okay

[schmerica]

Am reading 1602 annotations rather than working on my midsummer_santa story.

Quote from the notes on the first issue:

I feel that it is my duty to add that we should remember, before judging the era in regards to its view of female ability to govern, that there was particular cause for this attitude in this period -- besides the fact that women are, in general, more emotional then men, even in today’s post-industrial, feminist societies. The women of the time were not as schooled as the era’s men and did not seem suited to governance. Moreover, the physical circumstances in which women lived -- including the use of corsets and the like that contributed to female fainting spells and the use of make-ups containing lead (a theory also applied to the ancient Greeks) -- may have contributed to a lack of female intellect or rationality.

I have no comment that would properly express my feelings on this.

(It's 90 degrees out; I think my sister should take me to Plaid Pantry so I can buy soda pop or ice cream.)

Comments

[serialkarma.livejournal.com]

Is that guy for real?

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha, I'm thinking yes.

Panel 2: In truth, while there were places a woman could go where men could not, there were far more places men could go where women could not -- at least safely. Such has been the case since time immemorial, and we should do well to remember that it is only in the modern period that (the loose cultural ritual of) dating was invented and that an average woman walking alone (without the protection of class) could expect not to be harassed or assaulted by men whose biological, objectifying sexual drive was and remains a matter of public record.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

And actually, there are like eight million examples of how incredibly full of himself the author of this must have been.

Panel 5: In a series of panels overflowing with word balloons -- generally considered a poor move because of how it upsets pacing and becomes a kind of exchange of dialogue, as if a written play, without giving any facial responses or concurrent actions -- this panel is the worst. Note how ridiculously small the figures have to be in order to fit in the word balloons, which utterly overwhelm the panel. In fact, the would-be assassin can be seen in silhouette in the bottom-left of this panel -- though that fact, and the fact that the entire panel is shown from a bird’s eye view, from just behind and to the side of this threatening figure, is lost on us due to the balloons. As might be the sense of the height of the room. Such a sequence leaves the impression that the issue was truncated, that it really needed to be another page or two longer, but that the publisher did not permit that option since it would lessen the space for advertisements. Such truncations are typical of a medium in which, regretfully, a specific page count is generally imposed from before the writer begins his work. Whatever one’s feelings on these aesthetic matters, however, it is worth pointing out how this panel is working -- or failing to work -- and what is really being shown in this potentially obscure image, which the eye naturally wants to pass over.

****


It has been very funny, I am now noting shortly after the publication of this issue, to watch ludicrous suggestions as to the normal Marvel universe equivalent of this creature, and thus of Virginia Dare. After reading this scene, suggestions ran from the Falcon (Captain America’s black sidekick for some time), the Owl (a villain), and Snowbird (an obscure heroine) -- as well as an occasional vote for the Hulk, obvious to anyone aware of the entire Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde strain throughout the literature of metamorphoses, as I might dare to call it. After this scene, Virginia Dare could reveal herself to be a major Marvel character other than the Hulk and she would still be an analogue for the Hulk.


***


While such a symbolic reading requires little imagination, as representations are commonly and logically seen as symbolic -- if not magically somehow containing the essence -- of what they represent, this symbolism has particular resonance. Such symbolism may be seen in voodoo dolls, burning in effigy, eliminating former friends from photographs (practiced both by Stalin and by scorned lovers), and by companies’ elimination of former employees from their mastheads or phone lists -- or the trope of someone’s name being scratched off his door, most commonly used in movies. This reading of depiction for what it depicts -- of signifier for signified (in structuralist terms) -- evokes the complicated concept of representation itself, upon which comics obviously heavily depend. It also has particular religious resonance, recalling that cameos in the Renaissance were still reserved primarily for religious icons -- of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or sometimes a saint. In the latter Middle Ages, many carried such pocket-sized icons with them, a practice that has developed into the cameos of today. This reading is enhanced by Queen Elizabeth’s status towards the end of her life as the Virgin Queen, the English equivalent of the Virgin Mary. Even Elizabeth’s looking at the “camera” -- as we would put it, or at the viewer as others might -- enhances this religious reading, as such a pose was reserved for religious iconography, particularly of Christ, until the (controversially self-aggrandizing) self-portraiture in the Renaissance.

[serialkarma.livejournal.com]

men whose biological, objectifying sexual drive was and remains a matter of public record.

*blinks*

yeah, so my driving record is a matter of public record too, so the fuck what? Good lord, what a pompous ass.

[serialkarma.livejournal.com]

This reading of depiction for what it depicts -- of signifier for signified (in structuralist terms) -- evokes the complicated concept of representation itself, upon which comics obviously heavily depend.

Words are not adequate symbols represent my feelings about this sentence.

Your ability to read crap is utterly astounding, my dear.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

OMG WTF.


What is Virginia Dare's Marvel analogue, anyway? Does she have one? I didn't catch all those due to my lack of superhero knowledge.

[sssenza.livejournal.com]

God, it irks me that people can still get away with that "women are more emotional that men" line. I don't deny that one can generalize certain behavioral differences between the genders, and I fully admit that biology plays a strong role, perhaps even a stronger role than culture/upbringing in some cases. But what the hell does "more emotional" even mean??? And how would one arrive at such a conclusion without telepathy? This idea that being more *expressive* of emotion means one's judgement, perceptions, reasoning, or decisions are more *influenced* by emotion simply doesn't follow. If indeed women are more expressive of emotion. I suppose in North American and European culture they generally are.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I don't know much more of superheros than you, but I don't think she has a direct one at all.