Tuesday, February 27, 2007
How George W. Bush Clued Me In On How To Achieve Female Empowerment In The Comic Book Industry
There is a bit of talk right now in the blogosphere about the apparently defunct Friends of Lulu Female Empowerment Fund. This fund was designed to financially help women in the industry who were fighting sexual harassment cases in court. I thought this fund was a super idea. But, for a variety of reasons, it didn't stick around. Some bloggers have publically asked for an accountability on it, FOL responded, a baker's dozen of links on When Fangirls Attack ensued. (My link function is disabled on this browser, but just go to the When Fangirls Attack link on my blogroll for more info.)
While I think such commentators as Johanna Draper Carlson definitely have the right to ask: "what happened to the Fund?" and press for details, reading about all this brought up another point.
For us (wimmins) to achieve empowerment in this industry it might be helpful to start out by observing how men have maintained their empowerment. And instead of focusing on the comic book biz right now I think I'll turn my attention to Politics.
How had the conservative Republicans, under the leadership of George W. Bush, maintained such a stranglehold on political leadership for so long?
Because they stuck together. Even for dumbass things. They had a clear agenda of issues they supported and they stuck together.
In contrast, the Democrats had been scattered, without clear agendas, and occasionally attacked one another. Presenting not so much an united front as a motley crew of disparate ideas and alliances, they were easily undermined.
Now on to comics (or any business situation, strictly theoretical, you understand)
How does a male "bad apple" with a history of harassment, or racism, or whatever, stay in his job?
Because the other males around him stick by him. They "circle the wagons," as it were. Because, outside of the harassment or racist remark, the guy is their "buddy." So they present a seamless united front. Their unity is a brick wall, a very very powerful one.
To really fight things like sexual harassment or racism or homophobia you need to be in a similarly unified situation.
You can't have several scattered icons of comics feminism dotted across the blogosphere occasionally undermining each other (and, while I'm hardly an icon, God knows I've done it). You need a united front. Yes, with f**king "talking points," the whole thing. Just like the Republicans -- and now the Democrats!
Sounds fascist? Sounds crazy?
This is just based on observation. Personally, I know while I've said some cool things on these blogs, I've also said some dumbass things as well. Maybe what I'm saying is also dumbass. I don't know.
But I do know that ok -- maybe the FOL Empowerment Fund is dead. It was a great, noble idea. The Friends of Lulu is a great, noble institution. They are the most visible female empowerment group for comics we have. Let's look towards the future and figure out together how best to promote and protect the interests of women in comics.
What are our set issues?
Are we united?
If one of us gets attacked, how do we respond?
If a younger member of the industry needs help because of harassment or whatever, how do we respond?
Women within the mainstream comics community -- in positions to make a difference -- are they "members" of this alliance or what? Can they publically be in support of this alliance?
What the blazes IS this alliance? Is it organized all under the banner of the Friends of Lulu or what? Let's define all this.
Because without a united front, there is nothing. Without a distinct "platform," there is nothing. Let's get some sort of membership drive going either for the Friends of Lulu or some other thing and get women (and guys who care) to sign up and get moving!!! Let's not leave things with the same old complaining over some Sin City action figures used for a raffle and turn the damned page already. I met like 15 young female artists and writers at the comic con last weekend. What are we setting in place to help them? That's the only question that matters.
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My point in talking about the raffle of the Sin City action figures was that I felt the Fund was already in trouble if that was the kick-off. And, woah, I was right.
ReplyDeleteI learned something from twenty-one years as a pro, which is that I've seen twenty-one years of good intentions come and go. Only FoL, Hero Initiative and CBLDF remain.
I do my best to help female pros of all ages, but I mostly find myself picking up the pieces. As you know, no amount of warning does any damn good if a woman wants a career so bad she'll do anything, no matter how contrary to what she knows or feels is right.
Sometimes, we have to learn the hard way.
Well, I'd like to think that George W. Bush and the Republicans were in power for so long because people realized they were right, but I'm probably biased on that since I'm a conservative. ^_~
ReplyDeleteStill, your points are well-taken. A more united front for empowering female creators would be most helpful.
I think, upon reflection, that my post was incredibly idealistic.
ReplyDeleteBut I do hope that some sort of fund like the FOL one could still be established -- or if not that, simply a good ol' fashioned educational program/webpage to inform people of the topic of sexual harassment & what their basic legal rights are.
I try to not tow a party line -- I try to see some good in both points of view, Republican & Democrat. But in order to win an election or gain power in society there needs to be unity and a clear, consistent platform of issues. And while the Republicans have been doing this for years, it's recently become a priority of Democrats.
But when Clinton attacks Obama and Obama via David Geffen attacks Clinton and Joe Biden just acts like an dumbass, it weakens the whole party. And while their private bickering might help their individual goals, it endangers the party's ability to beat the Republicans and promote issues that they care about.
Similarly in comics, if A attacks B and B attacks A and X is just shaking her head and Y is being snarky in her blog because she's confused about where she stands and G doesn't care and Q just wants to keep her job and not rock the status quo, we get nowhere.
I'm going to join FOL and see what the hell I can do to make a difference. I need structure on this, some sort of tangible direction, or else I'll just keep yakking away with my thumb up my butt.
You're absolutely right. *nods* The problem often is that everybody has different goals and opinions, which is fine, but then everybody starts attacking everybody else and we dun keep our eyes on the ball (so to speak XD)
ReplyDeleteAnd that's been one of the problems with many movements where ppl who have "minority" status try to achieve power or change. They tend to just fight amongst each other, and the ppl in charge are mor than happy to help them fight each other.
I see this a lot whenever I read comics blogs... like... somebody will make a good point about women in comics. But then somebody else (usually a guy) will show up and take one small line she said and say "oh this proves you're a feminazi" or something, and then women start falling all over each other to distance themselves from her and point out that "hey, no.. she's extreme... I dun agree with nething she says!"
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We need to unite with what we have in common, and not obsess over what we disagree on. :(
I think, before we start uniting on things, we ought to be able to discuss and dissent and argue for and against different ideas so that we have a platform we all agree on. It's all very well to claim we're uniting to promote the equality of women in comics, but what does that mean exactly? Your idea of equality may not tally with mine, and vice versa, and before I unite with anybody about anything, I want to know what exactly it is we're hopeing to accomplish.
ReplyDeleteI'm not prepared to let anyone speak for me unless I know exactly what it is they're going to say. If that means endless debates and dissension in the ranks, then that's just too bad.
Maybe I shouldn't mention this because the comics world and the romance world seem to view each other as beneath contempt (yes, both of you despise each other even though both of you are popular culture). But the Romance Writers of America are doing a bang-up job of going after every single stupid mention of romance writers in media. The RWA also has other committees, probably all of them run by power-hungry females, that address issues such as who is a recognized publisher or agent, what are reasonable contract terms, etc. This is because they got sick of the patronizing garbage journalists were putting out. And they got sick of being patted on the head by publishers and yet being ripped off in contracts. And so they showed a united front. It's not the only front in the romance world. But it's a consistent front. Women in comics would do well to consider how to act as professionally united as do the women in romance.
ReplyDeleteIamza raises an important point: before unity, there has to be as open a discourse as possible. Because false unity is in all cases insufficient and hurtful if in the common cause individuals are being left out in any sense for what exceeds that main cause. It's an issue with any united oppressed group: that that group has a number of narratives that go beyond that group's and asking for them to splinter into as many groups as needed isn't as fair as trying to create a united force that understands these other issues and at least to some extent is critical about them either.
ReplyDeleteI mean gayness and race in particular. They overlap in important ways, and a, say, black butch will have a specific set of difficulties different than yours even if male power factors in as well. It factors in differently.
So unity sounds wonderful, but can so easily be formed in an illusory way that excludes to create its very boundaries of inclusion...