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An outraged feminist fangirl
May. 19th, 2007 02:09 pmAs I've stated previously, the whole Mary-Jane statue Internet frenzy brought to light a few things I'd been aware of but has never actually experienced online.
I'm being told to shut up.
On the Internet.
The one place where anyone can say what they like, where they like, because they can.
Both good and bad. And very often ugly.
Many a time during demonstration to the myriad issues I involve myself with I've been yelled at and yelled back quite vocally.
If the issue is about something "far away", like human trafficking, no one comes to me and says "shut up".
If I'm going on about how my TV shows, books, cartoons and graphic novels are "teh awesome"... no one tells me "shut up", they may say "Okay, we get it, you like it", but no one has told me to "shut up".
On the flip side, if I'm at a Pride rally, which is an issue "close to home" (compared to human trafficking which doesn't happen next door, oh no), I've been told by ignorant ass-hats to "shut up".
I've never been told on my blog to shut up, or gotten so much traffic about other subjects that I wrote about regarding fandom.
The outrage that I received for being an outraged feminist fangirl is... well, outrageous.
I was linked at Journalista for calling on Dirk Deppey's nonsense and got slightly spammed.
The Mary-Jane statue was sold out at Sideshow Collectibles, it was a limited edition sculpture and it appealed to a certain population within comic book fandom, this population, friends, is not the majority, (nor are the feminist fangirl by any means).
The argument that this statue, comic books, that the industry is for men and specifically to this "certain population" doesn't cut it.
It doesn't.
Not when you see the huge reaction to this thing online and how it reached the actual News, like Fox, The New York Post and the Guardian U.K.
I think that's a huge deal.
But there they're talking about the reaction, and the actual cause of the reaction remains untouched and in fact received a whole lot of free advertisement.
And the tiny sub-culture of feminist fangirl within the small subculture of comic book fandom got a whole lot of coverage.
The majority of that coverage was negative, and basically said "Shut Up".
What I'd like to figure out is why so many people were bothered by the fact that so many women were bothered. And why our voices are not counted as valid when it's obvious that so many women have a lot to say.
Comic books, as a medium which has garnered a hell of a lot of credibility in the past two decades and a whole lot of popularity due to the many movies that have come out on the popular characters (Batman, Superman, Spiderman, The Hulk, X-Men, Spawn, Hellboy,soon Wonder Woman and many more) and it chooses to portray Mary Jane who, beyond being Peter Parker/Spiderman's romantic partner is a sexually liberated, flirtatious, career oriented woman, as nothing more than a domestic sex doll.
There's nothing wrong with sexy... I like sexy.
Sex sells.
But the difference between what is sexist and what is sexy is a large one. That difference is that being sexy relies on the merit of the subject and being sexist is about being an object and nothing more.
Get it?
In addition, the genocide in Darfur must be stopped.
וכמו כן, צריך לעצור את רצח העם בדרפור.
I'm being told to shut up.
On the Internet.
The one place where anyone can say what they like, where they like, because they can.
Both good and bad. And very often ugly.
Many a time during demonstration to the myriad issues I involve myself with I've been yelled at and yelled back quite vocally.
If the issue is about something "far away", like human trafficking, no one comes to me and says "shut up".
If I'm going on about how my TV shows, books, cartoons and graphic novels are "teh awesome"... no one tells me "shut up", they may say "Okay, we get it, you like it", but no one has told me to "shut up".
On the flip side, if I'm at a Pride rally, which is an issue "close to home" (compared to human trafficking which doesn't happen next door, oh no), I've been told by ignorant ass-hats to "shut up".
I've never been told on my blog to shut up, or gotten so much traffic about other subjects that I wrote about regarding fandom.
The outrage that I received for being an outraged feminist fangirl is... well, outrageous.
I was linked at Journalista for calling on Dirk Deppey's nonsense and got slightly spammed.
The Mary-Jane statue was sold out at Sideshow Collectibles, it was a limited edition sculpture and it appealed to a certain population within comic book fandom, this population, friends, is not the majority, (nor are the feminist fangirl by any means).
The argument that this statue, comic books, that the industry is for men and specifically to this "certain population" doesn't cut it.
It doesn't.
Not when you see the huge reaction to this thing online and how it reached the actual News, like Fox, The New York Post and the Guardian U.K.
I think that's a huge deal.
But there they're talking about the reaction, and the actual cause of the reaction remains untouched and in fact received a whole lot of free advertisement.
And the tiny sub-culture of feminist fangirl within the small subculture of comic book fandom got a whole lot of coverage.
The majority of that coverage was negative, and basically said "Shut Up".
What I'd like to figure out is why so many people were bothered by the fact that so many women were bothered. And why our voices are not counted as valid when it's obvious that so many women have a lot to say.
Comic books, as a medium which has garnered a hell of a lot of credibility in the past two decades and a whole lot of popularity due to the many movies that have come out on the popular characters (Batman, Superman, Spiderman, The Hulk, X-Men, Spawn, Hellboy,soon Wonder Woman and many more) and it chooses to portray Mary Jane who, beyond being Peter Parker/Spiderman's romantic partner is a sexually liberated, flirtatious, career oriented woman, as nothing more than a domestic sex doll.
There's nothing wrong with sexy... I like sexy.
Sex sells.
But the difference between what is sexist and what is sexy is a large one. That difference is that being sexy relies on the merit of the subject and being sexist is about being an object and nothing more.
Get it?
In addition, the genocide in Darfur must be stopped.
וכמו כן, צריך לעצור את רצח העם בדרפור.
