Pen-Elayne on the Web

Falling Boulders

In his journal entry today, Neil Gaiman (link at left bar) mentions, "Some months ago I sat and signed a lot of letters from the CBLDF to various people, mostly people in comics, asking for help -- donations of money or time or artwork. The first person to respond suggested we auction off the panties of hot female cartoonists."

Now I admit, when I read this sentence the first thing I thought of was the very funny story that Colleen Doran related at her "Women and Comics" discussion about washing her delicates with a purple shirt by mistake prior to a trip to Puerto Rico, and finding said undies mysteriously vanished from her luggage upon return, because we all found it amusing. But it's one thing to relate a wacky personal anecdote, and a far different thing to submit a leering and immature fundraising suggestion to a board member of an organization already dogged by occasional accusations of sexism (i.e., that an overwhelming majority of their court cases seem to involve the rights of creators and publishers and retailers to make and sell materials that some perceive as pornographic and/or degrading to women) - moreover, a board member who obviously doesn't share this fellow "professional's" sense of "humor," as Neil has always shown the highest respect to his many female friends and fans, and is one of the few Lifetime Members of Friends of Lulu.

You know, I have a whole thread in my Forum on the Penciljack message boards dedicated to coverage of female writers and artists in the online comics media. I maintain two, soon to be three, lists of the women involved in doing comics on FoL's website. I consider myself a first-hand witness to the wonderful strides women are making in a heretofore heavily-male-dominated industry. But when I read stuff like this it feels like Sisyphus almost getting to the top of that mountain, only to have the boulder come crashing down again. This prevalent attitude among creators who really ought to know better is why the industry still needs advocacy organizations like FoL, every bit as much as the prevalent attitude among non-comics cognoscenti that "all comics are just for kids and should never deal with adult themes" is why organizations like the CBLDF are so vital.