Paul Cornell is looking for gender parity at Con panels...

[icon_uk]

From Paul Cornell's website



"Okay, so this was something I came up with yesterday, and it's mad, and is, frankly, a rod for my own back, but what the hell, it's going to make this coming year a lot more interesting.

I think there should be gender parity on every panel at every convention. I'm after 50/50, all the time. I want that in place as an expectation, as a rule. Now, to make that happen, what really should be done is a ground-up examination of society, huge changes at the heart of things which would automatically lead to women being equally represented everywhere, not just on convention panels. Well, we've all wanted that and worked for that for decades, especially those of us in fandom, and it just hasn't happened. So, this year, I've decided that I'm going to approach this problem via the only moral unit I'm in charge of: me. I'm going to approach this problem from the other end. And this approach is going to be very much that of a blunt instrument.

If I'm on, at any convention this year, a panel that doesn't have a 50/50 gender split (I'll settle for two out of five), I'll hop off that panel, and find a woman to take my place. "

There's more text at the website, but I'm impressed by his initiative.

So, thoughts people? :)


For legality, the cover to Demon Knights 7 by Mike Choi, which includes a rather impressive outfit for the Questing Queen, a little action-figure-y perhaps, but given my Saint Seiya tastes, that's not really a problem for me! :)

Comments

[peur-evol.blogspot.com]

The whole comics industry is nowhere near a "50/50" split.
I think he's going to be walking off of a lot of panels.
Good idea but a but a bad way to do it.
Instead of walking off, why not just address the issue in whatever panel he's in?

[madlaughter]

I support equality and would not be against more women in the industry. But every panel, every convention? Lets say this were applied to the Amazing Spiderman panel. Between the director, writers, Spidey, Gwen, Lizard, Aunt May/Uncle Ben, George Stacy (probably the 6 most important characters), that's 7 men, 2 women. Do you just bring women who play extras onto the panel? Tell Martin Sheen and Andrew Garfield to not bother showing up?

There's a good chance that other women worked on the production, but those 9 people at the top are the 9 people that anyone standing in line for 6 hours want to see.

On the flip side, if I were at a panel for AMC's the killing, a show staffed largely by female writers, I wouldn't expect them to shoehorn in men just to make it equal.

[milleniumrex]

Definition of putting the cart before the horse. You can't get a 50-50 split at panels if the industry doesn't even have a 75-25 split. Especially when it comes to corporate superhero comics.

I respect and appreciate what he's going for, but all this is going to do is deprive fans of the chance to ask one of the best writers of female characters in comics some questions.

[nightauditguy]

Etrigan thinking: ~That's what I get for asking to motorboat her~

[donnblake]

I get where he's coming from, but this really seems an odd way to go about it if it's meant to be anything but a pure attention grabbing stunt. It's about the different ideas of equality of opportunity and equality of results.

That is to say, the difference between saying, "It should be just as easy for a woman to get a job in the comic book industry as it is for an equally qualified man," (the qualifications here being, let's say, the ability to reliably produce quality work on a regular schedule), and saying, "Comic book companies should hire people based on their gender so as to maintain an equal ratio of men-to-women."

No, that's not quite right. Cornell isn't suggesting that anyone lose their job or not get one based on their gender. It's just the idea that gender should be the overriding concern when selecting someone for just about anything besides sex-partner or genetic donor or somesuch that strikes me as just as problematic as the issue it's trying to address.

On the other hand, I get that maybe something like this is intended to be a step towards a more equality of opportunity model for the industry. It's hard to just go and change the male-centric setup of the industry over night, and this is a rule that COULD be implemented, or even if not, something that Cornell himself could continue doing.

[stubbleupdate]

Gail Simone will be very, very busy at Con Season

[kurenai-tenka.livejournal.com]

Man, I just love Paul Cornell so damn much.

[valtyr]

It's worth noting he made this announcement shortly after the guest list for Kapow was released. I advise anyone wondering how even the split is to check out that guest list - and check out last year's guest list, too.

Kudos to Paul Cornell for noticing this, and acting in a way that will both be a small correction, and draw attention to the problem.

[q99]

I like him.


Also? Nice cover!

[dancesontrains]

...surely the solution re. not enough women creators to join a panel is to hire more ladies? Maybe do it like orchestras apparently have for the last few years, judge the quality of the art/writing/colouring/etc without knowing the name of the creator.

[crabby_lioness]

So gallantry is not dead after all. :)

[kenn_el]

I'm going to do the same thing at my meetings at work! Genius! With luck, I won't have to sit through another snoozefest for a year!