Representation (Just Like This Panel) Is Important (And Awesome)

The difference between the second panel I attended and the first was like emerging from a den of ignorance and into the shining light of truth. This panel had actual creators - Amy Chu and Alitha Martinez were especially impressive - and an amazing moderator, Alex Simmons. We talked about the problems creators and characters of color (say that three times fast) face every day, the differences between creating for DC or Marvel versus doing indie comics, and online racial/sexual harassment, to name a few. Each panelist had a unique individual perspective and was aware enough of the general milieu to provide an excellent basis for discussion. We even talked about solutions to said problems.

Left to Right: Alex Simmons, Amy Chu, Alitha Martinez,
Laura Lee Gulledge, Jeremy Whitley

"You gotta wait for those old guards who just don't get it to die." - Alex Simmons

Paraphrasing Alitha Martinez: You need to make new characters, not just colorize a classic.

We talked a bit about "voting with your dollar," and it made perfect sense at the time. But how do we get the  general (let's be honest, still predominantly white, male, and straight) comic book audience to vote with us? And how to we communicate that we're buying, for example, Captain Marvel because Carol Danvers is an interesting character and not because Carol Danvers is an attractive blonde? Food for thought...

P.S. I need to be reading Amy Chu's Girls Night Out starting YESTERDAY. Just ordered my copy!

"Yes, There Are Girl Gamers. No, They Are Not Hosting This Panel."

First post of my Awesome Con recap starts on a low note: the panelists from Nexus Gaming Alliance "resident Gaming Ladies" all canceled, leaving two people I believe to be "the Nexus chiefs" to run the show. Two of the first things out of the (biologically) female moderator's mouth were "I am not a gamer" and "my brain is male*." Her only claim to fame was that she was "friends with" some professional gamers. Okay... if you are not a female gamer and claim no credible expertise about gaming in general, what are you doing hosting this panel?

She did provide some interesting statistics, like 68% of households play video games and 40% of the gamer population is female. But it quickly became clear that these were derived from a web search. While some of them might have been credible, it would have served her better to cite peer-reviewed articles. Like, I dunno, articles from any of these journals.

Awesome Con Diversity Track

The second  annual Awesome Con, DC's pop culture and comics convention, is this weekend! The first year was kind of a mixed bag for me. As some of you know, I yelled at a panel moderator for being blatantly sexist (while I myself was cosplaying as Lt. Uhura from Star Trek TOS). Mimosas may have been involved. 

ANYWAY. That's all the in past. This year's programming has a healthy dose of panels discussing representations of women and people of color. Here they are complied in one handy place - I call this the "diversity track," since they're basically all filed under different tracks on the Awesome Con website. 

Saturday

11AM - Saturday Morning Gets Funky: "this panel take audiences back to the 70's when black characters became popular in main stream cartoons."

1PM - Yes, There Are Girl Gamers: "discussing the silly behavior of men online." [Promising title, but the summary is a bit flippant for my taste. Let's see how this plays out... pun intended because my puns are always intended.]

2:30 - Representation Is Important: "Come and learn what comics creators are doing to help the diversity of the world change comics and hopefully help those comics change the world." 

Sunday

11:30 - Sexism, Violence, and Geekdom: "discuss depictions of masculinity, femininity, and gender-based violence in the geek community." 

12:45 - Women In Comics: "discuss women in cartoon-land: characters and creators, the changing world of comics, and how they make their livings with pen, paper, and a mouse or two." 

Hope to see you there!