scans_daily: The Rocket's Song

arbre_rieur (

arbre_rieur) wrote in

scans_daily,
@ 2012-01-04 06:19 pm UTC

Entry tags:

char: superman/clark kent, creator: andy kubert, creator: grant morrison, title: action comics

The Rocket's Song

Four pages from ACTION COMICS 5...

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valtyr
2012-01-05 05:46 pm UTC (link)

Apologies, I wasn't intending to yell at you - more at the writer, if at anyone.

Whether it sounds poetic or not, there's a long tradition of gendering every damn thing women do, while men are more often just allowed to do things without it being about their gender. I'm sure he didn't mean to be negative, but why not come up with something poetic and elegant for Jor-el which intimately combines his reproductive status with his intellect? Why isn't he a fatheriatrist or a dadographer?

I mean, were it a cultural thing that bound up one's parenthood or lack thereof with one's profession and how one performed, that would be original and potentially interesting. As it is, it comes across as the tired old nonsense that even in superadvanced species across the galaxy, a woman's womanhood is the most important thing about her and must never be overshadowed or go unmentioned for a second.

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arbre_rieur
2012-01-05 07:48 pm UTC (link)

See, I'd argue that her motherhood is vastly important in this scene and therefore appropriate to mention. That's her and Jor-El's role in the whole mythos, really -- they're the mother and father to the last son of Krypton. And I imagine that's why the AI also explicitly brings up Jor-El's status as the father as well ("Jor-El, the father, such a mind.")

And, as an aside, I also read it, alongside "exquisite calculations," as hints that, as a living AI, the rocket views mathematics as something more than just cold equations the way humans do. Heck, if she programmed "Brainiac" here, than she's his mother, too.

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valtyr
2012-01-05 10:30 pm UTC (link)

Mention, yes. I don't have a problem with that at all. Conflate with her profession, no, unnecessary. There's not reason she couldn't be mother and mathematician.

Heck, if she programmed "Brainiac" here, than she's his mother, too.

If mothermatician refers specifically to being an expert in the calculations of the equations to produce new life, that's completely acceptable to me. However, I'd need some actual textual evidence for that. *shrug*

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	no subject arbre_rieur 2012-01-06 10:38 am UTC (link)
	There's not reason she couldn't be mother and mathematician. Whereas I read "mothermatician" as meaning just that (like congresswoman means "member of Congress and a woman"), with a wacky portmanteau thrown in for punny fun and to make it more alien and, er, artificial intelligence-ish. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

	no subject valtyr 2012-01-08 02:42 am UTC (link)
	Yes, but the point is when they do it to the female character and not the male, it ties into a long tradition of insisting a woman's profession cannot be separated from her femininity. Rather than making congresswoman from congressman (a word that already has a gendered component), it makes poetess from poet. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

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