The Comics Industry is Toxic to Women

Earlier this week, comic book illustrator Tess Fowler used social media to talk about her and other women’s experience with Brian Wood. It got some coverage on Bleeding Cool and Comics Beat — both of which ended up disabling comments.

Right now, the comics industry has a serious problem with women. This isn’t to point out how women are underrepresented in the comics industry. The numbers are already there. This is about the industry itself is unable to take these matters seriously. Instead, every time someone acts like a misogynistic dick, it’s treated as some kind isolated incident instead of looking at the larger issue.

If you want to talk about Brian Wood, let’s do it. Let’s also talk about Charles Brownstein. Let’s talk about Tony Harris. Let’s talk about Penny Arcade’s “Dick Wolves”. Let’s talk the Open Source Boob Project.

Let’s talk about the toxicity that makes Comic-Con and other fan conventions a dangerous an exploitive place for women.

In my industry — tech, we have similar problems. Earlier this year, a woman was sexually harassed at a tech conference and she tweeted about it. Later, another woman was sexually harassed at a conference by her coworker.

First we had to acknowledge that there was a problem. And second we had to accept that it will continue to worsen were no action taken.

Quickly, “Codes of Conduct” became a standard at tech conferences. We focused on making our work spaces, our online communities, and conferences safe environments for people to speak up. Tolerance for this behavior dropped like a stone. Conferences became safer for women to speak up and organizers made safety a priority.

In the LGBT community there are advocacy groups like the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation actively involved in media (including comics), business and politics. Where are those same groups for women in comics? Where is the Friends of Lulu? Where are those same groups for other minorities in comics?

We can’t rely solely upon comics bloggers to cover these issues effectively. The past has taught us that every blog has an agenda — page hits. Every post made is aligned with a publisher, and every blogger is trying to be a pal to someone in the industry. Every blog wants to be the comics version of Deadline Hollywood.

We can’t really upon social media either. One writer’s twitter campaign against Brian Wood is muted by the same writer’s Wired article decrying a sexual harassment victim who tweeted about it as a cyber-bully.

So here do we start? Unless the comics community can acknowledge the problem and begin to act, incidents of sexual harassment will continue. Every community and industry has its problems. Our willingness to face it and work on it uniformly matters.

What happened to Tess Fowler should be a call to action. We need to stop feeding this behavior and start fighting it. Codes of Conduct and advocacy groups should become the standard.

Conventions need stronger policies for safer environments. Women — both fans and creators — need to feel comfortable about coming forward to report incidents without fear of reprisal. The industry itself needs an advocacy group to raise awareness, to educate women (and everybody really) how to discuss important matters, addressing derailment, and recognizing your rights.

Unless the comics industry can acknowledge the problem and begin to act, incidents of sexual harassment will either continue (one can argue that it has, in fact, gotten worse). Every industry has its problems. Your willingness to face it and work on it matters.