Also a propos of Butt Is It Art below, I'll point our readers at What a Girl Wants #12 and What a Girl Wants #14, which discuss a recent sexual assault by one of comics' "old soldiers" and, more generally, some of the sexual harassment that seems to be endemically directed toward women in mainstream comics.
Several of comics' black creators have discussed grotesque, overt racism in the industry as well. Most easily accessible are Christopher Priest's essays (primarily "Good Morning Mr. Chips" and "I'm Telling You for the Last Time").
The pictures that emerge from the experiences of women and minorities are incredibly disturbing. I suppose, given the crude way that comics have always treated their creators, we shouldn't be surprised that some creators would encounter abuse in a form tailored to their identity. It seems inevitable that there are revolting stories about anti-Semitism waiting to be told. In all likelihood, if you are a member of any identifiable group, you probably took shit from some comics bigwig on that basis.
Still. These people are the custodians and editors and writers and artists of superheroes. Aside from the fact that sexual harassment and racism are flatout, no exceptions, no debate, unacceptable from a social and business perspective, they're also unacceptable from the superhero perspective. If there are sexist, racist assholes in place at superhero comic companies, it's a double betrayal because they're violating what they're preaching.
It's wrong, it's hypocritical, and it's disturbing. Frankly, I will cheer the day that somebody decides they can't take it anymore and walks out of a courtroom with a gazillion dollars. (No one has so far because til now, every victim has had more love of comics than anger and attitude.) But even more, I will cheer the day that the old boys' network is destroyed by the public ouster and shaming of the people who have perpetrated and perpetuated this unnaturally-extended state of affairs.
Maybe that's just liberal outrage speaking. You'll notice that I'm conveniently in a position to do nothing to effectuate my outrage (short of popping the next guy in the nose I see honking some woman's tit--but then they never pull that shit where there are witnesses).
But, dammit, I was raised on comics. Superman and Spider-Man wouldn't stand for that. Their bosses shouldn't either.
Superman and Spider-Man wouldn't stand for that. Their bosses shouldn't either.
Nicely put.
Thanks for bringing this up, Greg. It's an important subject that's usually swept under the carpet, ignored because it makes us too uncomfortable. Although we can't be directly involved in dealing with the incident Ronee Garcia Bourgeois describes, those of us sitting on the sidelines can let it be known that we do not approve of this kind of behavior and we won't tolerate it when it becomes known. The more we talk about sexism and racism in the open, the more difficult it becomes for those practitioners of it to remain safely hidden in the shadows.
Frankly, I will cheer the day that somebody decides they can't take it anymore and walks out of a courtroom with a gazillion dollars. (No one has so far because til now, every victim has had more love of comics than anger and attitude.)I suspect at least a few have been motivated less by love of comics than by fear of the high personal and professional price they'd be made to pay, which is fairly well spelled out in the first What A Girl Wants column linked to above. Unfortunately, what Bourgeois describes is not just limited to the comics industry, and it's too easy to find examples of sexual harassment victims being further victimized when they try to press their case. It wouldn't be at all surprising for the victim in this case to spell out her accusation and then find that majority of support going to the "old soldier." Not the way it should be, but the way it is far too often.
We need to stop sitting safely behind our computer monitors and find a way to demonstrate that we won't support these kinds of actions and the attitudes that allow them to continue. One way to do that is by talking openly about it and bringing the topic into the sunshine.
In the interests of sunshine, I'll mention something that seemed fairly likely to me but what didn't appear to come out in the comments thread on Buzzscope:
A fine upstanding group which works diligently to help creators in need.
That certainly sounds like ACTOR to me.
The current leader of this organization however, is an alleged pervert. [...] This man recently took that creepiness too far. To the point of assault.
It's not obvious from the ACTOR site who the "leader" is there's a fund-raising board and a fund disbursement board. George Perez and Roy Thomas are the co-chairs of the latter, but it's not clear who the chair of the former is. There are lots of "old boys" on both committees, although I'd look for smirky fratboy types on the former and Schwartzian dirty-old-men on the latter, largely on a generational basis.
[It appalled me to learn that Julie Schwartz was a dirty old man who crossed the line, but then that cherry had been broken when I'd learned about Isaac Asimov.]
"Sunshine" is a good word, Doug. Nothing gets better if we keep our sins under a rock.
To be honest, what's bothering me about the coyness of not saying who it is is that I think there's a whopping two possible organizations which fit the description, ACTOR better than the other. I'm concerned that since the possible suspects list is so short, the innocent org might be harmed by this.
As Doug says, whistleblower retaliation is the biggest fear driving coyness here ("love of comics" includes "love of working in comics", Doug). Fliegel or another one of our lawyer friends might be in better shape to comment about whistleblower protection, but I suspect that in the freelance world, there's simply not much.
Even though the victim, who's said to have a corroborating witness, would likely win a defense against a libel suit, simply being forced to defend a libel suit would bankrupt her, which also cuts in favor of coyness. (Of course, that assumes that the bad actor would use his corporate resources for defense, which is part of my point, that the corporate publishers should cut loose these people, not defend them.)
A genial lecher throughout his life, toward the end of his life, he is said to have needed a handler to make sure he was never alone with a young woman.
Most medium to large companies (certainly Time Warner) have some sort of sexual harassment policy. Unfortunately, the policy typically covers only employees, not freelancers and may not hold outside off the office (although a convention could be considered work related travel).
I don't know if it is possible to claim damages under sexual harassment statues(either the 'hostile environment' or the 'quid pro quo' case) for non employees. In this case though, what was described seems like sexual assault, which may be actionable.
One thing (and its also good from a business perspective) that someone like Paul Levitz could do would be to say that freelancers who had complaints with sexual harrassment from a company employee could complain to some designated officer in the company who is completely independent of the editorial chain (maybe some senior HR person) and each such complaint would be thoroughly and completely investigated and anyone determined to be actually guilty would be fired immediatedly.
And speaking of Spider-Man, a fairly recent Avengers story had him say something like ..
Spidey: "Thats not the Black Widow. The Black Widow's a redhead and she's got bigger .."
[ At which point he's cut off by someone else but I think you can fill in the blanks]
Seemed totally out of character to me.
This story has received fairly wide coverage by now, so it's hard to keep up with new information, but Colleen Doran clarified on her blog that the accused is not employed at a comics company. To let her tell it,
[T]his is less a story about pernicious sexual harassment or assault in the comics industry (and I have seen little evidence of that myself in recent years) than it is about People Behaving Badly at conventions. This is not a situation of dirty old editor and wee comics girl.It shouldn’t have happened anyway.
But as I've been writing this entry, some comments have been added to Doran's post that both limit and add new possibilities to the identity of the accused. Doran has apparently learned more about the situation and claims that Ronee Garcia Bourgeois's original column was not entirely accurate. The accused is not the "current leader" of the organization involved, and depending on the specific laws of the (still not publicly known) state in which the alleged act took place, it likely does not fit the legal definition of sexual harassment (though presumably it would still remain a crime as sexual assault). A lot of people who looked like they might fit the description of the accused no longer do, but the pool of those who now fit is presumably somewhat larger. Still, the female creator filed a police report, and the police investigation reportedly continues.
Doug --- just as a matter of clarification, AFAIK, workplace sexual harassment is not normally a crime. Its actionable under civil law which means the company can be sued for damages, but not under criminal law.
Sexual assault is most definitely a crime. However, I would guess that an isolated incident of groping would probably be considered a misdeamonor rather than a felony.
OB Comix: I think you could make a very good case that some of the crude comments made by the Flash (and others) to Power Girl in Justice League Europe construed sexual harassment. But given the JL's unusual status under the UN, I would guess that American civil laws may not be valid.
Thanks for the clarification, Abhijit. You're right, sexual harassment falls under the civil code rather than the criminal code, and it was sloppy of me to have implied otherwise. Also, in response to a previous point, Greg's right, too--the love of comics can manifest itself in a variety of ways.
Abhijit, I'd be lowkey on any comments on super-hero groping, otherwise if Mark Millar ever rights Justice League will see whole new reasons why he's called the Flash.
Greg said:
"But, dammit, I was raised on comics. Superman and Spider-Man wouldn't stand for that. Their bosses shouldn't either."
(Imaginate a Jack in the Box antenna ball here)
I love you Bro!
Seriously, that is the smartest thing anyone's said so far in this discussion.
Chris -- as far as I remember, there was no actual groping in JLE -- Power Girl would probably have broken the fingers of someone who tried that. However, suggestive, unwelcome sexual comments, if serious enough, can constitute sexual harassment and I think some of Flash's comments in that comic would count.
Oddly enough, Captain Atom in JLE might have a case for harassment as well. We did see the Crimson Fox make such comments to him and Catherine Cobert actually lead him to a bed at one point (he turned her down).