Turtle Soup: Fangirl Invasion
Sep. 2nd, 2010 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
turtlesoupSo first of all, remember that anthology submission I posted about in July? Today I found out that I got in, which is pretty awesome. It's called Inbound 5, the fifth volume of a biannual publication put out by the Boston Comics Roundtable. I'm told it'll probably be out by the end of the month. :)
Anyway, here's a new Turtle strip (getting really close to filling out that mini, now!):
This is one of those times where I had this idea, and I'm not entirely sure about its execution. Also, not the most timely strip I've ever done; see, last year, there was this whole rash of articles about a "fangirl invasion," inspired in large part by the massive attendance of Twilight fans at Comicon.
Now, goodness knows I don't like Twilight. And if these articles had focused on the invasion of non-comic media interests that have basically co-opted the industry's premiere event, I'd have had a lot more sympathy - because yeah, the massive hype and film-focus irks me. But instead, those articles largely focused on the gender of the Twilight fans, falling back on the tired stereotype of comics fandom--of geekery--as a male-only space.
What struck me about this was that I'd seen nearly the exact same thing done before. There were no girl geeks before Harry Potter! Anime and manga have lead the girls into our hidden fortress! I'm sure it goes back further still, and it's ridiculous. I can't believe we're STILL doing this.
Nevermind that there are just categories of geek that may not have been recognized as such because they were female-dominated (say, I don't know, Jane Austen fandom) ... women have been science fiction/comic/etc geeks since such things existed. We can't invade a place where we already live.
Maybe the geek blogosphere will be able to take the next giant media sensation in stride; that'd certainly be refreshing.
Anyway, here's a new Turtle strip (getting really close to filling out that mini, now!):
This is one of those times where I had this idea, and I'm not entirely sure about its execution. Also, not the most timely strip I've ever done; see, last year, there was this whole rash of articles about a "fangirl invasion," inspired in large part by the massive attendance of Twilight fans at Comicon.
Now, goodness knows I don't like Twilight. And if these articles had focused on the invasion of non-comic media interests that have basically co-opted the industry's premiere event, I'd have had a lot more sympathy - because yeah, the massive hype and film-focus irks me. But instead, those articles largely focused on the gender of the Twilight fans, falling back on the tired stereotype of comics fandom--of geekery--as a male-only space.
What struck me about this was that I'd seen nearly the exact same thing done before. There were no girl geeks before Harry Potter! Anime and manga have lead the girls into our hidden fortress! I'm sure it goes back further still, and it's ridiculous. I can't believe we're STILL doing this.
Nevermind that there are just categories of geek that may not have been recognized as such because they were female-dominated (say, I don't know, Jane Austen fandom) ... women have been science fiction/comic/etc geeks since such things existed. We can't invade a place where we already live.
Maybe the geek blogosphere will be able to take the next giant media sensation in stride; that'd certainly be refreshing.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-05 02:14 am (UTC)b) Holy crap! There are geeky girls? I am shocked! Shocked!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-08 03:35 pm (UTC)I know, right? It's like they materialized out of thin air!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-08 03:19 am (UTC)and geek girls? next they'll be telling us that water is wet.
i'm pretty sure the first star trek convention had women in the organizing group. and there was a woman (forget her name) that organized the write-in campaign that got TOS a 3rd season.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-08 03:38 pm (UTC)I know, right? I can't believe I even had to make this comic. My mother wasn't a congoer, but she was a deeply invested Star Trek fangirl from the year it came out - not to mention an avid reader of superhero comics and fantasy novels - all when she was significantly younger than me, too. Whoever writes those articles clearly has the memory of a goldfish.