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The God Engines, an exception to my rule?

A few weeks ago, I said:

I’m to the point where, if the only female characters in your story are prostitutes, mothers/girlfriends to the main characters, or nameless redshirts, I’m not going to read/watch it.

Because I’m tired of male writers who never think to include women in their stories unless they have to. It’s not even a malicious thing. They just kind of forget women do things that don’t involve their vaginas*. Unless the role specifically requires a female, the role by default goes to a male character. And I find this incredibly unimaginative.

But I never mentioned my exception. If you have a valid, in-story reason why you don’t have any women in your cast besides those in periphery to men, I have no issue with it. If you have a land of gay men, a story about the priesthood, a virus that turned all the women into ponies, yeah, it makes sense why none of your main characters are women.

I love reading John Scalzi’s books. I’ve always gotten the impression from him that he doesn’t just default to straight white male with every character. Which was why I was really thrown off when I started reading The God Engines. I was a quarter of the way into it, and so far, the only female character was a rook, a prostitutish role. So I tweeted:

@scalzi Are there any women in The God Engines who aren’t prostitutes? I’m getting a bit discouraged by the lack of women so far. … I just promised myself no more stories where women are only…prostitutes, girlfriends, or moms to main characters, if they’re existent at all. But I trust you.

And he replied:

@rosalarian The women in the story are definitely none of those.

@rosalarian Your assumption is that the rooks are women.

This is true. Looking back, I realized that there were absolutely no pronouns attributed the Shalle the rook. Scalzi plays the pronoun game as good as any closeted gay trying to talk about their lover at work. I acknowledged my assumption, and kept reading, because Scalzi told me to trust him.

I got to the end. If Shalle is not female, then there are no females aside from unnamed redshirts, but then that means there are queer men (or possible non-binaries), which is cool. And if Shalle is female, then the only females are prostitutes and redshirts. So I’m not sure where his assurance that “the women in the story are definitely none of those” comes into play. (I will say, though, as far as Shalle being a prostitute, the role was far more than “Shalle enters, Shalle services Tephe, Shalle exits” like a lot of prostitute roles.)

As I read, the more it made sense for this to be a womanless story. The God Engines is about a universe in which religion permeates everything. The characters are priests, bishops, and even the ship captain is part missionary. And it’s an oppressive religion to say the least. Religion is notorious for keeping women out of roles of power, and Scalzi seems to have mirrored what existed, rather than purposely neglected to add women. I can respect that. Scalzi gets a pass.

But I also feel like I shouldn’t give passes so readily. I’m tired of sitting through an entire story, wondering where my gender is, only to find at the end either a.) a reason why we were excluded or b.) there was no reason why we were excluded and I just read another book where women get the shitty end of the character stick. Men very rarely have to sit through an entire book wondering if someone from their gender is going to make an appearance. It’s frustrating, and distracting, often making it harder for me to get into a story. If you walked down a busy street for several hours and didn’t see a single woman, you’d start to notice, and you’d start to wonder why, and pretty soon you’re so preoccupied wondering where all the women went that you forget why you were walking down the street.

I guess my moral is, I wish more male writers could be good at not just writing female characters, but understanding female readers. To take into account that while this story might have a valid reason for not having female characters in it, it is being sold in a culture where most books without women in them don’t have a reason for it, and women are bound to be frustrated when they think they’re seeing that again. That maybe you can find a place for female characters long before the final act (if they’re there at all) so that female readers don’t have this worry hanging over their heads for most of the story. Just a bit more consideration for where we’re coming from.

Scalzi, I loved The God Engines. It was an awesome story, and you’re one of my favorite writers. But without your track record for always making me enjoy your work, I probably would have stopped at that 25% point, because I can’t give every writer the benefit of the doubt. You got me back because you are Scalzi. I wish you’d gotten me back because you introduced some female characters.

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*I phrase it like this not because I think woman=vagina=woman, but because writers who are clueless enough not to write women tend to be the type to equate vaginas with women, never write trans characters, and wouldn’t know trans issues if it hit them in the face.

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Why Hate Crimes Laws Matter

Every time I hear of a hate crime, there is always someone who says something to the effect of “Crimes should be punished because they are crimes. Why should they be punished extra because they happened to a minority?”*

What makes hate crimes especially awful is that they target an entire group of people, and the effects of the crime ripple outwards in ways that non-hate-crimes usually don’t. They create secondary victims, and impact the lives of more than the direct victims.

If you’re black and you hear there’s been a serial rash of murders of black people in your town, you are going to be afraid, whether you personally knew any of the victims or not.

If you’re Muslim and you hear there’s been a rash of attacks on mosques, you’re going to be afraid to go to yours, whether yours was attacked or not.

If you’re a woman and you hear there have been a series of rapes in your town, you’re going to be a lot more afraid to walk alone.

And if you’re gay and someone puts a noose on the door of an LGBT center, you’re going to be fucking terrified to come out now.


I remember on 9-11, everyone in the country was terrified. I live in Michigan and there’s nothing strategic to target here, but everyone around me was afraid we were next.

And that’s what hate crimes are: terrorism. It isn’t a matter of “I don’t like you.” It’s a matter of “I don’t like anybody like you, and I’m going to make an example of you to all of your kind.” A hate crime, or a terrorist attack, spreads like a virus through entire populations, an epidemic of fear.

So if you’re going to be against terrorism, which this entire country seems on board with, then a big start in combating terrorism is fighting what happens right here in our country every single day. It might not always be bombs blowing up buildings, but it inspires terror in large amounts.

This is why hate crime laws matter, why they are important to have, and to enforce.

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*Not every crime against a minority is a hate crime. Crimes that happen against a minority because they are a minority are hate crimes. If you stab a black guy for his wallet, it’s a horrible crime, but not a hate crime. If you stab a black guy because he’s black, it’s a horrible crime and a hate crime.

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Learning to Write; the Awkward Teenage Years

wanderinglunatic asked you:

Hello there! I stumbled upon your work quite a while ago, and you are by far one of my faourite artists. Thank you, Megan, for doing what you do.Never stop being awesome.

Now, this question concerns both writing and drawing. It would be all to convenient to ask you “how did you learn to draw?” or “who taught you to write like that?”, but that might just be the case.

At the moment of typing this I can’t write to save my life, nor can I draw. The obvious solution to this would be to write and read/practice a lot, but that’s not very specific now, is it?
What I (and wager that most young “artists”) lack is guidance(and in this particular case, creativity.but that you can’t teach,sadly). Thus, I turn my hopes to the artist I most admire. To be fair, I ask you to “set the course” if you will, because the advice that i’ll (hopefully) recieve from you will influence from now on. If you provide a starting point, there’s no way failure could creep in.

Ok, enough of that. I wish you all the good in the world. Keep up the good work, remain awesome and take care.

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Read just as much (actually, more) than you write. Read all kinds of things. Figure out what you love about your favorite stories. How they’re structured, what types of language and word choices to use, how to describe things, how the characters develop.

Then you have the awkward stage where you’re copycat writing. It’s okay. All creativity is derivative in some way. There is no parthenogenesis for ideas, they evolve from those who come before us. A lot of us learn to write and draw by making terrible Mary Sue stories that are basically rip offs our of favorite comics and books, that our friends will find a decade later and laugh hysterically at. (That’s not just me, right?) Don’t get stuck at this stage, but realize the purpose it serves. It’s kind of like being a teenager. Really awkward, trying to figure yourself out, eventually you grow out of it.

And then, when you do grow out of it, you’ll be at a point where you’ve figured yourself out. Who you are, what you want to write, and how you want to write it. You’ll retain pieces of inspiration from those stories you love, but you’ll have evolved enough to have developed your own style. You won’t even notice that you’ve got your own style, but other people will.

By the time you reach that point, you’ll pretty much be off and running. Oh, you’ll still have plenty of room for improvement, but you’ll know what things need to be improved and how best to grow your own individual talent.

Go forth, my child, and read!

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On Harley’s Quinn’s new design, and arguing with people on the internet about it

Harley Quinn’s new design has got a lot of people upset. I talk a lot about comic character costumes in general, and I’ve talked about Harley specifically.

enstasia asked: Wanted you to know that I was linking your Tumblr posts in a Facebook argument with a rather ass-backwards friend of mine about the Harley Quinn redesign. He said it was fine, simply a matter of “that’s how it goes in comics,” but if we left everything to status quo (from a man who considers himself “progressive”), then how would we make any good progress, you know?

Anyway, wanted you to know. So thanks, Megan! :)

“That’s how it goes in comics”? Nothing gets accomplished by accepting the status quo. Just because something has always been a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the right way. I think he needs to look up the definition of progressive.

moophles asked: Help, I want to punch someone but my fist won’t go through the internet. I know that I should totally not let people get to me, but he was making an argument about Harley Quins new design (which is extremely slutty)
He is also not an artist, which fuels my comic artist rage.

I admire you for your stance on this whole issue with female comic characters and I wanted to ask you about what you think of her new design. What do you make of it?
I think asking someone’s opinion who is a very bright and wonderful artist will heal my injured brain.

Thank you for all of the stuff you’ve already drawn and written about this, it’s wonderful :)
<3

Are you friends with enstasia? Lots of people arguing with friends on the internet about Harley.

This is sexist, and I’ll tell you why. It’s not because it’s slutty, because there’s nothing wrong with being slutty. (Though critiquing characters is a much different thing than critiquing actual people.)

This isn’t a woman expressing her own sexuality. This is a male-created image expressing female sexuality without female input. And that’s what most women object to in the portrayal of women in comics. There’s a difference between being sexy and being a sex object, the difference being sexy comes from within, and being sexualized comes from outside you. Again, comic characters don’t exactly have a “within” since they’re fictional, which is why getting more female creators in comics is important. Females creating sexy females for females (and males) to read. Females having a say in what female sexuality is, rather than almost always having men speak for us.

The main thing I find wrong with Harley’s new look is that it doesn’t make sense. There are no harlequin elements to her design anymore. So why is she wearing this costume? The only explanation is that she is now meant to titillate. I can’t think of any other reason for this character to wear that costume. It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make a lick of sense.

You don’t have to be an artist to be upset (or not) about these things. Just ‘cause you can’t cook doesn’t mean you don’t know what tastes good. Just because you’re not a farmer doesn’t mean you don’t know when an apple is rotten. And this is a pretty rotten apple.

I wouldn’t waste too much effort on this guy, though. If you start wanting to punch people, it’s hard to be rational and cool-headed at that point, and you have to be rational and cool-headed in order to argue effectively. Don’t be mad, be passionate about your side. We tend to get mad when being rational doesn’t work, but getting mad works even less effectively. It’s kind of like trying to use a sword at first, finding it doesn’t work, then deciding to use a spork. In some cases, we just don’t have the tools to defeat something. Learning which fights to walk away from was one of the best lessons I ever learned.

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Bonus fun: check out superhappy’s idea for this character.

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I think the reason I most dislike the DC reboot putting all the women in pants is that it seems like DC thinks that’s all it takes to eliminate sexism in comics. It seems they think the equation is “Women - pants = sexist, therefor women + pants = not sexist.” I don’t know if that’s their actual mindset, but that’s how it looks to me. And while it is (kind of) a step in the right direction towards being more sympathetic to women comics reader’s tastes, getting rid of misogyny is not as simple as adding pants. It’s so not that simple, and I’m worried DC is patting themselves on the back like they just completely fixed the problem. I’m worried DC is going to see all the complaints from readers about the pants and think “God, they’re so nitpicky. We give them what they want and they still complain!”

Hire more women writers. Hire more women artists. Have more female characters, with more interesting plotlines and fewer refrigerators. Put some support behind your female characters. Make a goddamn Wonder Woman movie. Make a movie with a female in it who isn’t a superhero’s girlfriend at the very least. Make more comics like Batwoman. Make more female characters of color. Court female dollars. I want to eat some goddamn Hostess snacks with a chick on the box. I’ll shut up when my mouth is full of officially licensed Batwoman snack cakes.

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megan rosalarian gedris: Dressed to Kill

yamino:

rosalarian:

Whenever I complain about how females are portrayed in mainstream superhero comics, inevitably half a dozen people pop up to tell me this:

“Men are idealized in comics, too.”

Yes. Yes they are. I am aware of this. While I think the idealism is harmful, that isn’t actually what I have a problem with. (Well, not the main thing.) Because while the men are impossibly muscular and the women are impossibly skinny/boobular, the men aren’t being sexualized out the wazoo.

It’s not the characters’ bodies themselves that are the biggest problem, but how they are dressed and posed. Tits out, ass out, lips pouty, legs spread, hips cocked, eyelids at half mast. Outfits that make Wonder Woman’s star spangled panties look fit for a Mormon picnic. Short skirts, cutouts, stilettos, fishnets, thigh-highs. I’m not describing Playboy here.

You don’t see male heroes wearing these costumes or posing like this. Outside of statistical outliers like Namor, their costumes tend to have full coverage, and when they pose, it’s to inspire fear, not boners.

To prove my point, I spent yesterday morning creating this:

Looks pretty ridiculous. You would never see this as a serious illustration. Comic fans would be in an uproar. Way too much man-ass. And you know he’s not going to be graceful on those heels. And why is he looking back with a come-hither look?

You might be thinking that I drew him extra sexy, just to prove my point. Well, perhaps you’d like to see the source image:

Yeah, I literally drew Man Canary right on top of her. (*snicker*) I drew Black Canary’s skeletal position, then added the idealized male superhero physique over top. See, it really isn’t his muscles that are freaking you out. It’s the fishnets doing their best to contain those man cheeks.

And it’s not just heroines who deal with this:

(Compare to original)

I feel uncomfortable looking at this. And also, perplexed. How is that costume staying on? I know most comic artists don’t have much experience with real-world fashion, but let me tell you, double sided tape does not work all that well in combat situations.

I get that some of these characters are “using their sexuality to blind men so they can attack them,” and I bet that could be an effective attack. But there are so many chicks doing this that even the dumbest, most weak-willed superhero/villain is going to catch on eventually.

And lest you think DC is all alone in this, I present you with this little gem:

(Compare to source)

SO MUCH BULGING MAN PELVIS!!! For everyone!

I actually had a lot of fun with this one. Most of the characters are actually pretty covered up. But between Black Cat’s absurd front zipper and her pose, yeah, it’s ridiculous.

There were so many more images I could have parodied, but I got tired of spending so much time rendering man ass.

Dudes, I want you to imagine a world where most of the portrayals of your gender in comics look like the above. Are you going to think “Well, I really like the stories so I’ll just suck it up and read this anyway”? Or are you going to be alienated from reading most comics? Be honest. Are you willing to stare at that much thrusting crotch just to find out if Spiderman is gonna win?

Lots of people in the comics business look at their demographic breakdown and think women don’t like superheroes. The creator of DC Women Kicking Ass made a very apt point when she said, “Let me put it this way, if you keep keeping putting food on a kid’s plate and they don’t eat you do you assume they don’t like to eat or they don’t like the food? Right.”

Women like comics. And not just flowery manga and autobio stuff. We like superheroes.

I don’t have a problem with cheesecake, and I don’t have a problem with lady-flesh. (I make a fair amount of money drawing lesbian porn.) But there’s a time and a place for it. Unless you are specifically going out of your way to create porn comics, stop putting porn in comics. Stop using Playboy for anatomy references! (I wish I was kidding about that.)

Now, there will still be many of you who are unconvinced, who think us ladies are making a big deal out of nothing, that this is trivial. Many of you will bring up examples of female superheroes who are covered up, non-sexualized, and non-idealized. I’m not denying that those characters exist, and that there are several. But there are still far too many female characters more concerned with showing- off ass, rather than kicking it.

I’ve posted this before, but it’s worth a reblog.

This is mine, enjoying a bit of a renaissance since DCWomenKickingAss linked to it last week. I want to do more of these sometime. It’s fun!

And I think it’s worth pointing out something that may have been unclear in the original essay. There’s nothing wrong with men wearing these costumes, and there’s nothing wrong with females wearing these costumes. The problem is that only females wear this kind of stuff, and they wear it a disproportional amount of time, and a lot of these costume choices don’t make sense. But things like high heels are no more “natural” to women than they are to men. It’s ridiculous to put a male superhero in heels, and it’s just as ridiculous to put a female superhero in heels.

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The Doug Effect

Remember this guy?

Most American kids of my generation probably do. Doug Funnie, protagonist of the cartoon show Doug. Lived in a town filled with purple and green people. Sometimes dressed as a superhero named Quail Man. Loved a girl named Patty Mayonnaise.

And every week, in every episode, he did something so embarrassing, that it was agony to watch. You would hide your head in shame for the things he did, peeking at the TV screen between your fingers, wondering how he managed to always get himself into these messes. Wondering why you watch this show because every time you do, you feel physical pain at least 3 times due to his antics.

That is the Doug Effect.

My sister and I made up the term, because for some reason, we watched the show a lot as kids, despite kind of hating it. The show has long since gone off air, but we still use the phrase any time we feel intense embarrassment for other people. “That standup comedian is bombing. I am getting major Doug Effect from him.”

I can’t think of any other way of describing this feeling, this mixture of embarrassment and dread and sympathy.

The Doug Effect.

That awful, awful Doug Effect.

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