Missed It: The Valkyries Issue Disbanding Statement Last Thursday

I'm not sure exactly what the status of this is because some of the supporting links have been removed -- a lot of news stories about comics culture happen these days where statement or even accounts are deleted are changed after their initial posting because of the fluidity of social media and the real-time pressures of developing reactions. I will update as best I can. But an article at the on-line magazine The MNT by Jazmine Joyner about the women-in-comics-retail organization The Valkyries and their failings in working with women of color led to further discussion on-line and then the statement which is characterized in Ayres' article. It looks like it led to this follow-up statement that the original statement was problematic in many of the same ways that the criticism of the group encompassed. There are contentious moments along the way, such as a discussion as to how much responsiveness depends on the volunteer presence of the affected communities within the larger one, and how much even suggesting that is proof of the problems argued and a noxious blame-shift.

It is difficult running any kind of comics organization, and this particular one had a mix of initial, high-profile exposure and super-broad mandate that can make any organizational development fraught with hazard. It is a continual, rough but ultimately rewarding and necessary process in multiple areas. One of the less-discussed elements of dealing with Comicsgate alt-righters asserting themselves as a separate entity opposed to the mainstream thrust of comics is recognizing how much of their points of view and assumptions have been and continue to remain in the broader comics-culture DNA. There is always hard work to be done.
 
posted 5:35 pm PST | Permalink
 

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