So in less than 48 hours my She Has No Head! – No, It’s Not Equal column has generated 307 comments. Many of them supportive, many of them insightful. And many of those are critical of the piece, which is good, or at least fine. I have nothing against an intelligent dialogue, whether it agrees with me or not. What I DO have a problem with are people projecting their own shit onto me and onto a piece I’ve written. As such, I’ve put up a response on the piece which you can find here (it’s comment #311). If you don’t want to wade through the comments (and who can blame you for that) here’s the comment in its entirety:
“All right. I’ve tried to stay out of these comments and I’m not going to fully engage, but at 307 comments in less than 48 hours, I think I’ve got to make a couple things clear.
Again I say, to those of you offering intelligent, insightful comments, critical or otherwise, thank you. And another hearty thanks for all the supportive comments – I have gotten a ton of email and retweets, twitter comments, etc., and they have been amazing.
As for the rest, I’m sorry but a lot of you are projecting things onto this column that simply are not there.
Nowhere in the piece do I say I’m offended.
In fact, the word offensive is only used once in the entire 2600 word piece and it’s to say “NOT offensive”. So that’s you projecting offense onto me. Stop doing it.
Nowhere do I call creators, fans, or the industry at large misogynistic. Seriously, re-read the piece, do a search for the word, it’s simply not there. Also, sexism and misogyny, not the same things. Look it up.
This piece is only intended to be an illustration of how the portrayals of men and women in comics are not equal. The piece is not intended to call out specific artists (it’s a nearly industry wide problem, and far more people than just artists are responsible for what we see in comics). The piece also does not attempt to make suggestions about how to combat these things, it’s simply to illustrate the problem and get people to acknowledge it. Judging by these comments, that in and of itself is a Herculean task that we are nowhere near being done with.
I go out of my way at least four times in the piece to be clear that art is personal and it’s an individual’s prerogative if they want to like what they see in comics, whether it’s equal or not. I’m not passing judgment on anyone, in fact, I go out of my way to NOT do that. So if you are getting defensive and seeing something that’s not there, I suggest you consider looking inward. I’m not doing it to you…but you may be doing it to yourself. And that is between you and well…you.
If you came here to say “it’s just comics, it doesn’t matter” get real with yourself. You read a 2600 word piece about this and then took the time to comment…it clearly matters to you. If it doesn’t, you should exit stage left, cause you’re apparently on the wrong website.
And to those of you echoing the refrain of “if you don’t like it, stop reading, but stop complaining” I’d ask you to take your own advice. If you don’t like what I have to say, stop reading, and also, stop complaining. See how fun that is?! Yeah, it’s completely counter productive. You should absolutely be able to complain and say that you disagree with my opinion, the same way that I should be able to deconstruct what I see as inequality between the sexes in their visual representations in superhero comics. See how that works?
To the hilarious idea that I’m some kind of “johnny come lately to comics” now that it’s “trendy”. Please. Do your research. Your ignorance is painful to us all.
Also, I don’t know what a swamp donkey is but it sounds awesome. Is it some kind of donkey alligator hybrid that lives in swamps? Badass.
Kelly”
Tags: comics!, she has no head!
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Kelly, you’re amazing and my favorite ever!!!!!! 😀
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oop, i just noticed the link to your comment is messed up, it links to the comments section on your own blog instead of CSBG! just a heads up.
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you’re the best dear, don’t listen to the shouting vilains, there are less of them everydays… Things do change. Really.
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Show ’em who’s boss.
Well, at least you showed them to re-read the piece.
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Thanks for writing this article. It’s well-reasoned and about as diplomatic as can possibly be, which was probably pretty difficult given how pervasive this problem is.
I thought about jumping in the comments at CBR, but there were about 200 by the time I got there. The best/most insane comments come from the guys who try to educate everyone on how the sexual fantasies of women differ from those of men.
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You are awesome. It was a great article Kelly.
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Hey, Kelly. I’ve been reading your blog for a long time but have never commented, and I just wanted to say:
a.) Thank you for writing this wonderful article and for being brave enough to voice your opinions in what is more often than not a very hostile environment.
b.) You have the patience of a saint. I’m not sure I could respond to, forgive me, complete dumbasses with the same restraint you have.
c.) Lastly, please don’t let the comments of a few troglodytes get to you too much, and keep on writing. I can’t wait for your next piece.
Thanks,
Melissa
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Weird fact: Despite loving your stuff, I avoided this one at first. Not because I disagree or find it unimportant, but because I knew what you’d say on the issue and why you have to and it all just makes me sad. It makes me think of how stupid and selfishly sexist comics is and just…upsets me. So no matter how much I wanted to, I just couldn’t bring myself to read it. I love your writing and I totally agree with your stance. It just hurts me that this is still a problem.
And just imagining the idiotic comments, much less gleaning some from this post? Hurts even more.
You rock Kelly. Keep yelling. Keep fighting. It’s never been more important.
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Thanks for the support everyone. It has indeed been a crazy couple of weeks.
Comments are now closed.
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