Women, Race, and Agency in Narratives: or why i stopped reading vertigo's fables.

[prozacpark]

meta written for eid_ka_chand, exploring how race and gender play a part in fictional hierarchy and analyzing cultural/narrative appropriation.

Vertigo's Fables comics were, in many ways, my reentry into comics and my first foray outside of the X-men stuff and likely the reason that I ever left the X-men bits to pursue reading any other comics.

Comments

[prozacpark]

The abortion bit was the first time when "Fables" enraged me. I love Snow White, but way to be all manpain-y and disdainful towards HUMAN women who get abortions, because, hi, you're immortal, you will *never* know exactly how much of an affect an unwanted pregnancy can have on a woman's life because you'll still have all of yours even AFTER the kids grow up and leave. But it was such an isolated event of fail that I got over it, but after that, his politics always managed to come through on the page, which bugged me. But the recent gender and race fail have been unforgivable.

I'll always miss and mourn what "Fables" used to be, but it's not hard to resist it in its current incarnation.

[prozacpark]

I almost feel that all retellings (that I have read/watched anyway) manage to make Scheherazade less awesome than the original? Because there's this need to redeem the king, which means that she has to be in love with him. I sort of like when her plan is all rational and heroic and not a sacrifice she's making in the name of love?

Also, the saving him from himself would work much better if he weren't a misogynistic asshole responsible for the deaths of thousands of women.

[ketchup_fights]

If I were feeling generous, I would guess that the desire to rewrite Scheherazade as in love with the king comes from a desire to give Scheherazade a happy ending. She's got to redeem and love the king, so the thinking goes, because otherwise the prospect of her spending the rest of her life with this mass murdering asshole is too depressing for words.

And, granted, it is depressing, but I kind of like it for that. Scheherazade's heroic sacrifice doesn't just last for a thousand and one nights--it lasts for the rest of her life. I feel like there's a really interesting fanfic to be written about that.

[prozacpark]

I think part of it is the desire to give her a happy ending, but even that implies an inability to see any happiness outside of romantic happiness for a girl? Because who is to say that Scheherazade is not perfectly happy being a powerful queen instead of being in love with her husband? They might not have a happy marriage, but she has other things going for her that may or may not give her happiness. Speculation aside, however, she does have sort of a bleak ending from the traditional perspective, which is easy to forget given the extent of her awesomeness.

And, granted, it is depressing, but I kind of like it for that. Scheherazade's heroic sacrifice doesn't just last for a thousand and one nights--it lasts for the rest of her life.

Exactly. <3 Luckily, we don't have to wait for that fanfic as someone has published a novel ("Arabian Nights and Days") with that premise for us. I haven't read it yet, but it seems like it has the right idea?

Which isn't to say that there shouldn't also be fanfic about Scheherazade.

[ketchup_fights]

BTW, thanks for writing this. My geeky guy friends have been talking up Fables for a while, and I've been trying to decide whether it's worth a read or not. They've been assuring me there's no race and gender fail, but despite their general cluefulness on feminist issues, I've found we're often not quite on the same wavelength where fail in comics is concerned. (I'm still trying to figure out how to break it to them that I don't think Alan Moore and Joss Whedon are amazingly awesome feminist writers.)

This gives me a much better idea of what to be on guard for if I decide to dive in.

[prozacpark]

"Fables" starts out so well that it's hard not to fall for it hard and fast. But once the fail starts, it just never stops and keeps getting worse and worse. And the bit covered here is not even the tip of the iceberg of fail. Following the race fail, it also started taking the stories away from the women it had established as its main heroines, and most of them have completely disappeared now. There's also a tone shift where it started out as deconstructive urban fantasy and now it's just regular fantasy that thinks it's High Fantasy with all the emphasis that genre seems to place on men and manpain.

I...possibly have a lot of "Fables" related bitterness. ;)

Even Alan Moore thinks he was filled with fail in refrigerating Barbara. And while I have liked some of his stuff, it's often problematic on the gender front. And Joss is not even pretending to be a feminist these days.

[paperclipchains]

I never got around to reading Fables, but this was a great read. Do you mind if I crosspost to inclusive_geeks?

[prozacpark]

Yes, post away. Thank you for asking. :)

[lyssie]

...that... man. That sucks. :/

[prozacpark]

And this isn't even half of it, Lyssie! *hates*