Crowdfunding Gender in Comics: My So-Called Secret Identity and an alternative address (original) (raw)

Discussions on women in popular culture seem to have dominated press over the last four years, with death threats aimed at women who criticise sexist video games and accusations of fakery levelled at geek girls (Lewis, 2012; Welsh, 2013) taking up column space, while male fans’ dismay at a female Thor (Abelardo, 2014) vies for space online with rape threats tweeted to female video game journalists (Rott, 2014). Do these prevailing negative discourses result in positive attempts to redress issues of gender being overwhelmed or overlooked? This paper analyses the crowdfunded comic My So-Called Secret Identity (MSCSI) and its attempts to appeal to female comic books fans. The comic was launched in 2013 with the aim of countering misogynistic depictions of women in comic books. Created by academic Will Brooker, the series focuses on Cat Daniels, an ordinary girl who becomes a superhero. I argue that the comic’s tagline #smartisasuperpower, the design of the website and the deliberately female creative team function to appeal to female comic book fans and introduce new fans to the genre. I suggest that MSCSI's grounding in positive change, rather than negative defence, position it as an alternative, rather than as competitor or interloper, and affects the way in which female fans and critics receive and respond to the comic.