Radical don't mean rejection, yo!

[eumelia]

Having new friends in Uni is quite an expirience, these are new people, they've known me for only a few months with very little interaction, meeting perhaps once or twice a week, where we'd mainly continue our discussion concerning the classes we were having together.

Today was the first time they witnessed by geekness(1), because we had been discussing philosophy and pop-culture (fun!) and I mentioned the Wonder Woman Brouhaha, and to my surprise I was asked, seriously, how I, as a feminist can enjoy that kind of literature.

The whole discussion deteriorated quickly because when it comes down to it the same people who control the comic book industry are the same people who control the sex industry.
Men who want to make money, preferably money paid by young hormonally charged adolescent boys.

But that isn't the case anymore, really, there are far more of us fangrrls out there than people think (I don't know how many identify as feminist) and the majority of comic book readers I know and interact with are over 18 (though that could merely be a demographic issue concerning the swamp like nature of the overlapping sci-fi/fantasy community in Israel), so there is a far more critical aspect in my reading of comics, as well as in my discussions of comic books with the fellow fans.

To read Superman as purely the philosophically and cultural ideal man is a disservice to the character and to his creators, just as reading Wonder Woman as a pure male fantasy, catered to feed male fantasy is a disservice to her character and creator. And in any event, if that was all the "demographic" readers and buyers were looking for, there's a huge amount of free wank material available on the internet, why even bother with developing characters and intricate plot lines when you can find free porn in the style of comic books if that's your thing.

Yes, there is cheesecakery, I don't think it's the main thing in the literature, it's a style that is prevalent, but it is certainly not the whole deal. Comic books, in a twisted dramatic way, like almost every other medium, reflect reality.
To criticize comic books and merely see them as another tool of the "Patriarchal Agenda" and the objectification of women is to lose the message of what superheros represent - which is idealism.

As for the subject line - I view myself as a Radical Feminist, I don't know how much I actually live it, but my belief is that equality, of every kind, can come from the bottom, form the roots and that the system itself is flawed and must change.
I get angry when fan-people tell me that if I want "feminist comics" I should go write some myself. Or read the fringe comics that don't promote the "Patriarchial Agenda". It is especially annoying when other feminists tell me the same thing.
But why should I?
Why should I reject something in order to promote a radical agenda, when the characters I admire in this medium are in that flawed system?
Why should I remove myself this community?

Batman is cool, Catwoman is cool.
Why should I only read Fritz the Cat?

Notes:
(1) Seven books of pop-culture criticism about Buffy the Vampire Slyer, right here!

Comments

[aesiron.livejournal.com]

You might like this entry (http://comicsfan.livejournal.com/219153.html) in one of my lj friends' journals. He's a pretty cool guy in general, too.

[nurint.livejournal.com]

So... When are you going to write your own comic book? :)

[daemonfall.livejournal.com]

I'll help with the art!

[stateofwonder.livejournal.com]

Gotta agree with you there, it's not as if you're reading it uncritically. I do think it would be really cool if you wrote a comic, though!

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

The "go write your own" argument is a crappy one from two perspectives. From the fanboy side, it means "stop playing with our toys and shut up, bitch!" From the feminist side, it means "withdraw from society completely." Yes, some women do choose that, but friends at university are not those women! I think an active, critical, engaged, challenging fan is a valuable cultural participant.

[lastres0rt.livejournal.com]

And even those who DO "write their own" have an uphill battle.

Hell, looked at Webcomics lately?

[big-wired.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm a guy, and I'm sick of hearing the argument about writing your own if you hate current comics when it's so simple for the Big 2 to change and do stuff like hire competent artists and writers and just LISTEN to the fans.

They used to listen to the fans, according to the old issues I've seen here and there of DC.

It's also bad how the comic companies seem to continue ignoring women's views on their favourite characters just to sell the cheesecake that they do.