In Defense of the Nice Guy

Been following this webcomic off and on for years now and I think it hits pretty well. It's a bit of a slice-of-life serial with a running gag that stays fresh and it's a universal enough joke that you don't have to have tuned in since day one to get it. The characters are purposely broadly drawn to deliver sharp, fine humor on as broad and base a canvas as can be. That broadness is just the sort of thing that should deliver it to a larger audience but, for some reason, that hasn't happened. My knee jerks toward blaming bad (or no) marketing, but I'll also acknowledge that the art isn't anything special, and good writing doesn't always compensate for artwork of moderate quality.

At any rate, the comic consistently averages somewhere between pretty good and hilarious, which was why I was surprised to see this reviewer tear it apart... Well, alright, let's phrase that more accurately: She generally seems to want to tear any man with a brain, manners or a hint of self-restraint apart and she's using this comic to that end.

She starts out calling The Nice Guy, "Nothing more than a bunch of whining where the creator can make himself look like the poor little victim." She goes on to sum it up as "one big whinefest about how all woman are stupid, shallow bimbos who only want to date jerks\himbos (AKA [sic] any man who can get a date)". By the end, she's personally telling the comic's creators to, "stop your bitching, grow-up... and have the balls to put the moves on us."

One gets the impression that she doesn't consider you a real man unless you're slipping her roofies in some downtown meat market till she can no longer discern the patterns on your embroidered shirt and matching jeans, then taking her home and uploading video of all the unseemly things you did while she was passed out. It's the modern day equivalent of "Johnny Get Angry" in which one woman puts out a general call for men to abuse and dismiss her, and any men who don't are obviously whiny little whimps.

Which sends a pretty bad message to dudes everywhere: "Keep being dicks because that's what women want. Trust me. I know. I'm a woman."

So, I'm going to send a message back to "yaoi huntress earth", the review's anonymous author, for when her google alerts tell her somebody mentioned her on the internet and she comes looking to see what I said: Miss huntress earth, your rage and contempt are admirable and probably valid, given some unknown past experience of yours. That said, rage and contempt appear to be all you've got. They won't carry you very far on their own, so try mixing them with a little thoughtfulness, empathy, wit and insight from now on. You'd be amazed at how much more credibility your anger will have if you can back it up by not being completely unlikable.

Also, stop telling nice guys to act like dicks just because that's what fuels your fetish. You may personally prefer your men to be borderline date rapists, but I'd wager the majority of the women you claim to represent do not.

The Post Where Rob Apologies for Not Blogging Enough

So, yes. Sorry about that.

Saw Iron Man 3 today, which served as another means of recommending Warren Ellis' work to Nancy. See, she was asking about which storylines to read if she wanted to pick up some good, engaging comics and there are so many to choose from, I couldn't give her a difinitive answer. So, instead, I recommended a favorite author. That's Warren Ellis, and as he did a stint with Marvel a while back, in which I think he wrote just about every one of their titles for a year,* I figured he'd have something she liked. Since Ellis' work on Iron Man was the basis for Iron Man 3, I figured that would also be a safe bet.

I've got some things to try and write tonight, but I'm also quite tired from having put up the last bit of fence around the yard today. Or mostly put it up, at least. The drill is charging now so that I can finish it in time for the dog's morning squirrel patrol. While I wait for that, I'm trying to get a couple of things done. One's a fashion history piece and the other is commentary for a client who will remain unnamed for now. Oh, and there's a third write-up I'd like to do for Vita.MN, but I'm not certain that will happen. I've got to get up early tomorrow and there won't be time to pick any of this up during the day, so wish me consciousness well into the night tonight. Also, wish me consciousness in the morning when I'll need it most.

*Not actually, but it seemed that way at the time.

"Tomahawk Tassels" Hateful Racism or Just Gross and Wrong?

Been wanting to write up a commentary about Tomahawk Tassels for ages now. Problem is no editor who knows me is willing to invite the kind of controversy that commentary would bring.

This is one of those rare occasions when the potential threat of backlash outweighs the potential giant spike in readership. So, I'm usually publicly pretty quiet about it.

Not a fan of this, though: "The Indians who are offended do not understand what its like to grow up... knowing you are Native, and looking white." Because a whole bunch of people who know they are Native, and look white, and get what burlesque is all about still think she's just gross and wrong.

Also, you don't have to be the offended party to realize that intentionally offending that party for your own benefit is a dick move.

Marscon 2013 (or The Nerd Police vs. The Fake Geek Girls)

First off, when I wrote this article last week, I was aware that there was some controversy brewing within certain con communities over the exclusion of women who are deemed "not nerdy enough" or "the wrong kind of nerdy" by the old guard, a.k.a. "The Nerd Police". While I knew of this, the so-called "Fake Geek Girl" controversy, I wasn't aware of just how widespread or contentious the issue actually is. So, that sort of drew in some healthy criticism (and a lot more of the unhealthy stuff) from social media aficionados the world over.

The timing couldn't have been better, though, since one of my Marscon panels was all about this issue. Specifically, we were talking about the exclusivity phenomenon that's happened within the greater "nerd" culture and within some of the cons as well. Is it cliquish and exclusive? I don't have that answer, but I can say I was the youngest and least pasty-complected guy on the panel. I can also say that I am neither that young nor that non-pasty.

We were also all dudes. Fairly certain we were all straight dudes, too. At one point, a young woman in the audience mentioned that she's felt excluded because of all of the things I've just mentioned. I wanted to know more. I wanted details. I wanted to talk to her after the panel, but she left before I could get her name and I didn't see her again... I can't help but think she took off because we were just doing more of the same to her. Bryan Thao Worra hinted at the presence of invisible priviledge, but I think he got it a bit wrong. The priviledge was totally visible if you were looking.

So that's the first thing. Second, there was the Claudia Christian Q&A. I'll explain how that went down. She and I exchanged a couple of emails a few weeks back and she was psyched to do a "Behind the Scenes" interview with me. Then all manner of stuff went down and she had to delay her arrival, then she was getting rushed all over the place all weekend. Then, before you knew it, Saturday morning came and it was time to do the thing.

I was standing by the stage and the room was filling up. We were already a few minutes late, so I turned to leave the room and go look for her. That's when I saw her rush in the door and start rushing toward me. As I opened my mouth to say hi, she rushed by me, got on stage and started talking. I stood there awkwardly for about a minute while I figured out what'd just happened, then I sat down. A bunch of people nearby started giving me the "Aren't you going to go do something?" look. I replied with a shrug of, "Nah. She's got this." And she did. So that happened.

On another panel, I pretty much told the audience that I'm kind of a hack when it comes to writing character interactions. Hopefully they realized that I was joking. Kind of... I mean, I am kind of a hack sometimes, but this time I was making light of that fact. Kind of.

The fan film panel was great fun, though. I got to start out with stories about Hugh Heffner's and Andy Warhol's fan films, then move on to Hardware Wars and Raiders: The Adaptation. From there I got to branch out into some of the subgenres and I ended by showing a few fake trailers, which were well-received.

I only got the chance to be in the audience at two panels. The first one featured S.N. Arly, Rachel Gold, Kimberly Long-Ewing, Lyda Morehouse and Michael Merriam talking about why they like to write. (On a side note, Lyda now has long auburn hair and I've grown a short beard. We probably won't be mistaken for each other anymore.) This was the first time I'd met Rachel Gold. I ran into her later at the Diversicon party and naturally I chatted her up a while, with the alterior motive of selling her on coming to Diversicon, but then Catherine Lundoff walked up and said she'd already made that pitch. So, that out of the way, we just chatted a bit more and then checked out some room parties.

The second panel was Bryan Thao Worra doing a talk on giant monster movies, but it was really more of a talk on the myths, legends and political history of SE Asia. At least as far as those things relate to concepts like, say... Godzilla. That was brilliant, and I tapped out a lot of notes on my phone as he spoke. So now I've got new recreational reading lined up, contingent upon finding the time to read recreationally, about Nāga and Rakshasa. Also Gamera.

There was much more going on, but I'm calling it here. It was a long weekend to kick off the long con season ahead, and this is a long enough recap as it is. So goodnight, internet. I'm getting some rest now. Hope you've enjoyed the blog. Tomorrow, I'll get back to making journalism.

Fine. You win. Leggings ARE pants...

I was on the U of M campus today and after seeing what all the college kids are doing I think it's safe to say that leggings as pants are not going away, no matter how much the fashion and style communities plead otherwise. So, that said, let me just advise you all that there are wrong ways to do this. For instance, pairing Ugg boots with leggings is probably the only known way to make Ugg boots even worse. Also, the world doesn't need any more Kim Kardashians in it.

Hopefully, one day, this trend will go the way of Zubaz. It's already off to the same start. In the meantime, though, I'm just going to shrug it off and accept it. However, if you insist on doing this, at least try to do it with some style.

Stanford raised over $1 Billion in donations last year

Why does it still cost money to go there?