Comics Fairplay: Uniqueness and Conviction Demanded

Let me start with a conclusion rather then a warm up.

It is much harder to have convictions then it is to follow the leader and be a sheep.

I have found this out several times here on my blog. Sometimes I get a bit carried away and the wonderful people that post here regularly put me in line. Other times I feel the glow of approval or even the silence of no dissenting opinions. That is the norm here. I am privileged that the people that come here and interact with me are classy, polite people with strong opinions of their own. We are able to find common ground or agree to disagree.
Then there are days like today.

Over the weekend I posted several entries about the artistic portrayal of women and men in super hero comics. I immediately had opposing replies about one post that dealt with my apparent numbness of emotion with regards to breasts while asking men how they felt about how males are drawn as comic art. Then I got linked by the lovely ladies at When Fangirls Attack (it's all love!) and suddenly people I have never seen before are here and have a strong view that doesn’t mirror mine. Differing opinions don’t bother me. What bothers me is that I would bet that the posters only looked at this one entry instead of the series of four that I had done and made a general opinion about me. That DOES bother me.

I know that by having a public blog I risk being unfavorably replied to. I expect that, and know that it is a fact of life. I don’t have a problem with having a strong opinion. My feeling has always been that I would have a forum of my own where I could be fair minded and express my views without editorial censorship. That appealed strongly to me when I started my blog in July 2004.

Here’s the rub. I refuse to follow the popular crowd, so to speak. I will not jump on a bandwagon to get my blog more hits. I also will not express an opinion I don’t believe in. That is where feminism, for example has been a hard topic for me. Let me explain.

I am a firm believer in equality of the sexes. In my mind it is the individual person’s convictions and principles that make their character- gender doesn’t exist to me. In fact, I have always really hated when I hear the obligatory “she must be on the rag” line. Hormones be damned, we all have the body parts we end up with for a reason. As a firm believer in equal pay for equal skills and as a woman who has had success in a male dominated industry, I understand the injustices that can happen as well as anyone. In my personal life as well as my professional life I have been subject to horrible treatment that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It makes me that more sure that equal rights is the correct way, and as I see each generation of man born, I pray for more understanding between the sexes.

That being said, here is the rub. I don’t always agree with other women just because we are the same sex. I will not jump on a bandwagon and heckle a creator because my fellow lady bloggers don’t like him or her. In turn, I will always jump to a blogger’s side if I think they are being unjustly criticized. In all fairness, I have done several posts trying to make change happen, and pointing out that more women should be welcome in the business. I have also tried to make a business model for the comic book companies. I don’t want to be pigeon-holed as a woman blogger. I don’t want my sex or race to matter. I just want to have my say.

That being said, I have a great deal of respect for all you bloggers out there. Sharing your personal expressions is a valued thing in my eyes. The people linked here are important to me, and I love to go read their newest posts.

My message is this: If you come to my blog and you have never been here before, don’t form an opinion until you look around. If you don’t like what you see, that is alright. If you never come back again because you think my stuff “sucks”, more power to you. I would rather have no traffic here then have even a single person make a judgment on me based on a couple of posts. Don’t just get a taste- have a full meal.