Ever since Kelly Marie Tran was bullied off of social media by Star Wars fanboys, an age-old debate in nerd circles has reemerged: Why is fandom so broken?
Continue reading “What Broke ‘Star Wars’ Fandom and Why #SWRepMatters”
by Tony B. Kim | Originally posted at Hero Within
On Monday morning we released our summer collection that included our new Wonder Woman Denim Jacket. Out of everything new we are creating this year, this is the one piece I am most excited for. Wonder Woman is FINALLY getting her own live action film after almost 40 years since Linda Carter’s iconic TV version. Fortunately, in the past few years, we have seen more social advocating for equal representation of gender, orientation, and race in our favorite comics, TV, and films. Much has changed. Much has not.
Continue reading “We Made a Wonder Woman Jacket… and Guys Hate It”
What makes a hero? Is it the super powers? The skill sets? The gadgets? Our intentions? Our actions?
I’m a comic book guy through and through so these are the questions that haunt me. There are moments in our lives that define us. That we allow to define us through our choices, our mistakes and how we respond to them. Sometimes those moments are big, sometimes they are minute. But in those moments we definitely learn the content of our character.
Here’s an example.
I’ll say this much for the new Ghostbusters film, it’s staying true to the spirit of the franchise. Apparently.
Just as Ernie Hudson got thrown under the bus and treated like garbage during the release of the original Ghostbusters film, Leslie Jones is enduring the same crap in wake of the reboot.
While most of the Marvel one-shots have been entertaining and well crafted, I was really surprised at how much Agent Carter resonated with me. The more I learned about the miniseries currently airing on ABC, the more I excited I became.
It wasn’t until watching the first few episodes of the miniseries that I realized why.
Originally posted on GeeksOut.org
In honor of LGBTQ Pride Month.
The following a reminder why this isn’t the first time DC Comics promised a brand new day with diversity only to pull some of the most bigoted stunts in comics history.
Can you separate the art from the artist?
This is a question that’s often asked when it comes to enjoying the art separately from an artist’s personal (and often bigoted) views.
by Patrick Miller | Originally posted on Tumblr
I have spoken to a lot of people in the games industry who are frustrated about GamerGate but shaky on the prospect of speaking out themselves; they’re worried about receiving death threats, or drawing unwanted attention to their employer, or just overextending themselves getting involved in an exhausting conversation.
All of these are valid concerns! The problem is that good people being silent on the matter is what enables this to continue; many of the folks who organize under the GamerGate banner (both harassers and non-harassers) genuinely believe that they’re speaking up for the silent majority who share their beliefs but aren’t brave enough to speak out. (Personally, I tend to assume that people are jerks despite their good intentions until proven otherwise; IMO the hard part of being a good person isn’t thinking the right thing, it’s doing the right thing). In other words, silence is interpreted as implicit permission to continue.
So, here’s the thing. Speaking out doesn’t mean you have to wake up every morning and only get out of bed after reading the previous night’s GamerGate stuff for twenty minutes and getting angry. (I will say it’s pretty good at getting me out of bed, though). There are a bunch of different ways that you can make your voice heard, depending on how your personal HP/MP are doing.
Continue reading “Don’t Be Silent! Things You Can Do about GamerGate”
Originally posted at The Daily Beast
Okay, gamers, let’s have a talk.
First of all, my cred — rest assured I am one of your tribe. I have saved the princess, I have united the Triforce, I have shot rockets into the giant goat skull to blow up John Romero’s head. There is documentary evidence that I proposed to my wife at a video game convention where she had to beat the final boss from Sonic 3 & Knuckles before I would marry her.
So no, I’m definitely not one of the fake gamer girls you fear and loathe so much, especially since I’m not a girl. So when I tell you you’re being misogynist losers who are making us all look bad, maybe you’ll listen.
Probably not, though.
Continue reading “It’s Dangerous to Go Alone: Why Are Gamers So Angry?”
This culture of ours saved my life. This isn’t an exaggeration. If not for Ursula K. Le Guin, Madeleine L’Engle, Star Trek, The Wild Wild West, comic books, Isaac Asimov, and Dr. Who, I would probably be dead. I grew up in a neighborhood where the idea of dreaming outside of the concrete, glass, and busted elevators that encroached on my every day was damn near forbidden — it could also get you killed. Dreaming above your station was discouraged as you didn’t want others to think you were better than them. If they were in the shit, so were you. So in secret, I visited fantastic worlds — these worlds kickstarted my dream machinery, inviting me to see beyond what I thought were my limits.
Fiction has a way of doing that. It forces you to imagine worlds so very different than your own — and want to live there.
As I got more into SF (my catchall designation for all the outré things we love), not just as a consumer but also as a creator, I started to see just how amazing this stuff ours is. The potential for SF to affect real world change was absolutely astonishing. But the thing is, most of these changes happen only in the realm of the object. Cellular phones, teleconferencing, mobile digital health monitoring — all these things delivered on the promise of SF. These were delivered in tangible forms. What disturbed was that the human element stayed contemporarily human.
by Marjorie Liu
What can I add that hasn’t already been said? Not much, I suppose. There’s been an amazing symphony of voices on the internet, keeping alive the reality, the truth, that so many would prefer to ignore: that misogyny continues to thrive in every corner of the world. It is reflected back on us women every day, in a million different ways, and while it’s easy to point the finger at other countries and say, “Look at the way they treat women!” we all must know, deep down, that here in America we put into practice the same patterns of hate and ownership, and entitlement.
A pregnant woman was just stoned to death in Pakistan for marrying a man against her family’s wishes — but that happens here in America, all the time, with just slightly different players. Google “boyfriend kills pregnant girlfriend” and you’ll see a list of unending deaths. We read in horror about how rapists in other countries are let off easy by “corrupt authorities,” but what about our legal system? It’s just as monstrous towards victims of sexual assault. Check out this imagined, but very real, conversation — what if mugging were treated like rape is in the eyes of the law — found at the @femusingsteam twitter feed:
On Saturday, professional comics editor Rachel Edidin sent out the following tweet in response to a lot of the fanboy gatekeeping — and just general terrible behavior on the part of fanboys — that’s been burning up the geekosphere recently.
Idea: A photo campaign of personal statements from people on the margins, w/ photos reading "I am comics." Somebody do this?
— (((Jay Edidin))) (@NotLasers) April 26, 2014
In a matter of a few hours, that initial idea morphed into a full blown campaign that quickly gathered steam over the weekend when We Are Comics was launched. And the “somebody” who did it? Edidin herself.
by Jules Rivera
I like writing articles that teach. I like sharing lessons and personal experiences that hopefully can save someone else the time it took me to learn certain things the hard way. The problem is I find myself always doing it in the negative. ”Don’t do this.” “Stay away from that.” I’m sorry for that, but sometimes it’s faster and more effective for me to educate someone on what not to do instead of what to do.
So here’s my take on how not to behave like an artistic professional online.
Continue reading “How Not to Behave Like an Artistic Professional Online”
So New York Comic-Con was held a couple weekends back, and while head-NOC-in-charge Keith was holding it down at the Epic Proportions/SIUniverse booth, there were some shenanigans going on down on the con floor.
Apparently, a camera crew from a local cable show called “Man Banter” got in to the convention hall on SiriusXM credentials and proceeded to racially and sexually harass any and every woman they could find. From cosplayers to journalists to comics professionals, if you were a woman — and got caught in Man Banter’s crosshairs — you were gonna get harassed. Heidi has a roundup of first person accounts from the con over at The Beat.
Our friends at 18 Million Rising have put together a petition to demand SiriusXM fire Mike Babchik, the producer who used his credentials to get his cable access crew into the show. They’ve met about 75% of the signatures needed to meet their goal of 2,000. Info about the petition — and a link if you want to add your name — is available after the jump.
