You’re fourteen and you’re reading Larry Niven’s “The Protector” because it’s your father’s favorite book and you like your father and you think he has good taste and the creature on the cover of the book looks interesting and you want to know what it’s about. And in it the female character does something better than the male character – because she’s been doing it her whole life and he’s only just learned – and he gets mad that she’s better at it than him. And you don’t understand why he would be mad about that, because, logically, she’d be better at it than him. She’s done it more. And he’s got a picture of a woman painted on the inside of his spacesuit, like a pinup girl, and it bothers you.
But you’re fourteen and you don’t know how to put this into words.
And then you’re fifteen and you’re reading “Orphans of the Sky” because it’s by a famous sci-fi author and it’s about a lost generation ship and how cool is that?!? but the women on the ship aren’t given a name until they’re married and you spend more time wondering what people call those women up until their marriage than you do focusing on the rest of the story. Even though this tidbit of information has nothing to do with the plot line of the story and is only brought up once in passing.
But it’s a random thing to get worked up about in an otherwise all right book.
Then you’re sixteen and you read “Dune” because your brother gave it to you for Christmas and it’s one of those books you have to read to earn your geek card. You spend an entire afternoon arguing over who is the main character – Paul or Jessica. And the more you contend Jessica, the more he says Paul, and you can’t make him see how the real hero is her. And you love Chani cause she’s tough and good with a knife, but at the end of the day, her killing Paul’s challengers is just a way to degrade them because those weenies lost to a girl.
Then you’re seventeen and you don’t want to read “Stranger in a Strange Land” after the first seventy pages because something about it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. All of this talk of water-brothers. You can’t even pin it down.
And then you’re eighteen and you’ve given up on classic sci-fi, but that doesn’t stop your brother or your father from trying to get you to read more.
Even when you bring them the books and bring them the passages and show them how the authors didn’t treat women like people.
Your brother says, “Well, that was because of the time it was written in.”
You get all worked up because these men couldn’t imagine a world in which women were equal, in which women were empowered and intelligent and literate and capable.
You tell him – this, this is science fiction. This is all about imagining the world that could be and they couldn’t stand back long enough and dare to imagine how, not only technology would grow in time, but society would grow.
But he blows you off because he can’t understand how it feels to be fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen and desperately wanting to like the books your father likes, because your father has good taste, and being unable to, because most of those books tell you that you’re not a full person in ways that are too subtle to put into words. It’s all cognitive dissonance: a little like a song played a bit out of tempo – enough that you recognize it’s off, but not enough to pin down what exactly is wrong.
And then one day you’re twenty-two and studying sociology and some kind teacher finally gives you the words to explain all those little feelings that built and penned around inside of you for years.
It’s like the world clicking into place.
And that’s something your brother never had to struggle with.
This is an excellent post to keep in mind when you see another recent post criticizing the current trend of dystopian sci-fi and going on about how sci-fi used to be about hope and wonder.
AHHH. This is driving me crazy and I have to get it off my chest or I’ll explode.
Somehow, these posts have crept back onto my dash. Posts in which young women are VEHEMENTLY debating the question: “WHO TOPS? STEVE OR BUCKY?”
And the arguments that are being brought up are…weird? Really weird? Especially weird for me, in light of fifteen years of first-hand experience with gay sex and gay relationships?
Some reasons Steve should be “The Top” and Bucky should be “The Bottom”:
Steve has big muscles and Bucky has a big ass and thicc thighs
Steve is main character/hero (???)
Steve has
short hair and Bucky’s is long
Steve is taller
Steve is more outspoken, Bucky is quiet
Bucky has Blowjob Lips
Some reasons Bucky should be “The Top” and Steve should be “The Bottom”:
Steve used to be skinny and Bucky was The Big One
Bucky has a Beard
Bucky is dark and brooding and Steve is sunshine and puppies
Bucky has big muscles and Steve has a perky ass
Bucky used to beat people up for Steve
Steve has Blowjob Lips
WHAT? HOW does any of this? Okay you know what never mind. Aside from how this assigns all kinds of heteronormative, cissexist, binary-enforcing bullshit to gay men, I do understand that this is fantasy. I get that. Fandom is dominated by women, and that is AWESOME because there is finally erotica by women, for women, and it’s available for free. Sweet. I understand that women put up with faaaar worse stereotypes from porn created for men’s enjoyment that features lesbian couples.
But every now and then, I see a huge debate like the one I just saw and I have to scream into the void. Here are a few of the things I’d like to scream:
Sometimes, gay men do have a preference where giving/receiving anal sex is concerned, especially if we’re just out trying to hook up.
Some gay men just really can’t stand anal. It’s kind of an acquired taste.
Also, other forms of sex are far more common, because anal is a lot of trouble. It’s kind of messy, too. Moving on to the heart of the issue…
NO PHYSICAL OR PERSONALITY TRAITS CONTRIBUTE IN ANY WAY TO A MAN’S PREFERENCES ABOUT ANAL.
ALSO, WE CAN ENJOY GIVING BLOWJOBS WITHOUT ENJOYING RECEIVING ANAL SEX AND VICE VERSA.
A man’s hair has nothing to do with whose dick goes where.
And neither does anything else expect what he and his partner feel like getting up to.
*GRABS MEGAPHONE*
WE LITERALLY BASE THE DECISION OF WHO PITCHES AND WHO CATCHES ON WHO POOPED LAST, OKAY??? There. Now you know.
Oh, and side-note to that one person, just in case you see this: the prostate is toward the belly button, not the spine. For the love of Freddy Mercury, please stop making Steve pound Bucky’s sacrum.
[Editor’s Note: The author of this piece is a former Marvel employee and wishes to remain anonymous.]
Disney does not care about Marvel’s female market, which makes us virtually invisible. I could probably populate Pluto with the amount of Princess items Disney makes. But where are Gamora and Black Widow? This exclusion of women from Marvel movie merchandise is completely purposeful. I know; I was there.
While working at Marvel post-acquisition, I saw a deck circulated by Disney’s Brand Marketing team. I’m prohibited from sharing the slides, but the takeaway is that, unlike the actual demos, the desired demographics had no females in it whatsoever. I asked my supervisor why that was. Ever the pragmatist, he said, “That’s not why Disney bought us. They already have the girls’ market on lockdown.”
I’d entered the comics industry because I was a comics fan. It hurt to see so plainly that to Disney, people like me didn’t matter. My demographic was already giving them money anyway, with Disney Princess purchases. Even now, there’s no incentive to make more Marvel merch for women, because we already buy Brave and Frozen products.
This does not come as a surprise, really. Anyone who knows about branding and marketing can tell you how most gender-skewed business models work (and most businesses are gender-skewed). It starts when we’re babies. Blue for boys, pink for girls. Separate, but equal. Sound familiar?
Disney bought Marvel and Lucasfilm because they wanted to access the male market. To achieve this goal, they allocate less to Marvel’s female demo, and even less to a unisex one. They won’t be interested in changing how they work until consumers understand what’s going on.
So let’s delve deeper into how licensing works. To obtain a Marvel license, you typically have to be a successful company with access to big distribution channels, like Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Target, Tesco, etc. Marvel sometimes licenses to smaller companies, but the contracts work the same. There’s a minimum guarantee, royalty rates, and a payment schedule.
Most contracts never fall below $100K for a minimum guarantee, and large companies like Hasbro will pay millions over the course of a few years. Royalty rates vary by style guide and distribution channel. Movie style guides tend to have a higher rate due to actor likeness fees, and the standard royalty rate is about 12%. To pay Marvel $25K, a licensee has to make over $208K. Moreover, they need to pay their employees and manufacturers and make a profit. For Marvel movie properties, licensees need to make as much money as possible in a short amount of time. Movie characters are hot only for a few months, so both Disney and the licensees will resort to what they know best: the “separate, but equal” strategy.
Now that my short intro into licensing is over, how do we change things? When complaining about the lack of Black Widow, don’t just tweet at Marvel and Disney. Contact the licensees. They need to know there is a high demand. They need those numbers. Look into companies like Mad Engine, Hasbro, Jay Franco, etc. Look at the tags and find those companies. Demanding Frozen products for boys would be a balanced, conjunctive step.
Another route is to create your own company and get a licensing contract. 3D printers for clothing will soon be available. Save enough capital to buy one and you could flood the market with apparel that feature the Avengers, Justice League, and Guardians of the Galaxy as they were meant to be: co-ed teams.
Personally, I don’t think we need Marvel, DC, or Lucasfilm to pave the way for us. Giants will only move when there are other giants around. For example, when an indie film becomes successful it makes waves and influences the rest of Hollywood. HerUniverse and WeLoveFine are already successfully paving the way for women’s licensed clothing lines. We need more independent content that spotlights women heroes, super or otherwise. Hellboy, Wanted, and The Green Hornet didn’t break into the billions, but they are good examples of putting another horse in the race.
Content is queen. The most lasting way to change what’s around you is to create something new. So, comics creators —especially women—more spectacular women superheroes who headline their own books from Image, Dark Horse, Oni, Top Cow, you name it, would also be incredibly helpful. And indie pubs, make those comics and pitch them to Focus Features, Lionsgate, New Line and so on.
It’s time to start getting creative about our strategy. Let’s all brainstorm and share tactics. In the immortal words of Audre Lorde: “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” It’s time to make our own tools.
Chuck Wendig posted the above and we wanted to say: We stand by Irene Gallo too.
IN ADDITION:
This is so FUCKED. Fuck you, Tor, for calling out ONE employee in your corporate ass-covering. The fact that it is A WOMAN who didn’t “follow the rules” and state her opinions as her own on her PERSONAL FACEBOOK is fucking FUCKED.
We are IRATE. This REEKS of double standard nonprofessionalism. We understand ass-covering from a corporate perspective but the entire scenario here, the calling out of a single employee when MANY others are very vocally speaking out against the SP&RP slates, in an industry where social media and personal posting are vital to be relevant in the community, IS BULLSHIT.
We’d like to make an official stand in solidarity and support for Irene Gallo and against the double standard and sexism of this industry.
“What girl can I be?” Cassie asked, digging through the game pieces.
“I don’t think there are any girls, sweetie,” I said, anger building in me. Cause really, DC & Wonder Forge? WTF? You know it’s 2014, right?
Cassie put down the game pieces. “I don’t want to play this, then.” She turned and moved to leave the room, and it broke my heart. In part for her, and in part because I love superheroes, and this should be something we can share.
and later:
When comics and game designers exclude or otherwise diminish the role of female characters, they are really telling girls they are not welcome. That sure, they can play, but they can’t have full immersion. Full immersion is for boys only.
And fuck that.
I fixed this shitty game, but I shouldn’t have had to.
In one meeting, Abramson was upset with a photograph that was on the homepage. Rather than asking for a change to be made after the meeting, she turned to the relevant editor and, according to sources with knowledge of the meeting, said bluntly, “I don’t know why you’re still here. If I were you, I would leave now and change the photo.”
This seems like a pretty good and clear example of a double standard, putting aside any broader and more speculative commentary about the implications of Abramson’s termination. It is nearly identical to a story often repeated in praising tones about Apple’s Tim Cook:
Cook’s no-nonsense approach to management and solving problems was made immediately evident upon coming to Apple. When in a meeting discussing a problem in China, Tim Cook noted that the problem was “really bad” and that someone should be in China fixing it. Thirty minutes later, Cook then famously looked over at Apple’s operations manager, Sabih Khan, and asked “Why are you still here?” Khan was on the next flight to China.
This anecdote appears in every hagiography of Cook’s time at Apple, never with negative implications, always as evidence of decisiveness, attention to detail, high standards. People love it! Of course, a flight to China is a lot more onerous —did Khan have a family?— than a trip to a computer to change a photo. While I personally can make no real evidence-based argument that Abramson’s departure, pay, or treatment is the result of sexism in its entirety (I certainly have my suspicions, which only grow as more details leak), I can say this: much of the coverage of her time at the NYT reeks of it.
This works quite nicely at debunking the “beefcake guys in comics are objectified for women just like women in comics are for men!”, imo. On the left: a magazine tailored for a male audience, showing him in full beefcake-type mode with headlines about how you, too, can look like this. On the right: a magazine tailored for a female audience, which has a headline about romance and shows him looking more or less like a normal dude.
Tell me again how comic book guys are designed for female sexual enjoyment, completely equivalent to anatomically-improbable spines and giant tits with their own individual centers of gravity, and totes aren’t just male power fantasies.
COMMENTARY
This is very important. Look at the difference there – LOOK. Every time some comic-reading shitlord comes to me when I complain about how women are treated in comic art, I want them to LOOK AT THIS and then come back to me and say that shit with a straight face. Cause I’m telling you – Ripped McBullBody isn’t for us. It never, ever was.
Moving on to the heart of the issue…
Tumblr Exodus 