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 p2 More than "Women in Comics"

This blog comes in response to a tweet from yesterday:

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.

Where to begin: Getting into comics

Right off the bat: Comics are a Medium and Not a Genre

Don’t argue

If you argue about this point then this blog is not for you, because I’m going to ask you what genres you like and if superheroes are all that you want there are other “where to start” blogs that will probably be more your style. Also, I will not be giving specific book suggestions, this is supposed to be about you (the reader) choosing your own comics adventure.

Anyways, where to begin and how to get into comics. It can be intimidating to start reading comics especially if your goal is to feel comfortable and like you belong in a comic book shop. I will say this, no matter how many comics you read, stepping into a new shop can be intimidating. It’s like going into a new bar, you know a sort of what to expect but it’s still a different place with a new group of people. Anyways, I’m going to pose questions and give suggestions as this is not an absolute guide to getting into comics. Instead, it’s a way to think about what you want to get out of reading them and consider how and if you want to be part of a comics community.

First, what do you want to get out of reading comics? Expand the types of things you read? Get involved with a particular community? Know more about the heroes you see on the silver and LED screen? Know what people are talking about when they reference stuff?

It’s important to know the answers to these questions to understand what sort of commitment you are making. Comics do not have to be a commitment but it helps to understand what sort of “first books” you might be interested in, what sort of recommendation lists you should look for, and where you should be looking to get them. Knowing the answers to these questions helps to narrow down the infinite possible books to start with and the infinite places you might start to look for things. Also it's OK to pick up something and then not like it. That doesn’t mean that all comics aren’t for you, it just means that that particular book wasn’t for you. Comics are an infinite medium so unless you don’t like pictures and words together there is most likely a comic you’ll like.

My next question is what do you want to read? What genres do you currently read? Have you read manga (PS manga are comics so you already read comics!) or watched anime? Do you already read things like xkcd or PhD comics or Hark! A Vagrant? Are you looking for episodic works, stories that finish quickly? Are you looking for specific stories? Or do you enjoy never knowing with something could end?

These questions help you to decide what types of comics you are looking to get into as far as genre and length format. While we often think of comic books in their “floppy” single-issue form, many comics are published as complete graphic novels, single page web-comics, and digital or print strips. These are all valid ways to “get into” comics but each type has its own community and place to get those types of stories. And remember, manga and manhwa are comics too, they just have generally Asian-creators and the works are translated but that doesn’t make them any less valid than American style comics.

If short form, or very episodic, is your thing (aka you like comic strips or getting a new page of a story every week or few days) webcomics will be a good place for you to start. There are tons of great ones on websites like Tapas and on websites hosted by their creators. These are often more personal works and catered to the tastes of the creator rather than a particular market, as they are labors of love. This means you can find almost any possible story imaginable in this form. Also some of the more popularized ones (like Hark! A Vagrant) do have published compilations through Kickstarter or are being picked up by publishers like Oni press so you can get them in hard copy form as well.

You know what you want, now how do you get it? How much do you want to commit financially to reading comics? How quickly do you read?

My first recommendation in relation to this is once you know what you want out of comics and the stories you are interested in finding, search “comics” and those topics that you want to read about. You’ll probably get some Wikipedia entries, amazon ads, and maybe some blogs posts. These will all help you pick what you are interested in. If you have not selected web comics, or even if you have my next suggestion will always be your library, local or university.

Why? Because the library is awesome, librarians can help you find more cool stuff, there is a huge variety, and you can try everything with minimal financial commitment. Libraries are great places to be (they often have air conditioning) and allow you to browse what is available with no commitment to spend money. Once you know more of what you want you can ask librarians to help you find more stuff (comics or not) that you will be interested in. If you read quickly, like I did when I was reading manga, the library is a great place to churn through graphic novels. 50 volumes of Bleach? No need to drop $500 on all those graphic novels, especially if you don’t care to re-read or display them, get them from the library.

Lastly, while you might not be helping creators directly, book circulation impacts what libraries buy, so if a certain graphic novel is continuously checked out they will probably buy more of volume 2 of that graphic novel. Also as a patron you can suggest things for the library to buy, in case you aren’t sure about something but think others might enjoy it. I’ve done this for local comics as well, which boosts sales and can put diverse books on publicly available shelves. As a little extra too, many libraries have digital comics access as well as physical comics (generally graphic novels as those do not deteriorate as quickly but some individual branches may have a small collection of floppies). So, if you don’t want to carry fifty graphic novels home with you, you can check them out through apps like Hoopla. Also at no charge. Doing this helps to makes sure you are getting actually what you want and helps you explore in what format to help decide how much you might want to contribute financially to comics down the road.

Do you like having physical copies of books of things you own (cds/dvds/video games)? Do you re-read books?

If you think any of the above is a yes then get to know your local secondhand bookstore (like Half Price Books), Amazon.com, TFAW, and/or a local comics shop. TFAW and your local comics shop will have floppies and graphic novels, while Amazon and secondhand bookstores are better for graphic novels. If you are just starting out local comics shops can be intimidating but if you go in know what you want, and money's no object, you can get great recommendations from the employees. If you aren’t a people person, Amazon is great for graphic novels and has the added benefit of reviews, though I wouldn’t always trust them as they can be filled with old guard gate-keepers. TFAW is a great resource for floppies and graphic novels and during their sales is a great place to snag a wide variety of newer material.

What do you do if the library doesn’t have what you want but you don’t have much to commit financially?

If webcomics, which are generally free, aren’t your thing, but you don’t have tons to drop on graphic novels or floppies consider a subscription service such as Marvel Unlimited or Stela both of which cost $10 a month for unlimited access to their online library of comics. Also consider looking at second hand shops, which might have older or out of print graphic novels.

Do you have gobs of expendable income? Are you interested in having a direct relationship with creators you read? What if you are a bazillionaire and want to dedicate all your money to comics?

Well walk into any store that you want and buy all the things my big spender. OR be even cooler and do things like back Kickstarters and support creators directly via Patreon. Patreons allow you to support those creators directly so that they can keep living and creating cool work. Lastly, most of the time each tier of support (either one time things like Kickstarter or monthly giving like Patreon) you get something like a unique comic or digital version of something for your money so it’s just going down a black hole.

How do I start doing the subscription/pull/regular weekly floppies thing?

If there are individual issues that you want to follow that come out in physical form this is the best way to support that industry. Pre-sales orders (aka what you put on your “pull” or subscription list) are what get reported and influence what series continue and which get axed. It was the source of recent controversy over at Marvel and so pre-sales are a really important way to make sure the books that you want to read keep getting published. For me, this means books that star and/or are created by POC, women, and LGBTQA folks.

Once that’s figured out look around for what shop is closest to you, check out their subscription/pull policy, as they are not standard, and visit it to make sure it’s got the vibe you want. Try to chat with employees to see if you like the vibe, and after checking their pull box policy, ask about starting a subscription box. If you don’t like the vibe or their policy, there are usually multiple options in an area and try those out. If you aren’t in to going to a physical shop for many local shops will ship to people (for an added fee), you can get find an online only service like TFAW, and digital subscriptions through publishers are always a possibility.

What about protecting my comics?

There have been many recent articles and great twitter threads discussing the “value” of comics. Namely, that the collector market in many ways is made up. Regardless of what floppies you buy, get them because you want to read them not because of some assumed increase in value down the line. OLD comics are worth $$ now because they were trashed and so while lots of them existed, few survive. This is no longer the case. Comics are printed in huge batches and many people out there are looking for “perfect” versions. That means, if you want to protect your comics you should be interested in protecting them for your own pleasure. That means bags, boards, or both depend on what you want for your collection and always means an added cost to reading comics in protective supplies. These are better to buy in bulk and to shop around (online or at a variety of local shops) for the best price and if you want some tips on preserving home collection in general check out this.

I read the stuff, now what do I do?

I recommend, once you’ve found creators/writers you like, follow them on Twitter and Tumblr. They often post great art or story tidbits and make you feel part of the comics community, even if you don’t go to a local shop. You can see what new projects are going on and often get great recommendations from them for new books or artists to follow or kickstarters for unique titles.

I want to reiterate There is no “right” way to get into comics. Just like getting to music or print books, everyone gets there in their own fashion, Unfortunately, because of histories of gatekeeping, comics can seem more intimidating than they have a right to be. And remember, however you get here, if you are interested you belong anywhere comics discussions are.