Gabby's Playhouse: Discussing Sexism on the Internet

[mad]

So, recently Kate Beaton made some comments on Twitter about how sometimes guys that like her work will respond with comments she finds creepy/uncomfortable/offensive.

Gabby's Playhouse then did a webcomic entitled "How Every Single Discussion About Sexism and Woman-Type Stuff on the Internet (and real life) Has Ever Happened And Ever Will Happen, Always, Forever, Until the Earth Finally Falls Into The Sun. (Or until the patriarchy is finally dismantled.)"




[Source.]

I don't quite get that last panel, but the rest of it is kinda recognizable.

Comments

(frozen comment)

[halialkers]

I'll simply remind people that the most visible so-called feminists in 2010's elections have been none other than Sarah Palin, Christine O'Donnell, and other self-avowed representatives of so-called Christian womanhood. Were I feeling particularly uncharitable I'd note that it's unfortunately possible the USA's first female President (possibly its last President of any sort depending on how far you give her credit for actually governing were she to have the job) would be none other than Sarah Palin.

(frozen comment)

[pizoxuat]

Thank you? For that reminder? What?

(frozen comment)

[halialkers]

I was simply pointing out that there's a certain string of right-wing thought that is directly contradictory to anything remotely resembling women's interest that has pretty much wrapped itself in the cloth of feminist rhetoric and perverted it beyond all reason, but mention that to the Palinistas and one gets the same exact rhetoric seen in this comic about how people are sexist against the Lady of North if they call her a dishonest lying quitter, which she is.

I said "so-called feminists" because these people are nothing of the sort, and what they want is entirely contradictory to what actually *is* essential to women's rights.

(frozen comment)

[valtyr]

Are you... what, I don't get this, are you blaming intelligent, reasonable feminists for not getting selected as a running mate by John McCain, and not getting lots of favourable attention from Fox media?

Also, isn't Rachel Maddow pretty visible?

(frozen comment)

[halialkers]

No, I'm just pointing out that if it comes to crazies and insensitive jackasses, the Y Chromosome doesn't have a monopoly on it. After all, it was the Lady of the North who pretty much hijacked the health-care program single handedly and tried to claim she was a feminist when she wasn't one.

I said so-called for a reason. She's too much of a fundamentalist to be a feminist and is simply a right-wing Fringe politician, but wraps any and all criticism of herself in the "Sexist pigs" rhetoric that actually *could* be said by say, Rachel Maddow.

(frozen comment)

[valtyr]

Okay. How is this relevant to the comic? It doesn't say that the Y chromosome has a monopoly on assholishness. It says that mainstream discussions on sexism tend to involve a lot of loud male assholes telling a lot of women what is and is not sexist.

(frozen comment) D'oh:

[halialkers]

I'll admit that I interpreted that comic rather too broadly and that the point I've brought up here is irrelevant bordering on derailing if not that in practice. If possible I'd request the mods just freeze the thread now as opposed to prolonging the wankery I started. My apologies, I interpreted this a bit too broadly.

(frozen comment) Re: D'oh:

[valtyr]

Thank you for this; while I do appreciate your point, and it would be an interesting discussion, I also think it is kinda derailing to this topic.

(frozen comment) Re: D'oh:

[halialkers]

Yep, it is bordering on it if not actually doing it, so I think that freezing this thread is probably a good idea, it's a discussion which is not related to this particular OP.

(frozen comment)

[halialkers]

To clarify my statements here as I believe I stated them badly-there is a certain strand of US Right-Wing thought that calls itself feminist and advocates the Kinder Kuche Kirche "female sphere" idea right out of the 19th Century and supports things like banning abortion and preventing women from having access to birth control. It's entirely anti-feminist, the goals put into practice would put women under to put it bluntly totalitarian controls but these people imitate the rhetoric of *actual* feminists who really *do* advocate women's rights and claim pointing out the truth about what they intend is sexism toward Conservative women.

(frozen comment)

[liara_shadowsong]

Oh, those "female sphere" ...people (who I will restrain myself from calling words that might get my account suspended, because I like having posting access). Got it. Ew. Does it make me a horrible person if I'd like to wish lots of bad things on them?

Also: that is a pretty icon.

(frozen comment)

[halialkers]

It's an icon of Wu Zhao, the only female autocrat China ever had. Ironically she did nothing atypical of the male autocrats but to the Confucian literati her unforgivable sin was direct rule.

(frozen comment)

[liara_shadowsong]

Ooh, sounds fascinating. I may have to research Wu Zhao if I ever find them time in between studying for my exams for grad school. Your icon on this post is very nice, too. The self-drawn one I use as my default (this one) feels so... artistically pale... in comparison. Then again, I am only a self-taught amateur, and still pretty psyched that I can draw as well as I can... :)

(frozen comment)

[halialkers]

Eh, it's a shrunk version of a painting of Queen Boudicca of the Icenii, the last strong queen Britain had until Liz I. I did not draw it, and I'll note also that your icon has both a good sense of proportion and is actually quite good. That's a lot harder than it seems, given the number of S_D posts over the years about art-fail.

(frozen comment)

[liara_shadowsong]

You have wonderful taste in art, even if it is not art you made yourself. :) She sounds interesting, too... I think I need to find some time to research history in addition to the mountains of science I have to do for my program.

And thank you! I'm actually very bad at using drawing programs on my computer, because I only have a mouse, and while Mac mouses are wonderful for internet use and the other programs I generally use, such as Office, they suck for Gimp (and my cordless usb mouse isn't much better for that purpose). I wound up sketching this on paper, and taking a digital photograph with my webcam to "ink" and color. Because I haven't figured out how to scan with my printer yet. *grin* My stylization form may not always match my anatomy textbook, but at least it is recognizable as a stylized human being, unlike some of the cases of art-fail that tried to be super-realistic and just dropped into the Uncanny Valley. Not saying it's fantastic (even though I'll never complain about getting a compliment, LOL), but I've actually seen worse get published, so I figure that's a pretty good accomplishment for a semester of drawing and painting in high school and overall not quite ten years of independent study between before and after that, largely without many reference books. (I have a love-hate relationship with art-fail posts. I love to poke at where they go wrong. I hate that they made it into publishing. I once re-drew an image of She-Hulk. It was still vaguely pin-up considering the amount of cleavage, but at least the anatomy wasn't as messed up, and her clothes actually looked like they were held up with more than Spirit Gum and the Comics Code, so I called it a win.)

(frozen comment)

[liara_shadowsong]

Erm... Can you define what the "self-avowed representatives of so-called Christian womanhood" stand for? I ask this in all seriousness, because I myself am Christian and don't recall having ever heard of this term. Is it something specific to their particular branch of religious beliefs, whatever that may be, or to their political ties? (I wouldn't know about this, since my voter registration is not affiliated with any political party, despite my being occasionally tempted to look into joining the US branch of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party.)

The thing that ticks me off about "feminism" are that people use the term who want many, many different things - to the exclusion of what others who lose the term want (people who just want to ensure gender equality, people who believe in female supremacy, people who like current gender roles and think they're great for women, just plain nutsos who I wouldn't trust to define fricking anything...). Me, I'd just love to see a day where people in general openly acknowledge that not everyone has the same reproductive organs, but then proceed to not allow what someone does or does not have between their legs dictate their opinion about what that person has between their ears. Is it really that hard for some people to figure out the whole "don't judge a book by its cover" thing in general (with regards to sex, race, etc etc etc)? *dramatic sigh* Again, WTF is Sarah Palin standing for? All I really know about this person is that she is stupid and annoying, and that one of the numerous factors playing into account with regards to my election decisions was the possibility of ending up with her as President if John McCain was elected and (heaven forbid) something happened to him. I admit, it would be nice to have a female President, but I want it to happen because she happens to be the best candidate running for the office that term, not when it is a person like Palin. Ew.

(frozen comment)

[halialkers]

http://www.cwfa.org/main.asp

In any case, the original comment is actually quite close to derailing this particular discussion and I'm hoping someone locks it before too long. Gonna see if I can find a comic that could actually serve as a basis for this discussion, a comic of this sort is not germane to this.

(frozen comment)

[fifthie]

"feminists"

lolz

(frozen comment)

[halialkers]

"So-called feminists" not feminists. As per my clarification above I'm well-aware that their anti-abortion pro-Kinder Kuche Kirche mindset is about as anti-woman as it gets.

(frozen comment)

[mad]

And I'd like to remind people that The Internet =/= America.

(frozen comment) Another bit of fail on my part:

[halialkers]

You're right. Some parts of it actually come from civilized countries.

(frozen comment)

[valtyr]

Sarah Palin: not a big figure in our 2010 elections.

(frozen comment)

[halialkers]

She's not? She's gotten people like O'Donnell into positions they did not need to be in.

(frozen comment)

[valtyr]

Not only does the Internet =/= America, but America =/= the only country to have elections in 2010.

(frozen comment) Double-D'Oh:

[halialkers]

I figured from the Captain America icon you *were* from the United States. My mistake.