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.

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.