Missed an Awesome Lady Webcomicist

Erika Moen. Bunch of good comics. Often veers into NSFW though doesn't enter with that intent. Also reviews sex toys.

Okay I'm done.

The Most Fundamental Contribution to Society by a Gay Man

There's certain a lot of things that can be nominated to fit the title. Computers. Bohemian Rhapsody. Neil Patrick Harris in general.

Second guessing on whether the following is more important actually.

But there's something much, much more important. On one fateful day in early October 1977, Glenn Burke of the Los Angeles Dodgers had watched his teammate, Dusty Baker, set a record as he hit a home run. And in celebration, he held out his palm, high up in the air, as his teammate approached. And, upon seeing this, Baker did the most natural thing in this history of the world, something eons of evolution had been working towards: he slapped that hand. In that moment, resonating louder than the Big Bang, the high five was created. And the initiator of that high five, Glenn Burke? Totally gay.

And so,

I made the right choice.

The Bisexual Dude: The Privilege and the Persecution

Okay, so, bisexuality. In women, society's pretty cool with it (to an extent). There's a few reasons for this:

1. It makes sense from the patriarchal view. Women's bodies are not necessarily the bodies of human beings, they are objects of sexual desire. You are 'supposed' to see a woman's body and think "Yes. Sex should be done to that." Thus, if a woman thinks that, well that's fine. That just makes sense.
2. Two women being together is 'super hot'. A woman's sexuality is, of course, a performance for the men. I mean, that's the only reason women have orgasms, right, just to let a dude know they're doing something right? And if a lady is doing it to another lady, well holy crap that's just the best thing.
3. There's the Victorian view that hey, who cares, it doesn't count anyway. Sex without a penis isn't sex. It's basically the same thing as having a knitting circle. Those silly women can go do whatever the heck they like together in (or out of) their frippery, in the end they need penises, duh.

Pictured: Deviant Frippery

(Note: This is totally overlooking the challenges of being bisexual and female. It's not all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. A bisexual woman is likely to be accused of just faking to get attention, for instance, among a billion other things involving the intersectionality of just being a woman or being bisexual and...yeah okay moving on.)

But you're not supposed to sexualize men. It's just not done. So a man looking at a dude cannot appreciate him as a sexual thing. And if he does, there's only one conclusion to make: dude, you're super gay. The bisexual man, then is just a dude who is kidding himself about being gay and, the even worse part is, he gets it from both sides(phrasing!). So the bisexual man is persecuted in this sense because he's not allowed to express attraction to dudes.

But then, he gets the privilege of: hey! He doesn't have to! He can live his entire life ignoring sexy sexy manbodies and just be with women because that's fine too. He gets the privilege of living in the closet, unchallenged. Which makes it even harder because, man, there's probably so many bi dudes out there who just don't bother to be visible because why bother. Which means the ones who are visible look like an even smaller group. And so one and so forth and everything is terrible.

Terrible!

Now in the Top Ten Things I Wish I'd Seen

Let's not mince words: Sean Connery is a contemptible human being.

But a 20-something year old Sean Connery getting in a nightclub brawl with 4 guys and winning while Michael Caine held his coat is just the best story ever. I would pay so much for a time machine just to watch that.

Hail the Best New Medium

"Strong Female Characters" by Kate Beaton, Carly Monardo, and Meredith Gran

The promise of the internet, especially Web 2.0, was that everyone would get their voice heard. That marginalized people would find a way to get an audience. The truth is that there are still gatekeepers. There are costs to getting out on the internet, both financial and social. Anita Sarkeesian provides a magnificent example of someone who used Web 2.0 to get her message out and was subsequently assaulted and shouted down.

So I find it interesting that, somehow, webcomics have found a way to fulfill the promise of the internet. There are deeply problematic portions of the webcomic world, many of whom are popular. Some of them very overt (see: Least I Could Do which I am not linking directly to, but here's a nice angry summary). Some of them usually harmless until the privilege gets in the way (See: Penny Arcade's dickwolves debacle). But out there, there's more. There's women thriving with making great stuff and not compromising on their values.

There's Kate Beaton, making hilarious comics about history, Canada, and feminism and often all three at the same time. There's Coelasquid/Kelly Turnbull mocking hypermasculinity in pop culture and making fantastic comics about video games. There's Meredith Gran and Danielle Corsetto doing genuine-ass slice of life comics from a female perspective and rocking it. They're all out there making great media.

But it goes further. The best NSFW comics you'll find on the internet? Chester 5000 XYV (did I mention NSFW?) and Oglaf (no really! NSFW!) from Jess Fink and Trudy Cooper respectively.

But then it's not just women; there are men writing webcomics who just sort of get the idea that they can write female characters and have them be amazing without sacrificing anything to patriarchy (in ways way beyond people like Joss Whedon have done). There's Tom Siddell who probably currently has the best story and characterization of any webcomic currently running- with two female protagonists (gasp)! There's John Allison, whose charming British wit follows an even split of genders in his protagonists without any problems. There's Sylvan Midgal (NSFW again) whose sexy comic about transdimensional love and candy is one of the most unique NSFW comics on the internet.

And all of this is happening because they are fulfilling the promise of the internet. There's no gatekeepers determining if their view or content is appropriate for the world- there's just the artist and the audience. And the audience who gets it loves it. They're not the margins, they're a big slice of the reality. The webcomic world at large doesn't fight them, they lift them up and promote them. Somehow, this is a medium where people can succeed based on their talent and succeed wildly because their perspective is unique, in contrast to any other medium where the uniqueness of a perspective means the end gatekeepers don't get it and don't want it.

It's just...it's so beautiful.

STAHP.

Great. Now they built humanoid terrifying robots. This is how cylons happen, people. First they're just weird things in camo suits doing squats, next thing you know they're using your skin as a camo suit.

SERIOUSLY. NEVER GO ON REDDIT.

Yeah, okay, this blog is now just a broken record.

I just saw this article on Rock Paper Shotgun. It's okay, I mean, I agree with it, but I don't feel like it's spectacularly well written or anything. It's remarkable for its source, a well beloved gaming journalism website, not for its content.

Then I had the brilliant thought, "Hey, I wonder what Reddit had to say about this."

Why would I even have that thought? What is wrong with me that that's an acceptable thought to have?

Anyhow, spoilers,  the top comment was attacking Anita Sarkeesian. That's right. They attacked Sarkeesian in response to an article that mentions her in passing, when she put forward an argument that was originally someone else's. She's barely even present in this article. But goddamn do they hate her.

So here's a nice flowchart of the process of me having bad ideas:

Never Go On Reddit

[content note: this post is about Reddit, so just assume anything terrible is absolutely in this post]

I just feel like making a nice list of arguments I actually had to have on Reddit this week:

• Why "OP is a faggot" is a bad thing to say
• Why being excited to kill some North Koreans isn't okay
• Why the police shouldn't be allowed to stop and harass anyone they want
• Why people tend to not lie about being violently and repeatedly gang raped
• Why it's racist to assume a black woman with a child is a single mom
• Why the idea that gay marriage leads to marrying a horse is insane

I guess I didn't have to have these arguments. I chose to have them. I chose to be on Reddit and interact with these people. And, to Reddit's credit, more often than not I did end up on the positive vote end of the spectrum for making these arguments but...

But.

It never ends. I've finally just blocked Reddit on all my browsers because I can't. I can't argue on the internet that much. It's so futile.

After an argument on racism...

I need to remember to watch this. Every single day.