princelesscomic:

as much as im anticipating this comic, the recent panel of adrienne left me a bit sour. shes purposefully being ambiguous when she rants about “fair.” fair can easily mean “beautiful,” “good,” “clear-skinned,” etc. and on top of that she uses an ad hom to frame him as some chauvinist dunce when he could just mean well in saving her. i think you mistook ‘sassy’ w/ ‘smug and fallacious’ and thats not a good look on anyone, really.

 Anonymous

Hey Anon, thanks for writing to me.

A couple of things to clear up before I dive into this:

1)  This page is from issue 1 which was published in September of 2011.  So, you can check out the whole book and get a bit of context if you like.

2)  I understand what you mean when you say “sassy”, but it (like fair) is a problematic word.  To “sass” someone or to “give sass” is to talk back or be disrespectful to a figure of some authority.  This is problematic, because when you call a woman “sassy” you are implying that the person to whom they are speaking is their superior or a figure that holds authority over them.  It assumes a relationship wherein the woman is inferior and that’s problematic.  Especially as it is often used to describe black women who have an opinion or refuse to be treated as lesser.

Which, neatly brings me back around to the conversation at hand.  I don’t know you.  I don’t know who you are.  You chose to be anonymous so I’m probably going to over explain myself.  Don’t assume that I think you’re stupid, white, or male - but I have been all of those things and so tend to explain to that perspective.  Here we go.

“Fair” is a difficult word.  It can mean a lot of things.  And while you are claiming she is being un-fair in her assessment of his meaning, it’s a fair-ly common usage of the word.  The word fair can in fact mean beautiful or good, but to throw the term “clear-skinned” in that lot is to muddy the pot quite a bit.

Generally, when we use the word “fair” to describe a woman we are using the term to mean “light skinned” “white” or “clear of complexion”.  The most common place we see this in modern culture is in Snow White, a character who is “the fairest”.  It is not a coincidence that these words appear side by side.  White and fair.

Tolkien uses it the same way in describing elves.  They are on many occasions described as being “fair” “white” and “beautiful”.  Fair-haired, fair-skinned - it is what it is.  It means what it means.

Now, did the prince mean it this way?  No, but that’s the point.  The prince is using a problematic word in ignorance.  

AND THAT’S THE REAL PROBLEM

Racism and sexism are not things that are always intention.  They’re institutional.  There are words in our language which are problematic or downright offensive to people because they have been used to discriminate against them.  For some of us, specifically white people and specifically men, these words are part of our lexicon and we may not even know they’re problematic.  I know plenty of people who talk about being “gypped” or “jewed” or think that the term “N——r Rigging” is a harmless turn of phrase.  They think this because they have never been discriminated against using these words.

Here’s the thing: a person not knowing they are being offensive does not mean that they are not offensive.  It simply means that they are reinforcing a pre-existing system of racism and sexism.

And really, that’s what this book is all about.  This book is about challenging the pre-conceived notions of what it means to be a girl and what it means to be a princess.  It’s about not playing into a system which has long held you down.  It’s about determining how you will be defined.  And that’s what we’re talking about here.  People have the right to choose how they will be referred to and if that means that someone does not want a word which is used to make them seem lesser used to describe them in ignorance - then that’s what I stand for.

So, yes, maybe Adrienne could have sat down and told him all of this, but that’s not her responsibility.  And seeing as she was locked in a tower against her will with this guy trying to save her against her will only so he could take her as a bride against her will - I think she’s entitled to have a lack of patience with her oppressor.

And I’m sure when Adrienne finally meets back up with her father, she will likely be sassy to him.  Because, you know, she’s a minor, her father, and the king…so that would definitely count as sass.

Thanks for writing and I hope I explained myself adequately,

Jeremy

girljanitor:

tomithejellyfish:

thesargebag:

Warning, do not read around anything both extremely valuable and breakable.

I write articles about racisms for Cracked sometimes! This is one of those times!

omfg this is literal gold

“And then what? Up will be down, dogs will marry cats, the Hot Pockets will microwave us!”

LOL

(via gatothenovice)

On a non sappy gross note, I made a mini comic thing. Read it on my website or on my Facebook.  =)

gh0stick:

bridgioto:

Just hangin out with that inner critic, yo. She’ll creep up on you like nobody’s business.

I think one of the hardest things to learn when you’re starting out on a making-stuff journey is which bits of that voice are valid and which bits are a waste of time. A lot of it can drag you down and get you stuck so much that you can’t find the confidence to face the stuff you need to do to get better. But once in a while there’s a real piece of honest self-reflection. Telling the difference between those two can be super tough; knowing when to listen and when to just chin up and move on.

oh god uploading a long comic to tumblr did i do this right

extra addendum i ate a whole bunch of fruit by the foot while drawing this, i think it is becoming my official Art Fuel

friggin brilliant, thanku

(via zan77)

blackfolksmakingcomics:

comicsalliance:

Outrage Deferred: On The Lack Of Black Writers In The Comic Book Industry

By Joseph Hughes, Editor-in-Chief

This is the first week of Black History Month, a four week celebration and remembrance of the significant events and people of the African diaspora. For many, myself included, it’s a month to reflect on where we’ve been, as a people and as a nation, and to contemplate exactly where it is we’re going. In terms of the comic industry, an obvious interest and passion of mine, there is one glaring and sobering fact that needs our attention: There is currently not a single black writer working on a monthly series for either of the two biggest comic book publishers in the United States, and precious few working for any of the others.

And yet, this fact has hardly been discussed recently, in the way some other diversity issues are. So what happened, exactly? Why is it that we no longer seem to care about this as much as we once did? Where has our outrage gone?

Read more.

Please read this article.

And, as always, don’t let some comments drive you mad. That’s what these trolls want you to do. Don’t give ‘em the satisfaction.

(via sunshine-empress)

(Source: aburningrose, via racebending)

princelesscomic:

princelesscomic:

wrench-wench:

princelesscomic:

Everybody, issue 2 is in solicitations…and Adrienne has something to say.

This is probably the greatest comic book cover I’ve ever seen.

Aaaaand…that just exploded.  51 notes in ten minutes.  Now I know what time Tumblr is awake!

Robot 6 picked us up.  Now we’re officially a controversy…with a comment section and everything! http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2013/01/princeless-rips-the-cover-off-comics-covers/

mattlim-bago:

Where volcanoes come from, according to Cake the Cat. If you lot haven’t read Natasha Allegri’s ADVENTURE TIME WITH FIONNA AND CAKE you are missing out!

(via savoto)

girlinfourcolors:

Artists: Lauren Armstrong (left) & Kenneth Rocafort (right)

Disclaimers may be in order.

First, I hate everything. It’s seriously the first thing out of my friends’ mouths when I’m done speaking to them. “Ceridwen, why do you hate everything?” Let’s just get that out of the way so I don’t have an inbox full of similar notes when I’m done with this. (What am I saying, people don’t read this blog.)

Second, I understand the intent behind The Hawkeye Initiative. The work that the management is busy with, drawing attention to the sexism inherent in mainstream comics art, is good work. It’s important that more people do this work, and on that level, I wish them success.

The Hawkeye Initiative has been live for about a week now, and the response has been incredible. Quite literally, in fact: It strains credibility to think how quickly this project has taken off. In seven days, the blog has been featured on io9, ONTD, Bleeding Cool, and Know Your Meme.

By comparison, Escher Girls, which has been doing the work of highlighting the sheer amount of sexist art in comics for over a year now, still doesn’t have the following that The Hawkeye Initiative has built in the last seven days.  In the interests of full disclosure, the woman behind Escher Girls is a personal friend, but I want to be clear this isn’t a case of envy-by-proxy. I’m more interested in exploring why this discrepancy exists.

My take? People care more about issues of sexual exploitation if that exploitation directly effects men. We see this time and time again in our day-to-day lives. The sexual abuse of young men and boys makes national news, and the narrative surrounding them explores the psychological damage caused by their abuse. “What he might have gone on to achieve” is a common refrain in these stories. Meanwhile, the narrative surrounding the sexual abuse of young women ignores all of this in favor of finding some way in which her rape and abuse was her fault. Even in cases that avoid this trope, such as (most, though not all cases of) the abuse of underage girls, “what she might have gone on to achieve” is never even considered.

While objectification is not as “serious” as rape, it remains a contributing factor in rape culture. So when that culture sees an instance of a man being objectified, even if that objectification is meant to draw attention to similar treatment of women, it reacts in ways it does not when the subject is female. As I said before, Escher Girls has been highlighting this issue for over a year now, but the focus has remained solely on how this issue effects women. Ami provides smart commentary, her readers have contributed redraws showing ways in which the art can not only be less objectifying but objectively better, and the focus remains on women. The Hawkeye Initiative, meanwhile, shifts the focus to a male character, and in so doing, draws the attention of our male-dominated culture.

And that’s assuming the best intentions of the management and their contributors. Go through the archives and count how many times a variation of “This is hilarious, I had to contribute” is used. Be careful here, friends. There’s some intense ugliness hidden behind why you find this so hilarious, and it’s steeped in misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia.

On tumblr, polerin elaborates:

There’s some really nasty shit lurking not too far under the surface of some of the drawings. In some cases, like the ones where they switch clothes, it’s not even too deep.

Making choices of clothing based in femininity/femme-ness on a dood isn’t a context free choice. Doubly so when you are mocking something. It relies on the deep history of cissexism and oppositional sexism in our culture. Even if that’s not the intent of the artist, it is impossible to look at these drawings and not have all the jokes about guys wearing women’s clothing or “acting like a girl” come up. That’s the POINT of these drawings.

And that point pins trans women to the wall as a side effect of (rightly) critiquing the sexism in comics.

Despite the best of intentions, the vibe comes across as really anti-femme, anti-trans women, and ultimately, anti-women. After all, if we’re unable to talk about the mistreatment of women without bringing men into the picture, what does that really say about us? If we’re unable to talk about the mistreatment of women without considering how it effects all women, what does that really say about us?