Felicia Day Is Not a Booth Babe

I don't consume a lot of news. It's biased, depressing, and largely irrelevant to my life. I get the highs and lows via various internet outlets, and when something catches my attention, I'll dig a little deeper. This election year has been particularly heinous, with the GOP and their apparent war on women. (Great quote I saw yesterday: “VAGINA. Can’t say it? Don’t legislate It.”) All this news makes me mad, and makes me want to punch people with Y chromosomes, so it's best I don't steep myself in it too much, since you know, married...

Since I started the Plastic Heroines blog, I've discovered some new webcomics, one of which is Gyno-Star by Rachel Cohen. Her overtly feminist message is not my usual fare, but it's going to take a loud voice to be heard over the Republican cacophony. Most of the webcomics I read do not have any particular political commentary, so I was a little surprised when I read this morning's Two Lumps, and had to dig deeper to get the rest of the story.

I'd never heard of Ryan Perez, or Destructoid, but I don't need to know who he is or who he worked for to know he's a tool. Felicia Day is not a Booth Babe. FFS, really, dude? Have you watched The Guild? She created that, she's not just the window dressing. Sure she's cute, but does that mean she's not to be taken seriously? Hasn't added anything to this industry, huh? I think her career will last longer than yours, Perez, you jackass.

Unfortunately, this is just one more thing in a sea of BS and misogyny. I really don't know what the hell is going on, but as a woman, and as a mother of a teenaged daughter, I don't like it. Between the various religious-leaning elected nutjobs trying to legislate my groin and the violent verbal threats (and worse) against Anita Sarkeesian (who has the audacity to have an opinion on gender stereotypes in video games), I'm starting to feel a little unwelcome on this rock. I'm starting to feel like Superia isn't all wrong, after all. Some men are trying to divert the accusations of misogyny by saying that they have to deal with gender stereotyping, too. So that makes it ok to stereotype and discriminate against women?? Misandry (which Blogger thinks is misspelled, but has no problem with misogyny) isn't any less wrong than misogyny, but a key difference is that a lot more men are physically attacking women than women are attacking men. Tell you what, guys, when you live in constant fear of violence against yourself or your daughter, then you can talk to me about rough you have it.

I've never considered myself a particularly strong feminist. I don't like politics, I just want to live my life without other people telling me what and how and when to do that. I usually regard feminism as freedom of choice -- choice to be a mom, working mom or child-free career woman. Feminism has (to me) meant options. If I didn't want to be an at-home mom, I wouldn't have to be, because I have options. But women have been tricked into believing that we can have everything. News flash: We can't. There aren't enough hours in the day, and something, somewhere, has to be sacrificed.

I know good men. I am married to one, have one for a father. I know they're out there; good, strong, intelligent men who value women as friends, partners, and mates. I know good women, who are neither strident man-hating feminists nor passive yea-saying doormats. These voices are being drowned out, and some days...

I know this was kind of a long, jumbled and somewhat off-topic post. I deleted a bunch of stuff, so if you think this was angry-sounding, you should have read what got deleted...But now I'm back from a week out of town, so will be back to work on the Heroines list. 
 

Referential Links Re: Day/Booth Babe
At CNN: It's probably not wise to be a jerk to Felicia Day
At the Examiner: Ryan Perez fired from Destructoid after maliciously tweeting Felicia Day