February 1, 2012
"

If a heroine is especially good at anything, even if it’s just one thing and she’s spent years working on that skill, she may get called a Mary Sue. If she’s a relatively well-balanced individual without PTSD and a string of broken relationships and powerful enemies hunting her from the get-go, she may get called a Mary Sue. If there’s anything about her life that you would enjoy in your own, she may get called a Mary Sue.

In short, if she’s the protagonist of the story and there’s anything admirable about her, then to some readers, she’s a Mary Sue.

"

—

Marie Brennan, “Who Mary Sue Isn’t” (via nonisland)

I can’t stand the term Mary Sue. 

(via tumblinfeminist)

7:33am  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZWvbJyFj0gSB
(Notes: 189)
  
Filed under: Mary Sue Mary Sue is sexist Yes it is Stop saying it 
January 31, 2012
Barbara Gordon in One Panel

thismomentsforwomenincomics:

When I first heard the theme of this site, this is the scene that immediately jumped into my mind, from Birds of Prey #8,written by Chuck Dixon.

Oracle is my favorite superhero of all time, and even though this is just one panel, and she’s not doing anything terribly exciting like beating up villains or anything, this is the scene that I think, more than any other, captures exactly what made Oracle such an incredible heroine.

If I had to describe what Oracle symbolizes to me in one word, I would say: resilience. There are many other words things that she brings to mind, of course - determination, courage, and intelligence, among others. But above all: resilience. The ability to go through tragedy and come out stronger than ever. What Barbara went through after the Joker paralyzed her would have broken a lesser person, mentally on top of physically. She lost the ability to walk, run, jump, and dance. She lost a huge part of her identity. And yet she didn’t let that break her, and, more importantly, she didn’t let it stop her from being a hero. As she says here, she created a new life for herself. One that fulfilled her. She got past her tragedy and she didn’t let it take her hope, her purpose in life, away from her.

Many times in life, we make excuses for why we can’t be better than what we are. We’re not smart enough, not strong enough, we don’t have the time. It’s not our fault - the cards are stacked against us. It’s not in the stars. There’s just nothing we can do about it.

Barbara Gordon never made excuses. When life threw obstacles her way, she didn’t just sit there and whine about it. She didn’t shrug her shoulders, declare the situation out of her hands, and turn around. She picked herself up, and she made herself a new life. No one could have blamed Babs if she had given up the life of a superhero after the Joker put her in a wheelchair. No one could have blamed her if she had lost hope and drowned herself in self-pity. But she didn’t do that. She found a way to keep helping people, to keep fighting back against the evil that had she had now experienced in such a devastatingly personal way. She came out stronger than ever.

I also think this scene is terribly fitting for the theme of this site because, in a way, it’s the exact opposite of the Women in Refrigerators syndrome. In this scene, Babs is telling Dick Grayson that what happened to her shouldn’t be about the “Batguys” or how they feel about it. All of their regret and guilt over her tragedy, while understandable, is essentially missing the point - the tragedy is hers. It happened to her. And it’s for her to decide how she feels about it. At the end of the day, her feelings have to be the focus here - not theirs.

I think that’s something every comic writer out there could stand to keep in mind.

8:32pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZWvbJyFiI-EN
(Notes: 57)
  
Filed under: Barbara Gordon This Oracle 
January 31, 2012
blackfolksmakingcomics: fyeahlilbitoeverything: thehappysorceress: Storm & Vixen by Michael Magtanong YEEEEEEEEEEEEES. The two best-known comic book heroines of color … ever.  I’d kill to see such a team-up, but alas, it’s not meant to be. Magnificent.

blackfolksmakingcomics:

fyeahlilbitoeverything:

thehappysorceress:

Storm & Vixen by Michael Magtanong

YEEEEEEEEEEEEES.

The two best-known comic book heroines of color … ever. 

I’d kill to see such a team-up, but alas, it’s not meant to be.

Magnificent.

8:11pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZWvbJyFiE_4S
(Notes: 78)
  
Filed under: Storm Mari McCabe Vixen Ororo Munroe 
January 30, 2012
Women Write About Comics: WiR 13 Years Later (master post)

thewherefores:

All the posts in one post.

(via vengerturtle)

10:00pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZWvbJyFfIFhu
(Notes: 9)
  
January 30, 2012
Transgender People are Completely Banned From Boarding Airplanes in Canada

(Source: thesassysociologist, via stfutransphobes)

6:44pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZWvbJyFeX2uD
(Notes: 26)
  
Filed under: What the fuck Canada? Transphobia Conservatives 
January 30, 2012
fyeahlilbitoeverything: itswalky: And the end of our trilogy.   Man, dudes who read comics sure are victimized by progress. And this was a really recent discovery, but this comic spawned like a 19-page thread on Wizards.com’s forums.  Crazy.  The last line.

fyeahlilbitoeverything:

itswalky:

And the end of our trilogy.  

Man, dudes who read comics sure are victimized by progress.

And this was a really recent discovery, but this comic spawned like a 19-page thread on Wizards.com’s forums.  Crazy.

 The last line.

(via bigbardafree)

6:34pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZWvbJyFeUMbR
(Notes: 146)
  
Filed under: Short packed Omg Comics 
January 30, 2012
osobigbear: http://unfaircampaign.org Some awesome resources on white privilege, how to recognize it, and how to be a better ally.  Whenever I am checking my privilege (white, straight, cisgender, able-bodied, etc.), I always have to remember this one: think before you speak and know how to listen. 

osobigbear:

http://unfaircampaign.org

Some awesome resources on white privilege, how to recognize it, and how to be a better ally. 

Whenever I am checking my privilege (white, straight, cisgender, able-bodied, etc.), I always have to remember this one: think before you speak and know how to listen. 

4:12pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZWvbJyFdyn5P
(Notes: 43)
  
Filed under: white privilege anti-racism un-fair campaign resources 
January 30, 2012
"

My point here is more that DC had the chance, with the reboot, to empty the fridge completely and throw it away. No woman’s death or rape or depowering or what have you was set in stone. All of their female characters could, theoretically, have been back in play.

Instead, they padlocked the fridge shut, threw it down the basement stairs, and pretended it no longer existed.

Women in Refrigerators will be relevant as long as women are disproportionately killed in comics – and as long as they’re disproportionately left dead and forgotten. After an outcry sprang up over the lack of female creators involved in the DCnU, DC top brass took to their official blog to assure female readers that they were committed to listening to those readers and improving on their ability to reflect the diversity of the real world. Defrosting some of the beloved characters they’ve got languishing in that too-big fridge of theirs[8] would be a major step towards realizing those goals.

"

— From Defrosting the DCnU (or not) by Jess Plummer

1:55pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZWvbJyFdYtOr
(Notes: 87)
  
Filed under: women write about comics Defrosting the DCnU or not women in refrigerators women in refrigerators 13 years later women in comics misogyny sexism 
January 30, 2012
Women In Refrigerators 13 Years Later

thewherefores:

 Trigger Warning: discussion of sexual assault.
 
Sexual violence is so ubiquitous in superhero comics that it is a part of the language. It’s a trope, a shortcut, a means to an end. It’s use is fetishistic: it’s about the hero; it’s about the trope itself. The dead girlfriend, the tragic sex worker, the battered wife—these are not characters, they’re props. Their abuse has a mystical value within the story. It signals that our hero is going to go dark, and then he’s going to prove his worth, by coming through the other side. And just trotting it out has some kind of value. It says, or tries to say, “this ain’t no funny book; this shit is real.”

 

Read More

Megan is awesome as usual 

1:01pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZWvbJyFdQIAG
(Notes: 14)
  
Filed under: women in refrigerators 13 years later WiR violence against women comics 
January 30, 2012

arseniclace:

Cookie baking bitch: Women in Refrigerators: 13 years later - Part Two

georgethecat:

(Trigger warning: this post contains discussion of rape, sexual assault, sexual violence against women) ALSO - updated thanks to northstarfan

One of the questions the Carnival asked of comic focused bloggers was ‘why is this the Women in Refrigerators list still relevant today?’ And it…

I really like that this problem is still getting attention because it’s a recurring issue that is still a problem. But, there are some things that I might change about the post itself, just to keep the facts straight.

Lady Bullseye / Maki Matsumoto - Maki was imprisoned by the Yakuza who had been torturing her among other young girls were going to sell them into sex slavery, but I don’t remember it being said that she was raped by them, which i wouldn’t doubt if she has been, but i don’t believe it was explicitly stated. Bullseye also did not save/free her, he showed up in the warehouse on an unrelated mission to kill her captors. But she saved herself, through the cage she grabbed the keys of one of the dead Yakuza and freed herself. There after she made her first kill of another Yazuka who was attempting to put her back in the cell. She also wasn’t inspired because Bullseye saved her (which I already said he didn’t), she was inspired by him with how swiftly and effortlessly he killed the men and found killing to be beautiful.

Dust / Sooraya Qadir - I think context is arguably needed here. Laura knocked out Sooraya to save her from being killed by the Purifiers, and that’s why she also took her clothes to impersonate her at the crime spot. Sooraya was left alone in her bathroom in her sleep clothes, a shirt and her shorts, not just her underwear.

X-23 / Laura Kinney - She has been through way more than just child prostitution. Up until she was about 12/13, she had been abused, tortured and experimented on by the Facility to be made into the perfect killing weapon and their personal assassin and they made a trigger scent which makes her kill everyone in sight. Years later, Cyclops who viewed her as just a weapon put her on a killing squad, X-Force to be one of his assassins, which also regressed all the progress she was making to have a real life in New X-Men. In X-Force v3 #18-20, she was recaptured by the Facility where they continued to torture her, even cutting off her arm, she was also chased down with a saw by Kimura.

Others I’d add:
Mercury / Cessily Kincaid - I’m not sure if this counts. In New X-Men v2 #33-36, she was kidnapped by the Facility and they tortured her with repeated electrocution in her bra & underwear to separate her skin, so they could create the monster, Predator X.

Tigra / Greer Nelson - She was basically used a plot-line in New Avengers v1 #35, which prior to this issue she never previously showed up in the book. The Hood broke into her house, waited until she came home where he then brutally beat Tigra and shot her in the knees, threatened to kill her mother if she did not stay away from his gang. And all the while this was filmed on tape. Which his gang later watched and celebrated the success. This tape was also later leaked to the public in Avengers Academy #8. 

Sin / Synthia Schmidt - Reading this issue made me so sick to my stomach. In Captain America v5 #15, Crossbones for weeks repeatedly tortured and abused his girlfriend, Sin until she remembered who she was. The last page depicts her remembering she’s evil and the Red Skull’s daughter, goes to Crossbones and thanks him for all the brutality and they have sex.

Thank you for the updates and adds. I will edit the list to add these and make those changes. Regarding the entry on on Dust, I will add the context, but I still think it’s an incredibly poor choice on the part of the writer to have written Sooraya in a situation where someone needed to remove her niquab and strip her down to her shorts and t-shirt. It’s still done without her permission — and just because it’s done to save her doesn’t necessarily make it OK. 

9:09am  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZWvbJyFcybix
(Notes: 42)
  
Filed under: women in refrigerators sexual violence Dust Sooraya Qadir 
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