{"id":110,"date":"2006-05-12T21:49:22","date_gmt":"2006-05-13T04:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alertnerd.com\/blog\/2006\/05\/12\/shut-up-erik-larsen\/"},"modified":"2006-05-12T21:49:22","modified_gmt":"2006-05-13T04:49:22","slug":"shut-up-erik-larsen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/?p=110","title":{"rendered":"Shut Up, Erik Larsen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey, you guys? Does anyone know what the hell Erik Larsen<\/a> is trying to say? Maybe I’m having a hard time following along because it’s so different from Cosmo and all those, you know, girl magazines<\/i> I read. I’m trying to be extra super-careful in my response because I don’t want to take Mr. Larsen out of context and misinterpret whatever it is he’s saying, like all of us intarweb “anonymous killjoys” love to do!<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nOK. I’m gonna skip the stuff about Al Gore (what?) and costumes and realism and get right to the meat, which elaborates on Why Women Don’t Read Superhero Comics (or maybe it’s Why Women Don’t Like Certain Comic Book Stores or What Women Are and Are Not Interested In…I’m not sure).<\/p>\n

\nOne of the reasons given for women not reading comics is the overly developed females that adorn many comic book covers. I find that notion a little ridiculous and somewhat insulting to the intelligence of women. Women aren’t stupid. They’re certainly capable of discerning what magazines are aimed at them and what ones aren’t on a magazine rack. Why should a comic book rack be any different? There are plenty of titillating pictures to be found on various magazine covers and women can figure out, in short order, the difference between “Playboy” and “Cosmopolitan” even though both feature attractive women on their covers.<\/i><\/p>\n

\nWow, “women aren’t stupid.” Enlightened! Yes, Erik, I can tell the difference between Cosmo and Playboy. And I don’t fucking read either of them. And I get the feeling that you’re trying to make a point here, but you’re coming off way condescending.<\/p>\n

\nThe reason women don’t go into comic book stores is not because of a few covers –it’s because there’s little to attract them into these stores and, if they did dare to wander into one of these often filthy little dens there’s very little in there for them to read. Women simply aren’t interested in adolescent male power fantasies.<\/i><\/p>\n

\nOK, as the great Chris Stewart once said on a different comics-related topic<\/a>: stop helping. First of all, why do you think you know what every female comics fan is thinking, especially since you just pissed a bunch of them off with your last column<\/a>? How do you know what does and does not attract them to a store and what they are and are not interested in reading? I’m a female comics fan. Some of my first loves were the X-Men, Spider-Man and Batman. And yes, I also love the things that I guess are thought of as “girl comics” — Sandman and Ghost World and Blue Monday. I don’t think I’m as easy to pigeonhole as you seem to think — I don’t think most female fans are. For what it’s worth, I have “dared” to enter “filthy little dens” on occasion and have come out of it fairly unscathed. Do I prefer a clean, well-lit, well-stocked comic shop? Sure. Don’t most people? Of both genders? Maybe if you want to avoid being misinterpreted, you should also avoid sweeping generalizations.<\/p>\n

\nThere are magazines for men and ones for women and that’s fine. Women buy the magazines aimed at them. But dress up a place that sells magazines with shots from men’s magazines and women won’t dare step inside to buy a copy of Cosmo. The fault is not the magazines themselves — there should be men’s magazines — but rather, the way the storeowner has opted to display his or her merchandise. Racy comics are not to blame, but rather the storeowner who puts cheesecake shots on his walls and makes women feel unwelcome there.<\/i><\/p>\n

\nAgain, where is this “women won’t dare to such-and-such” coming from? Where are you getting all of this irrefutable data? If I feel “unwelcome” somewhere, it’s not because of big boobahs on the wall or the filthy floors and dusty shelves. It’s because of idiot fanboy clerks who are completely baffled by my presence or want to wow me with their superior geekness. And thankfully, I haven’t encountered that in quite a while. You want to know what really makes me feel “unwelcome,” not just in comic shops, but in comics fandom in general? Stuff like this column.<\/p>\n

\nIn the comic book stores that I go to, you are not assaulted by images of scantily-clad females at every turn (those stores are Comic Relief in Berkeley, California and Dr. Comics and Mr. Games in Oakland). They do carry those kinds of comics, sure, but their walls aren’t adorned with pictures of Lady Death and DarkChylde. Consequently, they tend to attract more female readers than many stores — they’re not there to buy most superhero comics, but these stores tend to stock books of interest to all readers — not just guys. Women can (and do) feel welcome there. Women don’t go to stores that specialize in baseball cards either and I don’t think it’s because of the racy posters and half-naked statues to be found there. There simply aren’t things of interest to women to be found there.<\/i><\/p>\n

\nPoints for name-checking two of my favorite comic stores on the planet, but again: why are you trying to tell me what I like? When I used to go to Dr. Comics (back when I lived right down the street), I’d pick up everything from The Authority to Batgirl to Strangers in Paradise. When I was younger, me and my brother used to tear around our tiny little town to tiny little “collector’s den”-type sleazeholes looking for basketball cards, comics and supercool Star Trek action figures. I’m not trying to use myself as the example that proves your statements wrong — I’m just saying you might want to think twice before proclaiming what is and is not interesting to women and what does and does not draw them in. I know plenty of geek girls and their tastes in geekish stuff vary a lot. Some of them like superheroes and some of them only read Love and Rockets and some of them even like sports memorabilia. OK?<\/p>\n

\nNot many women read superhero comics, period. The subject matter, most often, does not draw them in.<\/i><\/p>\n

\nIf that’s the case, why am I able to go to When Fangirls Attack!<\/a> nearly every damn day and find a collection of literate, well-written postings from a variety of sources — many of them *gasp* female<\/i> — talkin’ about superheros? What about Ragnell<\/a> and Kalinara<\/a> and some of the righteous ladies profiled in Fangirl Rampage<\/a>? I guess you could argue that this is “not many,” but…I think there might be just a few more than you seem to think.<\/p>\n

\nManga seems to have broken down a lot of barriers. Girls buy manga. They’re still not going to poke their heads into one of those shit-hole-esque comic book stores (and again, I don’t mean all stores here) but they will read them in a presentable bookstore.<\/i><\/p>\n

\nWell, glad we cleared that up! Erik really knows What Women Want, doesn’t he?<\/p>\n

\nBut I’ve digressed somewhat from the point I started out making and that is that it is nearly impossible to stick in enough qualifiers to make any statement bulletproof and that even with said qualifiers in place to deflect any argument, those determined to take offence will find a way, be it taking isolated sentences out of context, misquoting or deliberately ignoring a person’s intent in order to start a fight.<\/p>\n

\nAnd that sucks.<\/i><\/p>\n

\nErik, I’m not trying to start a fight and I’m also not trying to ignore your intent. What you wrote — this week and last — pissed me off. I diagree with it. I diagree with it for what I believe are valid reasons. I think it’s OK to express that, just as it’s OK for you to express your opinion.<\/p>\n

\nThe Internet seems rife with prickly individuals determined to argue minutia ’til the cows come home and beyond. Hardly a statement goes by without some anonymous killjoy assaulting it with some snarky comment. Perfectly wonderful projects are announced that get immediately dumped on by these prolific-posting wet blankets. I have to wonder if these pithy party poopers read anything at all other than columns, blogs and press releases that they can find fault with and poke holes in. Why so many of these boobs seem to idolize and aspire to be the “comic book guy” from the Simpsons is anybody’s guess but I, for one, get a little tired of it.<\/i><\/p>\n

\nI won’t deny that there’s plenty of bitching on the internet. But a lot of responses I saw to your column last week were well-written, well-thought-out and expressed plenty of valid points. Just because they disagreed with you doesn’t make them wrong<\/i>. Some were written by men and guess what? Some were written by women. So here’s an idea: maybe instead of trying to tell female fans what they are and are not interested in, what they do and do not like, maybe, just maybe, you should try listening<\/i> to them.<\/p>\n

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Hey, you guys? Does anyone know what the hell Erik Larsen is trying to say? Maybe I’m having a hard time following along because it’s so different from Cosmo and all those, you know, girl magazines I read. I’m trying to be extra super-careful in my response because I don’t want to take Mr. Larsen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}