. all original posts will go on @wifeguy-peter-parker (yes i am very proud to have nabbed that name thx 4 asking)
Misogyny in the Comic Fandom: Janelle Asselin's Critique and Vitriolic Backlash
I recommend all comic fans to read this 2014 article by Janelle Asselin about the oversexualization of women in regards to a cover of DC's Teen Titans (2014) #1 drawn by Kenneth Rocafort. I use the word women here but the subjects of the cover in question are girls, they are underaged teenagers. Janelle Asselin is known for her work as an editor on Batman, Birds of Prey v2, Gotham City Sirens and Red Robin, as well as creation of the "Hire This Woman" initiative as a writer for ComicsAlliance, spotlighting up-and-coming comics creatives.
The backlash to this article was so severe that Asselin received rape threats, death threats, called slurs, and received misogyny sentiment so vitriolic that the almost 2 decade long running CBR forums had to be shut down, wiped clean of all history, and rebooted.
The article itself is... not particularly intense. It's a straightforward critique, and Asselin goes for a meaningful but pointed tone while making her point in a factual way, perhaps because she could predict what the response would be. She says is that DC needs to take a second look at their demographic and maybe, just maybe, don't sexualize teenagers! She even praises Rocafort for his art.
Former Teen Titans artist Brett Booth accused Asselin for having a hidden agenda behind her criticism as she had left DC, and calling her out for being "sexist to men."
Janelle Asselin later worked as an editor for Rosy Press, which published "Fresh Romance," an anthology of romance comics. She later left the comics industry as a whole in 2016, the same year she came out as a lesbian. In 2017, she explained in an interview the reason she'd left DC in 2011, after she, along with many other women, reported editor Eddie Berganza for sexual harassment and sexual assault (making multiple unwanted advances like kissing), and no significant action was taken until 2017 when Buzzfeed made these allegations public and Berganza was fired.
Rocafort was later a part of the alt-right Comicsgate movement. Brett Booth has a long running history of discriminatory comments but continues to work as a comic artist, notably on several X-Men comics in recent years.
My main motivation for writing this post is for people to understand that misogyny in the superhero fandom is not in our rearview mirror. It is present and prevalent to this day in artwork, writing, as well as the comic industry and culture as a whole.
Links for further reading:
Janelle Asselin's website
Let's Talk About How Some Men Talk to Women In Comics by Janelle Asselin (archived Tumblr post where Asselin discusses firsthand the backlash she received)
Fake Geek Guys: A Message to Men About Sexual Harassment by Andy Khouri (documenting the misogynistic backlash Asselin faced over her article)
The Comics Giant Behind Wonder Woman Is Accused Of Promoting An Editor After Women Accused Him Of Sexual Harassment by Jessica Testa, Tyler Kingkade, Jay Edidin (this is the 2017 article only after which DC fired Berganza)
You can't judge a book by its cover, but for comics especially, it's an important first impression. Janelle Asselin explains why "Teen Titan
im sure its been used in bad faith before, but i do think the "batman is a fascist who beats up poor people and the mentally ill" argument is nowadays basically just used as a strawman. it is treated by fans as a baseless attack on bruce wayne as a character, somebody who doesnt read comics doesnt know hes actually a great person and that the joker murders people etc, which makes it really hard to talk about the genuine issues batman comics have irt classism and ableism. batman does have a history of having its villains coded as degenerate (mentally ill, queer, theyre effeminate men and domineering women), batman does beat up faceless henchmen who are often shown as dirty and poor, batman does, as previously mentioned, have villains who go to an asylum and are sometimes narratively framed as deserving of medical abuse. im not saying bruce wayne is a bad person when i say this, because he is not real. im criticizing the nature of the series as a whole.
i just don’t get it. where are all the women. where are all the women in your fanfictions. are they all out of town? did they all go on vacation together? do they all have a dentist appointment at the same time?
Very generally speaking, when you see a black man in a piece of media, be it tv show, movie, video game, etc. there’s something you often see a lot of writers do. To go against the stereotype of black men (and black people in general) being dumb and lazy, you’ll see this black male character being smart and an achiever. 
The Black Nerd. A common character type, the nerd will always be very interested in all things nerdy: science, video games, mathematics, etc. In an continued effort to combat stereotypes, the Black Nerd will be lack athleticism, probably being asthmatic (the nerdiest of conditions). The Black Nerd will dress smartly, suspenders and bow ties. They’ll always talk smart too, using proper English with complex words.
Now, I don’t have a problem with a black character being a nerd, indeed black people are a people; we aren’t all the same and we all have varying personalities. The problem I have is that too often we see a distinct disconnect between Blackness and the Black Nerd. The Black Nerd doesn’t listen to hip hop or rap, only classical music. The Black Nerd only has white friends, the only other black characters are into not nerdy stuff. The Black Nerd never ever uses AAVE at any time in any context.
And again I must say that Black people, not being a monolith, there are no hard fast rules to being Black. I’m more than sure there are Black people like what I’ve described above, I’m not saying it’s impossible; what I’m getting at is that the only Black Nerd we see. There are Black Nerds that play basketball, that bump Kendrick Lamar, and use AAVE since it’s an ever changing dialect. I’m just saying there’s no one way of being a nerd and no one way of being Black.
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