1. He killed Rogue and Scarlet Witch on his way out the door on Uncanny Avengers. (Two female characters who feature heavily in just released/upcoming movies)
2. He fridged Sharon Carter for Steve Rogers’ manpain. (ANOTHER female character who features in a current movie, wow what are the CHANCES he’d find another one to kill?)
3. He just wrote a story that features a sex scene that a lot of people (especially females and POC, two groups that often feel that their concerns are not taken seriously by comics culture) are finding to be very problematic. It involves alcohol, Sam Wilson (ANOTHER character that was just introduced in a major movie, WOW!) and a female character who may or may not be of age. Although the narrative has established her to be an adult, the fact that Remender felt the need to clearly state her age in the middle of the sequence means that he was aware that most people did not take her to be an adult. To put it another way, when Natasha Romanov has a morning after, it does not involve her saying, “I’m thirty-six.” She doesn’t need to. Everyone KNOWS she is an adult. The fact that the character’s age must be stated indicates that the writer and the editorial staff KNEW it would be an issue, and they moved forward with it anyway.
4. He wrote a speech where a (white, cis, het male who could pass for a non-mutant) character states that he does not approve of the “M-word,” or Mutant, that he considers it divisive. IT IS BAD TO HAVE SUCH LABELS WE SHOULD DO AWAY WITH THEM. This kind of speech, written and spoken from a position of privilege, does not feel like inclusion. It feels like erasure. Having a pretty blonde white boy dismissing the very real problems of people who CANNOT hide their minority identity, dismissing the way they define themselves, because he doesn’t like that word, but doesn’t offer an alternative, smacks of the worst kind of white male privilege, and it sticks in the craw.
4. I do not appreciate his writing aesthetic. I do not appreciate how he treats female characters. I do not approve of the choices he makes. I do not appreciate how he handles his interviews or how he treats fandom. I do not appreciate the fact that every time I get an ask saying, “I’m new to comics, but I love the movies, can you recommend a comic?” I cannot, in good conscience recommend Captain America. I will not, especially to a new, female reader who loves the Cap she’s seen on the screen. Because Remender does not write that Cap.
5. He is a hack. I’ve seen more compelling plots and character development from the average AO3 fic.
I don’t like him. I’d be happy to see him driven from comics. I’d be happy to have Cap in better hands. I will not buy anything else with his name on it. I have let Marvel know as much, and I continue to support comics with creators who, in my opinion, treat their characters and their fanbase with more respect.
Tag: rape culture
We Need All Voices in Comics (or, I Started the #FireRickRemender Twitter Tag and I’m Really Only Kind of Sorry About It)
I’d like to clear the air.
The past 96 hours have been some of the most stressful, anxious, and rewarding of my life.
Wednesday evening, following my first read of Rick Remender’s Captain America #22, I posted a series of entries to my blog reiterating my distaste for his work, and my renewed (and long-held) belief that he should no longer be writing it.
In my haste and anger, I asked other people who shared my opinion to tweet Marvel Comics, Rick Remender, and Captain America editor Tom Brevoort with their concerns, using the hashtag #FireRickRemender.
And I’m sorry.
I understand that the hashtag, and the arguments held under its banner, could have been (and were) seen as personal attacks. And for that, I apologize. I was coming from a place of upset, discomfort, disgust, and outrage, and I acted solely from that place.
I am genuinely sorry for any personal affront my actions may have caused.
What I am not sorry for is everything that came afterward.
so far (since wednesday, meaning the beginning of the #firerickremender push on twitter):
I have been called a moron, a slut, an ugly bitch, a dumb cunt, a racist, and every other colorful, cruel, and sexist insult in the playbook.
I’ve been threatened with rape, been told to shut up, and been told explicitly that my opinion doesn’t matter.
I’ve been accused of trying to ruin someone’s life.
I’ve been infantilized, condescended to, pat on the head and told that my money doesn’t matter, that I was hysterical and irrational, that I was making too much out of nothing, that I was a prude.
I’ve had to answer the question “did you actually read the book?” more times than I can count, and every time the question’s asked with that cruel, invisible “sweetheart” at the end.
I’ve lost an incredible amount of respect for creators whose art and writing I enjoyed.
all because I had the audacity to raise my voice, to hold an opinion that differs from the norm. because I refused to be silent about the worrying, ever-increasing acceptance of violence against and violation of women in the media I pay to consume.
but – I can’t stop now. I won’t. Comic books taught me – Steve Rogers taught me to never, ever give up on the things that are important to you. I am standing by my truth, and I am not moving.
Sam Wilson taught me to take care of my own, and Sharon Carter taught me to never, ever, ever let anyone else make your decisions for you.
I’m not going away. #firerickremender is not going away.
Not until comics is a safe space. Not until comics is a escape for everyone, not just for people whose ideal world is one where women are subservient, sexy, and silent. Not until I can carry on a conversation with a creator I admire and not be treated like I know nothing, and like my opinion doesn’t count.
I am not going away.
edited to add:
Been sent unsolicited pictures of stranger’s genitalia (i.e. dicks) by direct message on Twitter
Received more than one offer to “cure” me – i.e. “fix” the fact that I’m queer
Had my personal and identifying information – including name, age, location, and photograph – posted without my consent or knowledge as the butt of a post insinuating that I’m “hysterical” and that I have a “vendetta”
Tell me again that the glorification and excusing of rape in comics doesn’t feed rape culture in real life.
Tell me again that it’s “fiction”.
Tell me fucking again.
Oh my fucking god.
EVERYTHING IS AWFUL.
“We [Fraction and his wife, Kelly Sue DeConnick] were pregnant at the time, and while I was out there I started to realize that if I had a daughter, there would come a day when I would have to apologize to her for my profession. I would have to apologize for the way it treats and speaks to women readers, and the way it treats its female characters. I knew that if we had a daughter, because I know my wife and I know the kind of girl she wants to raise and I know the kind of girl I want to raise, she was going to look at what I did for a living and want to know how the fuck I could stomach it. How could I sell her out like that?” Fraction continued. “That conversation is still coming, and I’m bracing for it in the way that some dads brace for their daughter’s first date or boyfriend. I became acutely aware that I had sort of done that thing that lots of privileged hetero cisgendered white dudes do. ‘I’m cool with women, and that’s enough.’ It’s not enough. It’s embarrassing to say, because we somehow have attached shame to learning and evolving our opinions, culturally, but I became aware that there was a deficiency of and to women in my work, and all I could do at that moment was take care of my side of the street.”— Writer Matt Fraction on his role on expanding the profile of female characters in the Marvel Universe. (via goodmanw)
better late than never, dude. we can always learn and always do better.
Being born a woman is an awful tragedy. Yes, my consuming desire to mingle with road crews, sailors and soldiers, bar room regulars—to be a part of a scene, anonymous, listening, recording—all is spoiled by the fact that I am a girl, a female always in danger of assault and battery. My consuming interest in men and their lives is often misconstrued as a desire to seduce them, or as an invitation to intimacy. Yet, God, I want to talk to everybody I can as deeply as I can. I want to be able to sleep in an open field, to travel west, to walk freely at night.
Sylvia Plath
fuck every single time that last line gets quoted without the rest
(via the-smurf-on-fire)
Okay so imagine the villain has captured a girl the protagonist cares about and is all like “I’ll kill her unless you give me the macguffin!”
And the hero’s like “that will never happen! I love her and she loves me! Right?”
And the girl’s like “um…this isn’t the best time.”
And the protagonist screams she’s a friendzoning whore and abandons her.
And the villain’s like “fuck that guy” and teaches her how to walk in thigh-high leather boots.
Watch: ’The Daily Show’ absolutely nailed what it’s like to be a woman on campus today
James Madison University joined the ever-growing list of U.S. colleges that have grossly mishandled sexual assault and rape cases last week when a young woman claimed that the school punished the three men who assaulted her by expelling them — after graduation.
Jon Stewart echoed the perplexed outrage of many on The Daily Show last night when he asked, “Wait a minute, ‘expelled upon graduation?’ Isn’t that… graduation? … What the fuck? … Clearly, universities are not making their campuses safe for women.”
Attention George Will, this is what #SurvivorPrivilege really looks like
Over at the Washington Post, a supremely out of touch article by conservative columnist George F. Will makes the infuriating claim that victims of sexual assault enjoy “a coveted status that confers privileges.” His logic suggests that because of a supposed liberal plot to bestow some sort of benefit on rape survivors “victims proliferate.”
Of all the tone-deaf rape-denying arguments we’ve heard, this one might take the cake.
So honored my hashtag took off! It just started as a way to vent about how college rape has changed my life forever (and not in a good way).
Because you know who’s an authority on surviving rape? An old white guy.
Fuck you, George Will.
#SurvivorPrivilege – being abused for eight years of my childhood, being left with a lifetime of mental health issues, and when my abuser was sentenced, the court didn’t give him jail time because he agreed to go to counselling.
knitting in the dark 