Issue #2

The Second Carnival is up.

It's been an interesting month for People of Colour.

Everyone please go check it out and thank Wychwood for all her hard work. Read and tell your friends and get them to tell their friends.

Tiny Note: In recent discussions there has been conflict over the general use of the term 'people of colour' and the lack of the use of the term 'non-white'. If my choice disagrees strongly enough with someone that they choose not to participate then I'm sorry for the loss.

Usage Note: Dissatisfaction with the implications of nonwhite as a racial label has doubtless contributed to the recent popularity of the term person of color and others, such as woman of color, with the same construction. In effect, person of color stands nonwhite on its head, substituting a positive for a negative. It is interesting that the almost exclusive association in American English of colored with Black does not carry over to terms formed with "of color," which are used inclusively of most groups other than those of European origin. See Usage Notes at colored, nonwhite.   1, 2

Just One Question

Why is Storm farting at the veiwer? Is she perhaps demonstrating her distate for this cover?



I go back to being too depressed to read now. Updates...sometime in future. Move over of Seeking Avalon - also some time in future.

PS: I'm told (by the person who showed me this image) that Boobisaurous (Titania) is someone who's taken on Hulk, She-Hulk and Thor. Thor, he who is a god (or a demi-god depending on if he's sharing a body - point is, big ass powers). But her head is smaller than the male arms.

PoC SF Carnival: Deadline Aug 20th

Tomorrow 'round 8pm or so is the deadline for the August Issue of the People of Colour in Scifi & Fantasy Blog Carnival.

I know a goodly number of people have contemplated moving LJ or have moved etc. Which is yet another reason I'm glad that there's a blog-spot central place (where I will also be posting this).

Last minute links for the Carnival should be sent now.

<< Also random damning of livejournal >>

Brief Comment

I've been distracted by a lot lately; the use of the word miscegenation in Harry Potter fandom, Livejournal and 6Apart's utter cockfuckery. The fact that Seeking Avalon will now definitely be moving; despite the fact that I'm not quite ready for it; my philosophies and 6aparts aren't going to jel any longer.

All that said, and all that busy acknowledged, I have to give a nod to Kalinara for finally, finally banning Scott from her blog.

Cue my wonderfully voiced gospel choir.

Scott's a white male. He could never really understand what it is to grow up and be made aware by everyone black around you, of what to look out for re: institutional racism and how just being black affects walking down the street, getting a job, whatever.

There are some people who have been in situations where being white made them the minority. And in those situations there was violence and bullying sent their way. They have a good clue about feeling persecuted. But if they could get away from those circumstances the persecution would not follow.

There aren't places where minorities, especially blacks in America, can go without feeling some level of institutional racism if not simmering hatred and persecution.

Now since Scott is male, I think there is no way he could ever really understand, and that he outright refuses to even try to comprehend, what it means to be a woman; having to constantly be aware of power dynamics and strength dynamics, your body and your body's vulnerabilities, and the creepy objectification that's part of the rape act.

I don't think he's capable of understanding how we're incredibly aware of every time a heroine says to someone or is given a flashback of; 'and then some male stuck his penis in me against my will - so now I fight crime'

Scott and people like him will not get that the last thing women reading superhero comics want to see is:

I WAS MADE A TRADITIONAL VICTIM OF MALE POWER DOMINANCE VIA SEXUAL OBJECTIFICATION AND NOW IN ORDER TO RECOVER MY PRIDE - I FIGHT CRIME.

I love Batman. Batman was the child victim of a mugging gone wrong. It led to him being an orphan, it led to him wanting to save his city and prevent any other child from facing such horrors in the night.

Bruce or Bryce, Batman's story stays the same.

Kal or Kala, Superman's story stays the same.

Hal or Hannah. John or Jane. Barry or Beatrice. Wally or Willa.

There is no sense of them having been damaged from the inside out, surviving brutal thrusts that bruise and tear sensitive skin, internal friction agitation that feels like lava in your core, being emptied into like a waste receptacle, of having someone else get off on you being weaker - in the stories of those heroes.

Felicia Hardy. Hippolyta. Barbara Gordan (voyeuristically violated). Helena Bertenelli. Dina Drake. Jessica Drew (mind control also with torture).

These are just off the top of my head. See here for Ragnell's and Kalinara's original list.

It's a long list. It's too long. It's too many heroines violated, objectified and made into play things, immortalized in poses of weakness, lacking agency.

And don't tell me that Batman gets strung up and Flash has a nemesis and Kal-el is made weak by Kryptonite.

Cause until Lex Luthor lubes up a shard of glowing green rock and tells Superman to 'Bend over baby and take it like a man' - I think you'll be seriously missing my point about the violation of the heroic persona. Of how these powerful, charismatic, against the grain women must have according to their creators, moments where they are nothing but soft skin, blood and available holes to be taunted; where they are reminded not that they're bad heroes, not that they've made mistakes, not that they're not going to save the world; but instead are reminded that at the end of the day - THEY ARE NOTHING BUT WOMEN.

Up next, my total wtf over the racism and sexism and rampant colonialism in Fables: Arabian Tales

Cue: Gospel Choir hinting at Doom.