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New column up for She Has No Head! on CBR’s Comics Should Be Good. Check it out.
Why when a new ongoing is released for a strong female lead, and with a strong female writer on board (Marjorie Liu) – why does it HAVE to come with objectifying imagery? Do they not know what they’re doing? Or do they just not care? These are the kind of releases that lead me to giant columns asking whether Marvel is just stupid or cloaked in misogyny.
Because I have to tell you…it’s upsetting. It upsets me greatly to realize that in the year 2010 (2010!!!!), Marvel does not think they can market a book with a strong female lead and a strong female writer without using sexist imagery that horribly objectifies their lead.
And that they’re willing to make a character like Black Widow look like she doesn’t know how to dress herself. Does she not know how to use a zipper? Does she not know how to purchase clothing for herself that can contain her massive breasts? Does she have so little confidence in her ability as a fighter and hero that she thinks she has to try to distract people with her zipper unzipped to somewhere below her tits? Does she have such low self esteem that she thinks people will only like her if she runs around with her top unzipped? Why do I have to keep talking about this? I am so sick of this crap. One of the worst things about this image is that if the zipper was simply zipped up to a more reasonable level…this cover would be awesome. What a waste.
Is this what I have to look forward to in Marvel’s ‘year of women’? Cause if so, I’ll fucking pass. Thanks Marvel.
So, nonplussed is a word I love. As in, “Kelly was totally nonplussed by the whole situation.” And in this sentence I would have intended it to mean “unfazed”.
I was using nonplussed in a piece I was writing, but wanted to look it up…I’m not sure why, because it’s a word that’s meaning I was confident I knew, but for whatever reason I did look it up. And now, because of my stupid need to look stuff up I learned that the TRUE meaning on nonplussed is this:
“1. surprised,stunned, dumbfounded, confounded, taken aback, disconcerted, thrown, thrown off balance; puzzled, perplexed, mystified, baffled, bemused, bewildered; informal fazed, flummoxed, stumped, bamboozled, discombobulated.”
Which is the exact OPPOSITE of the other meaning (the one I’ve been using all these years):
“2. unperturbed, unruffled, unfazed, composed.”
So, truly confused now, I read this:
USAGE NOTE
In standard use, nonplussed means ‘surprised and confused’: In American English, a new use has developed in recent years, meaning ‘unperturbed’—more or less the opposite of its traditional meaning: : hoping to disguise his confusion, he tried to appear nonplussed. This new use probably arose on the assumption that non- was the normal negative prefix and must therefore have a negative meaning. Although the use is common, it is not yet considered standard.
So basically this means that I have not only been using this word technically wrong for my entire adult life thus far, but also that a word I love, I cannot continue to use, unless I just want to be considered an ignorant American that doesn’t understand how prefixes work and doesn’t care about the rest of the world and the realities of what words really mean.
Can I just say? SONOFABITCH!
Oh, and “Kelly finds herself completely nonplussed by this new god damn discovery.”
My She Has No Head! column from Monday got picked up by my beloved Jezebel. Thanks Jezebel!
I was so excited to see the solicit image for the cover to X-Men Legacy #234. It features my girl Rogue and is not only beautiful and awesome, but is a far cry from the costume bullshit she’s been putting up with lately. Unfortunately however, my joy was short lived, because I then went to read the accompanying solicit text.
Before I post the solicit text let’s all agree on what this cover is suggesting. To me, this cover is Rogue saying (both with her hand gesture and her expression), effectively “Bring it on. I am a badass and I will take on all comers.” Something to that effect. I assume because she is gaining control of her powers and becoming an even more powerful superhero (one of the most powerful) this is her, showing off a bit. I love it. And then here’s the solicit text for the issue (and if you’re not familiar with Rogue, until recently she was unable to touch another human being flesh to flesh without injuring or killing them).
Solicit For X-Men Legacy #234: Rogue has survived a lot in her day, but can she survive the men warring for her heart? It’s not the first time several men have courted the Southern Belle, but it is the first time she can actually do anything about it. Who will she chose? You’ll be shocked!
Okay, so now we have a problem. Because the cover suggests ‘bring it on – and I’ll take on all comers’ and now we find out that the issue is about Rogue’s romantic and sexual relationships…which puts a whole other super icky porno spin on the cover. I mean maybe I’ve just seen way too much porn in my life and so I’m going to a place that not everyone will go to (I certainly hope that’s the case) but I’m hard pressed to see what else this cover is supposed to suggest than ‘open for business boys.’ Which is just…icky.
So I’m really disappointed in this. I just don’t know how there aren’t people in some kind of quality control position at Marvel who can look up and go, “Guys…we’ve got a problem…”
I know I’m coming really late to the party on this, but I finally got around to reading Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1 (which Adam got me for Christmas – thanks Adam!) and I pretty much loved it. It was so fun and light and enjoyable. Not that the other comics I read on a daily basis aren’t fun and light and enjoyable (although sometimes they are the exact opposite of that), but there was a real ease to the Pilgrim stuff that I realized I totally miss out on in most of the stuff I read these days.
There was also a moment…and it’s a moment that happens for me…or has happened for me in I think every comic I’ve ever ended up truly loving…where the writer/artist totally hooks me and allows me to commit wholeheartedly to the book. A moment where I say to myself, “Okay, I’m in…you’ve got me.”
And Scott Pilgrim had that moment. It’s a really small thing, but it was just this one perfect panel that allowed me to open my heart to the book and characters and just love it. Let me show you. First you need to have a reference image for what the panel is talking about. This is Ramona Flowers.
She is a girl that has been showing up in Scott Pilgrim’s dreams of late, and he’s pretty smitten, though he doesn’t know who she is.
And this. This is Scott Pilgrim trying to figure out who she is by asking his friend Wallace.
OMG. I AM DYING FROM TEH CUTE! Ahem. No, seriously, there’s something about the realness and adorableness about that panel that just hooks me. Because first of all, though the dialogue is simple, it’s actually quite accurate I think to how a conversation like that goes…and it just feels SO real…like a conversation you have totally had before with your friend. It also immediately tells me so much about Scott Pilgrim in that one panel. That he’s a highly visual person because he uses his hands to describe this girl’s hair instead of explaining it. That he’s aware what a long shot it is with his “Okay, this might sound vague” but he’s still all optimistic with those giant excited hopeful eyes. I just love it. It’s a completely tiny thing in the scope of it all, but it’s what hooked me. It’s what will have me coming back for more.
All that said, I must admit that I was thrown by the whole superhero-y fighting stuff at the end. I wasn’t a big fan of it and preferred it as a slice of life book about Scott and his band and friends that it was for the first three quarters plus of the book. But the series is obviously much beloved and O’Malley certainly knows what he’s doing, so I’ll keep tuning in…mostly because of that one panel of hilarious perfection.
The latest She Has No Head! Column is up at CSBG. It’s yet another decade list..but .you know you love a list…check it out!
The article is up on Best Shows You’re Not Watching. Enjoy!