Now Playing Tracks

Haven’t been on here in forever(that’s what happens when you take a vacay with no computer access, returning to tumblr just seems daunting) but I just wanted to let all my Seattle peeps know my thoughts are with ya.

Let’s talk about how some men talk to women in comics

gimpnelly:

Last week I wrote this piece for Comic Book Resources about the new Teen Titans #1 cover. The point of the piece was hey, there’s a broad demographic DC *could* be hitting with this book but the cover is certainly not made for that potential demographic. Instead, it’s more of the same-old, same-old. 

An artist who works for DC named Brett Booth was very upset by this critique for reasons I can’t quite define. He didn’t draw the cover. But he was infuriated by what I’d written. A fan of his drew me into the conversation about the article by calling me a “self-professed journalist chick” which… yeah. Anyway, you can read some of the conversation via tweets here.

Here are some other tweets he posted about me without my twitter handle:

You can read my Twitter feed here. I’ve deleted nothing.  At no point did I launch personal attacks. I’m not wrong about that cover. I’d love to see what kind of biology equals the breasts Wonder Girl is sporting as a 17-18 year old (pretty sure that “biology” includes silicone when they look like that). I honestly don’t understand why Brett Booth has taken everything I’ve said so personally. But I do not appreciate that he then thought it was okay to, what, imply I’d never been to a comic store? On top of everything else.

But I do think it’s indicative of what it’s like to be a woman online. You see, Booth was SO not the worst of what I got. I got delightful comments like these:

Both of course implying that I’m not a real professional in this industry. Which is still by far not the worst of what I got. I was called a whiny bitch, a feminazi, a feminist bitch, a bitter cunt, and then the rape threats started rolling in.

You see, I’m also doing a survey about sexual harassment in comics. (If you’d like to take this survey, you can find it here.) And so as soon as the angry fanboys started looking me up after the CBR article, they discovered this survey and started answering my questions and using the open box at the end to write in all sorts of awfulness. I’ve gotten all manner of bullshit within the survey now, but at least the ones with the rape threats or other asshole comments tell me which responses to disregard.  If you really want to “get me” and prove that sexual harassment doesn’t exist in comics, I don’t know, maybe it’s better for you to answer honestly about how you haven’t been sexually harassed. Because certainly sending me rape threats proves my point, not yours.

Some of them decided to just tweet at me, like the handful who decided to tell me I was creating the impression that there was sexual harassment in comics when there just wasn’t. When the survey was posted on a blog, one of the comments included “If you have a entrenched ideology then it’s nigh impossible to be objective, and according to Ms. Asselin’s Twitter tag, she’s a self described feminist.”

Let’s talk about that for a second. Feminist is not a bad word. People who think feminism is a negative often run in two very different directions - either they misunderstand what it is or are outright misogynists. Feminism is defined by Dictionary.com as “the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.” If it’s an “entrenched ideology” to wish to be treated as an equal human along side men, then so be it. I must be a horrible person for assuming that I had the right to be treated as a person instead of only a brood mare suitable for objectification and cooking.

I’d also like to talk about the fact that so many people misunderstand the point of the survey. I’m not trying to find out *if* there is sexual harassment in comics. I figured that out a long, long time ago as I was repeatedly groped on convention floors and sexually harassed by freelancers and coworkers. It was reinforced by the fact that I literally know less than a handful of women who have NOT been sexually harassed in comics, and nearly a hundred who have. Sexual harassment is a problem in comics. That point is not up for debate. The point of the survey is to better understand the experiences people are having. If you haven’t been harassed - awesome! I want to know about that. If you have - I’m really sorry, but I also want to know about that. 

There are too many people, including professionals, who think it’s okay to condescend, harass, berate, etc. women in comics simply because they’ve espoused a belief that revolves around women being treated more as equals. I want women and girls to be seen as an equally promising demographic for comics as males; I want major companies with an easy opportunity to reach out to women to not feature art that is disgusting and objectifying; I want women to be hired as much as men to create comics; I want to not know so many people who have been violated in an industry I still love despite it all. 

At first I wasn’t going to talk about the rape threats because honestly, most of the women I know with a solid online presence get them regularly. This is just a thing we are forced to deal with. And I didn’t want to make it seem like it was a bigger deal than what’s happened to them for years.  But I realized once I posted about the rape threats in passing that men I know and respect were stunned to find out this was happening. Let’s be real: if these men who are actually decent human beings don’t know how often this stuff happens, what hope is there for the men who are harassing me online? 

And that’s the thing I feel like a lot of these internet assholes miss. I’m not saying men are the worst thing ever or even that men in comics are the worst thing ever. I’m so lucky to have a lot of amazing people in my life, male, female, and non-binary, who constantly support me. There are men in comics who understand how not to be a condescending asshole. But right now, the problem is that too many other men think that they are in a crowd of like-minded men who are super sick of this feminazi bullshit. The truth is that you are on the losing side. Women in comics aren’t going away. Even if you continue to talk to us like this. Your threats and insults do nothing more than make me want to stick around and shout even louder. So thank you for that.

thelibrarina: “ thelibrarina: “ You guys. Steve Rogers doesn’t know about Luke’s dad. …What did that Avengers Tower movie night look like? ” “Okay, I’ve got historical events and music so far. What movies do I need to see?” Steve asks, breaking out...
Zoom

thelibrarina:

thelibrarina:

You guys.

Steve Rogers doesn’t know about Luke’s dad.

…What did that Avengers Tower movie night look like?

“Okay, I’ve got historical events and music so far. What movies do I need to see?” Steve asks, breaking out his notebook.

“Some Like It Hot,” Bruce says immediately.

“Robin Hood,” Clint puts in, to no one’s surprise.

Steve smiles. “Errol Flynn?”

“Men in Tights.”

“…Okay.”

Natasha looks up from where she’s curled in an armchair. “The Sound of Music?”

Clint snorts. “I think he might object to the singing Nazis, Nat.”

Steve just raises an eyebrow. “Singing Nazis?” That one goes on the list.

“Ooh, in that case, Pearl Harbor,” Tony says.

A chorus of groans and protests meet his statement.

"What? I kind of want to see his head explode.”

Steve does not put that one on the list. “Anything else?”

“Star Wars,” Darcy says, without looking up from her phone.

The room goes silent. Everyone stops and stares at her like they’ve forgotten she stuck around after Jane went back to New Mexico. Which they probably have.

“What?”

“Darce, you’re a genius,” Clint breathes.

Bruce actually smiles. “We are in the presence of the last unspoiled adult in the entire country.”

Tony’s eyes light up. “Oh my god, he doesn’t know that Vader is—”

Natasha has him in a choke-hold before anyone realizes she’s moving. “Not another syllable.”

Tony raises his hands in surrender, and Natasha loosens her hold. “What the hell was that about?” he wheezes.

She nods towards Bruce, who is looking somewhat green around the gills.

"Spoilers make him angry.”

Using Bechdel test data, we analyzed 1,615 films released from 1990 to 2013 to examine the relationship between the prominence of women in a film and that film’s budget and gross profits. We found that the median budget of movies that passed the test — those that featured a conversation between two women about something other than a man — was substantially lower than the median budget of all films in the sample. What’s more, we found that the data doesn’t appear to support the persistent Hollywood belief that films featuring women do worse at the box office. Instead, we found evidence that films that feature meaningful interactions between women may in fact have a better return on investment, overall, than films that don’t.

The Dollar-And-Cents Case Against Hollywood’s Exclusion of Women | FiveThirtyEight

Once again for the cheap seats: one good reason to behave in an ethical manner is that an ethical system with a rational foundation has a lot of perks. Like for instance, this. If you, you know, need to be bribed with money not to be unethical.

(via mordicaifeed)
nekobrittany: “ thedanaaddams: “ keilian: “ thedanaaddams: “ whereisthebepis: “ ” Hahahaha, it’s funny because she won’t get the job, since she is overqualified, and young part-time workers are cheaper. Anyone who thinks our generation are lazy,...
Zoom

nekobrittany:

thedanaaddams:

keilian:

thedanaaddams:

whereisthebepis:

image

Hahahaha, it’s funny because she won’t get the job, since she is overqualified, and young part-time workers are cheaper.

Anyone who thinks our generation are lazy, unambitious layabouts… need to fucking lay down and die.
The harsh reality is that we are over-ambitious. We are told we can’t get anywhere without a good college degree, so we study hard, and learn all we can, and walk away with a piece of paper and skills to back it up… then we fight to break into a workforce that is already filled.
Every year more people graduate college, and the competition keeps mounting. There are a finite number of jobs, and the big-business fat-cats are cutting every corner they can to get away with NOT hiring new people, in order to maximise profits for themselves.

Then there’s the other problem of people having to work MULTIPLE jobs to support their families. Because they’re not paid enough to live on just one, they need to work three jobs to make ends meet - and that means two more jobs are filled by one person.
I’m not saying it’s “greedy” to work multiple jobs - I’m saying it’s disgusting that people are paid so little in them that they need to.

How are we supposed to get jobs when the job market is so limited - there’s not even enough work for everyone to have ONE job, much less two or three.
And the people who maintain the unemployment system have no idea how bad it really is - because they’ve had their jobs for twenty fucking years or more.

The only big company I know of that hired a graduate from my college did so because he invented a system that would cut their work down by almost 50%. That is what you need to do to get a job around here.

I have applied for every job I am qualified for.
I have applied for jobs I am almost qualified for.
I have applied for entry-level retail and fast-food jobs.
I have gotten nowhere.

And now I have the added bonus of being unable to work much at all due to my health issues. The irony of this is that I will be better off on disability - I will have the freedom to stop searching for dead-end temporary jobs, and be able to take the time to work on my own games and such. Albeit slow and in small bursts.

Exactly.
Also, employers want relevant experience, even for entry level jobs. Most job postings for waitressing require 2 years minimum of waitressing experience. I’m not even talking about fancy restaurants, I mean bussing tables in a pizza bar.

The problem of breaking into the job market at all is something seriously fucked up. No-one wants to hire an 18 year old when they can hire a 14 year old for the bare minimum. No-one will hire a 21 year old who is legally required to be paid a full adult wage if they can get anyone younger.

Getting into university was so important that I couldn’t even consider paid employment until finishing year 12. When I started applying for entry level fast food jobs at age 17? Rejection after rejection. If I got any feedback at all it was “Sorry, you don’t have any relevant experience” or ”We can’t know you’ll be able to cope with the work, since you’ve never worked before.”

AH, yes! How did I ever forget to mention the “experience barrier” - everyone trying to break into a job has to contend with this.

They want to take on someone with lots of experience - 2 years, 4 years, sometimes 6 or more.
I see things like “4 years, and you must have worked on at least Multi-Million Dollar Film, or AAA Game.”

Now how on earth am I going to do that if I can’t even get my foot in the door at fucking McDonalds?

And you know why they can put “2 years minimum experience” on their ads? Because there are plenty of people out there looking for those jobs with 2, 4, 8 years of experience in that role who need a job desperately.

If you want to work, you basically have to know someone in the company. If your parents run the joint, you can get in there, and get that experience. My sister has no trouble finding work now, because she has a couple years of experience - she got her first job through a combination of lying, and making very good friends with a number of people who worked there, by going to parties.
She barely made it through tenth grade.
I graduated 12th grade and college.

She has a job.
I don’t.

The system is broken, and only maintains a broken status quo. It puts barriers up to the outsiders, and puts minimal value on the insiders.
Humans are expendable assets - if they fire you, there’s a queue of people waiting to do your job.

Then there are places that exploit internships.

Some companies bring students in to work for a month for free - the old “pay you in experience” trick. Problem is, they’re not giving you the level of experience you need to secure a job, and there are dozens more students and graduates who want to get those unpaid internships, So they can just keep getting work from desperate students and grads for free.

It’s like all those artists who get asked to do something “for the exposure” - the exposure is an empty promise, and they really just want you to work for free.

The big CEOs want to keep their billion-dollar bank accounts floating. And they don’t care who has to suffer and die for that to happen.

If you wonder why so many young people are trying to make a name for themselves on the internet - “social media stars” and whatnot - it’s because it’s about the only chance we have to do something and be noticed.
We now have platforms where we can put ourselves out there, and try to make money based on our talents.

Is it a long-shot?
Absolutely.

But it’s about the only chance we have.

This right here explains every thing read closely children cause it’s important

(Source: cartoonpolitics)

We make Tumblr themes