“… Maybe it’s because you need to diversify the portfolio of people you know.”
Hey, I have binders full of women.
I think we need a panel to discuss how to be more inclusive and possibly have women on panels. I’ll invite all my guy friends to be on the panel so we can get a wide range of opinions and perspectives. It’s very diverse. One of them is 1/4th Filipino!
Definitely bad parenting.
Congrats! You have an all-male panel!!!
Of course the panel was all-male. Women wouldn’t have been able to control their emotional biases about the subject. Just like only whites can talk rationally about race, and only verifiably straight judges should be allowed to rule on gay rights cases.
Why are these all-male panels discussing gender issues still happening? Doesn’t anyone have any self awareness?
I can only assume not. I am greatly confused how one can be thoughtful enough to decide on having such a panel but not apparently not thoughtful enough to see the issue. I’m shocked how anyone part of the panel wouldn’t speak up and be like hey… this isn’t right and bow out.
There was also an all-male panel about sexism in The Muppet Show, but the panel consisted of a single guy who had obviously been studying that particular subject for a long while, and was pretty eye-opening. Kermit the frog, when not on Sesame Street, is actually quite sexist, and while the original run of the show improved slightly over five seasons, it doesn’t look like the makers of the new, upcoming Muppet Show have learned a goddamn thing.
I didn’t see the panel, but I like to assume that the panelists were annoyed (at the organizer’s inability to assemble a better panel), but they also figured that doing what they could to raise awareness was better than doing nothing. The perfect is the enemy of the good etc.
An all-male panel defending the status-quo is institutionalized sexism shoring itself up. But an all-male panel trying to make a change for the better despite an obvious shortfalling… I’m loath to nail those guys to the wall for trying to fight the good fight.
You see, they were being scholarly, so women weren’t needed. You know.
From DCC “The session was never intended to be a staging of current female comics creators, and the panel description clearly indicated that it was a scholarly presentation”
Seriously, they are really defending the panelist for something out of their hands. http://www.themarysue.com/dcc-all-male-women-in-comics-panel/
I get what you are saying, yet how much effort was really made. I like Teresa’s thoughts on just how little effort appeared to be made. DCC is doing no favor with the explanations. They could just say, “Our bad. Our intentions were good, yet we fell short. Will do better next time.” Instead of… it was meant to be scholarly??? Blah.
I’m a white guy who was once asked to join a committee on increasing diversity in my field, but thankfully most of the rest of the committee were people of other backgrounds (as one might hope). I’m not sure what I would have done if I’d shown up to the first meeting to find a bunch of other people who looked like me.
Those thoughts seemed to me to be mostly assuming the worst of people involved, which might by chance be true but still rubs me the wrong way. The line of inquiry (whether Robinette knew Estrada would be as the convention, and if so, did he approach her about the panel) was not even resolved.
Maybe the difference in concern is that some are viewing this as the lesser option between a panel of men vs a panel with women, while I’m taking their “last minute shoe-horn” at face value and viewing it as the better option between a hasty panel of men vs no panel on the subject. It’s not obvious to me that having this panel is worse than not having it. Maybe it is? Admittedly part of the reason for that is that I would like to think that there is something men can do to help:
I’m currently working on a production and trying to expand the options of women through it. I do not have the option of handing the work to a woman or sharing the work, but if I don’t do this, it isn’t happening at all. So I am personally invested in thinking that men can fight the good fight even if a woman isn’t leading or assisting. But if word gets out, both the pro-woman and anti-woman brigades are likely to join forces in criticizing it, and there can be consequences to that. So it feels like I can easily do nothing, or I can try to do something but prudence suggests keeping it on the down low. It doesn’t surprise me that so many find it simpler to not try even slightly, so it bothers me to see the things that make people not try. The whole thing is maybe a bit close to a nerve for me to be unbiased.
If you can’t attract any women to a panel on women, cancel your damn panel. You’re obviously failing at recruitment and need to re-think your approach and demographic to network through. There’s something systemically broken and the organizers are *entirely *to blame.
So what? Life rubs us all the wrong way sometimes and we need to deal with that and work through it.
Pollyanna-ing through life solves sweet FA. Assuming the best of people is a mistake, because people with the “best intentions” still screw up.
Oh, I hope you keep up with your production. Don’t let folks tell you your voice is not to be heard, just because of how you are born. That’s what we are after in the long run. I am sure there is something you can do to make sure your work is not viewed as “mansplaining” as some folks call it. Not knowing the details of the work you are doing, I am unsure what, if anything, I can recommend. All I know is, I don’t want voices silenced. Even when I do not like what I am hearing. How else can you even have the conversation? 
All my best to you and your endeavor!
Hahhaha, with quotes like this-
I’m sure it sounds like the epitome of quality.
Heh - you have no idea why I put it in quotes. I did not want him to think he was doing just that, since he is being vague about his project.
Er, or did you mean a quote like a recommendation from a reviewer? LOL, in that case, yeah, not the highest of recommendations.
I’m saying not working with women and refusing to locate any to work with you on a project ostensibly about women, alongside defending exclusionary panels…
So I am personally invested in thinking that men can fight the good fight even if a woman isn’t leading or assisting.
Along with complaining about the “pro woman brigade” makes me question his ability to be an effective ally.
There’s some sort of odd hostility at work, and I think men should be a bit more apprehensive to speak for women. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to step back and let womens’ voices be heard. Helping is great, but why not help out existing charities that are run by women?
I got it. It is a bit passive aggressive, isn’t it. Thanks for explaining.
That’s not what they were doing.
