Dude! It's a chick!!

Goodbye, Mr. Petersen.

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:40:06 GMT

One of the first regular customers that really talked to me was Daniel Petersen, a man in his late 50s to early 60s. He was someone who you could tell loved to talk, and it wasn't long before he knew my last name was also Petersen. For the first several months, I would actually see him pretty regularly. He would come into the store and say "Hello, Ms. Petersen" with a smile and I would grin and say "Hello, Mr. Petersen". From time to time, he'd also call me his "namesake" as a joke. After awhile, I didn't see him too often as he would come in on Thursday mornings and I don't usually work then.

The last time I saw him was Free Comic Book Day. The store was packed with people and he was in a hurry. He grabbed his bag of things, made a little small talk, but had to go. He hadn't been feeling well for awhile, I guess he picked up pneumonia sometime before and was having a hell of a time getting past it.

Today when I walked into the store, Bill, the manager, stopped me and asked me if I knew a particular customer. I vaguely remembered his name, but couldn't place the face. Apparently he was the nephew of Daniel Petersen. He told Bill that last weekend, Daniel went in to see why it was taking so long to get over pneumonia and found out he had cancer. The doctor told him he had two to four months to live.

Daniel Petersen died two days later. I didn't know him very well, but he was a nice guy, funny, and one of the first to actually respect me as a comic fan, rather than seeing me as "the girl". What's weird, is the day he died I thought of him out of the blue. Nothing I was doing actually reminded me of him, I just suddenly thought of him saying to me "Hello, Ms. Petersen."

So, for the last time,

Goodbye, Mr. Petersen.

As a lesbian and a feminist...

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:02:03 GMT

I totally disavow this woman. Her "argument" is easy enough to dismantle, so I won't even bother. I just had to post since she's the epitome of what people think of when they hear "lesbian feminist". Hell, she's the epitome of what some think of when they hear "feminist".

BG&E 2!

Thu, 29 May 2008 15:14:10 GMT

It's about time!

Now if only I could play the original Beyond Good and Evil. My Xbox died and so far Xbox 360 can't play it. Sigh, it's such a good game!

Seriously, Captain America casting people (and people in general)

Tue, 27 May 2008 14:51:36 GMT

Not this guy:

and certainly not this guy:

This man is Cap:

He may be from the UK, but he can do American accents. He can fight (see Rome and Kingdom of Heaven), and he can act (May have Rome Spoilers). He has the grizzled war weary face we see in Rome, and the sympathetic one we see in Journeyman. What more do we need? Seriously, I've said it a lot, I know, but this guy would easily make the movie.

The Spectacular Comic Shop Girl #10~ I Wonder What Flavor of Eye Candy I am?

Thu, 01 May 2008 01:44:58 GMT

The company put out a survey thing several weeks ago to get an idea of how things at the new store were doing, how people liked the new location, the layout, etc and so forth. It also included some ratings on the employees as well. For the overwhelming majority of the comments (that mentioned employees) it was all very very positive. There were one or two that were moderate to negative...including one in reference to me. This isn't an exact quote, but it's close:

"I rated the employees lower than I would otherwise, mainly due to the red headed female employee. She consistently gives me the bare minimum amount of customer service and never smiles. At first I thought it was because I was female and she was being territorial, but a male friend said she was the same to him. I understand hiring eye candy, but every time I come in she's sullen...Every time I come in and see her, I know I'm going to get sub par customer service." [Emphasis mine]

Thing is, I could have been moody and/or sullen when she's been in. I haven't had the best year in terms of my family, and I freely admit there were days it was so bad I probably wasn't in the greatest mood at work. So it's entirely possible there's some merit to that aspect of her complaint. And considering there were so many others that WERE positive about my customer service, I'm not really worried about one person's view on it so much.

What bothers me so much about what she wrote was what I put in bold: "I understand hiring eye candy." Wow...seriously. It's so nice when someone, especially another woman, discounts the possibility I just might be hired at the store because I know a massive chunk of useless information about comics rather than a need for "eye candy". I always suspected some people were thinking that I was just there because I'm female and they needed the "token chick", but to actually have it down in words, and from another woman no less.

You'd think she herself was subject to the same sexism I am, and thus would be more likely to consider that I was there because I liked comics. I'm positive that in at least one store (less likely mine) she was asked if she was getting stuff for her boyfriend/husband/whatever; and likely it irritated her to be marginalized by that. I would think that she would be conscious of that when filling out the survey.

That really is the only thing that bothers me about it, that my position at the store was so marginalized, and by a woman who should know better! When I was talking about it with Jake, he made the point that it was insulting to the guys at the store as well, implying that they were shallow enough to just hire someone for the reasons she believes.

What's kind of a funny side note in all of it is that my hair's not red. It has some red to it, but it's more of a light brown (though some say it's a dark blonde...I refuse to believe them). I'm the only woman who works at the store on a consistent basis, so it has to be in reference to me.

It's nice to be appreciated. Or, a sexist compliment that actually makes me feel good.

One thing I like about Jake's Saturdays is that he often catches up on work in the back room while I spend most of the day in the main part by myself. This means the customers have to ask me questions rather than going to whichever of the guys happens to be there. And it's really nice to be the one person they go to, even if it is just every other Saturday.

This past Saturday a man was in with his son. The man had been into comics when he was younger and was now looking to get his kids into comics as well. Obviously, quite a bit had changed since he read comics, so I got to fill him in on quite a bit. Including stuff in relation to the Comics Code Authority, The Seduction of the Innocent, and current rating system on some major publishers (or lack thereof. I'm looking at you, DC). While explaining it, another man, about the same age as the first tuned into the conversation and during a pause, commented "Wow...you really know your stuff!" and asked me a question (to which he knew the answer) about the whole Harry Osborne drug addiction story that was asked for by the anti-drug part of the government and rejected by the CCA part. I answered it and he was more surprised.

The two men talked about other things for awhile, like current comics and how things had changed. As the second man was leaving he came up to me and said "I have to say, I'm really impressed. Did you know this before you worked here, or did you have to learn it?" I told him I knew it before I got the job.

"I'm just surprised, you're the only...well..."

"You're the only woman I know that reads comics, let alone knows all this history." Chimed in the first man.

"Yes, that's it exactly!"

So there it was. I definitely got the impression from their reactions before that they were impressed because a woman knew all of this stuff, so I wasn't too surprised when they actually told me. And considering their generation and being out of comics for awhile, I can't fault them too much on their perceptions. During the time when they were into comics, there were very few girls and women who were into comics and even less who would publicly admit it (they're a few decades too young to remember the female audience comics had pre CCA). And neither of the men were condescending when talking with me, they were just surprised.

So in the end, ironically, the sexism behind both stories is basically the same: the perception that I'm just there as a token woman rather than merit. Funny how context can make all the difference, huh? And with the guys, their perception that women don't read comics is now changed...even if it is just a little.

Ralph Nader's a tool.

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:34:21 GMT

Ralph Nader has thrown his hat in the ring...again. Late February. As a very left wing Independent.

Ok, seven years ago he ran and siphoned off some of the more left votes. Granted, those may or may not have gone to Gore (some probably would have gone with Gore had Nader not gone in, some would just not have voted.)

Now it's about eight months until the election, and he's just NOW announcing his candidacy. This tells me he's not really serious about it. I mean, come on, his chances of winning are already clearly very little, but he's starting so late after others have so much momentum. His chances are so small, and this has been proven quite often. I am so not saying we shouldn't expand how we have elections, have more than one party or anything like that. That will take a significant restructuring of our electoral process and is something for another, longer post.

But Nader knows he's not going to win. Hell, everyone knows there's no way in hell he's going to win the majority of the votes/electoral college from the Democratic and Republican nominees. It's just not going to happen.

Which leads to one of two possibilities.

A) His ego needs some stroking.

or

B) The right wing hires him out.

This isn't to say he doesn't believe in what he says, but it just adds a different dimension to what he does. I can totally see him taking money under the table from the right wing to basically run as a distraction for liberals. Hell, he even may see it as a necessary evil to accept their money to do what he thinks is right (and to stroke his annoying ego). Granted, this would be total hypocrisy due to his stance against corporate interests in government, but he may not think of that.

It just seems odd that he jumps in now, especially after the 2000 election results. Hell, after over a decade of him getting very little support. Again, I'm not saying we shouldn't have more than two parties, I think we do. (I actually think parties should be done away with entirely and people are elected on the merits of their platforms and records) I just can't see him being elected, and I can't see him actually believing he'd be elected.

The only bonus is I think most people have learned from 2000, so I doubt he'll do as "well" this time around.

Apparently three seconds is all one needs to divine my dietary habits.

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:30:46 GMT

Ok, a quick so this story requires a little explanation up front: I'm skinny. It's not because I don't eat, or I eat too healthily (if there is such a thing :P ). I don't eat an extreme amount, but what I do eat is often high in fats and calories. I drink at least four glasses of whole milk a day. This isn't to brag or anything like that, this is to make sure the next part is put into full context.

I was walking across the street to my girlfriend's apartment for the night. Where we live, they have alternate side parking each night to allow the plows to go through if there's snow. And there's been quite a bit of it, though the plows haven't really utilized the alternate side parking on my girlfriend's street. Anyway, as I'm walking across, a car pulls out of the mall parking lot. It's a small mall made up of basically old yuppie stores. Usually it's pretty quiet.

This car, though, had a guy in the passenger seat that felt the need to shout out to me "Eat something, for the love of shit!"

The car was away before I could even respond. On the one hand, I took it with humor considering the irony and ignorance of what he said.

On the other hand, it pissed me off! Where does he get off commenting on my body? Or how much I eat? If I was a guy, there's no way in hell he would have said anything. Yes, there are women that don't eat, or don't eat enough in order to stay skinny. Yes, there is a problem with the fashion industry in always portraying ultra skinny women, often pushing their models into eating disorders to keep up.

However, this doesn't speak for all skinny women, or men for that matter. And it certainly doesn't give this ass the right to comment as his friend speeds by. Ugh... Ok, rant over.

The Spectacular Comic Shop Girl #9, the Vastly Delayed Edition

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:36:48 GMT

It's been quite awhile since my last SCSG update. I know, all of one person thought "Wait, wasn't there some semi-regular blog about a...ooh, chocolate!" Anyway...

Listen to the girl, save six dollars

It's so incredibly irritating how often people in the store (female and male), will ask me questions, get an answer, then later ask Bill or Jake the same question and get the same answer. It's annoying, though sometimes amusing. In this case it was amusing because if the guy had just listened to me, he would have saved $6.

It was near the end of the day, and I was doing inventory. Which of late isn't anything new. Inventory in this context, is defined as a level of retail hell that lasts forever. This man walks in and kind of looks around a bit. He's kind of a jittery personality, like he's had too much coffee or a cola or something. He comes to the desk and asks if the Wizard we have out is the latest. I tell him it is. He asks for an opened copy. Lucky for him, we actually do have one.

He flips through it for a few minutes, then asks if we have any more back issues. I tell him we have last month's, but no open copy for it.

"Do you have the Indy edition?"

"You mean one Wizard puts out devoted to Indy press?"

"Yeah."

"No, they haven't released one yet. Or in awhile for that matter."

"Oh...do you know when?"

"No, not reliably."

"Thanks."

He walks away for a bit and Bill comes up. The man walks back with last month's Wizard.

"Can I open this, I'll buy it."

Bill looks at him funny, but says "Uh...ok, sure."

As he opens it, he starts asking Bill the exact same questions he just asked me. Bill gives him the same answers I did, and of course, the last issue of Wizard yielded no results for him. Which meant he had to shell out $6 for an issue that he didn't really want for an answer I gave him ahead of time. I so wanted to say "See, 'the girl' does know what she's talking about. If you listened to me, you would have saved money!"

I have a secret ~~stalker~~ admirer

I'm going to be kind of vague with this one. Mainly because I don't know who this guy is, and I'm pretty sure it was not meant to be threatening in any way. Well, that's assuming that it's not the creepy guy that I originally thought it might be.

I got into work a few months ago and Jake came up to me and said "Meg, I have something to show you." in this slightly foreboding tone. I thought "what, did I frak up the bank deposit last night?" Jake opens up his email and clicks on a link. This link is to a page that's in a "men seeking women" section. I won't say exactly what it says (trying to maintain a small level of anonymity here), but it's basically pretty clear the guy is talking about me. And that he has a crush on me.

This is kind of strange, honestly. The internet part. I'm all for meeting people online (hell, my girlfriend and I first met online). But I guess posting that you have a crush on somebody and leaving a contact email (which is made anonymous through the site), you'd THINK they'd just take the initiative and talk to me, if not tell me directly. Whoever it was, they weren't a regular, that much was clear from the message itself. I know there are a few guys who have a crush on me who come in. They talk differently than others, not in a condescending way, just in a way that I know they're crushing. I'm pretty sure that they didn't write the entry since I'm pretty sure they know I'm gay (hence the girlfriend thing. Seriously, pay attention!).

Jake had been sent the link by a friend of his, who wrote "She probably would want to know about this." Which I did. Bill and I thought it was this creepy guy who came in a few weeks before, who just kept looking at me funny (literally...he had his head cocked to the right), and mumbled quite a bit. When Bill came up and saw the guy, he was about to head out to get some food. He'd stopped to make sure the guy didn't try anything, that was how strong the creepy vibe was. The guy mumbled more and left. With more distance between that and the online thing, I tend to think it's not him. He never came back to the shop.

Some of the customers also stumbled across the ad page. I think what's stranger than the ad itself is when people ASKED me about the ad. Just kind of "So, you've got an admirer, huh?" So, I got some crap for it for awhile; from both co-workers and customers. :P

That is one hell of a Christmas gift

Months ago, I was talking to a customer (call him Luke) about a game that he had a part in making. In the game, you could choose if your character was female or male, but aside from that difference, the stories were the same. Including the love interest being female, regardless of the gender of your character. Which I was so surprised and happy with. It turns out this guy had written that in there to see if it would pass. And it did. I told him that it had really made me happy to see that, and the surprise was so very cool to me. It's not often you see a lesbian romantic interest in games, especially one not done for titillation.

A few weeks later, in early December, he asks if I've played Mass Effect. For those of you in the geek world who haven't really been paying attention, Mass Effect is a new RPG that came out for the 360 in November to some controversy. You can create your own character, female or male, and develop relationships in the game. One of those relationships for BOTH female and male versions is a potential romance with an Asari (an all female race. Well, technically they're mono-gendered and "not female". Which seems to be more of "We're gonna do it this way so we can shrug off some conservative rhetoric" than actual biological reasons. So I'm just gonna say they're an all female race, because well. They are. Hell, the game's description of them says so). Anyway, I'd said I was familiar with it, but I couldn't play it being that I was (and am) poor as hell. BioWare did KotoR, which I absolutely loved, so Mass Effect was something I'd wanted to play, even before I knew about the lesbian romance option.

A few hours later, he called to ask how much I could pay for a used 360. I guess a co-worker of his wanted to sell his old one for an Elite. I told him while I would definitely like too, I couldn't afford even a used. I thanked him for thinking of me, wished I had more money, and then pretty much put it out of my mind.

That Saturday we were busy as hell. I'm looking down at the time, working on someone's gift card. Jake is helping at the register and looks up first.

"Uh...Meg..." I finish the gift card and hand it to the customer when I see Luke standing there with an Xbox 360.

"It's for you."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, it's yours!"

"You're not serious."

"Yeah, he's just a mean person here to taunt you. Of course he's serious.", said Jake.

Luke sets the 360 on the counter and puts an unopened copy of Mass Effect on top of it. "I didn't pay a single penny for all of it. I had some things to trade around and that's how I got it. Merry Christmas!"

"Wow...Thank you. I don't know what else to say. Thank you so much." That I probably repeated for the next several minutes as we talked. I wished I could do something in return, like give him his stuff for a year at cost or something. Or a discount. Or something. Since I couldn't, I just thanked him a lot instead. It was so surprising and generous of him to do that, and he did it for the generosity. Very cool.

Anyway, I'm going to write something on Mass Effect later. Since it doesn't really have much to do with a comic shop, or at least the one I work at, it will be in a different entry.

Next issue: Meg goes insane with Avatar and their multiple damn covers without barcodes, tosses those back issues into a shredder.

Holy....

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:54:42 GMT

In this week's Batman, is that Steph's Robin costume in the display case? It looks like it. Granted, Bats is a bit out of it and hallucinating...

Heath Ledger...

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:00:53 GMT

Wish you coulda hung around longer. :(

OMD on Shortpacked.

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 19:43:55 GMT

Love it!

Not a surprise...

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:58:20 GMT

But I hated One More Day's finale.

Honestly, anything that separated Pete and MJ was ill conceived and I wouldn't have liked it regardless. The only remotely redeeming quality is that it's possible that they leave it that they can get back together, that their love is strong enough. I like sappy stuff and that was too sappy for me.

What irritates me the most is that Quesada was criticizing fans at Chicago (and elsewhere) for "being selfish" for wanting to maintain the marriage status quo, that young kids picking up the comic wouldn't be able to identify with a married Spider-Man (which is absolutely BS since an entire generation of fans grew up with Pete and MJ married. I did. :P ) Not really surprising, he wanted it back to pretty much what it was when he grew up. Totally typical. Of course, his views of characters from his childhood are the only ones that matter.

It's great, though. Even some people who don't really care about the marriage thing think this is Quesada's biggest blunder and something he'd be remembered for.

Hell, even Straczynski hated the idea of it. I don't think I wrote about it (being busy and all), so I'll just quote CBR:

"it was a statement from writer J. Michael Straczynski posted on Usenet that really fanned the flames of controversy. In the statement, JMS said he disagreed with changes made to the story in "One More Day" and had even gone as far as to ask for his name to be taken off the final chapter ultimately agreeing to keep his name on it at Quesada's request. For a writer to take his editor to task publicly is rare. For a writer to take his Editor-In-Chief to task publicly is virtually unheard of in this industry."

This seems totally typical of Quesada's "I'm always right" mentality, as well as his inability to take criticisms very well. The fact that he pushed JMS to change his story, as well as pushed JMS to keep his name on the book (probably so Quesada doesn't look bad that such a writer wanted his name OFF) is just amazing. Quesada really needs to step down before he screws anything else up.

Study finds studies are worthless.

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 17:24:17 GMT

So apparently this "expert" rode around on a unicycle in public, documented people's reactions, and determined men are naturally funnier than women. Because of his unicycle. Apparently, the "intrinsic humor" properties of his cycle are sufficient in its scientific base to determine unequivocally that the responses he got from 400 people in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK. Seriously...absolutely brilliant piece of scientific work there, Doc.

Sure the BBC story probably dumbed down what exactly he did in his studies, but if the article has any truth to it, I hardly see it as remotely concrete proof of anything other than that riding unicycles can make you look like a dumbass.

At least it wasn't totally Farscaped...

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:19:45 GMT

Journeyman's alleged last episode aired tonight. Honestly, it was a pretty decent wrap episode for a show only 13 episodes long. It wrapped up enough that if it doesn't return, at least most of the questions have been answered that I'm not left wondering what the hell's going on. Still, they did leave enough of the mystery in the show on the off chance it does keep going. I'm hoping it will, it's such a great show that keeps getting better and more interesting each episode. There are some really great powerful moments that happen, such great drama (the good kind ;) ). The last scene of this episode was one of them. Not the most, that would probably go to Monday's episode. Though Dan talking to his dad on the night that his dad leaves, trying to convince him to stay with his family was right up there too. Sigh...

Oh, and speaking of Kevin McKidd, he totally needs to be cast as Captain America.

Journeyman can't go away!!

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:34:55 GMT

Journeyman has been getting better and better each week. This week's episode is just...soooo cool. There's only one left after this, and that sure as hell isn't enough. :P

This looks sooo damn cool!

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:26:32 GMT

The title of the game is weird and I'm feeling to sick to look the game up at the moment (I will later, promise). The game, however, looks VERY fun; and the fact that the main character is female and NOT used as a sex object (at least not in the trailer...) is absolutely fantastic. She's fully clothed too! Yeah, at one point she's in the tub, but I don't so much see that as sexualized...not much of her is visible and she's just relaxing. It kinda reminds me of Serenity/Firefly style of story, but not quite. The Old West meets tech thing (and the women kick ass.)

The only downside is regardless of what it comes out on, I can't play it! (or review it for Grrlgamer) I miss having all of the current systems... (I had all of the last gen. It was nice. Sigh...good times...)

Ugh...just...ugh.

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 23:01:17 GMT

I'm a few days late with this, but I wasn't here when it came out. There's this too, which while it says some of the same things the first link does, he does get in some other points.

I'm not going to go into a long post here, but again, I wanted to make note of it. I can't believe some people went as far as they did; the written stuff I'm less surprised at (but still disgusted), but actually taking time to draw panels with Jade Raymond in a porn like that takes a certain degree of malice. The comic "artist's" comments on it are even more sickening; as surprising as that may sound. He actually claims there was no malice there, that she's just collateral damage. To paraphrase "I don't think 'collateral damage' means what he thinks it means." The porn comic was about her, how is she just an innocent bystander who happens to get hurt?

I've read about other women's experiences in gaming and comics, running up against sexism. I've experienced it quite a bit myself; from small things like "Dude! It's a chick!" (hence the title of this blog) to blatant discrimination and sometimes even hate (people hate snipers...people hate snipers who are women even more; apparently). This just goes beyond anything I expected. I seriously hopes she sues the "artist" and his host site into oblivion. They certainly have warranted legal action.

Just because we don't have enough shakeups in the status quo.

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:35:35 GMT

Rumor is, Bruce Wayne is a dead man. If it wasn't for the past few years with DC and Marvel's fetish of perpetually ongoing events with "shakeups" all the way, the idea might be interesting. But between events in Marvel (which granted, DC isn't a part of) not to mention DC's lame "let's-do-a-Crisis-every-few-years" fetish, with a scattered "minor" events (like Amazon's Attack, drastically changing Wonder Woman's world, but no one else's, really); it's apparently showing no signs of stopping. "Event fatigue" has been thrown around for quite some time, and honestly, it really doesn't seem like a rumor. The people I talk to in the store are either starting to move away from events or are vocalizing their intent to. Yes, things like this can get an increase in sales, and it has. It doesn't mean that will continue; the saturation of the market is inevitable and at some point, fans will get tired of it to a point that events will bomb and bomb badly.

If sales are anything like they are at the store I work at, Countdown is floundering, yet they're pumping out a ton of side mini-series. Just this last week, there were three or four outside of the regular Countdown. At $3-4 a piece, plus the regular books. it gets to be pretty expensive. People are going to drop the superfluous eventually. Hell, I even see some people dropping their favorites because of it.

Cap has actually done well with the shakeup, and while most think how he died (presuming he actually did...I'm still skeptical), the follow up is actually interesting and engaging. Yet World War Hulk feels like it's leading up to a House of M like ending, though I haven't enjoyed WWH as much as I did most of House of M. Endangered Species is over, and it didn't really go anywhere. The multipart story could have easily been condensed to a 3 part mini-series, rather than forcing people to buy several X-titles for just a few pages in the back. Messiah Complex (or Messy Complex, as I've dubbed it :D ) is also slow in starting. You've got the Spidey thing that's taking forever to finish up ("One More Day"...ha. It's more like "One more month, we swear we'll get it out by then!") There's WWH wrapping up (and taking its sweet time doing so) and leading into Aftersmash. There's the Secret Invasion starting relatively soon (with a prelude in this weeks New Avengers Illuminati) and that's sure to shake things up like crazy. That's just Marvel.

DC has Countdown and its Infinite Crossovers to finish up, leading into Final (we swear) Crisis, as well as the Sinestro Corps War, Marriage of Black Canary and Green Arrow (if they actually did get married, considering the reveal recently), Return of Ra's al Ghul, The Death of the New Gods, and so forth. DC's apparently getting so lazy they're telling you the results right away with the titles. Gee, could Ra's al Ghul be coming back? And the New Gods are dying? Why bother reading it? That's kinda taking away the, you know, suspense part.

Anyway, it's going to run both companies into trouble soon enough. They won't be able to keep up the current status quo (which is to say, there is no status quo) for long. Who knows, maybe the end will start with the death of a bat. I think it's already started.

The Spectacular Comic Shop Girl #8 Special Halloween Edition

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:33:11 GMT

I mentioned in my last entry that I was going as Spider-Girl for work on Halloween. I worked out most things, such as getting hospital booties from a co-worker to keep my feet from getting dirty (the costume doesn't have any padding or protection for the feet. It's all the same cloth), working out a hair net (My hair is long and hard to get into the mask alone) and finding a pin to hold the neck together more so I don't look like I have a massively bulky neck. :P

I went to the store out of costume and put it on in the bathroom. I can see why the Spider-people leave the costume on underneath. It takes way too long to put it on. :P After struggling with my hair and the makeshift nylon hair net and zipping the costume up over all of that, I was out in the main part of the store after 5 minutes, mask and all.

I usually wear fairly tight fitting clothing every day, at least in summer. I didn't think the Spider-Girl costume would really feel all that different on me; it didn't in the comfort of my own home. I should have guessed that being in something that is essentially a second skin in a comic store would feel totally different. I felt naked, yet clothed. It's an odd feeling and for the first half hour or so I wasn't really sure what to do with myself.

I also couldn't really see all that well. I could recognize faces and see where everything was. Reading was an entirely different thing, though, as the words tended to be blurred by the mask's eyepieces. I also couldn't look down, not without holding the top of my head. The costume itself is made up of the very flexible spandex lycra material. Unfortunately, the zipper going the full length of my spine is not, so I wasn't exactly the most flexible Spider-Girl in that costume.

What was pretty cool was most of the customers at the time I showed up to the store were regulars, so I wasn't debuting the Spidey look in front of a whole bunch of people who didn't know me. That would come later...

I got a lot of compliments on it right away, most were amazed (er, no pun intended) at how accurate and well made the costume was. It had me wishing I had sewn it myself, rather than being lazy and ordering it online. Still, it was nice to hear the compliments on how it looked.

The shop has a Halloween store next to it (at the moment), so there's quite a few people walking by the store that normally wouldn't. Right away, there was a mother and her daughter passing by on their way out of the Halloween store and the girl stopped by our entrance and just stared at me with this stunned look on her face. I waved at her and she waved back, then kind of ran away from the entrance. It was very cute.

At least I know Mayday deals with it too...
Unfortunately, most people know of Spider-Man, but not Spider-Girl. Which means "Spider-Girl" wasn't the first thing that came to mind when they saw me standing there in the store. In the space of fifteen minutes, there were probably five to ten instances of "Look, it's Spider-Man!", to which I would say "Spider-Girl!" in an increasingly exasperated tone.

Twice parents came in with their kids and their kids excitedly said "Spider-Man!". After I said "Spider-Girl", they seemed to notice that this Spidey had a feminine shape to her. Oddly enough, both times the parents would come back and say something about "Spider-Man" in reference to me, probably something like "Say goodbye to Spider-Man" and the kids would say "Spider-Girl!" Again, very cute. One kid was really polite and actually thanked me for dressing up as Spider-Girl. (Which was kinda weird, honestly...)

One customer heard everything and told me his daughter had run into the same trouble before. She had gone as Spider-Girl, but was called Spider-Man by those who saw her. He said she was reacting pretty much like I was (getting exasperated and all that) so he told her to let her pony tail show. She did and no one called her Spider-Man after that. It was nice to hear I wasn't the only one (and I remembered that they even wrote that into the Spider-Girl comics). Still, I was too much of a purist. I wanted the costume as it was intended, so I left my hair inside the mask.

After about 45 minutes, the mask was getting to be kind of a pain, so I took it off. It was actually pushing my nose down, and after almost an hour of it, my nose was starting to hurt. Of course, right then one of the regulars who is a big Spidey fan came into the store. The mask went back on, and I inadvertently made the man quite jealous. Apparently he got a store bought Spidey costume, but hasn't had a chance to wear it. I'd shown him pictures of my costume a few weeks before, but he was surprised and how it looked, especially once I put the mask back on. As he left, he said "I'm going to go home, put on my Spider-Man mask and stare at myself in the mirror" in a pitiful tone.

I left the mask on for a little longer, I did like having it on. Oddly enough, with the mask off a lot of people didn't seem to notice unless they were relatively close that I was wearing a Spidey costume. When I wore the mask, there was immediately obvious no question that I was dressed as Spidey. It was also fun to "be" Spider-Girl. With my mask off, I was "Meg in a Spider-Girl costume." While I do share hair and eye color with May Parker, I doubt many would see me as her just on that alone. There are plenty of blue eyed brunettes wandering around.

The store slowed down around 7pm, which was likely due to Halloween itself. One guy kind of laughed as he bought his comics. I don't know if he was laughing at me or at Bill (who was dressed as an Arkham Asylum inmate.) He wouldn't say, and just said that he was laughing at himself for not wearing a costume.

The store closed and nine, and I changed out of the Spider-Girl costume and back into my everyday clothes. Halloween was over for me for another year, which is sad. I love the holiday and I hate getting out of the costumes I've looked forward to wearing for so long. It was like that for the zombie flapper girl costume I wore the week before for a Halloween party. There totally needs to be more Halloweens in the year! Still, it was nice to be in regular clothing, not to mention to be able to actually be able to grip things normally again. Ironically, in the Spider-Girl costume, I had less of a grip than usual. It's not surprising, just ironic.

Halloween costume pics:

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:27:45 GMT

My Spider-Girl costume came in the mail yesterday,

I found a Spider-Girl costume on ebay a few weeks ago and ordered it. It fits pretty well for the most part, mainly the neck and torso area can look kinda weird, but pins will fix that. The lighting kinda sucks, and some of the pictures are blurry, but it works. ;)

The costume fits pretty well for the most part. They made the neck kind of short, apparently. And a little wide. So it makes my neck look big. :P I'll probably pin it or something when I wear it on Halloween so it doesn't look so weird.

It kind of does the same thing with my torso, stretching to where the wider parts are and not showing much of the smaller. So it looks like I have no waist. :P Again, hopefully pinning it will help.

The mask is kinda weird, it's part of the costume and it zips up in the back. This makes sense, but it's kinda weird to put on. Once I do have it on, I can see, but not that well. There's a white screen for the eyes and it kind of distorts the lighting quite a bit. Plus it's practically impossible to look down. Note though, that in this picture my neck is much more normal of a size for the rest of my body. It's because my hand is holding it together. :P

Yes, I am a geek. It's as close as I can get to wall crawling in our living room. ;)

The quintessential Spidey pose. Of course, it just kinda looks silly in an apartment on the arm of a chair. It's the best I could do. ;P ;)

Spectacular Comic Shop Girl #7

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 16:41:25 GMT

A thought just occurred to me in writing this, that it might make more sense to write these monthly, going with the issue motif. Then again, some issues come out much more frequently, and some, considerably less frequently. So then I thought "fuck it", and wrote this.

Spider-Man has boobs?

No, this wasn't a quote. Not quite anyway. A couple came into the store looking for comics for their son (they said as much :P ). Their son was apparently fairly young as they went right to the children's area to look at the comics there. At one point, the man picks up one of the small trades of Spider-Girl and says out loud "Spider-Girl?"

"She's the daughter of Spider-Man, in an alternate future. It's pretty well done and would be great for kids as well as adults", I said. He looked at me incredulously. I explained further that it was done in a style similar to late silver age/early modern age in that while there is some angst, the story is overall very light; much different from the current Spidey books.

Still looking incredulous, he said "I don't know, I don't think I can accept a Spider-Man with boobs."

It was my turn to look incredulous. "Well, she's not Spider-Man. She's a different person with different troubles. She's more popular in school, she still has snarky comments in battle, but she's a different person."

"Yeah, I don't think so." He said, then bought a trade of the Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

I don't know what exactly he had a problem with. I don't know if it seemed like a marketing thing to get more people to read the comic, or if he really had a problem with female characters taking up the mantle of a male predecessor. I do wonder if there was a comic called "Spider-Boy, the Son of Spider-Man" if he would have had the same issue with it (if he had an issue with perceived marketing" or if he would have thought it was a great idea. Had it been my own store, I might have asked him. As it wasn't, I didn't, so I guess I will never know. Still, it was moderately irritating at the least.

You can't have that, that's for girls

This is a quote, one that I don't hear often at the shop. Well, actually, that's the first time I've heard it ever in any comic shop. A mother, her daughter, and son were in the shop. I don't know if they were just looking around or waiting for someone else. The daughter wandered around by herself while the mother and son were at the children's section. The boy was probably five or six years old, and I guess he pointed to something on the shelf. His mother told him "That's not for you, that's for girls".

I don't know exactly what it was, I only saw them from the side. I do know it was something low enough not to be Betty and Veronica. When I went to look later, it was likely the W.I.T.C.H. trade that he was looking at. It was the only thing in the area that was remotely "gendered". The only thing "gendered" about it was the cover was bordered in fuchsia. Granted, the book is about a group of female protagonists, but I wouldn't consider it gendered just because of that. I do know many people would, especially in relation to a boy. Girls are given no flack for following a group of boys, but boys following a group of girls is often considered a bad thing.

This is sexist on two fronts. Let's go with the sexism against the boy first. It's pretty clear that boys are limited in their interests as well. If boys show interest in anything "girly" they're mocked for being gay, femme, or any host of words meant as insults. Femininity is something that is often quashed in many boys as they reach puberty as in many people's view, it is inappropriate for the boys to express. Take a look at a more basic thing. Ask a guy with long hair how much crap he gets for having long hair. It's because long hair is seen as a feminine trait. And while this is changing, there still are plenty of men who are singled out for having long hair. Especially if they're looking for work. Even if it is well kept, shaped and maintained, it is seen as a "bad" thing. And this is something very small. Any man who dresses well, uses moisturizer or skin product, or anything else can often be harassed for those things.

These things are considered "female" and thus, bad for men to exhibit. This is clearly sexist toward men, and at the same time, just as sexist (if not moreso) toward women. Femininity is seen as a bad thing, society only permits it for those who are female. But then, even when it comes to women, being "feminine" can be considered "bad" if you exhibit too much of it. It also pushes the idea that seems so pervasive in our culture and cultures of the past that women are this "strange species from another planet", that male is the norm and female is the variance (which is ironic in that biologically, female is actually the norm and male is the variance in mammalian life).

In some ways, it is ok for women to express more "male" traits or interests, allowing for more variety in gender roles for women than men. This seems to be in terms of clothing and general "personality". When it comes to men, men are not allowed to express more feminine styles or personalities without some rebuke. However, in other ways it's the other way around. Women are not allowed to be aggressive or assertive, as that "makes" so many people see her as a "bitch" or "frigid". If a woman has sex with many people she is seen as a slut. This is not the way for men. In fact, these are the very traits men are encouraged to have in our society. They may be the traits people reference the most, but it is because it's still true.

There is clearly sexism on both sides against women and men to varying degrees. When it comes to something like comics, it's often girls who are told that it's not for them. Hell, even as adults we're still told that from time to time, and not just from some men. As I've mentioned in another SCSG, our society genders things so often, and tries so desperately to maintain those gendered "norms". It so disappoints me when parents choose things for their child not on what the child wants, but what is "appropriate" for the child's birth sex. As if that's the only important thing about the child, what genitals the doc sees when she or he first holds the newborn.

Our society could advance so much further if there weren't silly restrictions based on those first five seconds after birth, where children are given all opportunities, not just ones that are "appropriate" to their gender. Again, not letting this boy get a W.I.T.C.H. trade may seem like a small thing, but it is so indicative of a larger problem in society, a problem that leaves many people of any gender behind.

Can you name the characters?

A father and his daughter were in the shop a few weeks ago. The father bought his stack, and while they waited for me to ring them up, they were looking at the Countdown poster that was taped on the side of the counter. The daughter started naming off as many characters as she could with her father encouraging her along the way. She was able to name probably a third of the characters, but then, they were both Marvel fans, so it wasn't much of a surprise. It was nice, especially after a lot of recent things (most of them have made it to one issue of SCSG or another) to see that not all parents gender things, making them "inappropriate" to another gender.

What was kind of amusing was she got stuck on Zatanna. She knew the character, but was totally blanking on her name.

"Annataz", I said.

She looked at me somewhat confused and said "Annataz?"

"Annataz", I said again.

Bill figured it out immediately and said "she's a magician who casts spells by saying words backwards."

Suddenly, she got it and said "Zatanna!"

Fun. :)

Ugh...Heroes can be so...typical.

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:55:22 GMT

I still like heroes, I thought that for the most part the first season was well done. I HAD hoped that they would move beyond the "helpless female" schtick in the main cast by now.

Unfortunately...no. Not so much. In the episode that aired last night, there were no less than four incidents of men saving women. Absolutely zero of the other way around. There HAVE been women saving men in the show, but it's so very rare. Remember the slogan for so many episodes last year? "Save the cheerleader, save the world."

This episode "The Lizards" had

1) Hiro rescuing the princess
2) Maya's brother rescuing her from her powers she can't control (sounds like Niki)
3) Nathan and Matt rescuing Mrs. Patrelli
4) Peter rescuing the Irish lady

Come on, writers, can't you get out of the typical fare of the damsel in distress schtick? Yes, men are rescued by men in the show, but so few men are rescued by women. I am happy to see that Claire is accepting her abilities, even testing them. Hopefully she'll become a confident character that doesn't so much need the whole rescuing thing anymore.

Heroes is such a good show most of the time, but the fact that they keep bouncing back to gender stereotypes is soooo frustrating. And while it wasn't the fault of the Heroes writers, there was a commercial that played for the online version about a man protecting his family from the online bad guys with an anti-virus program. Mixed with the four "damsel moments" in the show, I had to write about it here.

There are many strong female characters in comics, it's NOT A NEW THING. Sometimes, I half feel like Heroes is more inspired by the Golden/Silver age era than anything else. They have the grit and grime of the 90s and today, but the sexism sometimes feels like something out of Stan Lee's Fantastic Four writing ("Oh, Reed, what now?" "Stop your girly worrying, Sue, I have manly things to do.")

Clearly since the show is so popular, many women are watching too (clearly, I'm not the only one :P ). Is it really hard to have a character that is female that can take care of herself most of the time? Who kicks ass? Again, Claire is starting too, and I might count Niki if she wasn't unable to control her powers.

That wasn't the only stereotype, having the story around Maya and her brother (which I don't remember his name) south of the boarder with everyone being crazy superstitious. [sarcasm](You're devil's, you're cursed!! We come from Latin America and therefor MUST be all superstitious! )[/sarcasm]

The show has so many positive things going for it, but so often the writers resort to tired old stereotypes of comics, leaning on over-used plot devices. It has the potential to be so much better, but it never quite makes it. Hell, it actually had a cool gay character who was retconned in the show because the tiny hints that he was gay was apparently too much gayness for America. Likely, that was the networks, not the writers who came up with that brilliant idea. There is a possibility that the networks are doing the same with other things, and honestly I don't care WHO is doing it, I just wish it would stop. This show has broken the stereotype of crappy network sci-fi shows, why not break other stereotypes.

It's Halloween, ladies; got your sexy costumes ready?

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:35:34 GMT

So very much a sarcastic title. :P I LOVE Halloween, it's one of my favorite holidays. Unfortunately, it's a pain in the ass to actually find a costume that isn't "sexy". I don't MIND being sexy for Halloween, in fact, I've done it. What I do mind is not having the choice. When it comes to costumes based on superheroes, it's harder than hell to actually find a costume that looks like the comic counterpart. Well, that is, unless the costume is already "suitably sexy" to begin with.

I'm actually going with two different costumes this year, one for the comic store I work at, the other for a Halloween party. The Halloween party I'll be going to I'm dressing up as a zombie Flapper girl. (I love zombie themes...so sue me.) For the store, I wanted to go as a character from comics, likely a superhero. The problem is, as mentioned before, the costumes for female heroes are often objectified, altered to make them "sexy". They do have Supergirl in the two more recent versions of her costume, the most recent I most certainly am not going with. They do have this version:

Which really is a decent looking costume. I think it passed the "Women's costumes must be sexy" thing since there is some leg showing and there's a short skirt. An unaltered Batgirl costume, however, is harder to find. WarnerBrother's official site not only has the "sexy" version for adult women,

they have the smaller version for young girls. Uhm...lame! And a little creepy. It's not totally sexualized, but it's certainly not like the mens and the boys. Though, to be fair, they do have the bare-legged Robin costume. It's not exactly what I'd call "sexy", but some skin does show up.

I was given another site that has a better Batgirl costume, one that's closer to Barbara Gordon's:

I'm not totally fond of the "Strech velvet jumpsuit" part, but it actually looks pretty decent otherwise.

WTF moment of the day...

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:56:09 GMT

So apparently an MMO game company, Aurora Technology, which made the King of the World MMO, is banning males from rolling female characters in their games. So far, they've banned at least 17173 accounts for violating this sudden shift in policy. Regardless of who you are, if you play a female character, you are required to prove you are "actually" female by consenting to periodic web cam checks.

Seriously? Not only is it incredibly ridiculous to have a rule like this, but to actually be forced to prove you're female periodically to be allowed to play as one is just ludicrous. I play MMOs from time to time, and there are TONS of guys who grow a pair (of breasts...love that turn of a phrase I hate so much, btw. I stole it from Asterick on GayGamer.net) ) I don't see the issue...well, actually the only moderately annoying thing resulting from that is everyone just presumes I'm male. (Which actually happened three times last week with a guild I've been with for three years. I guess that's what happens when there are more people I don't know in game :P ) I wouldn't want to ban guys from playing female characters to stop that though; that's not really fixing the issue, just the symptom.

Apparently, the company hasn't actually given a reason for doing this, at least not from the ton of articles about it on the web (google it). I can't seem to find a press release or an official notice, but then, I didn't look too hard. Aurora has no qualms about women playing men, and there's no need to pre-verify for us to cross the gender "divide". Why is there a need for the other way around?

Honestly, this ridiculous policy (which isn't likely to last considering how many people it would piss off) does smack a little of sexism. Honestly, I'm not sure which way. I don't know if their view is that femininity is a bad thing, and men should not express it (even if some do it in an obnoxious way), or if they're saying "men are the lowest of the low, anyone can play them. Women are exalted and only women can play them." Regardless, it's pretty idiotic.

Spectacular Comic Shop Girl #6

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:56:40 GMT

So in the past "issues" I've ranted about how I'm ignored by both genders at the comic shop. For whatever reason, the incidents have actually increased lately. I don't know if it's because we're getting more people in the store that haven't been there before, or what, exactly. It's not just new people, some are regulars who should know by now that I am more than a "girl at the counter"; I do actually have quite a bit of knowledge about many things geek. :P

I can't honestly remember all of the incidents that have happened, and I seriously doubt the three people who read this blog want to read them all even if I could. They all happen as I've written before, I'm standing (or sitting) and not doing anything. Bill, Jake, or the other male employees may or may not be doing something. If they aren't, the person will actually walk a little extra to ask them, as opposed to just asking me, who is standing right in front of them. If the guys are busy, they wait for them to finish, then ask the guys their question. There have been many times when I've asked "are you looking for anything in particular?", they answer "no" then ask Bill or Jake once they're done with whatever they were doing.

It's actually gotten to the point now where some are avoiding the cash register (which is not obscured, really...it's pretty obvious it's there) to give the items they wish to buy to Jake or Bill rather than me, standing at the cleared area next to the machine that will ring their items up. I cannot say how irritating it is when someone will walk by me standing at the register to have one of the guys ring them up.

Or, recently, a semi-regular customer came into the store. Jake and I were the only ones there; Jake was talking to another customer, I was standing at the register. Our pull bags are right behind me, and this guy knows it. He's a semi-regular. As he walks in, I smile and say "hi!", he returns the salutation then walks toward the racks of comics. I assume he's going to look at the new issues. The next thing I hear is "Can I get my pullbag?"

I look up to see Jake pointing at me and saying "Ask Meg, she works here."

I lift up my store badge and say "It's true, look, it says so right here on my name tag." The guy looks embarrassed, and well he should be. :P That instance was actually hilarious in that it totally illustrates my point. There are so many who come in who would go out of their way or stay at the store longer to talk to one of the guys rather than talk to "The Girl"!

Speaking of Girls...

One family came into the store, two young kids, one girl one boy, and the two parents. The guy grabs his comics while his family wanders around looking at the other items. The little girl is absolutely obsessed with Superman. She runs around the store trying to find anything we have that has Superman, then pointing and saying "Soopaman!" loudly. While her dad was buying his stash, I asked "I take it she likes Superman?"

"Oh, she's obsessed."

I ask him if they were there for Free Comic Book Day, and he said they weren't. I bent down to get one of the free Superman and the Legion comics and heard the little girl saying she wanted something related to Superman. Bill had to get more Legion from the back, and the dad said "We might have something for you, if you'll just wait a few moments" to the little girl. She became interested and walked over to the counter as Bill gave her an issue. She eagerly grabbed it and was totally thrilled to get something that had "Soopaman". The little boy didn't seem interested in anything there, or if he was, he didn't express it. Still, it was cool that not only did the little girl have an interest in a comic character, but her parents were very willing to foster that. Fortunately, that's more the norm than the exception where I work.

Playing with Customers Minds is Fun.

As I was out wandering around downtown with some friends, we went into a hat shop. This hat shop is very cool and filled with a ton of very cool hats that are too expensive for my meager pay. Still, we like to look. As we looked around, I saw someone familiar, a regular from the shop. As he walked by to buy his new hat, I waved, but he totally ignored me. Story of my life. ;)

Anyway, later at the comic shop, he shows up a few minutes after my shift starts. AND he's wearing his new hat. I walk out and say "Hmm...you just bought that hat today."

He looks at me kind of surprised, but not too much. It was clearly a new hat, so he likely thought it was a lucky guess. Which is when I said:

"and you bought it at about 2:45pm this afternoon at the shop on Main Street." Now his eyes grew large and he said "What, are there cameras around me?" half serious, half jokingly. I laughed and told him I saw him at the hat shop, but he didn't see me. He laughed at the explanation and asked why I didn't say hello. I told him if I did, I wouldn't have been able to play the joke on him.

So much fun. :D