odditycollector

 
I usually enjoy Solicit Mondays quite a lot. It's all about making your own fun before context has a chance of ruining everything. Today, however... there was not much even worthy of mocking.

But that doesn't mean there's nothing to say.

How about a new game? I'll pick an emotion, and then we'll see if anything can turn my face into the appropriate emoicon smilie.

 
:) Happy

DC is continuing to get people other than Churchill or Turner to draw the Supergirl covers, and this pleases me. I'd be willing to buy that book. Now, all they have to do is to get someone else to draw the *interiors* as well.

:| Annoyed

It turns out that Miss Martian really *did* steal Supergirl's skirt. Complete with the no-underwear.

;7 Mildly Amused

There's no Superman/Batman issue solicited for Valentine's Day, or, indeed, the month of February. That doesn't seem right.

>:O Angry

If you make it all the way to the bottom of the page, you'll notice that there's a bust of Big Barda coming out next year. Which really should have been good news, as Barda is very much a Thing Which Is Awesome.

If you're going to brainstorm about Barda, the first thing that comes to mind is, yes, *Big*. Immense, in the way that only creations of Jack Kirby can be. She's huge physically and in personality. I've heard 'Amazonian,' and while this isn't really correct, she's a counterpoint to Wonder Woman in a lot of ways. Both are powerful warriors trained by alien cultures, but while Diana grew up in a world that valued peace, Barda was trained to bring only destruction. Diana came to our world to further the values of her people; Barda left behind her people to fight for what *she* thinks is right.

Her story is woven as part of an epic, but Barda's journey - from a servant of Darkseid to a superhero - is her own. And it's just as encompassing and *Big* as everything else about her.

And here's the statue DC chose to represent all that.

There are so, so many things that are wrong about this that I hardly know where to start. How about the obvious, then.

Why the FUCK is she nearly naked?

This is a cover image of Barda, taken from the same solicits, that doesn't quite give us the Platonic ideal of the character but comes close enough. Barda should be in full body armour - chain mail, with bright, primary accents to remind us she's Kirby's baby - and most likely hefting a weapon none of us would be able to lift.

Yes, the bikini is canon. No, that doesn't matter at all. When there are a few statues out there of Barda in the best known, classic, current costume, *then* we can talk about the almost-naked variants. I mean, how many lovingly crafted statues are there of Clark Kent in his swimming briefs?

What the FUCK is with the anatomy?

The upper arms aren't too bad, although the forearm looks more injured than muscled, but for the rest of her Adam Hughes seems to have been feeding the designs through a kids' mix 'n match book. Barda should be grateful she didn't end up with the bottom half of a fifty year old fireman and a policeman's head.

Except not, because then at least she wouldn't be about to topple over. Where are her hips? Her abs? Her legs? She looks ridiculous.

Her left wrist is at a completely wrong angle given the positioning of the rest of the arm. It looks unnatural and painful. (Although, after some twisting, I've determined you can to pose an arm like that, if you don't mind discomfort after the first few seconds. Which makes the next WRONG even more so.)

Where the FUCKING FUCK is the attitude? The sense of strength? The ferocity?

And even if the statue had been a nude sculpted by a five year old in playdoh, *this* is the one I'm unwilling to dismiss, unwilling to forgive.

Her stance is off balance, and her shoulders aren't squared. The (weirdly) muscled arms buy her some power, but, combined with the way she's holding herself, mostly they just emphasize that she's not about to use it. (Look boys! It's okay to buy me! You're in control!)

Then. Her head is angled downward. Her gaze is down and unfocussed, staring into no-space. Her expression is blank, only vaguely aware. There's no playful flirtiness to be found here, no sense that whatever is going on, she's at least having fun. No agency at all.

This is *submission*, people.

This is "Take the cloak. Take me. I am here to be used as you please." That's not even her cape draped over her arm: it belongs to her husband. So she's, what? Mr. Miracle's sexy coat-rack?

 
In 1971, Big Barda was introduced as a powerful warrior, the leader of the Female Furies, someone proud and strong and brave enough to stand against Darkseid.

In 2006, she's finally come to the point where you, too, will be able to buy your own Barda: Well-Trained Submissive (with random muscles, for extra fetish value!), commemorated for all time in statue form.

 
Yeah.

Fuck you, too, DC.*

 
 

*Unless DC really is making sculptures to commemorate what their characters get up to behind bedroom doors. In which case I can hardly wait for Likes-Giving-Oral Green Arrow and Ride-em-Cowgirl Helena.

I'm not in the right frame of mind to finish up the five things meme right now. I am much too angry, and I have to wait until tomorrow to deal with the root cause.

So I went on the internet in an attempt to distract myself, where I learned that Harlan Ellison groped Connie Willis onstage at the Hugo Awards, (and also assaulted another author whose book I do not know, but seems to be rated quite high on amazon.com).

And. I could not properly parse this new happening. I had to break it down into concepts small enough for my brain to digest.

Harlan Ellison.

Sexually assaulted.

Connie fucking *Willis*.

Onstage.

That is, in front of an audience.

At the Fucking Hugo Awards.

(And he was entirely inappropriate off-stage, in case that makes it okay.)

WHAT THE FUCK, WORLD, WHAT THE FUCK.

I scanned over Google News to see what sort reaction the press had to this and. Nothing. Not one article that I saw felt it worth mentioning.

I'm wondering, is it just because these are the *Hugo Awards*, and this kind of shit should be tolerated at the highest recognition ceremony the speculative fiction genre has? Would "Emmy Winner Groped Onstage By Fellow Nominee" have been considered news? Or only if the Fellow Nominee didn't think it was funny.

More people should be ANGRY. And pnh explained why much better than I could.

Just as with George W. Bush's now-famous uninvited shoulder-rub of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the basic message of Ellison's tit-grab is this: "Remember, you may think you have standing, status, and normal, everyday adult dignity, but we can take it back at any time. If you are female, you'll never be safe. You can be the political leader of the most powerful country in Europe. You can be the most honored female writer in modern science fiction. We can still demean you, if we feel like it, and at random intervals, just to keep you in line, we will."

And also I'm thinking this:

Neil Gaiman refused his nomination for this year's Hugo awards. I bet it wasn't because he was afraid someone would grab his ass.

 
A while ago, When Fangirls Attack linked to an article summarizing Adventure #368. It's an old Legion comic about the perils of girls having too much power, and after being reminded of the story my inner feminist immediately... kind of squirmed nervously and then suffered a happy bout of nostalgia.

This was one of my favourite comics as a little bitty Karen (along with another story which was pretty much exactly the same. If nothing else, Silver Age stories taught me the value of finding a theme one enjoys and *sticking to it*). I read it a disproportionate number of times, always giggling madly.

Of course, back then I was pretty good at reading stories that were awesome, instead of, say, the ones actually in front of me. Here is what little bitty Karen took away from Adventure Comics #368:

The girls take over the world and turn all the boys into slaves! This is the Best Idea Ever!

And then, inspired, I grew up to be a dominatrix  politician  fangirl, so I'm not sure what moral to draw here.

 
There is now a proper counterpart to Miller's Wonder Woman cover, as provided by the talented vejiita4eva.

So, uh. What if Miller had set All Star Batman #5 in a male strip club?

 
It's understood as a general premise among most comics fans that there's sexism in comics. It's understood as a general premise among most *female* fans - and, apparently, a somewhat, *worryingly*, smaller proportion of comics fans in general - that this is a *problem*.

When talking about it, we often point at the art for examples, because the art is *right there*, but it's deeper than that. It's the way the characters are written. The way (and the reasons) they are killed off. The way (and the *if*) they're remembered.

(I'm sure most everyone reading this is familiar with the Women in Refrigerators site. It hasn't been updated for a while, but this isn't because there are no new names to add. Likewise, I'm sure we've all seen the pages from Frank Miller's script for All Star Batman.)

Infinite Crisis may have changed some things around the DCU - we will see - but it is already very apparent that it did not change THAT.

And there are people smarter than me who are pissed off and doing something about it.
 

monkeycrackmary is starting up Girl-Wonder.Org.

As I said here, I want to make this site primarily concerned with Stephanie Brown and how sick lots of fans are of being spoon-fed bullshit like the idea that her death "had a major impact on our heroes and their lives, and will continue to do so in the year to come. I see no need to change that" when the only place she's been mentioned at all is in the (cancelled) Batgirl and a Batgirl story in the (cancelled) Solo.

But there are a lot of other reasons for female fans in comics to be pissed, and so I'm here offering a hundred megs of space at the new domain to anyone and everyone who wants to champion a similar cause, make a fansite, host fanworks, or even just have a personal page as a female comics fan. The only things you can't apply for space for are trafficking scanned comics (torrents are your less-illegal friend, yo) or online petitions. Online petitions do squat. If you want someone to notice your support of a cause, buy a stamp and an envelope.

There's a lot of explanation and interesting discussion (and a lot of argry discussion, but it is rightfully angry and still *interesting*) to be found here, here, here, and here. Or just go through her recent blog entries. There's also talk of starting an Ad-Libbed letter writing campaign which is amusing, pointed, and appropriate.

There are many quotes I just want to crop out and point at and go WORD. YES. But I shall leave you to go there on your own, except for one.

It's about... well, to be honest, a lot of it for me (and I know this would be a very, very dicey reason to include on any list, and I don't intend to use it on the site) is that I have an under-ten sister who likes to play at being Robin. She's only just started reading comics, and I'm in this terrible position where I'm actually hoping she'll never read these same books I gobble up.

WORD. YES.

Also.

 
petronelle is more eloquent than I could be on why it matters as a *fan*.

 
littledarkvoice is starting a wiki-type webcylopedia on the history of female superheroes.

It should be a fun project. The origins (not to be confused with the Secret Origins!!!) of Wonder Woman and Power Girl, for instance, have bits that make me giggle. The origins of Oracle, much as I love the character, has bits that never fail to make me cranky.
 
____
 
This is something I care strongly about. And part of it is that, yes, I want superhero comics to be a totally valid art form that can be passed on to future readers without shame or essays about negotiated reading. (At least, from a *feminist* perspective. Comic fans either get skilled at the general practise or their brains explode.) There are issues enough with sexism in society without *my hobby*, to which I give *my money*, being part of the problem.

And, honestly, a lot of it is that I am shallow. I want to be able to read comics about my favourite characters without being cranky and thinking "Ew!" and "Pants, plz! Put on some goddamn *pants!"

 

For those watching the Bill Napoli google-bomb...

Success!