More on the "comic books are not for you" story - if you're female. Shoot, if you have a pulse....

[kyburg]

When I was a teenager I worked at my local comics shop. The staff consisted of the kindly and cantankerous older middle-aged comics fan and a cast of lovable zanies. I had a great time. Until my boss asked me if I could stay late at work one day to help him bag some comics. And so I stayed late and started bagging the comics. And my boss took the opportunity to tell me that he found me sexually arousing. And he asked me to have sex with him. And I started to silently cry--pretty babyish of me, huh? Should I have punched him in the nuts? I didn't--I cried silently. I was 16, he was in his late 50s. The man expressed complete bewilderment that I responded in this matter. He said that he assumed that when I consented to stay late with him there to bag the comics I was "inviting" him in some manner. Gee is "bagging comics" some sexual euphemism that I am unaware of? I totally trusted this guy; he was like an uncle. So I was devastated, and I'm sitting there crying into this copy of Ghost Rider or Darkhawk or whatever--totally de-minting it, I might add. And the guy gives me some promotional buttons for this comic or that as a "gift".

No, you're never there because you like the books. Or, maybe - you are. But if you're there, you're never there because you want to work in the industry in the same place the males work. Standing on your own two feet, drawing and writing. Just like they do.

What she has to say about Wonder Woman is priceless.

And I quit comics a long time ago, I just never advertised it. Yeah, I read all the manga I can get my hands on - and I love Alex Ross' stuff - but you can't drag me into a "classic" comics store anymore. It just isn't my bag.

Comments

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*nods* I remember working for Stephen Cannell Productions back in the 80's - and loved Stephen Cannell (still do), if for no other reason than -

The one time he heard a writer chew out his secretary and called her a "dumb bitch" - he dragged him into his office and chewed him out in tones loud enough to be heard six floors down - that there was never a time, a place or a reason to use langage like that toward anyone, and that it would never be tolerated again in his hearing.

So help me. Guys, here's a hint - I LIKE THIS KIND OF STUFF.

It's what we tolerate that matters - it's what we want to see in others that matters. You let it slide, you give permission by your silence.

It doesn't mean you have to cut people off at the knees - you just have to say no.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

I might also add -

He didn't fire him.
He didn't censor him.
And he didn't do anything harsher to him than point out what he found unacceptable. He didn't reduce him to labels as the writer had his secretary. I can go on about the guy (he was a character in and of himself), but it was as fair as it comes. He stuck to the subject and stayed on it.
And never lost his temper.

With models like this one, it's been a pretty tough act to follow.

You don't have to destroy someone to make your point - or make it clear what your boundaries for acceptable behavior are. Even when they've done something you find completely appalling.