When I first came across this call for submissions from the Friends of Lulu, my first thought was, hey, maybe I can share that here, on my weblog. After all, I’ve shared at least one other call for submissions for female artists before, and there was plenty of positive response to that. Of course, I’m not sure that any of my female friends or readers are cartoonists, but I figured there was no harm in passing the word along.
Then I read the release in full, and I was no longer sure if this anthology was such a great idea. Don’t get me wrong: I think encouraging female artists is a terrific idea. I definitely think there should be more comics by, about, and for women. There should be comics — and all art — from a multitude of perspectives. But this particular anthology, “The Girls’ Guide to Guys’ Stuff,” seems pretty counter-productive on that front, and it seems to be reinforcing a lot of stereotypes on both sides of the gender gap. As one reader, Anun, comments at the link above:
The way the call for the anthology is worded, it sounds like it discusses “Those BOYS!†in a loving/exasperated way, which is akin to most magazine articles in Cosmo and also tries to designate certain things like “video games†and “the Terminator†as for boys.
Women should have the freedom to write about men and topics like video games, etc., but there’s something very disheartening about asking them to do so as if men define these topics for them. If the goal is to get more women interested in comics, to showcase more of the smart, sexy, empowered and independent women already working in the medium, why then only stories that revolve around men?
I don’t find it particularly offensive — and obviously I’m not a woman — but it does seem a little backwards to me.