Why Postmodern Barney hates comic books

[rivkat]

Bookslut blog had this link and I --

Well. Apparently all comic book fans think alike (also, I appear to have misplaced my penis, which PMB assumes is a necessary attribute of comic fannishness), and that makes them racist, homophobic, and intolerant of change. But it's really not our fault, because we probably have Asperger's or some mild-spectrum autistic attributes. Which is "not to say I’m trying to pathologize super-hero fans and their behavior." Really, PMB? Because I'm sort of interested in what trying on your part would look like.

Comments

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

buh...I only bought superhero titles as a kid. Even now - as an adult - the comics that I like are still fricking superhero books. I'm trying to read "Preacher" but sometimes I just need a guy in blue spandex who is trying to do the right thing.

And also do Batman, but I did not consciously get that when I was 12.

And I am most definitely female. And I've never felt invisible in my comic book store - if anything I've spent quality time in conversation with other customers or the owners and all have been really smart, funny, charming and open-minded. But I'm going to a shop off-campus so maybe this is a locational thing? Although Lexington Ky is not known for being a bastion of liberality. Maybe everyone is just making nice for me while I am there and as soon as I leave they are pulling out the KKK gear and calling me names and plotting the downfall of Batman?

Now my happy little shop seems sordid...

[harriet-spy.livejournal.com]

Sure, and I was a little Chris Claremont fangirl during *my* formative years. But every set of statistics I've seen indicates that comics overall still have a substantial male majority customer base, and that women who buy comics buy manga especially over superhero comics. It's pure numbers. Women in fandom are a minority. Women in fandom into comics are a minority within a minority.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Are there specific fandom numbers that include media-based fandoms (not just Sci-Fi)? Because I am always shocked to find that women are percieved to be a small percentage of fandom, when my experiences in fandom itself have been overwhelmingly involving other women.

Of course this could be a small little corner and I do see that we are a small percentage of the comic buying public - maybe. I have to wonder though *how* small we really are and how accurate the measures - because I don't *feel* invisible. But hell - comic readership is down across the boards. They should only hope to recruit more obsessive single women with jobs to the ranks.

And I don't know that women are a minority overall in fandom so much as we are *told* we are a minority and if the people telling us that are basing it on a Gaming/SciFi/Comic model and other forms of media fandom is just not considered. Or my blood sugar could be low and it is 6pm and I am still at work and need to shut-up now. It is any woman's guess, really.

::just finished conversation with cubicle-mate - a member of the Scott Peterson Trial Fandom who just doesn't know it::