Son of the Bride of the Braindump!

[elfs]

Shortpacked nails the DC Sexism Controversy. In case you missed it, DC Comics "rebooted" their entire universe this past month. Reception to the new Wonder Woman was strong, especially since they gave her pants, but then came the release of Red Hood and Catwoman, two comics that were so repulsive in their depictions of woman (Starfire and Catwoman in particular) that many people reeled back with alarm. Laura Hundson at Comics Alliance has more to say about it, and includes some valuable demonstrations about how both Starfire and Catwoman were, in the late '80s and early '90s, depicted as sexual and sexually secure, but now they're just bad wank machines.

One reason you should never just grab your spouse's computer

The Unintended Consequences of Cyberbullying Rhetoric. I don't believe Stormy's bullied in the way people talk about modern bullying. Certainly the one time she tried to date a girl she took an awful lot of harassment, and the relationship ended because of it. She's taken on a political role by joining her high school's GSA, and I'm glad to hear it. But this article goes a long way toward explaining why high schoolers won't admit to being bullied: it would mean taking the label of "victim," and that's a surrender of power. High schoolers use the word "drama," and twist what we tell them ("High school is a hellish hothouse completely unlike real life") to deflect any suggestion that they're weak.

Brown people in America are obliged to be patriotic! Remember all that brouhaha about how Obama didn't have his hand over his heart during the national anthem? Rick Perry doesn't do it either. But Perry's white, and Republican, so he gets a pass.

The Gay Soldier and the Republican Debate. This is the event that had me fuming about Rick Santorum, and his failure to honor the soldier (who's freaking in Iraq as he asks his question) or get angry at the audience for booing. Even worse, a soldier back from the war tells Newt Gingrich about how badly gays and lesbians will be for morale, and Newt says they can undo Obama's "social engineering."

Comments

[gromm.livejournal.com]

I have mixed feelings about what Laura Hundson has to say about DC comics.

For starters, she's completely right about the new characters. They're porn queens masquerading as superheroes. But I think she's completely wrong about what she thinks they used to be all about. Her example of what Starfire used to be like back in the day is unfortunately, little more than a reflection of what male fantasy was at the time: American boys dreamed of women who were "uninhibited" sexually, which they dressed up as being free of Puritan Constraints placed on them by a rigid patriarchy. Usually so long as said women wanted to do what said boys wanted to do. And said women usually came from Other Places, like Sweden or France or in Starfire's case, another planet.

So really, DC is completely surprised since they're just doing business as usual. They've just updated things to reflect modern society. Just as importantly, the new mores violate the mores that Laura Hudson grew up with, reading DC comics.

So really, it's all about perspective.