in which I kind of fucking lose it about comics
Let me explain… No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
This pretty great cover for a comic featuring Mockingbird came out and a loud, angry, sexist mob–the “Wednesday Warriors,” if you will–lost their damn minds. And, as happens on a regular basis in the comics community, these guys harassed the writer of Mockingbird so thoroughly and vilely that she has left Twitter in favor of her own sanity.
So basically it’s a day ending in a y on the comics internet. I wish I was kidding. This happens so fucking much that it’s only part of this rant. Which just makes the whole fucking thing worse. The main part of my rant is based on the responses from two white male comics writers with comfortable positions at a Major Comics Publisher. Because isn’t it just always about them.
The first response was “this isn’t comics”. Look, dude. This isn’t comics FOR YOU. This is comics for women with opinions. This is their reality. This is, as I said before, a day ending with the letter y. You stray from being the Cool Girl, the girl who doesn’t get offended, who just wants to enjoy comics and not cause any trouble, you step off that path and there is a shit storm heading your way. Every. Fucking. Time.
I know this because I was the Cool Girl. I was enough of an idiot to keep my mouth shut when things got uncomfortable, and I was naive enough to let myself be charmed by some grade-A asshats. This is how I have survived the comics internet for seven years.
Meanwhile, all of these brilliant, talented, hard-working women that I have met because of comics were being run out of town with torches and pitchforks. Seriously. I have written the “you are awesome and I’m sorry the internet is a roaring garbage fire, you deserve better” email a dozen times.
Is this kind of thing exclusive to comics? Of course not. But harassment of women is not exactly an unknown problem in comics. A lot of women have talked about their experiences. Harassers have been publicly named. But it’s still not moving the needle. So it’s not a problem exclusive to comics, but comics isn’t doing anything to solve this problem. Comics is Team Toxic Masculinity and it shows no signs of changing.
The second response was “I don’t like these guys either but they buy a lot of comics and we need to make money.” Classic. fucking. response. “Get out there and vote with your dollars, ladies. And by ‘vote with your dollar’ we mean walk into that seedy hole of a comics shop where you’re leered at and made to feel uncomfortable and set up a pull list so you can put yourself through that experience every fucking Wednesday because fuck all if we’re going to count sales of digital comics or trade paperbacks.”
Not only does comics foster this exclusionary environment, it uses it as a way to wipe its hands free from even trying to bring in new voices. Set the hoop on fire and when we don’t jump through it, it’s our fault the treats disappear. While the Wednesday Warriors continue along on the plushy red carpet that’s laid out for them.
As women in comics we are told, relentlessly, that this is not our place, comics are not for us, play by the boys club rules or go home. I’m tired of the flaming hoops. I’m going home.
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