I have to disagree with you on the bit about Blade. I read every issue of Tomb of Dracula (where Marv Wolfman created him) and I think he's better fleshed out as a character there than in the movies (which are filled with plot holes and things that just don't make sense like the near incestual scene where he sees his mother). Granted, it's harder to find and is developed over dozens of issues - but it's there.
What do you think of Bendis' version of Cage in The Pulse and Daredevil?
BTW - I couldn't find the gettoshake site. Could you provide a direct link?
Feminism isn't a nuanced socio-political critique and attacking databyss on this point shows that you're merely trying to frame the argument in such a way as to get your agenda across. Feminism is and can be many things but in practice it is: an ideology, a socio-political agenda to advance the rights of (genetic) women, and a belief system much like a religion that appears to hold women as victims above all else/others.In some hands it is even a human and civil rights struggle.However, given the level of oppression in thought and of others (treatment of bisexual women, transgenders and men)I don't see feminism as the paragon of virtue you apparently do.
Where are most women generally humiliated? Unless this is the case in Podunk, Arkansas I don't see it. I also don't see how it is that women don't objectify or attempt to enforce their own versions of "appropriate" gender roles. I've certainly seen it often enough.
First of all databyss never said he knew what feminists want. Heck, I'd argue that feminists don't know what feminists want.
By stating that you know what "feminists" want is to state that there is a single unifying delineation of what feminism means and stands for. Despite the attempts of many to have the "one true feminism" there's a great deal of debate on what those goals should be. I'd argue that your "feminists" are merely a different selection of random women than databyss's. Still, nice of you to excuse women wanting to have it both ways
"There's a lot of FUD surrounding gender issues, mainly because everyone thinks they understand "men" and "women" as social classes based solely on their own interpersonal experience."
There is indeed a lot of FUD surrounding gender (or rather in this case - sex)issues and you're contributing
I don't see where you haven't done the same. Nor have you proven a point anywhere that comics are inherently sexist, despite the fact that it is obvious that is the point of view you're espousing.
You didn't like what Azzerello did with the character? I think what he's done with him and Bendis' treatment of Cage are quite good.
That isn't to say that you don't have some interesting ideas though. You might consider pitching it to Marvel if you're so inclined and able to write comics.
One argument that I might make that Storm isn't used more in the movies is that quite frankly Berry doesn't fit the part. She's a big name actress but she isn't tall and doesn't comport herself as an African goddess at all. She does,however, do her job by getting people to come out and see the movie because she's in it.
What's the problem? S/he's right. Your supposition seems to be that comics are inherently sexist. Instead of proving your point you've attacked someone that makes valid points. You've got to *know* a thing before you pass judgement on it. I don't see a lot of knowledge in any of your posts on this subject. By brushing an entire medium with broadly negative comments indicates that you are either ignorant of the medium or choosing to smear it for reasons unexplained. Not enjoying a medium doesn't make the medium invalid.
How you got modded up to 5-interesting is beyond me especially since it looks like you're trolling. You clearly know not of what you type.
"What always makes me laugh is how otakus try to justify their objectification of women in comics as somehow empowering to women. By cladding the female characters in skin-tight suits that leave nothing to the imagination and giving them powers, they are somehow less objectified than you'd assume at first glance. Oh no, they are totally powerful, according to the geeks."
First you state *otakus* which as stated elsewhere is incorrect. Secondly it is the creators of the comics that write and draw them - not otaku which are necessarily consumers by definition.If you are stating that female characters are often poorly written or scripted I'd have to argue that that's often the case regardless of gender. Comics are, for the most part, seen as boy's/men's entertainment much as FPS games are. That doesn't make the entertainment *itself* or how it deals with things inherently sexist. If the only comics you're reading objectify women you're not reading good comics.
"Of course, at no point are they ever in charge, in normal clothes, homely, or out of the control of some male superhero."
Right. So I'll just pretend that Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey, Storm, Moira MacTaggart or any number of strong characters that happen to be women ever existed. Yeah I forgot how Elektra needed Daredevil all the time... Asinine. The number of homely people period in mainstream comics is few (and I reckon with the wholesale slaughter of characters the Big Two are carrying on they'll all be gone).
Gail Simone, Devin Grayson are great in mainstream comics (both having done various Bat-family characters and Simone having a particularly twisted sense of humor that informed her run with Deadpool quite well).
I never liked Witchblade but Christina Z is well thought of as a writer. Former comics writer Ann Nocenti did some decent work on Daredevil. I was never impressed by Louis Simonson's work but she was quite popular as a writer in the 80's.
Saige is wrong about women in comics both as characters and being involved in the making of them. The problem is that women and girls just don't tend to buy superhero comics. It's seen as much as a boy's idiom as dolls (not action figures) are seen as girls'. That's tended to be taken as discrimination,which in a sense it is- just not by men.
Please also see these books by the great Trina Robbins (herself a writer in underground comics):
http://207.150.192.12/temp/trinarob/outofprint.htm
I like the idea of in-game mods and devs as characters. I think the interactivity of it would add a great deal to the game. Something akin to a live Positron et al. Plus I think people would be jazzed to run into Statesman et al. every now and then.
Hello Jack (and all) I was formerly a player of CoH and there were a few things that brought me down:
1. A lack of vehicles - I realize that CoH isn't meant to be GTA online, but in having non-powered punisher/batman etc. type characters it necessitates breaking that mold in order to get a movement power (and one dies a *lot* without one/them).
2. Chat - while having IRC type controls are kind of nice, the fact that you had a finite and relatively small amount of people you could add are a pain. This problem is particularly acute when you're a blaster that plays off hours making the need to collect as many healers as possible;let alone other folks that are your friends.
3. Supergroups - in many comics characters belong to more than one group.I think that either having a primary SG and affiliations with others would be a plus - or alternatively being given the opportunity to belong to an infinite number of SG's.
4. Cataclysms - Every now and then in the comics (at least the Big Two) there's a cataclysm that involves and indeed _requires_ the assistance of all heroes. There could be server wide and cross-server cataclysms that would up the ante excitement-wise for some time. Examples: Mageddon in JLA, varied Crises (DC), Cosmic Wars (see Thanos, Warlock etc - Marvel) etc. These shouldn't happen more than once a year but there should be some major fun involved in cross-server action.
5. Other - I really think that there ought to be more to do than beat downs and constantly looking to raise XP. It'd be nice if you could get xp by talking strategy or a form of crafting or whatnot. I don't have a clear idea of how this should look but playing for hours just doing beatdowns gets old after awhile (incidentally I bought this for my son who got sick of it a couple months before I did, due to the repetition). Making the game more of an item-hunt would suck too.Perhaps triggerable arcs that only apply to certain classes under certain circumstances would make the feel a bit more personal as well.
I wish you the best of luck and I hope that at the very least the chat and SG issues can be changed as I'd like to have reasons to return.
Slashdot Mirror
I have to disagree with you on the bit about Blade. I read every issue of Tomb of Dracula (where Marv Wolfman created him) and I think he's better fleshed out as a character there than in the movies (which are filled with plot holes and things that just don't make sense like the near incestual scene where he sees his mother). Granted, it's harder to find and is developed over dozens of issues - but it's there.
What do you think of Bendis' version of Cage in The Pulse and Daredevil?
BTW - I couldn't find the gettoshake site. Could you provide a direct link?
Feminism isn't a nuanced socio-political critique and attacking databyss on this point shows that you're merely trying to frame the argument in such a way as to get your agenda across.
,whether they stayed home or not, rather than join the workforce full time).
Feminism is and can be many things but in practice it is: an ideology, a socio-political agenda to advance the rights of (genetic) women, and a belief system much like a religion that appears to hold women as victims above all else/others.In some hands it is even a human and civil rights struggle.However, given the level of oppression in thought and of others (treatment of bisexual women, transgenders and men)I don't see feminism as the paragon of virtue you apparently do.
You're jumping all over the place here. Just how you get from one person's personal experiences to extrapolating an entirely specious statistic (Did you not read what the project was about? It isn't about Domestic Violence in general) is a leap of logic (by way of a particularly horrible comic strip) that defies description.
You have not credibly shown by your comments that women as a class are disempowered. You have also not credibly proven that women haven't in some form or fashion chosen these roles even if true (I clearly remember times when women were chastized for raising children
Additionally there is no possible way that any reasonable accounting of domestic violence not account for: male on male, female on female and female on male (and this isn't even taking into account transgender and intersexed people) violence making any commentary on a mythic 95% entirely suspect.Certainly when those other potentials are eliminated (and they haven't been explored in general amongst U.S. studies).While you're formulating your response I offer these links to other positions on domestic violence:
http://www.mensrights.com.au/page13q.htm http://www.mensrights.com.au/page13c.htm http://www.dvmen.org/dv-28.htm http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/domesticviolence4 2.htm http://www.batteredmen.com/batfact.htm http://www.dvmen.org/dv-32.htm#pgfId-1353321 http://www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm http://www.teamcares.org/alternative_abuse.html http://www.menstuff.org/issues/byissue/whodv.html http://www.wyrdsmiths.com/index.php?fid=lawrdv
Where are most women generally humiliated? Unless this is the case in Podunk, Arkansas I don't see it. I also don't see how it is that women don't objectify or attempt to enforce their own versions of "appropriate" gender roles. I've certainly seen it often enough.
First of all databyss never said he knew what feminists want. Heck, I'd argue that feminists don't know what feminists want. By stating that you know what "feminists" want is to state that there is a single unifying delineation of what feminism means and stands for. Despite the attempts of many to have the "one true feminism" there's a great deal of debate on what those goals should be. I'd argue that your "feminists" are merely a different selection of random women than databyss's. Still, nice of you to excuse women wanting to have it both ways
"There's a lot of FUD surrounding gender issues, mainly because everyone thinks they understand "men" and "women" as social classes based solely on their own interpersonal experience."
There is indeed a lot of FUD surrounding gender (or rather in this case - sex)issues and you're contributing
I don't see where you haven't done the same. Nor have you proven a point anywhere that comics are inherently sexist, despite the fact that it is obvious that is the point of view you're espousing.
Your comment here should really be modded up. Far, far past the parent.
Just to nit-pick it was only the original Jay Garrick Flash whose origin involved hard water vapors.
There were boatloads of non-powered superheroes in the 1940s, some of whom - like Wildcat - still are in use today.
You didn't like what Azzerello did with the character? I think what he's done with him and Bendis' treatment of Cage are quite good.
,however, do her job by getting people to come out and see the movie because she's in it.
That isn't to say that you don't have some interesting ideas though. You might consider pitching it to Marvel if you're so inclined and able to write comics.
One argument that I might make that Storm isn't used more in the movies is that quite frankly Berry doesn't fit the part. She's a big name actress but she isn't tall and doesn't comport herself as an African goddess at all. She does
What's the problem? S/he's right. Your supposition seems to be that comics are inherently sexist. Instead of proving your point you've attacked someone that makes valid points. You've got to *know* a thing before you pass judgement on it. I don't see a lot of knowledge in any of your posts on this subject. By brushing an entire medium with broadly negative comments indicates that you are either ignorant of the medium or choosing to smear it for reasons unexplained. Not enjoying a medium doesn't make the medium invalid.
How you got modded up to 5-interesting is beyond me especially since it looks like you're trolling. You clearly know not of what you type. "What always makes me laugh is how otakus try to justify their objectification of women in comics as somehow empowering to women. By cladding the female characters in skin-tight suits that leave nothing to the imagination and giving them powers, they are somehow less objectified than you'd assume at first glance. Oh no, they are totally powerful, according to the geeks." First you state *otakus* which as stated elsewhere is incorrect. Secondly it is the creators of the comics that write and draw them - not otaku which are necessarily consumers by definition.If you are stating that female characters are often poorly written or scripted I'd have to argue that that's often the case regardless of gender. Comics are, for the most part, seen as boy's/men's entertainment much as FPS games are. That doesn't make the entertainment *itself* or how it deals with things inherently sexist. If the only comics you're reading objectify women you're not reading good comics. "Of course, at no point are they ever in charge, in normal clothes, homely, or out of the control of some male superhero." Right. So I'll just pretend that Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey, Storm, Moira MacTaggart or any number of strong characters that happen to be women ever existed. Yeah I forgot how Elektra needed Daredevil all the time... Asinine. The number of homely people period in mainstream comics is few (and I reckon with the wholesale slaughter of characters the Big Two are carrying on they'll all be gone).
Gail Simone, Devin Grayson are great in mainstream comics (both having done various Bat-family characters and Simone having a particularly twisted sense of humor that informed her run with Deadpool quite well). I never liked Witchblade but Christina Z is well thought of as a writer. Former comics writer Ann Nocenti did some decent work on Daredevil. I was never impressed by Louis Simonson's work but she was quite popular as a writer in the 80's. Saige is wrong about women in comics both as characters and being involved in the making of them. The problem is that women and girls just don't tend to buy superhero comics. It's seen as much as a boy's idiom as dolls (not action figures) are seen as girls'. That's tended to be taken as discrimination ,which in a sense it is- just not by men.
Please also see these books by the great Trina Robbins (herself a writer in underground comics):
http://207.150.192.12/temp/trinarob/outofprint.htm
Indeed. :)
I like the idea of in-game mods and devs as characters. I think the interactivity of it would add a great deal to the game. Something akin to a live Positron et al. Plus I think people would be jazzed to run into Statesman et al. every now and then.
I think it should be a bit more balanced even if you have to "cheat" by coding it so that death is less costly to those particular classes.
1. A lack of vehicles - I realize that CoH isn't meant to be GTA online, but in having non-powered punisher/batman etc. type characters it necessitates breaking that mold in order to get a movement power (and one dies a *lot* without one/them).
2. Chat - while having IRC type controls are kind of nice, the fact that you had a finite and relatively small amount of people you could add are a pain. This problem is particularly acute when you're a blaster that plays off hours making the need to collect as many healers as possible;let alone other folks that are your friends.
3. Supergroups - in many comics characters belong to more than one group.I think that either having a primary SG and affiliations with others would be a plus - or alternatively being given the opportunity to belong to an infinite number of SG's.
4. Cataclysms - Every now and then in the comics (at least the Big Two) there's a cataclysm that involves and indeed _requires_ the assistance of all heroes. There could be server wide and cross-server cataclysms that would up the ante excitement-wise for some time. Examples: Mageddon in JLA, varied Crises (DC), Cosmic Wars (see Thanos, Warlock etc - Marvel) etc. These shouldn't happen more than once a year but there should be some major fun involved in cross-server action.
5. Other - I really think that there ought to be more to do than beat downs and constantly looking to raise XP. It'd be nice if you could get xp by talking strategy or a form of crafting or whatnot. I don't have a clear idea of how this should look but playing for hours just doing beatdowns gets old after awhile (incidentally I bought this for my son who got sick of it a couple months before I did, due to the repetition). Making the game more of an item-hunt would suck too.Perhaps triggerable arcs that only apply to certain classes under certain circumstances would make the feel a bit more personal as well.
I wish you the best of luck and I hope that at the very least the chat and SG issues can be changed as I'd like to have reasons to return.