Kira and you both appear to think that one way to do this is through celebration of the achievements of this apparent minority, but I believe that this singling out is counter-productive, reinforcing the idea that these women are the exception rather than the norm, that women need more attention and help in order to ‘make it’.

You know, I used to think the same thing. Really. I even raised a fuss on Websnark in the comments one time when they were talking about Girl-a-matic and I said I wouldn’t want to be associated with a girls-only comic group because I wouldn’t want other people to see me as “just a girl”.

But a self-declared feminist asked for more comics written by women. She didn’t ask because she was attempting to convince the readers that women were the better comic authors (or even equals) she asked because she wanted to read more women authors, and, having done so, offer others exposure to them. As Jon said, that’s not the same as saying their better or worse.

I ask, if Kate had instead posted a message stating that only 1/5 of her comics were in the “gaming” subgenre, would you have responded, “Why on earth should you be writing about comics just because they’re created by gamers? ”

(To which my answer would still be “because other gamers might be interested”.)

And part of this also goes back to trust in the author. I was willing to give Kate a list of girl-driven comics she might not be reading because I trust she’s not going to post every girl-written comic she finds and write about each and every one in the same tone. I expect she’s write something intelligent and critical (as in critical-thinking) about each comic she feels has merit and not just “Look! This one’s written by a girl! And look! She can tie her shoes, too! But she surely can’t post, “Hey, are you reading Dicebox?” if she’s never heard of Dicebox.

(And, off-topic, if you’re not reading Dicebox and you like social/plot comics, you should.)

Nic also said:

I said that the article was inspired by guilt because of this quote:
I read about 20 comics over the course of the week. And of those, five of them are created by women.

To which my kneejerk response was, and still is, “So what?�

If you said, “I read twenty comics a week, and of those only five are about toys and I want to give toy comics more exposure so suggest some to me”, I’m not sure I’d feel your request was guilt-motivated. I’d say there are outside influences coloring your perspective of the article - which, of course, is true of all of us.

It’s just, y’know, it’s not a lose-lose to everyone. That’s all.

And of course, the point was that 3/4 of well-known comics are created by men. The quality of being well-known not necessarily having anything to do with merit, the reasonable question was asked, ‘Can you suggest any others? Cause I may be in a position to affect their exposure.’

Kira suggested that it was interesting to divide comics by gender because it offered a different perspective. I disagree, not because I am against ‘different perspectives’, but because I believe a) the perspective offered by someone being purely of a particular gender is not sufficient, on its own, to tell me whether I will find the comic funny, interesting or well-drawn, and b) such a division serves to artificially segregate and divide the audience. I spoke briefly of prejudice, and you said yourself that comics are a traditionally male-dominated area, which implies to me a tacit agreement with the idea that we have not levelled the playing field as yet. Kira and you both appear to think that one way to do this is through celebration of the achievements of this apparent minority, but I believe that this singling out is counter-productive, reinforcing the idea that these women are the exception rather than the norm, that women need more attention and help in order to ‘make it’. The world is full of various institutionalised prejudices - why should we make it easier for people to act upon them?

I said that the article was inspired by guilt because of this quote:
I read about 20 comics over the course of the week. And of those, five of them are created by women.

To which my kneejerk response was, and still is, “So what?”

The comics business is traditionally a male thing. Highlighting those who are changing that isn’t a bad thing, nor is it somehow guilt-driven. And of course there are numerous other reasons, as helpfully highlighted above. Of course, it all comes down to viewpoint. There are those who think that the world is full of various institutionalized prejudices, overt and hidden (depends where in the world you are); and there are those who think that’s an argument used by those who can’t make it on their own. Wonder how law students come down on this issue?

Also, the tool doesn’t erradicate difference so much as transform everyone into middle-class white males. And why would you want to erase difference anyway? Hiding from issues seems like the lazier path to me.

I am a fellow who only finds comics by women an enhancement to a otherwise boring life!

Has it occurred to any of you who are objecting to or defending the honor of female comic creators that maybe we’d like to hear about each other — not because we “gots boobs” — but just because we want to find comics that share a similarity to ours?

Men write from a different perspective than women. (Duh.) So different things may happen in a comic written by women than it does in a comic written by men. So why wouldn’t we want to share those links for that reason?

I say if someone had written a post asking for all the comic authors influenced by Chuck Jones, nobody’d divide into Pro-Bugs-Bunny-Support and Comics-Are-Comics-Chuck-Jones-Was-Nothin’-Special camps.

So why should it be different when someone asks for comics in the subgenre of “created by chicks”?