One more thing about SDCC

After reading this post over at DC Women Kicking Ass I couldn't help but make one more post about SDCC. At each DC panel there was a woman dressed as Batgirl who took DC to task for their treatment of their female characters in this upcoming relaunch, and more importantly, for their lack of female creators.

I felt a need to make this post because my only acknowledgement of female fans outrage was that one woman shouting "How can you justify calling that diversity?" at Dan Didio. However this other woman (who has not revealed her real name, hence me awkwardly referring to her as "this woman") was the exact opposite as she calmly and clearly presenting each of her concerns to the panel. But instead of receiving proper responses the panel were flippant to her serious inquiries. Worst of all these responses came from people like Grant Morrison and Jim Lee, people I've grown up reading, people who are now helping to perpetrate a boy's club mentality at DC.

DC Women Kicking Ass also posted an interview with this woman who later on touches upon one of my criticisms about that previously mentioned female fan, namely that a female character associated with a male character is somehow weaker than those who are not. She explains "Johns [stated] that DC had more iconic female characters than anyone else, and also said that he loved Mera, who was a great character and ‘right there next to Aquaman’. The first woman Johns mentioned in response to my question wasn’t Wonder Woman, it was a character defined by her relationship to one of the male superheroes." Emphasis mine, and it's a fair enough argument, because no matter how developed Mera is as a character she wouldn't exist without Aquaman.

But you know what's the most disturbing part about all of this? At a separate panel she bluntly asked Didio if he was committed to hiring female creators and his response is "I’m committed to hiring the absolute best writers and artists.” Upon pointing out that this makes it seem as if there are no talented female writers and artists the audience grew furious. She never did get a proper response.

So not only does Didio not see a problem with this it also seems male fans don't either. That's a pretty upsetting reality for female comic fans.

I know I'm not really adding anything here but I felt like doing what I could to spread the word about DC's stance towards female fans and if this topic matters to you I ask that you do the same.