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Issue 2 : "The first one's always rough."

HyenaHell

on Feb. 27, 2009

Okay. I usually don't have a lot to say about the covers besides “Gee, that sure did take a long time”. So instead I'm-a rant all postmodern-like with ya on the subject of nekkid ladies. Don't take this as preachy or defensive; it ain't my intent. Like I've said before: I tend to think a bit too much, and talk way too fuckin' much.

I've been accused in the past of creating “degrading” or “objectifying” images of women. Of course, this charge is immediately rescinded once the accuser discovers I'm female. As if the offending image, were it produced by a man, would be reprehensible; but because the creator is a woman, it can now be read as “empowering”, or as making some sort of statement about female oppression, violence against women, etc. While I'm not discounting that the gender of an image's author can be an important factor in its interpretation, there are a couple of problems with that there dichotomy.

First, it dictates that the power of objectification is the exclusive property of “The Male Gaze”, which in turn implies that a female perspective can only be passive- accepting or rejecting the Gaze, but always existing in a subordinate relationship to its assertion. Secondly, it assumes that all female artists produce art with a gendered message. That's kind of like identifying someone as a “Woman Artist”- it implies that she must make “Women's Art”, not “Art with a Capital A”. Furthermore, it makes presuppositions about the creator's gender identification. Some people don't categorize themselves within the confines of traditional binary gender identities, and not everyone who is biologically or genetically female enacts a “female” persona.

Still reading? Wow.

Real Feminism is about equality of the sexes; holding everyone to the same standard regardless of what junk they happen to have been born with. It's not that I'm satisfied with the status quo, but creating a double standard where women can “get away” with things that men can't isn't helping anyone.

And another thing: I'm aware that my comic doesn't live up to some people's standard of “feminist-friendly”. Whatever. I hate it when things get filtered through this “political correctness” prism, and people lose sight of the reality of how humans actually behave and interact. We ain't livin' in the fabled “best of all possible worlds”, and I'm not gonna force myself to write or draw that way. I try to write three-dimensional characters that behave in a somewhat realistic way. My male characters are sometimes gonna be degrading, lewd, and abusive towards women. My female characters are sometimes going to be bimbos or bitches. Everyone's gonna be stupid and selfish. Nobody's gonna get along. No lessons are gonna be learned. And for fuck's sake, there will be no hugging.
***
Me respondin' to stuff y'all said last page:
@Josh: Oh, of course it matters.
@Patrick: Yup yup. I kinda cobbled together the title bar as an afterthought- I was just lucky I could pull an image from the already scanned pages that worked. Ya might notice we've got ourselves a brand spankin' new one now. Which is good, because the speech bubble on the old one, what I drew in Gimp, is… bad.
@kmajor: I think it's "opossum" in the States, and "possum" in Australia. However, I grew up in the rural South, and in most local writing it's spelled "possum"- that's how I've always written it. I guess us hillbillies can't be arsed with silent letters, see?
keneticlopx: The "end" was… well, it's kind of a mystery, looking back on it; because obviously the comic doesn't end- in fact, issue 2 pretty much picks up right when #1 left off. Maybe I didn't actually believe I'd keep doing it? I dunno. There's an "end" at the end of Ch. 2, but that's 'cause it's the end of the introductory story arc.