One of the bigggest problems in the thinking of minority bloggers, is the seeming inabillity to distinguish actual sexism from theior perception fo such due to their expectation of it. As an example this rant from here
The thing is, too, if comic writers did only let bad things happen to the straight, white males and suddenly treated every character from an underrepresented group with kid gloves, it would take a long time before straight, white male comic readers understood (as a group, because there are individuals out there who definitely have a clue) what it feels like to be on the outside. It’d be a long time before those straight, white male comic readers would understand the feeling that it’s an uphill battle for someone like you to reach a position of significance, a battle that could be quickly undone.
Here we see a perfect example of what I am talking about. The author is correlating the perception of an uphill battle wiht the actuality of said. Furthermore he is asusuming that the experience of "being on the outside" is soemthing only few straight white males have experienced,whereas I would submit that virtually anyone who has ever attended High School has said experience. In point of fact the notion of ebing an "outsider" is universal in the human experience we all fell it from tiem to time, and Comic Book superheroes even more so. The very reason said theme is so common in comcis is becasue its so common to the fans life experiences. All in all he doesnt start out well andit only gets worse.
That’s the sentiment that gets missed every time by one (if not both) in these little controversies. Straight, white male readers don’t read the death of Superman and feel a loss for their entire group. Straight white male characters get to be individuals. People who didn’t like Emerald Twilight had the convenience of being angry with how Hal Jordan was treated. Did anyone feel that the loss of Hal Jordan meant there was less of a role for straight, white men in the DC universe? If, in the middle of Young Avengers/Runaways, all of the non-minority characters were captured, readers wouldn’t have thought “Hm, those are all just the straight, white men!”
And again we see the perception of victimisation rather than any actual proof of said. In order to assume that the death or mistreatment of a particular character will result in "less of a place" for your particular sex, ethinicity etc, one must first come from the perspective that there is a limited place to begin with. In other words if you dont already think that theres "little place" for black superheroes in the DCU, you wont assume the deah or mistreatment of a black character will elad to less of a place. Its only when one has a preexisting victim mentality that one percieves oneself as a victim due to the treatment of a fcitional character.
More importantly, in any WiR-type of discussion (and, sadly, most of the issues raised by the Women in Refrigerators list ends up applying to ethnic, religious and sexual minorities, as well) the Dead Men Defrosting dynamic is overlooked.
You know why it doesn’t matter that Wolverine also died and was resurrected in the same storyline that Northstar did? Because it’ll be a long time before anyone who idolizes Wolverine will buy the idea that Wolverine will be left dead by Marvel. If you’re gay, however, it’s not so hard to believe that, for Northstar, death could very well be permanent. (Besides, has he fully returned to the status quo, yet?) It doesn’t matter that Northstar came back, either. Killing Northstar was a plot point that wouldn’t have worked without playing upon the feeling of marginalization that makes it possible to believe that his death would last — that plot point wouldn’t have been able to generate so much talk otherwise. That’s the one trend I see in WiR that repeatedly gets missed. The Clone storyline might have been wildly unpopular but it didn’t ruin Peter Parker for good. On the other hand, being revealed that Lilith Clay was the daughter of Mr. Jupiter rendered her unusable for future writers, except as a throwaway victim.
And again here we see both a lack of logical thinking combined with an assumption of victimisation. The reason Noone would take seriously the idea of Wolverines death being permanent has nothing to do with his sexuality, and everything to do with his marketabillity. To put it simply, Marvel is not going to slaughter a cash cow. On the other hand a third tier character with a small fanbase is precisely the type of character best suited to a sensationalist death. I dont know who Lillith Clay is or why the idetity of the father would "render her unusable" there are several heroines who are the children of a supervillain and none of them are unusable. A a nitpick while the Clone storyline may be widely panned online, to call it unpopular, at elast judging by the sales figures is ridiculous. I would also point out that had marvel followed its original idea for the clone storyline many would have considered it to have ruined spiderman.
Id also point out the very idea of "ruining" a fictional character in a universe where time travel and retcons exist is simply inane.
As usaul we see the complaints of feminsits boil down to emotion and perception being passed off as logic and reality. Will things ever change?
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