Extra, extra, this just in! There are polite people on the nets!
I am having a discussion in the comments section of my last post, and some people are radically disagreeing with my position, yet everyone is maintaining decorum. There’s been no name-calling, no swearing, no unreasoning flaming... I confess myself amazed! I think a little bit of my faith in humanity has been restored; I’ve never seen a conversation such as the one we are having actually be a conversation before. Usually it’s just people that refuse to listen to each other talking at the air. But we have clearly reasoned arguments on both sides!
I do so love talking with intelligent, polite people.
31 January 2010
30 January 2010
The Return of the Ape-Man (yet again)
Hello everyone! It’s the weekend! I love the weekend because I have more time to study without worrying about working. Have I just revealed what an interesting life I lead? Oh well. When I have my degree, I will become a world-famous code-cracker. During the course of my career, I will be hired by the government to work in the intelligence community. In my spare time, I will decode the Voynich manuscript, and using the secrets found within, I will be able to alter the fabric of reality so that superheroes actually exist!
Why has this become my new goal? I was reading a superhero webcomic. This one, in fact. Heroes Inc. It’s written by Scott Austin, an American from Scandinavia who is also part Cherokee who lives in Finland. The Cherokee must have emigrated to Scandinavia (an unspecified country) and then had a kid who emigrated back, got citizenship, didn’t like it, and scooted for Finland, near as I can figure.
Ok, so I don’t get it either. But in any case. The comic is as a whole very well done. Beautiful drawing and colouring (most times), plot on the upper end of webcomics and superhero webcomics especially, Obama is super-whitified… oh, yeah, and this brings me around to something that stuck out at me like a sore thumb. Besides the white Obama. (Compare skin tone, did he even use a different colour for shading the white dudes?)
This guy is working with old-school comic heroes. To keep true to form, there’s bound to be a bit of hangover racist styling in character design. I can ignore bad physics (and chemistry and math and biology), jeans that hug every curve, women that don’t age at all like women really age (or like the men do), muscles showing through clothes that should never be that pliable, and so forth. It’s superheroes.
At the same time, he’s made changes in places. Look at Blue Buck. Blue Buck looks like a white dude. He’s Cherokee. The only thing that indicates his Native American-ness is a blue feather hanging from his helmet. (You can’t be Native American without a feather.) He isn’t one of those firey redskins, say from Disney or something. He is updated for modern sensibilities.
Now, there is a black dude, and a key point here is that he is, as far as I can tell, not a golden age hero. He’s new, invented for this comic. The black dude is called Lawrence, and… I missed if he has another name. I guess his superhero power bit is more an innate part of him than the rest. Or the government just doesn’t care if anyone knows who he is, he can shift for himself, deflecting all the flack that must have come his way at one point.
Lawrence has the very nice superpower of hulking out. There’s another character that fights for the Nazis (the bad guys, fortunately) who has the same power. Here he is.
Ignoring that all the black men I ever saw in comics (and, if you would like to argue that there are some that are not this way, I am sure you are right: but all the popular, visible ones that I know are this way, which tells you something) have some kind of power that revolves about super-improvement to “natural” characteristics—e.g. strength, speed, or connection to animals—Lawrence has bad luck with his superpower. Lawrence has the unenviable capability of turning into a giant monkey. Yes, a monkey. Look. Monkey.
Now, that big white dude seems a bit short on brain-bits, to be fair. But honestly, a giant monkey? Lawrence SMASH! Savagely. Look, people even notice. Him savage. I wonder if it’s because he is a savage? Black people always are less cultured than everyone else!
You can’t even recognise him. He becomes inhuman. Just a great big ape; there are no features on his tiny little head that bear any resemblance to what he used to look like as a human. Doubt me? Here he is, old. (All black men look like Samuel L. Jackson.) Here he is, young. The white dude, on the other hand, is definitely human. Big, but no elongated, knuckle-dragging arms, no pea-sized head, no instinctive savagery.
The question that I wonder is: was Lawrence designed this way on purpose, or was Scott just so used to seeing the entirety of black men in comics this way that it was actually accidental? And which would be sadder?
Why has this become my new goal? I was reading a superhero webcomic. This one, in fact. Heroes Inc. It’s written by Scott Austin, an American from Scandinavia who is also part Cherokee who lives in Finland. The Cherokee must have emigrated to Scandinavia (an unspecified country) and then had a kid who emigrated back, got citizenship, didn’t like it, and scooted for Finland, near as I can figure.
Ok, so I don’t get it either. But in any case. The comic is as a whole very well done. Beautiful drawing and colouring (most times), plot on the upper end of webcomics and superhero webcomics especially, Obama is super-whitified… oh, yeah, and this brings me around to something that stuck out at me like a sore thumb. Besides the white Obama. (Compare skin tone, did he even use a different colour for shading the white dudes?)
This guy is working with old-school comic heroes. To keep true to form, there’s bound to be a bit of hangover racist styling in character design. I can ignore bad physics (and chemistry and math and biology), jeans that hug every curve, women that don’t age at all like women really age (or like the men do), muscles showing through clothes that should never be that pliable, and so forth. It’s superheroes.
At the same time, he’s made changes in places. Look at Blue Buck. Blue Buck looks like a white dude. He’s Cherokee. The only thing that indicates his Native American-ness is a blue feather hanging from his helmet. (You can’t be Native American without a feather.) He isn’t one of those firey redskins, say from Disney or something. He is updated for modern sensibilities.
Now, there is a black dude, and a key point here is that he is, as far as I can tell, not a golden age hero. He’s new, invented for this comic. The black dude is called Lawrence, and… I missed if he has another name. I guess his superhero power bit is more an innate part of him than the rest. Or the government just doesn’t care if anyone knows who he is, he can shift for himself, deflecting all the flack that must have come his way at one point.
Lawrence has the very nice superpower of hulking out. There’s another character that fights for the Nazis (the bad guys, fortunately) who has the same power. Here he is.
Ignoring that all the black men I ever saw in comics (and, if you would like to argue that there are some that are not this way, I am sure you are right: but all the popular, visible ones that I know are this way, which tells you something) have some kind of power that revolves about super-improvement to “natural” characteristics—e.g. strength, speed, or connection to animals—Lawrence has bad luck with his superpower. Lawrence has the unenviable capability of turning into a giant monkey. Yes, a monkey. Look. Monkey.
Now, that big white dude seems a bit short on brain-bits, to be fair. But honestly, a giant monkey? Lawrence SMASH! Savagely. Look, people even notice. Him savage. I wonder if it’s because he is a savage? Black people always are less cultured than everyone else!
You can’t even recognise him. He becomes inhuman. Just a great big ape; there are no features on his tiny little head that bear any resemblance to what he used to look like as a human. Doubt me? Here he is, old. (All black men look like Samuel L. Jackson.) Here he is, young. The white dude, on the other hand, is definitely human. Big, but no elongated, knuckle-dragging arms, no pea-sized head, no instinctive savagery.
The question that I wonder is: was Lawrence designed this way on purpose, or was Scott just so used to seeing the entirety of black men in comics this way that it was actually accidental? And which would be sadder?
25 January 2010
Bad News And Me
I received some very bad news today. I did not break my diet and eat to comfort myself, as has happened in the past, and I collected myself so that I appeared normal when teaching, and I have already formulated four plans, ranked in order of desirability, to deal with the problem. I am now carrying on with my life. I am proud of myself.
Also, to my friends (you know who you are) and my sister: I could not have done any of this without you. I am immensely grateful.
Also, to my friends (you know who you are) and my sister: I could not have done any of this without you. I am immensely grateful.
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