A dustup in the comic book world reminds us — as if any of us needed reminding — that the world of comics fandom is filled with a lot of the same sort of garbage people who’ve been harassing (mostly) women in the name of #GamerGate.
The sightly confusing story: On Friday, a bunch of “variant” comic book covers featuring The Joker alongside an assortment of other DC comics characters were posted online, with DC planning on releasing two dozen more “variant” covers for June.
One of these covers, intended for Batgirl #41, featured The Joker and a terrified-looking Batgirl, an unsettling reference to an quarter-century-old graphic novel called The Killing Joke, in which the sadistic Joker crippled Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl, with a shot to her spine. The Joker’s sadism was highly sexualized, with the graphic novel strongly suggesting that she had also been sexually assaulted.
Well, a lot of Batgirl’s present day fans were upset by a reminder of this dark storyline, in part because, as Jude Terror writes on The Outhousers, a cover referencing sadism and sexual assault is a bit “contradictory to the lighthearted tone” of Batgirl comics today.
After hearing this criticism, the artist behind the cover, Rafael Albuquerque, asked DC Comics to pull his artwork, noting that he never meant “to hurt or upset anyone through my art.”
DC Comics granted his request. But DC’s official statement also alluded to “threats of violence and harassment,” which many people took to mean that Albuquerque and DC Comics had been bullied into pulling the artwork by, you know, those evil “social justice warriors” we hear so much about.
Nope. It was the” antisocial injustice warriors” all along. Albuquerque made clear that he hadn’t actually gotten any threats. As Batgirl writer Cameron Stewart noted, it was the people who criticized the cover who were getting threats.
That’s right. Albuquerque and DC took down the artwork because some of the DEFENDERS of the artwork were harassing critics in their name.
Ethics!
Naturally, the people who previously brought so much ETHICS! to the world of gaming have some highly ETHICAL opinions on this controversy.
On Kotaku in Action, Reddit’s home for the #GamerGate crowd, commenters complained that Albuquerque and DC had given in to “a bunch of screeching hens on Twitter.”
“Another win for the feels-censors,” one commenter lamented. “Yeah for moral panic and outrage for they win the day!” another commenter remarked sarcastically.
“I say fuck ’em,” still another commenter defiantly added. “Be as fucking edgy as you want, and if anyone complaints, just tell them “don’t buy it moron”.”
But my favorite comment is probably this one, not just for the “let me explain to you how art works” stuff but also for that slightly ironic bit at the very end.
Dude, I hate to have to tell you this, but you’re part of a movement whose main goal is to shut down peope who disagree with you.
#GamerGate has spent the past, what, six months, harassing and threatening and trying to ruin the lives and the livelihoods of game developers and journalists and cultural critics for the terrible crime of … saying things you don’t like about gaming culture (sometimes even while being female).
Indeed, #GamerGaters have managed to convince themselves, if very few others, that it’s somehow “unethical” for journalists to publish anything #GamerGaters don’t like. And then they complain about “censorship?”
H/T — Big tip of the hat today to Skiriki, for alerting me to this and providing helpful links, and to lifestyled on GamerGhazi for a post highlighting some of the best — i.e., worst — comments from GamerGaters on Reddit.
@Tessa – Wouldn’t it be nice if, just once, they saw something they didn’t understand and tried to figure out what the difference was instead of just assuming everyone other than them was being fake to push an evil agenda? Come on, slow-witted fools. Even if it is to push an evil agenda, there still must be some actual, distinctive reason to choose the Batgirl cover and not the Wonder Woman cover.
It isn’t edgy in the first place. What is supposed to be edgy about that? There is nothing subversive about rape. We live in a culture that accepts rape and shames the victims of rapists. FFS. Add that to the list of words misogynists don’t know the meaning of.
Gadzooks, the mansplaining in telling women to simmer down because ladies just don’t get art. What an ass.
@strivingally
That’s better than the tweaked image I saw. I was scrolling through comments on one of the articles and someone had posted a version of the cover with Anita Sarkeesian’s face in place of Batgirl’s. I didn’t immediately recognize the man substituted for the Joker and I didn’t want to take the time to find out. It’s disgusting because they clearly understand what the image implies and yet still want to apply that situation to a real person.
@ej:
It also contradicts: “But what’s wrong with this? It’s just art!”.
Yeah, it’s art that has meaning that applies negatively to 50% of the population on a daily basis. And you prove you acknowledge the meaning by applying it in a real-life case. Idiots.
It’s negative and triggering because it applies too readily to a situation a large percentage of women have actually experienced.
I meant to add:
It’s like constantly waving pictures of people being tortured in front of someone that was brutally tortured. Do you think they’d understand that analogy? Or somehow wave it off as irrelevant, unrealistic, not their problem etc.?
Of course they did. I bet they think that’s edgy too.
lith,
That depends. Is that someone a white, straight, cis man?
I don’t know – anti-feminist, white, straight, cis men don’t experience pain and therefore torture the same way as anyone else, it’s far more intense. Or it’s far less intense, I think it depends which point is being argued at the time and what would make the other person shut up best.
OH look the quote monster got me and my reply got mixed in with the post I was trying to reply to.
“Do you think they’d understand that analogy? Or somehow wave it off as irrelevant, unrealistic, not their problem etc.?”
Based on their track record, my guess is that they’d be incensed that someone wanted to infringe on the freeze peach rights of the person waving the photograh.
So I don’t follow comics (about all I know is from the few comic-to-movies I’ve seen), but my bf does and we were discussing this last week. As an “outsider”, when he showed me the cover I just thought “Yea, there’s a villain holding a gun to batgirl’s head. Thank god it’s not sexualized.” I was relieved that the worst thing about it was the violence, from what I could tell. He told me a lot of people were calling for the cover to be withdrawn because they were offended, and not knowing the backstory, I didn’t really see why.
Now that I know a little more, I can understand why people were upset, and they have a right to express their opinions without being threatened or harassed. This is what I told my bf last night. He came back with phrases like “censorship wins again” and “evil tumblr feminists” and I just about shit my pants. I tried my best to set him straight because he’s not a bad man, just ignorant. But that moment you realize someone very close to you has been influenced by and is now thinking like those asstrolls in the manosphere is horrifying…and I just had to share. If anyone can relate, I could use some comforting. I’m still a little shaken by it. 🙁
Looks like Cameron Stewart had to lock his Twitter account, as gamergarbage rushed to harass him. :/
@because reasons:
I’m sorry. 🙁 That’s horrible. 🙁 🙁 🙁
@skiriki Thank you. It was a shock but I think there’s still a chance to talk some sense into him. When I explained what a “feminist” is, he conceded that anyone harassing others is probably NOT one. So that’s a start.
@because reasons:
I can understand that, I think the real test is – can he listen to your opinion on the subject and understand your point of view.
Honestly I think a lot of people believe things because they’ve never had their beliefs challenged. It’s how you deal with challenges that’s important.
When I started university I thoughtlessly said one or two fairly homophobic things to my new best friend who a week later came out. I suddenly realised I didn’t actually believe any of what I’d said, it was just something that people said where I came from. Still shitty I said it but I just did not know any better.
I hope he finds the same.
@lith
Very true. I am, of course, guilty of this too. Which is why I firmly believe he’s just ignorant and since he spends most of his time in gamer-comic-online message board circles, these are the beliefs he has internalized. He DOES listen to my opinions and that’s a good sign, even if he isn’t always eager to abandon his false logic. He didn’t really know what a feminist was, for example, because all he heard about that word was the negative stereotype of feminism. Thanks for pointing this out!
@because reasons
I’m sorry that happened, but it’s great that he will listen to you. It’s easy to accept ideas because “everybody says/knows/does that.” It takes a lot more work to look at those ideas and decide whether or not you agree. Unfortunately, some people are willing to put in that work.
I like that people here are generally ready to take on board someone else’s opinion – either changing their own point of view accordingly or accepting that they differ. And there’s some fairly emotive stuff which makes it all the more impressive.
@ej You’re right, it’s not easy to engage in self-reflection and challenge our ideas. Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. I do all the time and I think it’s just what healthy individuals should do to keep growing. Since I’ve been educating myself on what feminism really means, misogyny, etc. one of my fears is that I would find out my SO had sexist beliefs/notions…which is why this freaked me out. But I think most men, unless specifically raised as a feminist or working to become one on their own, have some sexist/misogynistic ideas ingrained. It’s how our society works- patriarchy and toxice masculinity depend on it. So all I can do is pass on the good/correct information and hope he’s willing to at least consider it.
@because reasons:
So exactly! And it’s why so many of the ‘little’ things feminists complain about aren’t little at all. Insufficient representation in films? Random strangers offering unasked for criticism? Sexualised images of women everywhere?
We grow up knowing these things and if it’s never challenged we just straight believe it. And because we all grow up with it everyone around us believes it too and just confirms what we already know. Feminists aren’t people we know so they’re an outsider group to be derided, because they want to change the status quo, and there’s nothing wrong with the status quo.
Which is why I try to teach my kids respect for themselves and other people, in the hope their generation can get out of this cycle.
@lith
This makes so much sense. Thank you! The one advantage my bf got was being raised by a single mom (unfortunately, she was a “tom-boy”, who was basically raised to act like one of the guys- which is NOT bad, except when that includes being sexist and thinking sexism is perfectly normal.) And re: your kids, kudos to you! Wish more parents would make the effort (seems like common sense to me).
@strivingally, thanks for posting the modified image. My first reaction to the original was that it did Batgirl a disservice by making her look helpless and terrified. Yeah, that’s how most of us would react to the Joker, but Barbara Gordon is not most of us.
Thanks.
My daughter felt she had to be a boy to do ‘boy things’, started identifying as a tom-boy so she could play rugby etc.
But she was picking up other ‘boy behaviours’ to fit in, ones I can tell she’s just following to fit stereotype.
I’d love her to understand that she can do these things because she’s a person and doesn’t need a label that restricts what she can do (even if it ‘lets’ her do stuff she likes, because she can do that too!).
I think she’s getting there, she loves my little pony now 🙂
(as do the boys).
@lith @because reasons
You are both so right. Sexism is ingrained in our culture and the only way to get rid of it is to challenge it, even the small instances. Sexism is so accepted by our society that we don’t even see it any more…unless someone draws attention to it. The more attention we draw to inequality, the more people realize it is there and the more we can do to fix it.