Radical feminists get women's group expelled from Calgary Expo, and other leftist feminists think it's justified
According to their account, they encountered no problems at all on the first day of the convention, when they were simply manning their booth. In the afternoon, however, Alison and other members of their group decided to attend a feminist panel event discussing the depiction of women in comic books.And the worst part is that they're being framed as mere stooges for GamerGate. But there's been some deserved backlash, and I hope it'll convince the convention's managers to cease their ban on Honey Badgers. I wouldn't be surprised if whatever "feminism" was in discussion at the panel, it didn't bring up DC and Marvel's most offensive literature from a decade back, and was more about petty concerns like beautiful women on coverscans.
During the Q&A session, Alison publicly disagreed with one of the panelists, and gave a short statement in which she argued that the brand of feminism articulated by the panelists was too quick to embrace victimhood. This appears to have been the catalyst for the expo’s decision to eject the Honey Badgers from their conference.
Now for at least a few of the offending writers backing this. The biggest appears to be Mark Waid, who's clearly fallen back on the kind of monstrosities he was mouthing off against conservatives more than a year ago. Another is Kurt Busiek, who's been a big mouth more often than Waid. And still another is Ron Marz, and even Dan Slott's made a few comments tying in. For Waid, this is just a fallback on his earlier tirade against conservatives. While the Outhousers has a lot of the relevant tweets in screencaps, I'll try to post some of the most telling ones here.
Favorite tweet of the day: https://t.co/H5b5Tn4MFv
— Mark Waid (@MarkWaid) April 17, 2015
So Waid doesn't want to admit he's doing what he accuses GG of doing. But as anyone familiar with his work over the past decade knows, this man was a co-writer of DC's 52 maxi-series, which followed up on Identity Crisis, something he's never openly condemned. On the surface, the dismal Elongated Man story he was writing there could be contstrued as a critique of IDC. But in retrospect, when you look at it under a microscope, and think about how it never reversed anything in the end, it's clear he never intended to make any fixes. I vaguely remember a Fantastic Four story he wrote in 2003 where Doctor Doom attacked Sue Storm with fire while using sorcery as a weapon; pretty lurid in retrospect. Sometimes, literary work can hint at your biases, and vice versa. Let's also not forget Waid once got nasty with a feminist a few years ago.
@MarkWaid Notice how most of the responses are a bunch of insults of GG and patting your back, but not a shred of evidence to be seen.
— Jane Doe (@MommyGotGamed) April 17, 2015
That's modern Waid for you, though he's probably been like this for a lot longer. Hard to believe he even cared about all the hard work his predecessors did at this point. He doesn't even seem to care about the Flash work he's particularly known for writing in the 90s. What a jerk.
Someone’s just told me that it’s okay to make false accusations of misogny if it’s retaliation. Because, I guess, ethics in game journalism.
— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) April 18, 2015
Yeah, tell us about it. All this from a guy who probably thinks accusations of misogyny leveled at the IDC miniseries are "false" to the very end, doesn't seem particularly bothered by Brian Bendis' treatment of Scarlet Witch, associates himself with writers of questionable character, and has done little to convince he cares about women's rights despite some of his statements.
Of course, hijacking a Women in Comics panel to tale about Men’s Rights Activism isn’t ethics, games or journalism. But hey.
— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) April 18, 2015
Umm, the girls from HBB paid for their booth, per requirements of the convention, so that's not exactly hijacking, now is it? Besides, if you don't like their opinions, just ignore them. Again, this is a guy who doesn't call out creators who willfully lend themselves to stories with sexist tones.
Man, some guy practically tweeted a novel at me, a dozen tweets about how the poor GamerGaters are misunderstood and BLOCK.
— Ron Marz (@ronmarz) April 18, 2015
B-but Marz, they are misunderstood! Haven't you heard? They're LEFTISTS! Based on the info I found earlier, I'd estimate two-thirds of GamerGaters are liberals and libertarians. There's even this woman who was once part of OWS. Some of them even support homosexuality. Some of them may have voted for Obama just like you. And some of them probably read your comics work too! And yet you shun them so much? Dear oh dear.
If you consider getting blocked by someone a badge of honor or some kind of achievement... ...man, is your bar set low. Like REALLY low.
— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) April 19, 2015
Who says they wanted to be blocked? They just wanted to argue their side, and Slott won't have any of it, because everything's got to look like he wants it to. He doesn't even care they're leftists! Still, who in the right frame of mind would want to associate with a crude man who dabbles in tasteless fanfiction where Mary Jane Watson is exploited by a man with tentacles disguised in Peter Parker's body? Here's also a screencap of a retweet by the artist Gene Ha, apparently related to the subject, although coming from back in October:
But if the GamerGate supporters are leftists and libertarians, then wouldn't you know it, they're the SJWs! LOL. Honestly, I don't see why this clown wants to view GG any more negatively than his other leftist peers, because hey, they sure seem to support the same visions he has.
Update: and while we're on the subject, here's another screencap to ponder:
And again, I don't see why this man has a problem with GG if he doesn't have a problem with Meltzer.
This brings us to a most interesting question: are these creators familiar with the botched Law & Order: SVU episode that aired at least 2 months ago? They probably are, but what remains to be learned is whether they realize in retrospect that despite any and all nasty dialect online, no actual violence was committed in real life, making the episode pretty phony, or, whether they're irked because the episode otherwise proves all the hysteria surrounding GamerGate was just a big moral panic. That said, the episode was widely panned, and even some of the alleged targets of GG couldn't bring themselves to defend it. And the "Darknet"?!? Oh, that's the best one I've heard all day.
Maybe not today, but someday, Waid, Busiek, et al will sit around shaking their heads in disbelief, feeling stunned at how the consumer movement they despised over misinformation turned out to be on the same side of the political arena as they are. I was never surprised it was possible; there's all sorts of liberals out there who like escapist fare, and don't like it when petty arguments become the norm. Nor do they like it when video game reporters act like J. Jonah Jameson. Speaking of which, does that mean Waid despises what Stan Lee created Jameson to reflect?
Oh, and another interesting question: what if GamerGaters happen to be very thankful to Dona Bailey, the lady who developed Centipede in 1980? That was a wonderful gem I played in childhood, and while it's been a long time since I last played with it, I for one am very grateful to Mrs. Bailey for what she helped bring this world back in the day. If a game like Centipede with prominent female staff were invented today, you can be quite sure it'd win over GamerGate supporters, maybe even more than the phony comics creators acting all uppity and taking the news they get at face value. So, that's just one more reason why they should stop acting like GamerGaters are only what they want them to be.
This experience these would-be creators had with GamerGaters this past week shows that the latter is beginning to catch on to what's gone wrong in comicdom today, and sooner or later, they're going to campaign for better ethics in comics journalism and coming from creators. Those who read the works of the aforementioned writers have probably come to understand why they'll have to separate art from the artist. Others will surely understand why, if they want to make a difference, they'll boycott their work or campaign to have advertisers stop paying for space in pamphlets from companies that allow this kind of insanity to go unchecked. Yes, the comics world feels it coming, and they're dreading the day when it does.
Labels: conventions, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, politics, technology
The more fame and recognition you have, the more outrageous and ridiculous your stunts become.
Posted by Drag | 8:15 AM
Shows like Law&Order are still on? I thought they got cancelled years ago?
Posted by Drag | 4:39 PM