walkin' the talk

[goddess32585]

so, i don't actually read comic books. or even that many graphic novels, even. and even i know that frank miller's work is, um, problematic. really. but then i see, from someone who knows him irl, as family of a friend, that's he's a 'delightful man', a 'feminist' even

Comments

[lakmiseiru]

There's a reason I'm not in biotech. I could be making about an extra $20k a year with this MIT degree if I sold out to the Man, but I'm not.

[goddess32585]

I realize it's a fine line in some cases, and I'm not advocating that people make careers out of their politics. But I think it should be possible to find some outlet for your talents that is at least neutral wrt your values, rather than involving [requiring?] actions actually contrary to them.

I'm also annoyed by the implication that not even changing the way people think is enough to stop them from acting like bigots; I guess I always knew that both deeds and attitudes need confronting, but damn, that's depressing.

[lakmiseiru]

Re: fine line: true. There are ways to work in biotech that involve *not* selling out to the Man - it just requires a little more work.

[conana]

I think I would have put written content in the talk category, rather than in the realm of actions, but they are depressingly seperate issues. My sense is that social pressure acts a lot more directly in actions, generally in poor directions. Or at least, it's a lot easier for me to surround myself with people who say the right things, and to say them myself, than to get around the fact that it's strategic to behave in certain ways, and that doing otherwise breaks other people's metaphors.

[allonymist]

Well, to be fair, his work is a bit less one-sided than that. I haven't read 300 or the new Batman + Robin stuff, but going from the Dark Knight stuff, from Ronin, and from Sin City, Miller's work isn't so unremittingly "everybody's a whore" as shortpacked would have it.

In The Dark Night Returns, Robin's a girl, and she's a fairly strong, useful, and competent Robin. One of the two main characters of Ronin is a woman, and from what I remember she's pretty competent and badassed (security head, cyber-assassin, etc).

Note that I'm not going to try to talk about Sin City here--Sin City IMO has nothing positive to say about gender, gender relations, or relations in general, unless you take it as a reductio ad absurdum of its film noir tropes, which is by no means a necessary interpretation. Also, I can't remember a thing about the second Dark Night series, so hm. Also, the rest of his works may be completely awful; I don't know; ymmv; but you might want to try Ronin or TDKR if you think that the guy might deserve a chance

[goddess32585]

darling, i swear i was only using him as an illustrating example for my actual point, about conflicts between thoughts and actions, and personal and public personae.

besides, it's not that 'everybody's a whore', only the women.

[ebenezer]

For some people, identity is equated with success, and, in the absence of more well-defined metrics, prosperity serves as a proxy for this success.