Sunday, May 20, 2007

Research, People. It's Called Research

So, not that I don't consider When Fangirls Attack to be feminist - both because it's run by feminists and because, sadly, anything that gives fair and balanced coverage about women is feminist...

And it's certainly true that both of the site creators wrote about the broohaha on their personal blogs....

One can also argue (though I'm not sure I would) that without the hard work of Ragnell and Kalinara this may not have become as big of a deal, since their work has made all those complaints easy to find....

However, Aaron Albert, whomever you may be, When Fangirls Attack did not "[rail] against the statue in a very strong voice, as well as those whose ideas don't line up with theirs."

WFA is a freakin' linkblog, and it links to all kinds of posts about women in comics - including your asinine and inaccurate entry for About.com - without any commentary except for the occasional topic grouping.

If simply doing that is considered to be "railing...in a very strong voice" no wonder we are always told that "you don't catch flies with honey!" No matter how polite we are. Apparently simply speaking is considered to be a rant.

He does have the good taste to see that the statue is not worthy of being called art (albeit partly because he thinks porn doesn't belong in comic shops, which I disagree with). But I ask you, dear readers, how can I not make fun of statements like these:

The lack of women producing comics is a real loss.


Now, where was that post about how harm done against women is constantly being framed as acts of god or nature? Did women not being in comics just sorta happen one day like a tornado?

DC comics is trying to get into the comics geared for girls with their Minx line – ironically most of them are made by men.


I'm not sure ironic is quite the term I'd use. I, mean, it's at least correct, which is an improvement, but the whole phrasing of (in the context of his other statements) tends towards the "gee, how did that happen?"

Wherever you stand on the women in comics issue...


Is it just me, or does that phrasing sound vaguely like "the women question?" What exactly is "the women in comics issue?" I was under the impression that, what with women being individuals and discrimination taking various forms, there was more than one issue when it comes to women and comics. The variety of links found on When Fangirls Attack seem to support on that.

This statue just doesn’t seem to shout, hey girls comic books are your friends!


Just me.


Well no, sweetie, it's not just you. It's also all those "feminist websites" too.

You know, I'd be a lot easier on clueless but sometimes well-meaning twerps like Aaron Albert if they didn't go to such great lengths to pretend that we don't actually agree on anything. Aside from being rude, it also just one more example of men ignoring what women are actually saying while simultaneously taking credit for it having been said.

2 comments:

Ami Angelwings said...

True! :D

A lot of ppl who are backlashing against the reaction to the statue, seem to be under the impression that WFA is a community not a linkblog >.>;;

Ppl who grabbed a link to my journal, start attacking me for points made in another journal, like.. somehow we're related >.>;;

And a lot of sites are just spreading the fiction that everybody on WFA is some sort of hive mind :\

The "ranting" and "loudly protesting" stuff seems to be b/c there's a lot of ppl saying the same thing >.>;;

It's like.. if a lot of ppl are talking at once, it SOUNDS loud, but maybe they're all just talking normally and casually :o

Simply b/c a lot of ppl are doing it independently doesn't mean it's some sort of giant army :O

Mickle said...

oh - but it is! :)

It's a populist army, and those are the scariest kind, because no one person is in control of it. How do you cut off the head of something that doesn't have one? So they make make one.