Feminism

[Apple Cider]

It only gets a touch frustrating, if I am to be honest, to have to explain what sexualization is when a lot of men seem to be panicking over it possibly implicating their own sexual interests in women in general. But then again, a lot of our sexual interests in people are informed by a really broken culture, so have fun with that, I know I have!

[Reyturner]

I appreciate your patience. I really find just Googling for this stuff on my own without knowledgeable people willing to weather these babby's first feminism threads is dicey. There's some real bullshit out there that can be tough to filter out, even when you're aware of your own confirmation biases.

Like, how many people are going to read Ken Levine's latest treat in Game Informer, say "I knew it!" and leave it at that.

[Fingus]

So a Facebook post from Liefeld defending artists like Cho and Campbell from "crucifixion" just exploded. A summary of the post and its replies is here:

http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/news/131231-liefeld-campbell-chin-others-call-for-stand-against-artists-being-crucified-in-wake-of-frank-cho-spider-gwen-controversy.html?utm_content=buffer093af&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

I'm personally surprised that artists with decades of experience haven't learned to process criticism yet. I like their work, but I found myself rolling my eyes reading most of this.

Granted, im not familiar with what I assume is a backlash against some joke they did regarding the spider butt cover. But still, as an artist myself one of the first and most important things I learned was the ability to process feedback. Taking criticism is not about taking everything said to you to heart, because not everyone knows what they're talking about or lack the context to correctly judge something. It's vital to be able to pick out legitimate criticism, and that doesn't mean just ignoring what you don't agree with but recognizing that there is a valid point being made regardless of how challenging it is and even if it's being presented in an inane way.

But once again I will have to concede that the type of feedback I have received has never been in the form of (what I assume is) vitriolic backlash, nor of that scale. Still I assume the same should apply. If a thousand people tell you that you did something bad, maybe it's time to sit down and think. Also, I doubt that during their long careers of drawing cheesecake art they have never faced this kind of criticism before.

[syntheticgerbil]

Those three artists are boring as fuck and always have been, plus Liefeld can hardly draw. They are just defending the boys club. Joyce Chin makes the same money on the same low hanging fruit.

 

Meh, I'm bored.

[Ben X]

syntheticgerbil looooves him some superhero comics.

[itsamoose]

Also, I doubt that during their long careers of drawing cheesecake art they have never faced this kind of criticism before.

 

This is the read I had on the articles I saw making the rounds on Facebook.  Representation and other social dynamics have become a greater part of the public consciousness of late, and because other artists in the past haven't had to deal with kind of criticism to the extent these artists do, they don't know how to deal with it.  I admit I'm guilty of the same thing, though I've always tried to take a step back and see what the people are really saying.  When faced with a criticism you've never heard before, it's difficult to not take it as a personal attack at first regardless of the intention.

 

What is odd to me about this article, and others like it, is this weird dissonance that exists in the reasoning.  The person will say something to the effect of "you just need to have thicker skin" to their critics...while writing an overly hyperbolic rant about how people shouldn't criticize their work in certain ways.  But, fuck it, I've given up trying to make sense of anything the internet does lately.  Long Live Idle Thumbs.

[syntheticgerbil]

syntheticgerbil looooves him some superhero comics.

Hey now Danger Girl is not a superhero, she is just the sexiest spy at the bureau (CIA?(Spycorp?)).

[agorman]

Something good to come out of reddit for once! (Don't know if this qualifies as good, but people on the thread are actually acting like somewhat compassionate humans)

 

There was  a thread where someone asked women to share their moments when they first noticed they were being sexualized. 

Warning, some of these made me pretty physically nauseous, but I think it's important for men to read.

It's pretty telling that all the men's responses are shock, while the women all are nodding in agreement, not surprised at what is being said.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3249ff/women_of_reddit_when_did_you_first_notice_that/

[Merus]

Reddit has one of those threads every six months, including women nodding understandingly because we've all been there right ladies and all the men being shocked because they never cared to find out.

[Apple Cider]

It's hard to broach as a topic because you are told or generally conditioned to believe that this is part of your life, now. And when you bring it up, people talk over you about how it's supposed to be complimentary. This shit starts far earlier than a lot of men realize, despite some of them participating in it, generally. 

[Markson]

I just discovered Gita Jackson on Twitter (https://twitter.com/xoxogossipgita) and she wrote this thing for Polygon which I thought was a good read and might fit in this thread: http://www.polygon.com/2015/4/29/8490019/horror-films-women

[dium]

Yessssss, Gita is the coolest, we hang out sometimes (but not enough).

[Reyturner]

I hope she survives that towel guy gif.

[Apple Cider]

I actually went to go see It Follows with Gita when I visited Chicago, she's fucking RAD. Go read all of her work.

[twmac]

Haven't seen The Guest yet and it is on my list, so I am avoiding that article for now.

 

It seemed like a really awesome topic so it is definitely bookmarked for later.

 

I guess I am posting this here so that someone can go 'It doesn't really spoil the film at all' or confirm my fears.

[Problem Machine]

It seemed like it definitely did spoil the film

[Twig]

Yeah I haven't seen it but definitely seemed spoilery.

 

Although given the title of the movie and the descriptions of what happened it seemed like fairly predictable spoilers. Nothing described there sounds like the sort of thing I would've gone "wow I never expected that". But then I don't give a shit about spoilers, so YMMV! If you're worried, I'd definitely hold off.

[Apple Cider]

Yeah, it spoils what turns out to be the "big secret" of the movie but it's not a twist by any sort. Does Idle Thumbs have a movie watch club? I'd love to talk movies and feminism with peeps.

[dium]

I would be all over something like that, except I'd skip all the horror movies because I am a wimp.

[jenben]

A movie watch club would be great!

[tegan]

Didn't we try that once? Nobody watched the movie and we had like two pages of Gremlins 2 discussion instead.

[Mangela Lansbury]

So it was a success?

[Apple Cider]

Well we can experimentally try one movie and keep it to this thread perhaps? and then if it works out, we can make a new thread for it.

[syntheticgerbil]

I think there was the Criterion movie club for a while. I was considering giving it a go, but then I realized about 95% of the things Criterion releases seem painfully boring to me.

[Apple Cider]

yeah, I'd like to make it fun - maybe a mix of goofy/nerdy stuff with more female-lead driven stories or things with themes we can pick apart or argue about.