I’ve been wanting to write this
for a while, and I’m hoping that getting this out my system will let me focus
on my normal work (i.e. Psychological analysis of criminals).
Like almost all things this
whole situation is a very complicated one, so I’m going to approach it from various
viewpoints and hopefully you can maybe all expand a little by yourselves and
form your own opinions (or just pick the bits you like and have them re-affirm
what you already believe, the conformation bias is real!)
So, to begin I’d like those of
you old enough to cast you minds back school.
For those of you that didn’t
flinch when I asked you to do that, you won’t understand the following: School
is like a weird little microcosm of adult society in many ways, and a great
example of the in-group and the out-group. I am sure you all had the in-group
at school, the kids who got to decide what was “normal” and would also find
anything they could in the people around them to criticise and pick-on because
they didn’t maintain their in-group through self-affirmation, they did it
through the deprecation of the “other”. School for the out-group became an
exercise in trying not to come to the attention of these kids, or trying to
live up to their impossible standards in order to make your life a little less
unbearable.
The reaction to this is for kids
to often embrace their own little counter-culture in-groups, that’s how you get
the weird little cliques you often see (or were part of), the goth kids, the
jock kids, the weird kids, and of course the geek kids. I personally spent many
a lunch break hidden with my bunch of weird, D&D playing, nerd-friends in
the psychology room. Mostly for the privacy it afforded us to talk about crazy stuff
without having some bitchy group of girls or laddish group of boys wander past
and decide to bump up their own social standing by scoring some cheap hits off
us. Of course this was back in the 80’s and 90’s. Back when admitting you liked
computer games or superhero’s would earn you nothing but scorn and ridicule
from the “in-group” so you kept your pleasures to yourself, and if you were
lucky, your friends too, and just got by until you could enter adult life and
leave the constant scrutenty of the “in-group” behind.
Then in 2002 the release of the Spiderman
movie that had decent special effects, good acting and (arguably) didn’t suck,
as well as the rise of gaming consoles like the PlayStation and N64 which
presented computer games as something much more accessible to everyone brought
these previously very niche interests into the mainstream marked the beginning of
a change in popular culture. Suddenly
you could discuss your favourite video games openly without worrying about serious
social repercussions, and as the years rolled on and more superhero movies were
made, comic books suddenly became something that it was okay to be interested
in, instead of some guilty pleasure that you had to keep secret.
This leads us to the present
day, and the point of this post:
Some people (and we all know
them) never really got out of that weird cliquey school stage of social interactions,
the only way they really feel they can be part of a group is by identifying who
they are allowed to exclude.
Now the test of what side you
fall on this particular argument is who you envisioned when you read that last
paragraph (if anyone). The weird “alpha-nerd,” who insists on quizzing other to
establish their nerd-cred. Or the obnoxious faux-victim girl who spends all her
time sighing about how dreamy Loki is and scorning the neckbeards who insist on
trying to talk to her.
The latter is the “Geek Girl" (or sometimes "gamer girl") in
the pejorative sense, is the person who was very much the “in-group” in the 80’s
and 90’s. The social bully, who wants to be involved with something only because
it affords them the benefits of being in the in-group. These are the people who
shout the loudest; that something that was previously a quiet secret little
pleasure for people to enjoy now has to change to suit their sensibilities,
not necessarily because they are offended, more-so because they need to have
control over others and over the in-group they have claimed as their own. The
push-back against this attitude is then labelled as all evidence they needed
that they are persecuted and of course were right all along in their demands
that something they previously scorned, now must accommodate their needs.
I’m going to use the example of
the “women and minorities in comics” argument as an example of why this in
infuriating to the established comic community. Recently and annoyingly I see
more and more click-baitey and scathing editorials, articles, and blog posts
demanding better representation for the aforementioned groups in comics. This is
annoying to me because it betrays you as the group I outlined above, how do I know
this? Well for a start… Comic books were and are one of my guilty pleasures,
and like the hipsters, I liked them before it was cool. I know that this demand
betrays them as people who don’t care about the comics as much as they care
about pushing an agenda for three very good reasons.
Back in the dim and distant year
of 1999, one of the most highly lauded writers of comics called Warren Ellis
spearheaded a comic run called “The Authority” under the Wildstorm comics label
(Not Marvel or DC, they managed to somehow remain independent and making money,
but closed their doors in 2010 as they simply could no longer compete with companies
that were making movie-money hand over fist). The Superhero team was led by
Jenny Sparks, who was about as far away from any existing tropes of comic book
super-heroines as you could get, after reluctantly being drafted into a
superhero team prior to this run, one of her proviso’s for her membership was “I’m
not wearing one of those ridiculous body condom things, I don’t have the bust
for it.” And indeed spent the rest of her career in pretty sharp looking suits,
or casual jackets. When forming The Authroity, Jenny recruited two other superheroes’
for her team; Apollo and The Midnighter, who were revealed (very tastefully)
later in the series to be gay. I’d like to remind you at this point that this
is back in 1999, before it was cool to like comics, and before Spiderman had
been released. This was and is progressive as hell, and you know what? There
was no backlash, there was no pushback, the characters were well rounded, believable,
tasteful and well written so nobody cared. Contrary to one of the current
narratives the cis-white-male nerds of the community of the time didn’t implode with
indignation or vitriol. It was even nominated for “Outstanding Comic Book” in
the glad media awards as recognition of it being a good story! Because in reality, that is all anyone cared about.
If you prefer a more mainstream
example then we can look to Nick Fury. The original Nick Fury was whiter then
an albino in a snowstorm and wasn’t re-cast as black (and Samuel L. Jacksoney) until
2001 with the release of The Ultimates, which was Marvel’s new line at the time
to re-tell some of their classic storylines with a more modern, and less campy
spin. This re-boot was used in many ways as food for the movies that would be
upcoming. Again, at the time, superhero movies were still not very much a
thing, and the comic book fandom was unmoved by a sudden racial change to a well-established
character because it was done with tact, rational reasoning, and taste, and the
writing and the art was solid. The first issue being number 4 in the top 300 of
comics sold in its opening month. Again, the alleged cis-white-male hegemony was
not only silent, but approving of this change.
Which leads us to the present
day push-back, which seems at odds with the examples I have just given, but
allow me to elaborate. Growing up social awkward is tough, and there are some
individuals who never really grow out of that schoolyard mentality on the
comic-side of the fence too. They view any intrusion to their in-group as
something to be repelled, not especially because of xenophobia (though that may
be a part of it) but more to do with them learning that treating others as they
have been treated is the only way to deal with their problems. When somebody
comes over and they aren’t identified as instant in-group material (Whatever
that is to them), they find the little things they can pick on (like a lack of encyclopaedic
knowledge of comics) and then attempt to shame, ridicule, and enforce an out-group
their target in the way that they are so used to experiencing themselves, and of course they get that rush of power that that comes form being the bully. They
betray the in-group/out-group thinking that was typical of their past enjoyment
of their hobby and their resentment manifests in this mirroring of the bullying
themselves experienced on others.
And ultimately? That’s what this
whole fracas is about. Bullying.
The use of social power to force
others into submission, or capitulation. To make yourself feel powerful and influential
at the expense of others.
If you want to be involved in a
hobby, love it for what it is. You can find something you like if you look hard
enough and you shouldn’t need to change it if it’s something you love. Likewise,
if you’re already involved in something you love, share it. If People need a
gay Superhero then I submit to them to read the Midnighter’s stuff, it’s awesome.
If they need a strong female lead then you can
find one without gender-swapping a male lead, if you can’t find one then ask,
there will be a nerd with encyclopaedic knowledge around to help you!
A hobby is never about the
personal, the political, or the powerful. It’s about the game, it’s about the
comic and about the community. If you want it to be about “you” and/or you seek
to shame, coerce, or belittle others to make yourself feel like more of a member
of this in-group. Then: Congratulations, you’re the bully.
And you need to grow out of high school.
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