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| The sad state of affairs. |
Not cool, Absolute Comics. Not cool at all.
In fact, it is downright disgusting and unacceptable. Not to mention, so so creepy. YUCKS.
Red Dot Diva does not patronize the local store called Absolute Comics (thank the goddesses!), so it was only when two of her friends shared the shop's Facebook snapshot review of the movie "Logan" yesterday, that she got wind of the situation.
The offensive post has already been removed from Absolute Comic's Facebook timeline, but here's a screenshot of the original one, captured by a friend @sanzochan.
Say what? "A little older, fuller and sexier"?!?!! How much fuller does he want X-23 to be? In the comics and cartoons, X-23 has always been a teenage girl. Furthermore, Dafne Keen who plays Laura (a.k.a. X-23) in "Logan" is just but a pre-teen. The X-23 in "Logan" is NOT a woman, so putting that into context, that sentence smacked of full hard-on sexism.
Red Dot Diva's friend @sanzochan felt that the review was so repulsive and she called them out on it.
Instead, of taking a step back to reconsider their actions, a staff who works in Absolute Comics called James Chan (who was the one who posted the review), replied with a dismissive rebuttal that was rude, repugnant and reprehensible.
Red Dot Diva thought Absolute Comics/ James Chan has missed the point entirely. What has a sexualized pre-teen/ teen X-23 got to do with the storyline of "Logan" for someone to enjoy or not enjoy the movie? Yes, male superhero or characters are sexualized too, and Red Dot Diva has always been quite vocal about enjoying her biceptuous male eye-candy. It's also not always wrong to feature sexy women too. There's nothing wrong with sexy, boobalicious, strong, erratic, confused, confident, sad, happy women characters in books or movies either. But this entire discussion is so creepy because it refers to an underaged X-23. To turn things on its head, Red Dot Diva does not go watch the kids act in "The Goonies" and wish they were a little older, fuller and hunkier.
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| Dafne Keen as Laura in "Logan" |
Before the post got deleted, many other fans had got to know about it and added their comments about their thoughts on the sexist post. Some people were later blocked from Facebook page, and many of their posts were deleted too!
Since these comments were lost, here are some thoughts by other geeks:
@bhavvyyy - While the post itself was creepy enough, what made matters a whole lot worse was how the situation was handled. All we needed was an apology and an acknowledgment of our voices being listened to and a promise to do better, and we would've been fine. But instead you get our dear friend James Chan putting his foot in his mouth, and then Absolute Comics starts deleting comments and banning us from commenting, and that's just piss-poor social media management. I hope that AC has realised what a mess they've gotten themselves in, and that geek girls are not a silent minority and we're not going to take creepy sexist BS quietly.
@Max Loh - In before accusations of how feminism ruins everything etc. To be honest I'm more impressed by how the OP missed the point entirely, when you can substitute Logan for any other movie/media and say 'I wish - insert underage character's name - was older so that I could sexualize him/her.'
Milodrums - Let's enjoy the last of hugh jackman as an older, fuller, sexier wolverine and not sexualise a child.
Jas - It's whole concept of all female characters NEEDING to be sexy and of a f**kable age that's just disturbing. Yes, they're public personalities and it's a comic book character, but that mentality is just disgusting.
As in other parts of the world, the local female geeks have faced more than their fair share of sexism. From nasty remarks and leery behaviour toward cosplayers, to talking right over your heads about comics just because there is a guy standing beside you, or saying how surprised it is to see girls or women liking Star Wars - the female geek community has probably seen it all. But to have someone working in a comic book store justifying his sexist behaviour in a public space, in that particular nasty tone of voice, is really something else.
It is saying in no uncertain terms - this thing about comic books or stuff related? This is not YOUR space. Women, your voice DO NOT Count. This is all NOISE to us, the men and boys who are the REAL fans of comics. This Feminism... you all really like to Spoil our Sacred Fantasies by saying that some of these thoughts are Questionable. And that any female, no matter how young she is, is ripe for fetishizing.
To Absolute Comics and all other male fans who think the same way, Red Dot Diva says hell NO.
Such conduct is not acceptable at all, and instead of merely wiping away the post as if nothing ever happened (which makes it even worse, because it's a way of silencing this section of the community), there should have been an apology. If not for that, there should have been - in good faith - an apology for how bad mannered James Chan had been to the small local geek community and the shop's customers - both male and female. Or even for the very least, to have the courage to stand by what was originally posted and bear the consequences.
Oh, BTW, since James Chan insists that "he will keep doing it" and that fans are free to unlike Absolute Comics. Well then, Red Dot Diva recommends that you go ahead and do that, and go LIKE some other stores instead. She recommends her two favourite stores, GnB Comics or Kinokuniya.
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