‘Is she on a jihad mission?’
The above question was asked by a Newsarama reporter interviewing Paul Cornell - a writer for Marvel comic books - about a new British Asian character in the superhero title Captain Britain and MI:13. See a screen-capture of the full exchange here.
Although it is unbelievable that the clearly racist, Islamophobic question was asked in the first place, even worse, it was published on the Newsarama website. It’s not like they didn’t know it was offensive - because Cornell called them up on it (specifically saying “You *what*?! I typed something much ruder in answer to that originally. What the hell?”). But publish they did, causing many users of the Newsarama forum and comics blogosphere to call them up on it, yet again.
The response? Apologise? Oh no - Newsarama went for the cover-up, deleting the paragraph in question from the interview they ran online, the forum posts discussing it, and redacting it from the print version.
More at Funnybook Babylon and Digital Femme Online.
Posted by Jess McCabe on 25 May 2008, at 11:47 PM | Comments (5)
Have your say
In order to keep this blog as a feminist and friendly space, comments will be subject to some rules. We do not seek to censor debate: the beauty of the internet is that anyone can set up their own blog or website to express their views.
- This blog is a safe and friendly space for feminists and feminist allies. Debate and critique are welcome where it is constructive and deepens analysis or understanding. Anti-feminist comments will not be approved. We get to decide what's anti-feminist.
- All comments must be approved by one of the bloggers. For this reason, there may be a delay before your comment appears.
- No sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, ablist comments, comments which make personal attacks on any blogger or commenter, or comments that are otherwise deemed offensive by us will be posted.
- Trolls will be banned from commenting. We get to decide who is a troll.
- No anonymous comments - please feel free to use your real name or make one up, though.
- Be nice.
Feeds
Seph said:
I can't actually think of words to describe how stupid that reporter's comment is.
and someone's bound to say it, so as a pre-emptive reply to anyone who starts banging on about "how is this relvant to a feminist site" etc. I have an idea for you- go read the posts you find relevant/important to you and ignore the ones that aren't, that's how the rest of us manage :)
Posted on 26 May 2008 at 1:09 AM
Charlie said:
An update, since this has missed a lot of the development:
Newsarama have actually apologised - both in the article in question, and in a lengthy interview with the site's head by one of the most prominent feminist comics bloggers, Ragnell http://blog.newsarama.com/2008/05/13/just-past-the-horizon-late-edition/#more-8154, and Paul Cornell has commented on his blog http://paulcornell.blogspot.com/2008/05/in-praise-of-wives-paramedics-and-ford.html (near the bottom)
(and er, print version?)
Posted on 26 May 2008 at 7:34 AM
Anne Onne said:
Seph, exactly! It's not like homophobia, racism and sexism aren't linked, and you can easily argue that any topic involving gender issues, or women in any way, shape or form is a feminist issue.
And to be honest, would it be fair for a feminist site to only publish posts on things that are explicitly linked to 'feminism', and miss out on the wider context? To me it would be the same as admitting that one type of equality is more important than another, if we ignored everything other than articles on feminism...
And yes, this is awful. What kind of a question is that? Way to reduce Muslims to a minority, and show your own ignorance. That is deeply insulting.
Posted on 26 May 2008 at 5:18 PM
Jess McCabe said:
At any rate, I think it's pretty clear cut that portrayal of a British Asian woman, in a format which clutters itself almost exclusively with white male characters, is of interest to feminism. Perhaps I should also have noted that in the post? One of those cases with quite clear intersectionality, I thought.
Posted on May 26, 2008 7:13 PM
Kifayah said:
I love you guys. I can't stop laughing. It's nice to hear yours come out of other peoples' mouth. Kudos
Posted on 28 May 2008 at 2:05 PM