From Twitter 11-05-2009

• 15:48:23: Psych idea; Shawn's a cop, but everyone thinks it's nepotism--especially Lassie. Thoughts?
  
• 17:16:05: @amazonqueenkate WANT THE EPIC. ::makes gimmie hands::
  
• 18:10:32: Dear November papers: suck it.
  

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Glad to know I'm not so pants on head stupid that I can't learn something

Can Women Learn to Enjoy Comics?

[Link courtesy of When Fangirls Attack]

Guy writes about how dudes on comic messageboards want to get their girlfriends/wives into comics and how he got his wife into comics by paying attention to her interests to suggest books. Which is good advice; no argument. My problem with the piece is primarily this:

'm lucky, because my wife already had a few comics when we started dating ("The Maxx" and "Johnny the Homicidal Maniac"). When she wanted to read more, I took her interests (horror, dark comedy) into account and suggested the zombie series "The Walking Dead" and the hilariously profane "Preacher." She's been raiding my bookshelves ever since.

Check out that first line: "...my wife already had a few comics when we started dating." So he's not actually getting teaching her to like comics, he's supplying her with a broader source of information so that she can enjoy comics.

Then there's this part:

I once had a huge reading list for her, but over our time together she has read almost all of them. It's gotten to the point where sometimes she'll ask for a new book, and I'll be stumped. What hasn't she read that she might like? Sometimes she gets to read the latest book I've bought before I do, because I'm out of things I think she might like. She's even sought out some books on her own and got me reading them, like "DMZ," an alternate present take on a war-torn Manhattan.

I'm particularly irked at this line: "She's even sought out some books on her own and got me reading them" The way it reads, he's shocked (shocked) that his comic-enjoying wife would go out and find books on her own, as if the only reason she's into comics is because he has them. Which it isn't. Because she was into comics before she met him.

And, once again, there's the usual bit about how women don't like superhero comics because they can't relate to them. I am so goddamned tired of that excuse. Easily 80% of my 30-book a month comic order is superheroes. Women read superhero comics. I promise. And, also, in case this wasn't clear: Women read comics without a man introducing them to them.

You know what I spend some of my time doing? Finding comics that The Husband will like. It's an absolute pain in the ass. He loves sci-fi and dystopian set-ups. I gave him Transmetropolitan and he "meh"'d. He doesn't like to have to read stories in single-issue formats, so I started him on limited series stuff. He loved The Long Halloween and Dark Victory (Batman), and he still occasionally asks me if Fell is going to see any more issues. I tried to get him into Green Arrow via Quiver, but his knowledge of the DCU is worse than Judd Winick's (zing), so that one didn't take. He loves Watchmen and likes The Killing Joke.

So, there, I'm a woman (with a vag and everything), and I'm into comics. Not because The Husband got me into them, but because I like fucking comics.

But what gets me the most about that article, what rankles me like nothing else, is how he's taking credit for teaching his wife how to enjoy comics when she was already enjoying them on her own. Just because she wasn't reading a metric ton of books didn't mean she wasn't interested. She'd read a few; she'd liked him, and had he not come in and "taught" her how to enjoy them, I bet she would have read more.

Women don't learn to like comics. They like them or they don't. Just as much as any other fan.