It makes me angry that I have to do this, but I’m going to do it anyway. Last week at Denver Comic Con, I went to a panel on women and body image in comics that I had very high hopes for. It was modded by the same woman who’d modded the very excellent Geek Girl panel earlier that day, and had two of the same panelists, but it was absolutely ruined by the actions of one man. I forgot his name because, quite honestly, I started calling him Douchey McFuckface about two minutes into the panel, but I got it from the mod through Twitter. It’s Andrew Mark of Legacy Action Comics, and his Twitter can be found here at https://twitter.com/LegacyAC. I would not normally do this, but this man, over the course of the panel:
*Asked the audience who thought women in comics were objectified, and when the entire audience raised their hands, said “Are you fucking stupid?”
*Justified the hypersexualized portrayal of women in comic books with “Artists just draw what writers give them, it’s the writer’s fault”
*Cut off a professor of media studies in mid-sentence when she tried to point out that yes, there is a connection between media and body image
*Insisted that men and women were equally objectified in comics because Superman has underwear on the outside of his costume
*Interrupted an audience member who was asking a question to talk about how “fucking hilarious” the Hawkeye Initiative is after it was explained by another audience member
*Browsed on his phone during the panel, ignoring audience questions entirely
*When I tried to explain the difference between attraction and objectification, responded by saying inequalities in objectification were clearly women’s fault, because women need to objectify men more
*Glared at and refused to answer an audience member after he tried to defend not drawing muscles on women by saying “we don’t have time for that” and she quite reasonably asked why, then, he had time to draw muscles on men
*Asked the audience if they “know comics aren’t real, right?”
*And, as a capper, used the phrase “twinks” as a homophobic slur at the end of the panel
I have probably been to forty panels at five different cons now, and I have never witnessed a panelist being so actively cruel, rude, and downright unprofessional during a panel. It’s sad because Legacy Action Comics is the kind of small local venture I would normally like to support, but given his behavior, I want everyone to know exactly how unprofessional and misogynistic this man is. At the panel, they openly chastised the audience and essentially told them that the continuing portrayal of skimpily clothed women in comics was their fault, because they “didn’t do anything about it” and “money talks.” Well, I’m doing something about it, and I hope money does talk. If anyone has bought/heard of Legacy Action comics, please don’t buy from them any more-I know I don’t want my money going to support someone who thinks these behaviors and attitudes are acceptable, and I hope you don’t want yours going their either. It’s sad because Legacy Action Comics is, by all appearances, the kind of small, local business I would normally go out of my way to support, but through his boorish and misogynistic behavior, Andrew Mark absolutely shot that in the foot.
I will probably be posting some more of the arguments I heard at this panel, and dissecting their fallaciousness, later, but for now I just wanted to get this out there and let people know that this kind of behavior is not acceptable and (hopefully) will not be tolerated by the geek community.What a f-ing asshole (and bringing nothing new but old trolly strawman arguments we’ve all heard before) >:\ I hope he doesn’t get invited to any more panels. Even if they don’t care about his sexism and homophobia (and I hope every future con does), he also sounds like a horrible guest in general. He wasn’t interested in a discussion, he just wanted to shut everybody up, and make the whole issue go away. I hope Legacy Action Comics also pays attention to how he’s making their business look to potential customers, because he was there representing them.
what a fuckwit. oh here’s his douchefuck non apology.
this painfully sad comment by the woman who organised the panel makes me simultaneously rage and despair.
zombie-harlequin asked: Will you be updating the haven any time in the near future?
YES!!!! I swear to god it will happen, somehow I will get back on top of all my bloody HQ related websites!!! It’s always in the back of my kind, I just haven’t had the motivation.
badfuckingpuns asked: the video's about tabloids and paparazzi harrassment, mostly, actually; it's a little about body stuff but about pregnancy and objectification, I was doing other stuff while I listened but she really mentioned weight stuff only in passing. It was sort of annoying/Incorrect in other ways but not about love-yr-body stuff.
Thank you!!
The Guardian: The sex workers giving disabled people a chance to live out their dreams -
A forthcoming Channel 4 documentary, Can Have Sex Will Have Sex, features the sex lives of four disabled people, one of whom loses his virginity to an escort who has been hired by his mother.The programme has been labelled “controversial”, but many mothers call the sex and disability helpline, which I run, worried that their disabled son is physically unable to masturbate and desperately needs an outlet. Hiring a sex worker is one option.
They can find responsible sex workers on the TLC-Trust website which was created in 2000 by myself and a disabled man, James Palmer, who was sad about being a virgin in his mid 40s. The hundred or so sex workers who have profiles on the site say they each see about eight disabled clients a month. One told me she recently saw a 38-year-old whose father had called after both parents had sought her out. It was their son’s birthday and he was a virgin. The father brought him down. She bought a birthday cake and a present.
Another of her clients was a virgin too, and wasn’t going to live much longer. His mother contacted her. Now she sees him once every six weeks. It’s been a year. The mother drives the sex worker back to the train station, and says her son is much happier all round since having her visit.
The sex worker says she is used to being introduced to clients with disabilities through a parent, usually a mother rather than a father, and has never been asked to work with someone’s daughter.
If a disabled person loses their virginity with a sex worker in a way that teaches them about their body and how to please a partner, it can set them up to become a confident, knowledgeable and sexually skilled individual who can proceed to finding a partner. However, if they have a progressive condition, their life can feel too full of disappointment and loss to try to find a partner and they may prefer to stay seeing sex workers, with whom a good outcome is guaranteed.
As for disabled women, many tell me they would love to pay somebody who knows what they are doing, who helps them learn what their bodies are capable of enjoying, but most never try. They may be nervous that the man they are paying is not entirely professional and they may not think enough of themselves to treat themselves to the luxury of pleasure. That, I hope is changing. Most of the women I know who have paid have gone to female sex workers, and none of them have involved their mother in the process of making contact.
Sex workers have very special qualities. They are skilled at giving pleasure in whatever way is required. Sometimes carers need to prepare disabled person in advance: undressing, washing and grooming. They may need to be on hand in case of difficulties, such as the onset ofautonomic dysreflexia. They may need to help position the disabled person, and teach the sex worker certain essentials. The best scenario is if the disabled person has seen a “sexual advocate” beforehand, someone with whom they can work out exactly what they want, what they need, and how they want the experience to be, as some disabled people (like non-disabled people) cannot think beyond “I want sex”, and have expectations that can never be met, so will end up disappointed.
When I took a sex worker down to a residential place for severely disabled people for the staff to experience what a sex worker is like, they asked her what she would do if a client bashed her over the head with his uncontrollable arm, or threw up over her and she replied: “I would duck the arm and I would clear up the vomit, that’s part of what I do: clearing up excrement”.
Publicity around the film The Sessions, which explores a man with an iron lung losing his virginity to a “sexual surrogate” has raised awareness and acceptance of disabled people paying for sex. I hope this might extend to an acceptance of disabled people as sexual partners, and sex workers being wonderful people.
I really love the idea of sex workers giving disabled people the chance to be touched in a non-medical way, perhaps for the first time in their lives, to be held in a warm pair of arms and have their sexual dreams respected and lived out.
(Source: marginalutilite, via trashprincesss)
(via desliz)
true love
(Source: actualstalkertimothydrake, via enasnivolz)
moxycrimefighter asked: I never realised owning a Pink hammer meant that you were the downfall of feminism, here I was thinking that we were fighting for a womans right to equality and choice, not to not own pink hammers
no, no, you see it’s all about how stupid we are to not realise they’re cheaply made and also a marketing ploy. because that never possibly occurred to us before and we don’t have long established and well documented relationships with cheap, tawdry, camp and novelty items on our tumblr blogs that at least one of these brave feminists follows, so we really need people to point painstakingly out to us now that the pinks don’t match and they’re ugly but also cheap so we understand properly okay.
[video]
Look what I have!
This would make a beautiful Harley dress for someone. Actually, my friend Elise Archer comes to mind.
I want it! where to get from?
(Source: beingeighteenyears, via battsrambles)
Yes.
(Source: mrextrakool)
(via blithefool)
the original and still the best…
(Source: against-a-67chevy, via enasnivolz)
Lunch break water colour.
stunning art by immensely talented Aussie artist Noelle Dreves (pulpcandy)
when you wake up today, know that you can download our latest chapter of Lil Gotham’s today.. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone.
http://www.readdcentertainment.com/Batman-Lil-Gotham-5/digital-comic/DIG002960
(via moxycrimefighter)
(Source: ha-harlequin, via moxycrimefighter)