a comic done by christianne benedict, posted on the womanthology art forum. brilliant!
YES. Jesus, thank you.
I cannot tell you how many times I have had to point out what the audience at conventions actually LOOKS like to people in the industry. They can do signings in a booth full of every kind of person all day long, every color, every size, every orientation and more, and STILL go online and talk about how only white straight males read comics.
IT IS PROFOUNDLY UNTRUE AND INSULTINGLY IGNORANT.
Tag: women
fucking slam
FUCKIN MEGA SLAM
HOT DAMN
Insecticide
There are valid reasons for why Marvel swapped out Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym for Natasha Romanova and Clint Barton as founding members of the Avengers in the MCU. Especially for where Marvel’s collective head was back in 2008-2011, when they weren’t even sure there would be an Avengers to form. It required far less CGI (and thus less money), it fit better with the MCU conceit of the Avengers being a SHIELD-sponsored paramilitary unit instead of Team Treehouse living on Tony Stark’s dime, it avoided tipping the team too far into Science Geeks Plus Cap territory, Black Widow and Hawkeye had more currency, etc. These may not be the best reasons, the only reasons, or insurmountable reasons, but they’re valid reasons.
But Marvel is going to have to come up with perfect reasons to justify apparently fridging Janet in 2014 to give Hank a tragic past and Scott Lang an age-appropriate love interest.
They had options here, far more than they did in 2008 when this was all a pipe dream or in 2011 when they punched their golden ticket with The Avengers. The MCU has expanded greatly, both on Earth with Agents of SHIELD and out into space with Guardians of the Galaxy and there is plenty of room to fit Janet in. Janet’s tiny, she fits everywhere.
Except, apparently, in the MCU as a living woman.
Meet Jedidah Isler
She is the first black woman to earn a PhD in astronomy from Yale University.
As much as she loves astrophysics, Isler is very aware of the barriers that still remain for young women of color going into science. “It’s unfortunately an as-yet-unresolved part of the experience,” she says. She works to lower those barriers, and also to improve the atmosphere for women of color once they become scientists, noting that “they often face unique barriers as a result of their position at the intersection of race and gender, not to mention class, socioeconomic status and potentially a number of other identities.”
While Isler recounts instances of overt racial and gender discrimination that are jaw-dropping, she says more subtle things happen more often. Isler works with the American Astronomical Society’s commission on the status of minorities in astronomy.
She also believes that while things will improve as more women of color enter the sciences, institutions must lead the way toward creating positive environments for diverse student populations. That is why she is active in directly engaging young women of color: for example participating in a career exploration panel on behalf of the Women’s Commission out of the City of Syracuse Mayor’s Office, meeting with high-achieving middle-school girls. She is also on the board of trustees at the Museum of Science and Technology (MOST).
“Whether I like it or not, I’m one of only a few women of color in this position,” she says. “Addressing these larger issues of access to education and career exploration are just as important as the astrophysical work that I do.”
Learn more:
But I agree with you. It bothers me that I’m always told that I do strong female characters. When in reality, I look at my characters and I feel like they were all broken. They all came from a very devastating past. They were trying to achieve something, they had hope, and they wanted to get someplace, like everything other character that has a meaningful and relevant arc in the story.
It’s because we don’t really know women. We don’t write women accurately. We don’t see women the way that we should see women as a society, as a human race. When you see a real woman, you shouldn’t be saying she’s strong, you should be saying she’s real.
I’m not saying that Gamora is an exception, but you look at my character in Columbiana, and she’s stealthy, she’s agile, she’s physical. But even if I wasn’t physically agile, she would still carry the baggage of whatever happened in my childhood. And I handle myself in the way that I feel a woman should be. I don’t create it. It’s just something that comes natural.
So when people think they are paying me a compliment, in reality what we are saying as a society and as an art society, is that we need to focus more on the real aspect of what a woman is, and not the superficial cosmetic features of a woman as a muse to inspire us to create calendar girls. To create bombshells. To create serviceable characters, beautiful paintings of the girl with a pearl earring: if there’s nothing there behind it, it’s just her face – what’s the story?
Zoe Saldana, speaking to Den of Geek. These musings in particular are so wonderfully expressed. (via pixiegrace)
@missatomicbomb
I feel like Marvel should listen to Jan and her opinions on ladies on superhero teams.
Oh wait they can’t because they cut her out of the MCU what a #JanetVanCrime
# but isnt that carol saying it in the last two panels???,
YES but it was Jan’s idea as chair to bring in more ladies like Carol and Jen onto the team. This is Jan’s first issue as chair during this run of Avengers Vol 3 and the very first thing she did was bring more ladies onto the team. ^.^
Ming-na Wen and Retta at NerdHQ’s A Conversation with Badass Women (x)Retta: My parents are from Liberia, and Liberians are ALL about school. It’s like, no joke. Most of them send their kids to the States to go to school because they think that’s where the best schools are, that sort of thing. And I was a math-science girl, I was pre-med. I was supposed to be a neurosurgeon.And I remember when I started doing stand up, I was like, “Shit! My mother is going to be like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me right now?’” And I remember calling my mom and saying, “So I’m going to drive to California and do the stand-up thing so I can get into TV.” And my mom, you know, she didn’t freak out like I thought she was totally going to freak out. My dad freaked out. He was like, “Please get health insurance.” That was his big thing, “GET HEALTH INSURANCE.” But my mom was like, “Just remember you’re carrying around your father’s last name. So don’t embarrass him.” She was like, “Do the best that you can. Don’t go playing. If you’re going to do, do it.” So, I dropped my last name so as not to embarrass my father.But God bless, because a lot of parents wouldn’t…Ming-na: You know, we have to talk. Because I dropped my stage last name Wen for the longest time when I did ER – which, by the way, I got to tell my mom, “I got to be a doctor for 5 years so, write that off the list.” because of same issues, fatherly things.But now, I have it back because I’m proud being who I was born as. And we have so much to talk about, girl.It’s interesting that Nerd HQ’s “A Conversation with Badass Women” is more diverse than the SDCC’s “Women Who Kick Ass” panel…and doesn’t only focus on women who physically kick ass.
I want to bring some positivity into the world today, because I REALLY want to move away from all this awfulness, so let me talk for a little while about MCU!Pepper Potts.
Pepper Potts is a woman whom I have absolutely nothing in common with. She is tall, graceful, and effortlessly feminine; I am a petite punk girl with a lot of tattoos. She enjoys expensive high heels; I spend a lot of time wearing tactical boots. I’m not her, and I don’t aspire to be her, and in the face of women like Natasha Romanoff and Peggy Carter, who are more obviously admirable for someone like me, it’s easy for her to get overlooked.
But I love Pepper Potts. To me, what stands out about her is the way she negotiates a path between love and necessity. She is a character who consistently offers real kindness to those around her, regardless of their flaws, and also while having to overcome her own impatience: to Tony at his most unbearable, to Maya as Maya betrays her, to “Natalie” after the two of them have been put at odds, to Happy when he’s being ridiculous. You get the sense that what she wants to offer to the world, always, is this kindness.
And I don’t think that kindness ever really abates— but it doesn’t prevent her from doing what needs to be done, even when that’s unpleasant.
Frigga should just take the throne instead of one of her issue-ridden kids, I mean really.
An AU where Frigga rules Asgard and raises her children while Odin runs around, I don’t know, stabbing things or something. Sif and Val can protect the realm on their own, so that frees him up to take some really long naps. No one cares how long your Odinsleep lasts, dude, really.
Where the new incarnation of SHIELD is helmed by Maria Hill, because she’s actually experienced and the next in line after Fury. Sharon Carter is her second, and they both bitch out the Avengers on a regular basis. Coulson can continue shepherding his bus of broken toys around, except with Maria needs May’s support. Victoria Hand is, of course, shacked up somewhere with Sitwell. Not sleeping together, mind out of the gutter. But they were both behind on “Game of Thrones,” and with both of them being fake dead, it seemed like a good chance to get caught up.
Where Pepper Potts smashed through the wall and rushed Maya Hanson to the ER and now Maya heads R&D and Pepper runs the company and Tony just plays with his bots and is perfectly happy inventing completely unmarketable stuff.
Where Natasha is the poised, controlled public face of the Avengers because she can actually handle it without showing up drunk or having a panic attack or telling a reporter to do something anatomically impossible.
Where Betty has turned down job offers from StarkIndustries and SHIELD but takes a post with Empire University, just close enough and just far enough away. She teaches and does the research she wants to do and in her spare time, she founded a group of scientists that serve as public interest watchdogs and whistle blowers. They focus attention on military, government and industry work, demanding transparency and high safety standards. She meets Bruce in the park, once a week, early in the day or late in the afternoon, when there’s fewer people and less chance of something happening. She holds his hand the entire time, and sometimes that’s all they do. Walk and hold hands.
Where Gwen Stacey goes to London and still writes to Peter, emails and real letters, because she will always be his friend and his lodestone, even if they’re not together any more. Because part of being an adult is realizing that you can love someone, and have that not be enough. Sometimes. Loving someone. Means letting them go. And wishing with all your heart for them to be happy and safe. And Peter loves her, and is so happy for her, because he is growing up, and becoming the hero he’s always tried so hard to be. And Gwen sets him up with this girl she knows back in New York, maybe he’ll like Mary Jane, and maybe Mary Jane would like him…
Where Peggy Carter builds up SHIELD with dozens of the female intelligence workers and codebreakers and technicians and secretaries, stolen from the US Military and Betchley Park and Hedy Lamarr is the ultimate spy and the one who explained to Howard Stark just what would happen to his balls if he didn’t learn to keep his hands to himself. It involves liquid nitrogen and he learned to keep his hands to himself.
Where the contributions of the women of this verse don’t begin with being a love interest and end with their death.
Where they create a vibrant, brilliant, balanced world, not in spite of the male characters, but with them. Because it’s a better world with them in it.
this, yup.
Is it a better world with them in it, though? The male Asgardians, Sitwell, Coulson, Banner, and Stark all seem to be pretty useless in this scenario. You could ace all of them and nothing in this world would suffer for it. The only one who retains any kind of relevance is Peter.
In all seriousness. Did you just try to hijack a post about how we need more female representation to say that having the women there renders the men, what, unimportant? That having your favorite charcters only be mentioned or important when it relates to the actions or emotional well being of a character of the opposite gender isn’t what you want to see? That it would be sad that focusing entirely on one group of people rendered the other half of them completely irrelevent?
I didn’t say what Thor, Loki or the Warriors Three were doing. I didn’t say what Bruce was doing. I only mentioned them in relation to how they impact the women’s lives and this is exactly how media treats women. I said that Tony was HAPPY with his ability to do exactly what he wants and avoid the things he’s spent three movies avoiding. Despite this, you’ve jumped to the conclusion that they’re irrelevent just because the above answer doesn’t focus on them. The narrative doesn’t say they’re irrelevent. It just implies they’re uninteresting. Not worthy of our focus. “It’s fine, they can be the romantic interests and the perky sidekicks!”
Welcome to the background radiation of my life. Erasure sucks, doesn’t it? Only difference is, I’m decring the ACTUAL FRIDGING and ERASURE of female characters. You’re displeased with the fantasy of something that comes close to equality.
Agents of SHIELD + female guest stars
knitting in the dark 