jeysiec:

blithefool:

“The only thing that makes me happier than comics, is watching the old guard of nerd culture lose their shit. Captain Marvel can’t be a woman. Captain America can’t be black. Human Torch can’t be black. Spider-Man can’t be mixed race. Thor can’t be a woman. Iceman can’t be gay. Too bad. It’s happening. It’s going to be awesome. Hell, I hope there’s a new title that takes place in Earth 6969 where all sexual orientations, races, and genders are reversed, where a black, gay, female Cyclops leads the X-Men. Seriously, superheroes are supposed to be about inspiring you to be better and accepting people. We’re supposed to be amazed that the mild-mannered newspaper writer is in fact our greatest savior. That nerdy kid you picked on is actually the bravest and kindest soul who feels that even though you were an ass to him, it’s his responsibility to help you. Society can believe that a dude can turn into ice, ride around on a slide, fight a living island, live in skyscraper sized spaceship, and teach alien children, but the second you have him question his sexuality you call bullshit. Superheroes are for everyone. God forbid they actually try to reflect the world we live in and let one of the most underrepresented demographics have an interesting character to relate to.”

— When we read this post from Mikey Neilson of Chronicles of the Nerds, we actually cheered aloud. Signed, sealed, and seconded. (OP on Facebook; quoted with permission.)

Does Mr. Neilson equally cheer when white people disrespect non-white culture? When, instead of respecting the existing cultural elements and the people who originally followed the culture and adding on their own new elements to the culture, they just screw around with the existing elements and bully and insult the original adherents if they don’t like the changes?

No, I doubt it. Yet it’s somehow OK when it’s geeks being subjected to this treatment, even though we too have historically been bullied, ostracized, stigmatized, and demonized for our culture. But when the mainstream suddenly decides our culture is their new toy, instead of apologizing for their previous treatment of us and making an effort to treat us with some respect for once while entering our culture, they just not only continue to shit all over us. but act like it’s virtuous to do so.

To which I say: Fuck you.

Because here’s the thing: I’m a woman and bisexual. So, here’s a crazy thought: Give me NEW characters that are female and/or bisexual! And also give me new characters that are black, new characters that are mixed race, new characters that are whatever culture, gender, orientation, etc. you want. I think that’s awesome. I love new characters, and I especially love new characters that are different from the usual crowd.

But fuck you for mocking me for liking the existing characters. Fuck you for mocking me for disliking when my favorite characters get killed off or set aside for marketing stunts. Fuck you for saying that killing off or sidelining male and straight characters that I like in favor of making them female and/or LGBT, or saying characters who’ve never been anything other than straight are now somehow magically gay, is you helping me as a bisexual woman. Sorry, I don’t want your help if that’s the form it comes in.

Especially fuck you for strawmanning our complaints as being about hating diversity instead of the real actual reasons we complain.

And fuck you to feminists and SJWs acting like it’s virtuous to mistreat my fellow geeks in the name of helping me. Where were the feminists and SJWs pretending they’re helping female geeks when I was being shit on by non-geeks and especially other girls for my hobbies? Nowhere, that’s where they were. You know who actually supported me? The male geeks that feminists and SJWs keep shitting on.

Get the fuck out of my fandoms with this bullshit. I’m tired of it. All that feminists and SJWs are is more of the same usual asshole Moral Guardians treating as scapegoats, which is something we’ve been putting up with since geek hobbies first existed. We’ve been blamed for everything from violence, to mental illness, to suicide, to Satanism, and now apparently it’s bigotry that’s the new thing to shit on us for.

FUCK. OFF. You folks in the mainstream want to enjoy our hobbies? Especially all the girls who thought they were too cool for geek stuff who now want in? Then give us a fucking apology and some fucking respect for once, and you’re all golden. But the more I see this sort of bullshit cross my path, the more I will loudly fight you.

P.S. I especially hate when I see my fellow geeks who should know better turn into quislings on this topic. Because, I hate to have to point this out, but you’re the geek equivalent of impoverished whites who vote Republican.

I’ll do my best to address this since it was reblogged from me and I’m assuming the P.S. bit is directed towards me specifically.

I don’t know that anyone is suggesting you can’t enjoy the characters in their original form. And, if they are, well, they ought-not because that’s ridiculous. I guess I’m a bit confused because all the characters mentioned still
exist. No one has been uncreated, right? There’s still Peter Parker in
616, the original male Thor (sans hammer), white Johnny Storm, straight Bobby Drake. Folks have added to the canon. There are multiple universes and a metric ton of convoluted history but the originals are still around.

I don’t think anyone is going to take cis white male characters away.
There’s, like, a 98% to 2% ratio of them in the Marvel U alone.

Comics have always shifted to suit the times and the readership. I started reading comics in the early 90′s which was the hay day of big hair, dark ‘gritty’ story lines, and female characters with breast that resembled floatation devices. And, oh, mullets. Mullets o’ plenty. The characters were primarily male and primarily white but still, as a 10 year old girl, something still resonated with me.

Comics were a boys club in the 90′s. I only knew one other girl who read comics and we were both routinely bullied for 1) drawing stuff 2) being ‘odd‘. This included male geeks who thought we had no business reading ‘their’ comics. ‘Cause girls can’t like comics, don’t you know? I’ve also been interrogated while cosplaying by guys who, apparently doubted my geek cred and took it upon themselves to try to ‘out’ me as a fake. So I guess we didn’t share the same awesome geek guy experiences.

Now I’m in my early 30′s and the comics landscape has changed. The art is better. The stories are more inclusive. There are actual women who write and draw some of the books I love now. And there are so many titles!  I view this as a positive change.

Comic book films have drawn in a lot of folks who previously were either
unaware of comics or assumed they were uninterested.Do some of the
people who tortured me when I was a kid read comics now? It’s possible.
But they read them then too so..?

As consumers we have absolutely no control over who else reads these books. I, personally, don’t see a problem with the influx of new fans and new comics to read. I’m not the gate keeper.