The Empress on a Nude Beach

This may be considered to be jumping onto a bandwagon. This may well be true. At any rate, I'll take that risk.

Recently my friend and blogging partner Ragnell wrote a post taking a very popular "feminist" blogger to task.

I can't claim to be unbiased. I don't agree with said feminist blogger, well, hell, let's not be coy. I don't agree with Valerie D'Orazio on many things. I have often blogged these disagreements. But I have always tried to keep it to the scope of the disagreement and not my feelings about Ms. D'Orazio herself.

I have a lot of respect for what Ms. D'Orazio's achievements and her ability to market herself to her audience. I admire her ability to reinvent herself on a fairly regular basis, taking hits that would actually cause the average blogger to pause and re-evaluate the whole situation, re-grouping and coming back on a 75 degree angle stronger than ever.

What I've never liked was what I see as her inclination to use other people. She's used WFA as a stepping stone more than once, which actually doesn't bother me that much, as I'm aware that many people have used WFA to reach a wider audience quickly and hell, I've done the same thing myself.

Her tendancy to twist the words of other people and make them into strawmen, I'm far less fond of.

I don't know what Ms. D'Orazio's actual beliefs are. I don't know whether she's a feminist or not. I do know that I have seen her spin a blogger's minor plaint into an attack on all men in feminist discussions. And well, we all remember the comment moderation kerfluffle and the John Stewart incident. Hmm, come to think about it, I seem to remember my DC Legacy Hero post getting linked a few times to argue in contexts that were not mine. Ah, Here's one!:

Lisa Fortuner provides guidelines for writers of international characters, courtesy of "The Mainstream Comics Industry":

"However, the Mainstream Comics Industry advises against researching another culture and creating a well-rounded original character based on actual facts, because this could result in your readers thinking of foreign nations as places with a rich history and culture populated by a variety of individual thinkers who are worthy of respect as human beings. This leads to the audience raising their standards and refusing to pay for books that don’t adhere to that standard."

But Lisa, if you just think of those characters as Legacy Heroes, and give them a chance instead of tearing them down because of supposed inaccuracies and "uninspired characterization" (my God, as if there really is such a thing), maybe they can blossom.

(runs)

You know, considering the extensive editing experience Ms. D'Orazio has under her belt, I'm surprised she doesn't know that quotations in a block quote are redundant.

I suppose there's also this one:

An interesting note in terms of the nominees for best character in both the male and female categories -- while Luke Cage and Amanda Waller received nods, DC's "Legacy" characters, with the exception of David Lapham & Eric Battle's The Spectre in Tales of The Unexpected, did not.

It's not that I mind the extra attention, but I find it odd to be linked there at all. Unless of course she were trying to attack my argument indirectly.

I suppose I do tend to hold a grudge for a long time. :-)

You know, it strikes me, that that's a lot of effort. (Especially considering that the first of those two posts went up a MONTH after mine.) When I want to attack my opponent's argument I just post a blog post to explain why I think they're wrong. Much easier that way. But I digress.

What actually prompted this post today though was this.

Apparently Ms. D'Orazio believes her "posts hit a cord" (I presume she meant "chord". A common mistake, I've made it myself. I don't pride myself on my editorial experience mind you) and thus compares herself to Jennifer Walters being asked to not be She-Hulk and be "acceptable instead". Oh and somehow porn got involved in it. Which is bizarre to me, as the only critiques I've seen of Ms. D'Orazio's post I've seen never mentioned porn. But then I don't know about every piece of criticism she's recieved, so maybe that was the issue.

But I want to talk about the Jennifer Walters comparison for a moment. I read Savage She-Hulk too. Adored it. Blogged about it. I think it's amazingly feminist and Jen is an amazingly strong character.

You, Ms. D'Orazio, are no Jen Walters.

The whole point of Ragnell's criticism, which I believe was the critique that got the most attention and rightly so, wasn't to somehow force you into some mold of respectability or acceptability.

She was calling you on a) being an idiot. Which you are. Seriously. All that whole John Stewart/Jefferson Pierce experience from you would have needed was an "Oh, sheesh, sorry, I was tired. I MEANT to type Jeff Pierce." We'd have been okay with that.

She was calling you on b) inconsistency. Which you are. I read your blog with sheer amusement and joy to see where you're going to heel turn next. I actually PRAY Cloak and Dagger is an ongoing just to watch you change the series' focus and direction each time you get a bit of pointed criticism.

She was calling you on c) pandering to the lowest common denominator. My words, not hers. Your target audience is people unhappy with change to their comics and needing a scapegoat. You target Dan Didio at every possible time. You once wrote an ill-conceived and illogical diatribe predicting Dan Didio getting fired, (which I'm very proud to have countered and called you on.)

Hmm, apparently Countdown didn't kill his career after all. Huh. Fancy that. (By the way, your predictions? The same kind of generalized tripe that ANYONE with half a brain can come up with and be at least 85% right in the end.)

She also called you d) superficial and e) the "safe feminist". Meaning she was accusing you of BEING JEN WALTERS FOR THAT DINNER EVERY POST OF YOUR BLOG.


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I read Ms. D'Orazio's blog for WFA reasons and sometimes because she does have something interesting up. I try not to comment because I don't like being a troll, I do and will post my disagreements here.

And go ahead and TRY to burn me in effigy. I'd like to see it.

Or, you know, stop being that Empress and actually put on some real damn clothes.