paper graffiti

Also:

So, this past weekend, I took my 11-year-old daughter to SuperCon to meet her favorite actor (and favorite Doctor), Peter Capaldi.

She wore a little blue TARDIS-decorated dress and some Doctor Who pins, and she nearly cried with joy when Capaldi greeted her for the photo op. He was a consummate gentleman and such a sweet and enthusiastic person.

An hour or so after the wonderful photo op experience, she and I were sitting at a table in the food court area.

A burly, older man plopped down nearby.  He looked at my little girl’s outfit, smiled, and said, “Do you even KNOW anything about Doctor Who?”

WTF, dude?

I was too stunned for a second to even respond, so he started right in with the ‘quizzing.’

“Who are the Doctor’s biggest enemies, and what planet does he come from?” this stranger asked.

Now I had moved past shocked and right into indignant/angry/protective mode.

“I don’t want her to be quizzed on something she loves, because I don’t want her thinking she has to prove ANYthing in order to be a fan,“ I told him.

Looking at my daughter, I said “You don’t owe strangers explanations or information, ok?“  She said OK and looked relieved.

Still he pressed on, patronizing grin and all: “Oh, I just want to be sure parents are raising their kids right.” Then he turned to my daughter again and asked “Who was the first Doctor, then?”

I cut him off right there. “No. I don’t want her quizzed. At all.”

Dude blinked in disbelief, sighed, and left about a minute later.

“Thanks,” my daughter said. “He was making me feel awkward.”

I held her hand and looked into her eyes. “Some men think they can have power over you by making you prove yourself. You never have to do it. They’re just insecure and pitiful, so they want to make you feel like it, too.  It’s not only about fan stuff, and it’s not always just men, but be careful not to fall into that trap, ok?”

That crap isn’t harmless fun. It sets up a pattern of approval-seeking, self-justification, self-doubt, and fear of exclusion that is very dangerous for children (particularly girls).

Fuck that.

TL;DR:  Do NOT come at me, my little girl, or anyone in my vicinity with your condescending, gatekeeping bullshit.

The next time, I won’t make the mistake of even TRYING to be polite.

Friendly reminder that when Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, both Jewish, created Steve Rogers America had not yet joined the war. They created Steve as a form of protest for Hitler and what was going on in Europe.

Joe Simon quote:

“We both read the newspapers,” Simon said. “We knew what was going on over in Europe. World events gave us the perfect comic-book villain, Adolf Hitler, with his ranting, goose-stepping and ridiculous moustache. So we decided to create the perfect hero who would be his foil. I did that first sketch of Captain America, and Jack and I did the entire first issue before showing it to (publisher) Martin Goodman at Timely Comics. He loved it immediately.”

Friendly reminder that the first issue of Captain America, which featured art of Steve punching Hitler in the face, caused a lot of controversy among the Nazi sympathizers in New York, so much so that Simon and Kirby were constantly being threatened. At one point Timely (re:Marvel) received a call from someone in the lobby threatening bodily harm to Kirby if he showed his face. And Kirby, proving just where Steve got his spirit from… went on down there to fight the bastard.     

“…Jack took a call. A voice on the other end said, ‘There are three of us down here in the lobby. We want to see the guy who does this disgusting comic book and show him what real Nazis would do to his Captain America’. To the horror of others in the office, Kirby rolled up his sleeves and headed downstairs. The callers, however, were gone by the time he arrived.” Based on everything we know about Kirby, these Nazi crank-yankers got lucky.”

But the threats did not stop there…

“Years later, [Kirby] told an interviewer, ‘I once got a letter from a Nazi who told me to pick out any lamppost I wanted on Times Square, because when Hitler arrived, they’d hang me from it. It was typical of a genre of fans who have long since died out.”

Friendly reminder that when America did join the war, and despite the success they had with the Captain America comic, both Simon and Kirby joined the service. Kirby was drafted into the Army, Simon joined the Coast Guard. In fact Kirby was a successful scout for the army and during that time discovered and helped liberate a concentration camp. During his service he got severe frostbite and almost lost his legs. Afterwards he was awarded a Combat Infantryman Badge and a bronze battle star.

Friendly reminder that both Kirby and Simon were proud of Steve to their dying day. In fact, according to Joe Simon’s granddaughter, Megan Margulies, Joe’s apartment, right up until the day he died, was covered floor to ceiling in Captain America paraphernalia.