Dear conventions: could you please include women creators in panels along with or other than those Women in Comics panels? Thanks.
— Colleen Doran (@ColleenDoran) October 22, 2017
GeekGirlCon, its existence and its success, demonstrates how unnecessary and belittling the “Women in Comics” panel is. There are women creators throughout the industry, you can have an all women panel that does not center on gender identity. It’s gotten so absurd that some (perhaps many) women creators no longer accept invitations to be on such panels.
But how do you fix this Paulina?
Easily, by not being dumb. Also by having panels that reflect the reality of the industry aka changing from manels (man-exclusive-panels) to all gender panels or by picking topics other than “what’s it like to be a woman” to have a group of women talk about. All of the panels I have organized have been all-women panels and none of them centered on gender. It’s possible I promise. Now go think of some.
Haven’t thought of any? Here are a few I thought of in the last thirty minutes, with full panelist rosters and links to those creators:
Witchcraft and Wizardry in Comics
Short Description: Magic is a regular theme in comic books. What are the commonalities, what are the differences, whose magical inspiration do you draw from, and why do you think this is such a powerful method for storytelling.
Suggested Panelists: Kate Leth, Ming Doyle, Wendy Xu, Caitlin Kittredge, Nicola Scott
Epic Romance in Comics
Short Description: Love is a driving factor for many characters. Let’s talk about some of the epic romances that have taken place in comics and how that acts as motivation for all sorts of events.
Suggested Panelists: Marguerite Bennett, Ariela Kristantina, Fiona Staples, Catherynne M. Valente
What does it take to be a hero?
Short Description: Comics are filled with heroism. Whether they are people with superpowers or people who just want to do the right thing. Why is this a theme people want to keep reading about and what defines a hero in comics?
Suggested Panelists: Kelly Sue DeConnick, G. Willow Wilson, Mariko Tamaki, Gail Simone, Roxane Gay
The Final Frontier: Space as setting
Short Description: What does it mean for a piece to be set in space? Why does space as a concept and as a place tickle our storytelling senses. What do we agree exists in space and what do we debate? How does real science and astronomy play into these ideas? Can we consider "space" to be a character in its own right?
Suggested Panelists: Kelly Sue DeConnick, Nicole Perlman, Marguerite Bennett, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Hometown heroes
Short Description: Sometimes the problems we face aren’t going to affect the world but they do hit a close to home. Who are these hometown heroes and where do they come from? How does reading about solutions to day-to-day problems help us learn more about being good citizens and people.
Suggested Panelists: Brittney Williams, Hope Larson, Pamela Ribon, Kiku Hughes
Road Trip!
Short Description: Every day thousands of us end up on the road. So what defines a road trip and what is it about those events that make them great for storytelling. Are there tropes on the road trip or is it just the heroes journey. Can you have a road trip without roads?
Suggested Panelists: Kate Leth, Shing Yin Khor, and Megan Levens
What these topics prove are that in most cases, any panel you could staff with all men (particularly if it’s all white-dudes) you could staff with all women. You might need to tweak the topic slightly, if you happen to have picked a historically sexist topic or maybe just one that’s always been done by white-dudes (google writers of Superman), but if that’s the case maybe don’t have that panel or have a bigger name woman moderate it. Women have been a major part of the comics industry since it’s inception, it's time convention-panels reflected that.
