ConMunity Engagement: Feminist Fandoms p3, Bringing Feminism to Mainstream conventions

Women, people of color, trans, queer, and the rest of us folx (aka anyone who is not a straight-white-cis-het-white-male) are changing the landscape of nerd spaces. Besides bringing new markets, or increasing holds in those markets, we are critiquing the ways that nerd-culture is unhealthy. Specifically, these audiences are not interested in the white nerd boy club that was the standard in comics, and other nerd communities. Instead, we seek to change the behaviors that have made these cis-het-white-male-centric spaces unhealthy. This means not being “one of the guys” but changing fandoms and fan spaces to be explicitly feminist, and I mean intersectional feminist, and respectful of all people. While using the term “feminist” to refer to fan communities is in some ways oxymoronic, as they act a microcosm for the rampant misogyny in society, it is that sort of reform that is needed to re-forge them into healthy places.

As comics became blockbuster films, and as more people have grown up with access to manga, establishing feminism in fandoms is one part of the swing back to a more inclusive market in comics. One of these expanding comics-related markets is clothing and cosplay, full costumes or the “undercover” variety. Because costuming, and the skills required for costuming, is/are still coded as feminine and this work has brought many more women into these spaces.

However, cosplay is not inherently feminist. There is still an association between the term ‘cosplay’ and sexy because it revealed how impractical and bizarre costuming choices for women characters in comics are. This mean that cosplay can embody the same misogyny that exists in the comics that they draw from and that was inherent to the nerd community.

So cosplay brings in more women, as do many other factors, but how do we bring feminism to mainstream conventions when women just as capable of supporting the patriarchy as men? I’ve touched on this in my previous blogs but it involves supporting feminist programming, artists, sellers, and bringing feminism into whatever fandoms you participate in. For me this starts at home. Am I being a feminist consumer? I try to be and you can read my rule about buying floppy comics to see what I mean. Some people argue that the idea of a “feminist consumer” is problematic because of the rise of “capitalist feminism,” which some people see as antithetical to the goals of feminism . However, conventions are essentially small open markets where the consumer has a lot of power. It’s also the age old claim of the anti-diversity folks that we “diverse consumers” just aren’t driving the market. So it’s paper paper paper to support the diverse work I love.

Sometimes you love what you love, and sometimes that thing is not easy to reconcile with feminism. My example is Star Trek: The Original Series, I love so much of what it brought to the small screen, but its approach to women and culture is still deeply rooted in the 1960s (for an example revisit The Paradise Syndrome). If the fandom you love has problems that deal with culture, gender, sexuality, or race, consider bringing programming to conventions that addresses those issues. We are at conventions because of our love for the medium, genre, or specific work so if you feel like it needs to be critiqued, you are probably not alone. There will be other fans interested in having a meaningful discussion about intersectional issues, if you didn’t enjoy it so much, you probably wouldn’t be annoyed enough to want to critique it.

My last suggestion is to wear your feminist properties on your sleeve. Be open about it, take up space and be seen supporting properties like Feminist Frequency, Black Girl Nerds, and InSEXts. Encourage your friends to support new feminist properties or bring them to panels that support those creators. Wear your Bitch Planet pins to the con, out in the world, and talk-that-shit-up. One of the biggest comments I’ve gotten after talking to people about Bitch Planet, is “I didn’t know that existed in comics” WELL NOW YOU KNOW. Go do the thing. Also, where possible, don’t take shit from people trying to gatekeep you. Assert yourself, ask questions like “why does that matter?” and interrogate them about their knowledge. I have had to explain my “Feminism is my Fandom” pin more than once but that meant that the other person actually had to engage with what that meant. Part of the patriarchy is controlling knowledge, power, and knowledge as power. We can do it too, it's just a matter of using those tools to our advance our agendas.

These are just a few suggestions but it’s clear from the existence of sites such as themarysue, youtube series like Feminist Frequency, comics like Bitch Planet, and films like She Makes Comics (PS don't believe the IMDB ratings, they're heavily gendered) that feminism exists in nerd spaces. Each of these celebrate women’s long history of participation in the nerd community and demonstrates how feminism benefits both women and men and conventions. It means that people, regardless of gender will have respect and be able to participate in the things that they love without fear of bullying or discomfort. We all attend conventions because they should be safe spaces and to make that true requires feminism and feminist fandoms.

ConMunity Engagement: Feminist Fandoms part 1

I like millions of other people went out on 21 January 2017 to participate in the Womxn’s March. Though I already had my feminist apocalyptic-chic outfit chosen my friend and I sat down to make a sign each and I chose the simple NC from Bitch Planet. I’ve started to use this as a sort of default for creating things now, aka there is only one Halloween pumpkin design, which seems both ironic and appropriate. If everything is non-compliant then it means nothing (there is no compliance bar) but it’s also a simple and powerful symbol. I knew there were probably many other non-compliant womxn out there at the march but I was not in a large city, so I got a few questions about what “my symbol meant” but that meant I got to share more about Bitch Planet.

I like the many other people with fantastic, empowering, and sometimes hilarious signs, I chose NC very deliberately. I chose it because I wanted to showcase my particular brand of Nerd-feminism and to highlight the simplicity behind the idea of non-compliance. One of the reasons I love Kelly Sue and Val’s concept is because non-compliance can be simple or complicated, many or one thing. It simply does not comply. And when I talked with people about the concept it made them think about the millions of things that women are taught that make them un-feminine or can feminize a man. That simple concept can apply to anyone and makes this comic-book-based-feminist idea so powerful. This is also why I chose to fill in the letters with pink and black. For me the use of the color pink is associated with femininity. I had growing up disliking pink and disliking many of the other associations with femininity that came along with it but as I have gotten older I’ve become more welcoming and almost fiercely attached to pink. I’ve taken it up again and paired it with black because it is a color of resistance and power. Black helps connect us to other, and greater, movements of resistance.

What I also like about the symbol is that Bitch Planet is part of a feminist movement in comics and in Fandoms, which have the potential to be feminist havens. For me the intersection between my nerdy interests and feminism was another way place that feminism has to be entrenched. For me, my nerdy interests need to be feminist. Not all fantasy has to help us to be better people but as tools for teaching, it is integral to making us our better selves. Also for so long being a nerd was almost exclusively coded as male and what more recent fandoms have done, by the increase in cosplay and crafting, is incorporate women and transform nerd-dom visually, emotionally, and intellectually.

More than ever at conventions, particularly at conventions like GeekGirlCon, I see people talking about mental health, inclusion, and a myriad of other issues that have made nerd communities more inclusive and cognizant of society’s problems. Before Nerd-dom has a history of being welcoming to women but it, like many professions, has gone through an anti-woman hump that only recently has had a fierce and purposeful restructuring. This has involved opening nerd islands of insolation and discussing how even nerd friendships were unhealthy. Controlling nerd knowledge was just a different form of bullying.

The increase in the number of women and women’s spaces in Nerd dom has meant a re-negotiation of these behaviors. While some have turned from bitter nerds into members of the alt-right, those same feelings of alienation can be used to unite people against the things that reject us. Being part of a persecuted group does not exclude you from negative behaviors but we have a common enemy and those are hate and feelings of loneliness. Additionally, so many works of fiction that create fandoms, whether or not they identify as nerds, are built on ideas of being true to one’s self, cooperation, and resistance to negative forces. Because of that intersectio-nerd-feminism is a must.

For me, nerd-dom is linked to my interest in science-fiction and “nerdom” because it has in many ways helped me formulate and understand my identity. It is a community I participate in and it must be held to the same standards that I require of the rest of the world.

ConMunity Engagement: GeekGirlCon a Feminist Convention

Another weekend and another whirlwind trip to in the Pacific Northwest. I may have been perpetually tired but GeekGirlCon did not disappoint. There was a great collection of artists and the panels were as impactful and important as I could have hoped. GeekGirlCon always leaves me with a lot of feelings. Most good but a few that make me want to push for more from the convention but I'll talk about that later.

GeekGirlCon is a unique convention held in Seattle for the last six years. As a 501(c)(3) (aka a charity) organization the convention is organized by volunteers except for their one paid employee, the executive director. They only were able to hire an executive director this year as what started as a small convention has grown over the years to fill more and more space in the Washington State Conference center.

Unlike many other conventions, it has the mission of inclusivity meaning “ALL ages, gender identities, sexual orientations, sizes, abilities, ethnicities, nationalities, races, creeds, religions, familial statuses, physical and mental abilities, alien species, earth species, education levels, science specializations, operating system preference, fandoms, etc., are welcome.” As defined by themselves. This definition for inclusivity means that their goal is intersectional feminism centered on a geek community.

Last year was a great introduction to the set up and so this year I was more selective. I attended only three panels, besides my own, and my favorite was #BlackWomenDreaming with some of the amazing writers from Black Nerd Problems. The panel was a fantastic introduction into creating your own working, supportive, and accountable creative community. Some of the highlights included: be honest when you give criticism and when you talk about your goals, reach out to people to create your community, and make sure to keep our eye out for opportunities to one another. There were a ton more great moments from the panel but overall it captured the best parts of GeekGirlCon by highlighting the voices of women of color and the outlining ways that we can promote a healthy geek community.

Besides panels, I got to meet up with some old friends and make some new ones too. Ran into my friend Hannah dressed as the awesome Liv Moore from iZOMBiE and caught up a bit. Was ambushed by my friend Carrie, who was a panelist for me last year and who was part of the #BlackWomenDreaming panel. Saw the amazing Tristan at their table and on my panel. I also got to meet Kiku, Symantha, and Sarah who were all fantastic on the panel I moderated (I’ll talk about that in a forthcoming blog). I also introduced myself to a few more people who I may tap for panels for Emerald City. Also my mom came and was at my panel. She was a very fantastic typical mom who is not versed in Geek stuff but seemed to enjoy it nonetheless.

GeekGirlCon is fantastic for being one of a handful of feminist nerd conventions around the world. It promotes girls of color in STEM by having them on their imagery and donating passes to organization such as Con or Bust, which helps People of Color / non-white folks attend conventions. The majority of their speakers are women, non-binary, or trans folks and the content of panels at the convention really brings that inclusivity home. It highlights professionals from those groups in gaming, writing, art, illustration, crafts, voice-acting, science, industry, and other fields. It shows not only women as characters but highlights the importance of women as do-ers and creators, demonstrating how girls and women can decide the narrative and their lives.

This con is extremely valuable in this regard as so often, conventions are coded as male-centered spaces and sometimes, even as extremely unhealthy male-centered spaces. GeekGirlCon contrasts that by specifically trying to build positive community and to highlight topics of discussion, through their programming, that would be considered a side-issue at larger conventions. However, GeekGirlCon is not perfect and I’ll talk about that in my next blog on why Representation at Cons matters.

We are not things,or wait, are we?: Cosplaying as objects

I love cosplay. It is one of the best parts of attending cons: seeing it, doing it, and thinking about what I might sew or adapt next. Cosplay has also been central to the increasing numbers of women attending conventions . It makes cons a more welcoming environment for women because it highlights the combination of geek culture with the creation of costumes, an activity associated with women.

However, there are certain types of cosplay that bother me. While many people find revealing costumes uncomfortable, the ones that give me pause are more subtle. Specifically, I get uncomfortable when women cosplay as objects. My discomfort with this stems from the fact that I haven’t seen any discussion of this, which suggests complacency with seeing women dressed as objects and the gendering of the non-humanoid as female, including robots, objects, and even ideas such as the Nation state. Most often, these cosplays are robots, which have personalities and agency, but for every 100 woman dressed in an awesome TARDIS dress or costume you have only one male doing the same.

This also bothers me because as a possible replacement for revealing costumes, some women have turned to dressing as objects and that seems awkward. Obviously, dressing as an object does not mean you will be objectified but it seems an odd choice when one could cosplay as a women character. Additionally, the lack of representation of such adapted attire for men and the fact that it is more common for them to be the human male counterpoint or owner of the robot or object in question adds another layer of discomfort.

It reminds me that as much as cosplay has allowed cons to be more inviting for women the type of cosplay one does matters just as much. It reminds me about how important it is to think about who/what you are signifying when you cosplay. It is true that robots and other semi-sentient things, like the TARDIS, are awesome but are you choosing to be an object over an active woman character? If so, why does that appeal to you over the female character? How does this inspire or make others more comfortable? Or does your cosplay accidentally play into an agenda that does not support women?

Eventually I will...

I have realized over the years that I am very susceptible to the people around me and will occasionally mimic them in their actions. How so? Basically I go "Wow that was a cool idea and I'd like to that" and then think about how I would do it differently or better but never come close to actually doing it. Some of these things include: making a Steam Punk outfit, Cos-playing, and most recently writing a novel. A couple of my friends, or others I know, have written novels and some have gotten them published. I would not call them commercial successes but at least they were able to finish something like that. I, on the other hand, have never come close. In seventh grade, I started to write a fantasy novel by hand during my classes. I am sure it was pretty bad and I still have the pages so maybe someday I will type it up and see where it goes. Currently, I have been revisiting a story inspired by one of my friends but one which he never wrote either. I think that more than any of my other ideas this has some fruit, sort of. Unlike my other story, the seventh grade one, its not as limited age wise. Where I wanted the plot to go can still fit the age group that I am thinking of using and of course, like many novels, it could parallel personal successes and failures. But of course, be more awesome. So maybe, sometime in the future, when I have time as a graduate student ( HA HA) I will sit down and do this.