Side by Side

So I'm tripping along, singing a son... [ scratch that ]

I'm scrolling down WFA (yay twitter notification) and I see this post labeled:Whoreswhoreswhoreswhoreswhores.

My first thought?

Huh, someone's posting about Frank Miller.

So I click on it. And guess what???!

Someone WAS posting about Frank Miller.

Dear Frank Miller,

Your fans (some at least, a big sum) think you have one note. And that note?

WhoresWhoresWhoresWhores

whore (hôr, hōr) Pronunciation Key n.

1. A prostitute.
2. A person considered sexually promiscuous.
3. A person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain
4. A female character created by Frank Miller who makes any claim to power or who carries a gun aka not the good girl.

Someone On The Internet Is WRONG! OMGZ!

So there's someone online who claims that ZMallet 'manipulated' his review of Red Sonja's WHAT IF storyline.

Personally I don't think Mallet manipulated the review. I have no idea exactly how he's meant to have done something like that. Is manipulating a review like massaging numbers?

ZMallet posted, with scans, this story where an evil Red Sonja, rapes a guy, then rips off her own baby's head (the resulting child from that rape).

The scans show her saying "You tried to kill me!" to the baby. And the baby has an evil demonic look so it's not as if she's crazy and thinks normal birthing pains are murderous intent.

Whatever the larger story, that this person claims needs to be told and included in any review of this story line, the fact still remains that in it, Red Sonja rapes a guy and kills a baby.

The end result is STILL, yet another story of a female heroine who when turned evil - sleeps with every and anyone she wishes with no discerning grace. Whatever the dissenter's thoughts on the matter might be, the TROPE Zmallet was pointing out still holds true.

Not to mention the secondary tropes of "Get powers from a Goddess, AFTER A RAPE, and the only time you can sleep with a guy is if he can physically over power you. Get Powers from a GOD (an evil god) and flip to the whore side of the madonna/whore complex, so far in fact you force yourself on someone else!"

I'm not sure the person criticizing Zmallet's review got the point he was making. Especially considering that they posted this

Sonja's only reason for raping Osin is because a prophecy said that he was meant to father the Anti-Christ (or the Hyborian equivalent) with her as the mother. That doesn't make it any less icky but it does give Sonja with a motivation past "Well, she's evil - so she must be a slut." - a subtext that I believe was mistakenly (although not, I think, intentionally) implied by mallet's original article.

I REFUSE to get into the arguments about legitimate motivations for rape. I will pop a virtual cap in people's arses if I try.

As for Zmallet's sarcastic "Hey Kids! Comics!" at the end of his post... I first learned about Red Sonja from the movie; Which I saw on tv when I was maybe twelve or something like that. Maybe thirteen.

While I haven't followed the comic since discovering it WAS a comic, that's mostly been because I haven't been sure I wanted to see a strong warrior female in a T&A fantasy setting. Which is all that's come across to me with the various solicts.

Still, if you saw that movie and figured chainmail cold ass bikini or not, you wanted to see if it was like Xena ...

Well, Hey Kids! Comics!

PS: Came -this- close to labeling this 'response for idiots' Changed it.

9:18pm - Looking2daStars posts:

You don't like rape and yet you read Red Sonja? Isn't that a bit like saying that you don't like the idea of children losing their parents and then continuing to read Batman?

I cannot read anything more by this Trilobite. That comparison (which involves BATMAN so you know my wraths been stoked) is just so full of utter I REPLACED MY HEAD WITH MY NUTSACK. YAY NON BRAINS FULL OF SPERM - that I can't think to reply to it. Which works because what could I possibly say to someone who makes that argument given that I do in fact adore Batman because I don't like the idea of children losing their parents.

Feeds

I just discovered that the reason I hadn't read any of Ami's Rants of Doooom in a while is because somehow the feed never got added to my feedreader.

That has been rectified. Yay! There shall be SuperCute in my READING!

In other news, I'm considering a Seeking Avalon Twitter. On the one hand it seems pretentious as all hell. But on the other, I do have little thoughts I don't post because it seems not worth the trouble. Just the little bit about Ami wouldn't have gotten posted if I didn't think of adding this bit about whether or not a Twitter makes sense.

Realistically I'd love a Jaiku connected to this account. But Google's taking their sweet time getting THAT all set up - ok so my impatience is unwarrented. But blah.

Dear Frank, Plz To Be Getting New Brain KbaiThanx

Oh bloody, buggering, entrails dripping, mustard shitting, pus spewing hell.

Click here to see a poster of Frank Miller bending over Will Eisner's 'The Spirit' and prison raping it with Marv's detachable and no doubt daunting penis.

WARNING: The shrieking of fresh meat being defiled may be upsetting to some of you.

ETA: April 19th - The Screaming Trailer

Update

BrownFemiPower has a final word to say to all those bullshitters and privilege blinded jackasses that miss the point completely.

I wanted to do a post about WOWIO.COM and all the lovely comics they have available. I have about 300 (not counting full series) potential free downloads (3 a day, no more than 30 a month, personal email address or 1cent credit/debit charge then refunded)

If you were interested in Dr. Saida Nri who was featured in TORCHBEARERS;they have ADRENALINE.

They also have FLARE, who reads to me like Dazzler meets WonderWoman and goes TOTALLY KICK ASS. And the concept of getting my greedy, happy, hands on her story cheered me immensely - until I realized people are STILL being stupid, ignorant, racist assholes all over the feminist blogsphere.

If anyone wants me, I'll be enjoying my free comics and reading up on Womanist Ideology, writers and forebearers.

I may want to change/d my feminism tag.

ETA: Some seriously brilliant words on how privilege and appropriation from the underprivileged disenfranchised/oppressed, devalues blogging as a legitimate intellectual enterprise.

Fuck Pandagon

Do not even speak to me about Pandagon and the appropriation of BFP's words re: Women and Immigration and Abuses.

Right now? I'm not happy at all with anyone who claims to be feminist and who is also white.

Cassie Edwards and Peg Seltzer have a new friend. Amanda Marcotte, plagiarist and WoC Voice Stealer.

ETA: Remembered there was an option to disallow comments. Leaving up the ones that got through first.

April 11 - ETA(5:29pm): Someone in comments in one of the many posts discussing this brought up BRING IT ON (the movie) as a possible remedial lesson for Amanda Marcotte in how appropriating from WoC will eventually lead to humiliation and epic fail.

It both made me smile and think of Chris Sims. It also reminded me that WoC bloggers are ALL Cheer Captains here.

Although, I do kind of want to "Beat these Buffys down"

Fair haired, fair browed yet dissimilar

Blondes:

I've been wanting to write this one for a couple of days. One of my favourite anime and manga storylines is CLAYMORE. The main characters in the story are all blonde. Every last one of them. It's part of a trait that makes them what they are.

And no, I'm not about to go off on a rant about blonde white girls taking over everything or blondeness as a special power.

I like CLAYMORE. It's like Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Xena. I find it kickass. I'm more excited than I know what to do with to realize that the manga is still ongoing and that it differs from the anime. As I've no idea when/if series 2 of the anime is coming out. And the manga is currently giving me all new story!

But I repeat, it's a black and white world in the manga where all the major female characters are BLONDE.

And none of them look alike!

That, ladies and ladies and one or two gentlemen, is my point.

Insert the obligatory kick to Greg Land's worthless nutsack here. [ kick! ]

But I was absolutely enthralled when I realized how much the artist for Claymore was kicking the ass of Land and several of his contemporaries.

How often do I find myself trying to identify female characters by their costumes when I read super hero comics? All the fricking time, is how often. Ok, maybe 90% of the time. But here is a comic, sequential art, where all the main characters, and there are several, are blonde and wearing the same damn uniform! And yet the artist has them with different noses, lips, shape and size of mouth, eyes, hair styles, breast sizes, heights, reaches.

It made me think of the phrase I've seen a lot since I started blogging and reading blogs about comics; "What mysterious power does manga hold?"

And I think being able to tell characters apart is one of them. A big one.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that for me manga goes weird in the other direction. I can tell the girls apart, but the men? They often look the same - pretty, with either short or long hair; spiky short hair, long swishy long hair. And male body types seem to fall into; broad shouldered, long legged male, young lanky twinky male, muscular patow! bulging! male and the rounded face barely into their teens proto-child.

I'm going to wait and see if it's because I'm more aware of the female body and there are subtleties I've yet to read in the male form in manga. It's also possible that most of the manga that catches my eye has female protaganists (I leave you to wonder why - ahem - not so subtle) and so I just haven't been paying attention to the boys in the same way.

Because as I think about it now, I do note that male costuming is somewhat elaborate. In their street clothes/ school clothes I tell Ichigo and Ishida apart by their hair mostly. But not in street clothes, their costumes are distinct and elaborate, Ishi and Ichi both having the long, lanky, twinky body type. Naruto had the round face until Shippoden.

Hmm, more thinky thoughts for later. Still though, a manga of all blondes, each with different body types, hair, eyes, mouth, nose, sneers, smiles, and body language? Yeah, I can see why manga could be winning a younger generation. I'm not even in that generation and I'm all HELL YEAH!

Reflections on Anime Boston (Pt 1)

There are many things I want to write about in this blog, many things that have struck me in the last week to two weeks. I've mentioned I went to Anime Boston. I really enjoyed the experience too. Though I don't think I'm likely to ever go back just for the sake of the con. This has nothing to do with the organization of the con, or the people I met. In fact I fell in love with the concept of commissioning art, so if anything Anime Boston will always be a milestone in my relationship to art.

But the thing was, I've watched Naruto, with the fan subtitles (cause that's the best way for me - I enjoy hearing the original Japanese voice actors) and I adore Bleach (OMG I can squee and fan girl) and yet I'm not particularly FANNISH about any of them.

Now I feel like I need to go into some big discussion on the definition of fannish and where I come from and it comes from and my formulation as a self aware fan through media fandom and the internet and the primarily female centric/created space I've been in for the past seven or so years. But that, truthfully, would be a digression. I'm going to assume that when I say fannish that it can at least be understood as. things. that. rocked. my. world.

I may squee for BLEACH, but CLAYMORE, FATE / STAY NIGHT, JUUNI KOKKI aka THE TWELVE KINGDOMS, these are the shows (and manga) that reach out to me and make me want to share them with everyone. These are the things that make me go 'O. M. G! Saga! Epic! Pathos! Liberte!' Strong storytelling, compelling characters and art and costume/world construction that hits me right in the gut.

AB did not have the shows I am fannish about. Yes, I found Antique Bakery and discovered I would like to read it. And yes I bought myself Toyko Pop's PANTHEON HIGH, which I adore because it's about the gods of mythology, their children, the end days and epic heroic adventures. But PH was also not represented beyond the books at AB.

It was very strange to be surrounded by so much, of which I didn't give a damn. I found myself constructing costumes from my favourites in my head, imagining what it'd be like to see someone cosplay them. It was my attempt to feel more a part of things.

But even then, a conversation with the person I was there with had me looking at cosplay in a whole new light. I'd always seen it as professional dress-up. It never occurred to me, until she stated her views, that the main object was to look as closely like your chosen character as possible. Now she expressed her views in a kind of frustration as she's South Asian, an enormous Yugi Oh and Gundam Wing fan, with golden sienna skin tone. There aren't a whole lot of characters who look anything like her in terms of skin tone.

There popped my bubble of what I'd look like in Saber's armour from FATE / STAY NIGHT. And I'm not the right skin tone for Yoko from TWELVE KINGDOMS either.

So there was that slightly sinking, new perspective. And that combined with panels I didn't have much interest in, bands I'd never heard of (though that could change as I'm getting better at connecting music I like to the people who actually sing it), voice actors I don't much care about - since I prefer the original Japanese. It was a lovely spectacle, but one from which I felt removed.

Not to mention the guilt of having picked up my badge the day before the con started and knowing that in the line that went around the building (some people waited in line 5 hours) and then some, were people who'd be enjoying things perhaps far more than I currently was.

Is it possible that there's some other anime/manga con somewhere that I'd enjoy more because it won't be Gaia panels and videos I don't particularly want / need to see? Yeah, I guess so. And the truth was I had a lot of fun with my friend, so I didn't much miss a few of the panels that had interested me that I couldn't make. It just put things in perspective for me about my likes and dislikes and what made it all worthwhile.

And that was the artist gallery. (More on that later)

The Manga Got Me!

I went to Boston Anime. I will write about it eventually. Right now however? This is my reaction.

"OH CRAP! I just spent a week reading nothing but manga! Now I'm reading all my comics backwards!!!!!!"

Back From Vacation!

I went to Boston Anime and then spent a week in the city. I'm back now playing catch up on everything from comments to 'I can't believe they did that'. The latter by the way would be much more fun if they didn't keep doing things that should be implausible, impossible and dreadfully fantastic (in the sense of fantasy - unicorns and rainbow fairies)

Is there something I should absolutely not miss? Cause I doubt I'm getting through 500 unread messages/posts anytime soon.

For those looking for information on March's Carnival - It's going to be a late Art Edition right here @ Seeking Avalon.