Supergirl Redux

Supergirl Redux

So the proverbial s**t has hit the proverbial fan regarding all things Kara...

Regarding my previous post --

First, for those who were offended by my claim that adults who date minors are poopy-heads, let me say on the record that I was all for the Laura Ingalls/Almanzo Wilder pairing. But I still think that 90% of grown-up men who sleep with 16-year-olds are poopy-heads. When we return to an agrarian society with strong moral values and a life-expectancy of about 40, maybe I will adjust this opinion.

There's an excellent Supergirl blog called "Maid of Might" who did a good editorial on the whole "Women Who Needs Them I Do" plea for more female "Supergirl" readers. The blogger makes the point that institutionalized sexism makes sexists out of women. Somewhere in that sentence, I think I got a little dissed -- but rightly so. My suggestion to put Benes on "Supergirl" was, as far as I can remember, completely devoid of any other motivation than to impress my superiors with my keen comprehension of what "sells" -- sex. Looking back on it, I am rather shocked myself.

When I started working in the industry, I had these really high-faluting goals of "promoting women in comics," etc. I came from a highly feminist college situation -- women's empowerment groups, women's literature groups, women's health fairs, sexual harassment counseling, etc. A lot of us got into the whole "female spirituality" thing -- you know, rejecting the Judeo-Christian God as a tool of the patriarchy and empowering women by seeing the female form as divine. We would go through books of goddesses and find one to honor and use as a role-model. These goddesses each had their own super-power, costume, accessories, even mascots. So basically, instead of finding our role-models through comics and other entertainment -- which didn't seem to really give a s**t about us anyway -- we got ours from ancient mythology. When you give up on the media of the day to find your heroes on cuniform tablets -- something's wrong with the society.

But when I got into the comics industry, my priorities changed. Because I wanted nothing else than to succeed in the comics industry. That was it. That's all I wanted. And I observed how to make it and I proceeded to do so. And so I turned my back on all that "women's empowerment" stuff I was into in my academic days.

Which brings up the question -- was all that feminism I was into in my previous life all bulls**t, just a "hip" thing to do to pass the time? Was it meaningless?

You see, I don't think it was. I think it's what, ultimately, prevented me from being completely comfortable with the System. It's what made me physically sick, when mentally I was fully plugged-in with the System. I was saying "yes" to sexy art on what is essentially a "teen" book and giving my thumbs-up to "rape pages" and then I would sit in the lavatory for like twenty minutes with my heart racing and feeling nauseous and not understand why.

But when it is your job to bring in the numbers, when you are getting judged month-by-month on how your sales are doing, when your head is caught in the vise of such pressures, what do you do? And I was just an assistant with no dependents. What if you have an entire family to support? What do you do? Do you play the "iconoclast?" Do you put your family's medical insurance on the line so you can make a point about feminism? To risk getting fired so you can step forward and say, "I am Spartacus?"

"Supergirl" editor Eddie Berganza took a lot of flack online for his editorial asking women to give his book another try. I knew Berganza. I had lunch with the man two or three times a week. I babysat his kids once or twice in the offices while he was in meetings. As the father of a teenage girl -- who is probably the age Kara is by now -- you could not get any better. He raised this girl with an incredible sense of self-esteem and self-empowerment. He encouraged her to be active in sports, excel in school, and to be forthright, strong, and independent. Talking to her, I was quite impressed -- I was like, "this kid is going to be President of the United States one day; and if not that, probably any damn thing she wants to be." And if a guy tried to sexually harass her she'd probably karate-flip him into a plate-glass window. You don't raise girls like that by being a rampaging misogynist. I should know, because I was raised by a rampaging misogynist.

Which is not to say that parts of Berganza's editorial didn't make me go "D'oh!" I mean, if I had the power of The Beyonder from "Secret Wars" I think I'd go through time and erase the word "Mimbo" out of existence.

But the problem is the System. It's a groupthink philosophy of looking at things that starts from the top.

The System has to change. And it stands a better chance of changing from without than within. Within the System, you're sort of trapped. I could not do a damn thing for "women in comics" of any value until I was out of that particular System. All the articulate, empassioned bloggers and posters out there who agitate for change is what's going to change this System. Letter-writing campaigns are what's going to change this System. Voting with your wallets is what's going to change this System.

And this System WILL change. Please do not think that your letters and editorials do not get noticed up on Mount Olympus. Please do not think that higher-ups more higher-up than the higher-ups don't read this stuff -- or at least get briefs on it by their assistants.

But I don't know if singling out one person -- other than the actual policy makers -- really does a lot of good. I'm not saying this for sentimental reasons, I am saying this as a matter of practicality.

For example, I worked at Acclaim Comics for 2 & 1/2 years. Working there, under the leadership of Fabian Nicieza, I NEVER felt pressured to "tart up" my comics. I NEVER felt the need to betray my own gender to get ahead or to think that my gender had anything to do with getting promoted. That whole idea was never even on my radar. That was the System of Acclaim Comics under Fabian Nicieza. It started with him, the type of person he was.

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As for what direction to put "Supergirl" in -- I dunno, can't it be like the early Peter David stuff, or like "The Young Avengers," and "The Runaways," or like old-school Perez "Titans" and "Wonder Woman," anything like that? Or bite the bullet and have a solid, teen-friendly book like "Spider Girl" and stick with it and make your money back on licensing her to TV, clothing, etc.

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Geez, now I want to go to Blockbuster and rent "Spartacus."