Gail Simone's Blog, page 727

As a super harsh transmisogyny-experiencing trans person, I think you're doing good on the whole Amazon trans guy thing. If it was the "no dudes ever" canon, yeah, banish, but since it isn't that canon, it's alright with me. Admittedly if I didn't know you

I appreciate it but I make zero claims to knowing this topic as well as I should.

I am just specifically answering what I think the Amazons I knew and wrote would do, you know? 

But the notes and private messages I am getting are absolutely fascinating, from people who know the trans portion of this question a lot more authoritatively than I do. Sadly, some of the most meaningful private messages, I have been asked not to share!

:(

But it’s interesting…trans folk on both sides of the discussion, each feeling equally strongly and stating their case equally powerfully!

did my middle ask get eaten? Also, I said in the first one that I was talking about the cartoon

Yeah, I don’t have a middle ask, sorry!

And the animated and comics universes are very different, for that matter, there are a bunch of different versions of the Amazons in the comics alone!

COMPLICATIONS! :)

starshone-storm:two time travelers!Armageddon · Westpac...

starshone-storm:

two time travelers!

Armageddon · Westpac Stadium, Wellington · June 3rd 2013

Okay, better picture without me in it ruining it.

TELL me this Lady Blackhawk is not the cutest thing in history, I dare you!

Adorable.  Bonus Doctor action, too!

So perhaps this is a silly question, but I thought of it after seeing the questions about the lesbian Amazons and trans comics characters right after one another: If an Amazon identified as a man, how do you think his sisters would react?

You know, the easy answer is that I don’t think they would care. I think in three thousand years, the Amazons would learn to be pretty accepting, I think a lot of phobias come from unfamiliarity and ignorance, and it’d be harder to have those things on Themyscira.

I think they would be accepting.

starshone-storm:Um, so Gail Simone is the loveliest.Oh, I am...

starshone-storm:

Um, so Gail Simone is the loveliest.

Oh, I am SO glad you posted a photo.

You were an AMAZING Lady Blackhawk…I was raving about you to my husband (who stayed home from the con in the morning because he wasn’t feeling well) and a few minutes later you happened to pass back through and we both agreed, AWESOME COSPLAY!

Now, I couldn’t remember, did you say your mom made your jacket, or your grandmother? It was your grandmother, right?

And everyone, this is how cool Starshone-storm is, she wears the Zinda jacket all the time, out and about!  :)

It was a joy to meet you!

Touring Weta Tomorrow! Can't Wait!

Anyone here work at Weta?

Would love to say hi, if so!

Er, with the lesbians on paradise island thing; lesbian isn't a matter of same sex, it's a matter of same gender, because women are a gender, not a sex?

Fair enough!

That was an interesting article, but do you know the first mainstream Trans-gender comic character? The first one I can think of is Masquerade from the Blood Syndicate (Milestone Comics)

It’s a bit muddled because;

1) So many characters have been trans only in an allegorical or fantasy sense, like, say, Martian Manhunter, who can technically change genders. I believe many of these were simply appropriated because trans characters were so scarce, BUT some clearly WERE intended to be symbolic stand-ins for trans characters, and should not be forgotten or pushed aside.

2) Many of the most notable examples were not in mainstream DC or Marvel superhero comics, which was the point we had been trying to make when the Alysia news broke. A character in, say, a Vertigo book, or some other publisher, that would be kind of a different thing.

The problem is, those characters were important and groundbreaking, and the focus on Alysia as ‘the FIRST’ trans character in comics (which was partly our fault, but a LOT the fault of journalists who chose that focus) sidelines those other characters, which is wrong and unfair.

So it’s a bit muddy for me, I would have a hard time picking the first trans character in comics because the definition of what is a trans character (symbolic? fantasy-based?) is different for everyone.

But I stick by the idea that it’s not a competition…we wouldn’t put various black characters against each other, we would hopefully be happy that there IS more than one to love and follow.

Do you find it a bit silly with DC's "No Lesbians on Paradise Island, nope, none here." policy? I mean, I have actually seen that as a response by an Editor.. and/or have they gotten over that sillyness?

I think that would be silly but I honestly have never encountered that. When I was at DC I was very clear with them that I felt there would be many same sex couples on Paradise Island and I don’t remember a single word of disagreement.

It’s probably true that they have been more coy about it than explicit, but certainly, no one ever said anything like “there are no lesbians on Paradise Island.”

Far from it, we actually got very close to the plotline I wanted, which was Hippolyta stepping down from the throne and marrying Phillipus. Dan was behind it, it would have happened if my run hadn’t ended.

I'm rereading my Countdown to Infinite Crisis: Villains United, and your work is so good, and I mean by the tiny things, like "metropolopolys", and Parademon enjoying pain. By the way, was your idea of using the parademon, the Cat-man and Scandal being bra

All the characters in Villains United were selected by me, EXCEPT, I think, Deadshot, I believe editors requested him. But that made me happy because I love Floyd. Later, Dan DiDio personally requested I add Bane, and that turned out to be happy as well. Everything else, I believe I added.

And it was my idea to make Scandal from Brazil, yes. I believe we had a typo the first time her region was mentioned but my memory on that is a little vague.