(5-page preview of Amazons Attack #1 at CBR)
I’m really looking forward to Amazons Attack, for obvious reasons of seeing an army of women kick the patriarchy’s butt.
(I’m not naive. I know it won’t really play out the way I want: this isn’t feminist speculative fiction. But I’ll take what I can get.)
But the solicitation for Amazons Attack has been bugging the hell out of me.
Well over a year has passed since the events of INFINITE CRISIS, including the retreat of the Amazons to the realm of the Gods. But now they’re back, screaming for vengeance! What could compel the Amazons to renounce their peaceful ways and attack America? The answers will prove useless to a country and hero population utterly unprepared for this savage attack.
Why would they attack? WHY? Why NOT?! Why wouldn’t a group of warrior women (with a one-time god as their ambassador) launch an attack on the all-mighty “Amerika”, a country that stands for male dominance and the dedicated oppression of women, just one of many in “Man’s World”?
Geez. Talk about your stupid questions.
The better question is: why haven’t the Amazons launched attacks on patriarchal nations before this? Now that’s the mystery. Must be some kind of manipulation by male gods. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The existence of the Amazons really only works if you keep them totally isolated, but their self-isolation ought to come with a pretty air-tight explaination. Unlike superhero women who have been socialized in the patriarchy and, apparently, are as conditioned as the rest of us not to organize and fight back, the Amazons are supposedly removed from all that. There’s just no way in hell that they wouldn’t have taken action against us before now. Non-warrior women fight against oppression every day in far smaller ways. I simply cannot imagine a culture of warriors who would be willing to stand by and allow Man’s World to keep on its destructive path, let alone send it an ambassador and work with the enemy.
“Screaming for vengence?” Hell yeah, they’ve got plenty to be vengeful for with the continued existence of “Man’s World”, spreading like a cancer for the past six thousand or so years.
It would have been smarter to do all this while Wonder Woman had god powers. But who knows what nifty things they picked up in the realm of the gods.
I'm a thirty something Supergirl fan from Canada who's been reading DC comics since 1996. If you don't like discussions of social justice issues in your fandom, this might not be the place for you!
I’m worried that this plot will just be done in an “angry feminists attack without thinking and at the end realize that our world is actually good and go away” thing :\
I’m just worried that the lesson at the end will be that feminists should be careful about going too far, that the world is pretty good, and yes there are problems but it’ll be fixed and everything is fine and dandy :\
And they’ll cement the point by having Wonder Girl and Supergirl and Powergirl, etc fight against the Amazons proving that “see even the female heroes disagree with you”. :\
That’s just what I’m scared of cuz it seems like that’s the way these plots go :(
Yeah, that’s EXACTLY what I’m afraid this is going to be. And it’s such a waste of what could be an awesome story! I can’t actually see it going any other direction, because if it did, then the DC universe really *would* be irrevocably changed and the status quo-lovin’ fanboys in charge can’t fathom that. The Newsarama interview with the writer pretty much confirms my fears.
“NRAMA: So take us from the ground up – why are they attacking?
WP: Because they’re an ancient race of warrior women, of course! What else would you expect them to do? And let’s face it, Amazons Attack is an amazingly alliterative title, isn’t it? Joking aside, they’ve got both good and bad reasons to attack. The good reason is that it’s to avenge what they consider a horrible crime committed by the world of men. The bad reason is that, to a certain extent, they’re being manipulated into it. Someone saw the potential of all those incredible warriors living a peaceful existence for centuries, and decided they were the sort of weapon that could have a tremendous impact. My goal in this miniseries is, like most wars, to have the motivations be murky at best – something that will come back to haunt all sides in the eventual conflict.”
Emphasis mine – those parts indicate to me that the writer doesn’t want us to believe that the Amazons have a clear-cut reason to attack. The word “consider” illegitimizes the truth of their experience. And they’re being manipulated? Great, the old “women have weak minds and can’t be trusted to know what’s best for them” cliche. I don’t think their motivations are murky at all: I can’t believe they would need an outside force to “incite” them into rebelling against
the patriarchyMan’s World. They have a legitimate reason (many, many reasons) to invade, and it bugs me that they’re going to be portrayed as misguided. I’m dreading the point where Wonder Woman and/or other superhero women teach them “the lesson…that feminists should be careful about going too far, that the world is pretty good, and yes there are problems but it’ll be fixed and everything is fine and dandy” as you put it so well. (And do you notice how the feminist way of fixing things is never, ever the right way? Hmmm.)I expect to drop out when things turn sour (read: anti-feminist); I’m just interested in the part where the Amazons show their military might. I really, really hope we get a lot of that. If it goes south, I’ll just download it and refuse to support it =P
“Why wouldn’t a group of warrior women (with a one-time god as their ambassador) launch an attack on the all-mighty “Amerikaâ€, a country that stands for male dominance and the dedicated oppression of women, just one of many in “Man’s Worldâ€?”
I know this is just a comic book but just to make a point, for as long as I’ve been working I’ve always had a female boss … and that female also reported to a female. Also in my office there are more then a lot of females in power rolls. Just saying, that’s all.
I’m not really sure what that has to do with anything. How much is “more than a lot”? 70% 80%? Assuming you’re not in a “pink collar” field, 51% of managerial positions being filled with women would be parity, not a lot. But if you’re used to half your supervisors being women and are not in a gender-segregated field, you really shouldn’t come to my place of work. It would be embarrassing.
More pertinent to the discussion at hand: are any of your supervisors *Amazons* in disguise?