Mind That Kryptonite Ceiling, Supergirl

Joanna Russ, a female scholar and science fiction writer (a combo you don’t see every day) once wrote a disturbing essay (or series of essays, since the theme pervades many of her papers) concerning how women’s writing is seen by the largely patriarchal academic community. Don’t you dare stop reading this column, just because I’m talking feminist or academic bullshit. It WILL get back to comics. Believe me, it will.

The reason male academia doesn’t see, let alone recognize female authors is because as the maker of the rules for what is REAL literature, the men pull the strings. As they used to say in the law classes I’ve taken, “the power to define is the power to destroy.” So, the male academics have destroyed the cause of female literature by defining it as not being ‘real’ literature. Their arguments are:
--That’s not real writing, because it’s a romance.
--That’s not real writing because it’s about family.
--That’s not real writing because it’s for children.
--That’s not real writing because it’s genre writing such as fantasy.
--That’s not real writing because the female writer is trying to ‘write like a man’.

Okay, guys and gals, this is where comics come in. The largely male comic book establishment have defined what is considered to be ‘real’ comic book writing in such a way that it cannot see what’s in front of their faces: women can create great comic books.

The definition of what a ‘real’ comic book is includes the following elements:
--Image style 4 color art
--Big breasts on the women, big muscles on the men
--Plot, violence, Plot
--A homo-social world view. That is, one where men hang out with men and the few female characters out there hang out with women. There are next to no male-female friendships in comics that stay friendships.
--A woman is defined as either good girl/bad girl art, a victim, or a significant other.
--And lots of other stuff that I can’t think of at the moment

In short, if it ain’t a full color, mainstream comic with superheroes in it, it ain’t worth a damn. It isn’t seen as being ‘real’. One’s not really a professional if one isn’t writing Spiderman or whatever.

So, what are the typical reactions women who are bold enough to go forward into the boy’s locker room of comic book-dom might get?

--It’s not a ‘real’ comic because it’s a mini-comic or an ash can.
--It’s not ‘real’ writing because you have a female heroine that doesn’t wear spandex.
--It’s not ‘real’ comic book writing because it’s written for women (funny how that doesn’t work vice versa. If so, Garth Ennis wouldn’t be a ‘real’ writer either).
--It’s not a ‘real’ comic because it’s published by an independent publisher no one’s ever heard of.
--It’s not a ‘real’ comic because it’s a fantasy/romance/humor/funny animals book
--It’s not a ‘real’ comic because it focuses on relationships between characters
--It’s not a ‘real’ comic because the illustrations are ‘cute’
--It’s not a ‘real’ comic because it’s non-violent and not overly concerned with plot (although I’d like to see a man write a book as organized and plot-filled as A Distant Soil)

Say a woman manages to push on in spite of these comments. Maybe she gets the attention of a mainstream comic book company. She does some illustrations for a comic. Maybe after she does some illustrations, she eventually gets to do a fill in issue of a superhero comic as a writer. What reactions might she get?

--It’s not ‘real’ writing because you worked as a penciller
--It’s not ‘real’ writing because you co-wrote it with your male significant other, who works as a freelance author in the industry. You met him because you spend all your time writing/marketing/publishing your own comic and the only people you ever meet are in the industry. You’re not ‘really writing’ because you wrote the work with a man (and one you’re romantically involved with, to boot). “Obviously HE did all the work, since women can’t write comics,” you hear whispered around you.
--It’s not ‘real’ writing because it wasn’t an action based issue, but a character study or one that focuses on character interaction.
--It’s not ‘real’ writing because you actually wrote it in the ‘house style’ and it was a plot-filled issue that read just like any other fill-in issue. In short, you ‘wrote like a man’.

I don’t know if there’s a solution to this problem. I don’t know how one can break through the kryptonite ceiling.

All I know is that I’m ashamed of the industry fostering sexist attitudes that are at least 30 years out of date. I’m sad that our industry is behind even the frigging MILITARY (yes, even after the Tailhook scandal) in its treatment of the female gender (both in its treatment of female writers and female characters).

Sexism is the elephant in the living room in this industry. Everyone sees it, but no one acknowledges it exists. When someone does say anything, the first answer is, “I don’t see anything.” If one persists, the answer is, "Eh, yeah, but what can you do? It’s always been there and it’s always going to be there.” If one still insists talking about sexism, one is labeled “not a team player”, “humorless”, or somehow “sexless” or “sexually repressed”. If one STILL persists in spite of the labeling, she is told (in a mind set that reminds me of the “America, love it or leave it” attitude Vietnam war protesters used to get from conservatives) “if you hate comics so much, stop reading ‘em.”

It’s enough to make a sane woman go postal.