Change Is A Sound

fullofwhoa:

shobogan:

mimetalk:

emmyc:

albinwonderland:

caustica:

lecorbeau:

jesic:

webslinging:

This is an audio clip of Dan Didio at SDCC.  Someone in the audience asked him why the percentage of women on DC’s creative team dropped from 12% to 1%.  His response is “What do these numbers mean to you?” and “Who should we be hiring?”  I know most of you have read a transcript of the discussion, but you should probably listen to this.  I know I imagined a more sarcastic/inquisitive tone on “Who should we be hiring?” so hearing how aggressive he sounds is just.  Wow.  I would’ve been incredibly uncomfortable had I witnessed this first hand.

I’m pretty sure credit for the audio clip goes to DCWKA, but I could be wrong.

Holy fucking shit. I was not expecting that.

This, to me, makes it very clear that Didio did not actually want an answer. He is aggressive, and is clearly attempting to intimidate the fan who asked the question. There’s barely room to respond, and his repetition in increasingly agitated tones of “Who should we hire? Tell me right now!” sounds like it would belong better in an interrogation room than a Q&A! From his tone, he is very much on the defensive. It sounds, to me, like he legitimately thinks that there are no women good enough for him to have hired.

I think that pisses me off more than anything else. That he is so secure in his asinine hiring decisions during this process that he thinks he is beyond reproach and becomes noticeably agitated when questioned.

Didio, you are not beyond reproach. In fact, considering your position and the industry you work in, you are subject to the scrutiny of the fans. That’s how it works. And we will call you on your bullshit. You are answerable for your decisions, and if you cannot rationally explain them without becoming angry and aggressively defensive about them, maybe you should take a second look at them.

I remember listening to this and really not expecting it, either. All I could do was cringe and say; “Oh honey, no.”

SIGN THE PETITION GUYS. SIGN IT. 

Why even go to a public place like SDCC and then ask for fan questions if you had some serious ego-bruising topics you wanted to avoid at all costs? That clip was so self-inflated I can’t even

It’s really heartening to see fanboys so interested/invested in equality in comics though! Not just represented in the comics, but also the workplace. I think that is the coolest.

This irritates me. A lot. Why? Because I completely disagree with everyone whose claiming some huge sexist mindfuck. Why do people not understand that things are NOT THIS SIMPLE? The man clearly wasn’t pissed at the question because he felt uncomfortable answering it, so much as he was pissed that people were insinuating that something sexist was clearly going down. “What does that mean to you?” I’d be pretty pissed off if someone said “Hey, you’re sexist. Hire more women.”

Does anyone even stop and consider that things that happen to be written by women just might not make as much money? I mean, from my experience, most things I’ve ever read by women had a different feel to it. The women characters were all specifically stressed to be EMPOWERED INDEPENDENT WOMEN, which is fine, except for the fact that that was the only thing that was important about them. Women tend to write men differently too. Guys become all dark and mysterious and get a soft spot for this one chick, or they’re really just sad on the inside, and not just fucked up crazies like the characters sometimes have to be.

I’m sure no one went out of their way to exclude women from anything here. Women simply demand that they get special treatment a majority of the time because they think they’re just as good as everyone else when they’re not. It’s not because you’re a woman, it’s because you’re not up to par. It’s not because you’re black, it’s because you’re not up to par. It’s not because you’re gay, it is because you are not-up-to-par.

Women are more than capable of doing whatever they want, but it’s my experience that the thing a majority of them want to do is bitch when shit gets tough. If people feel there is still discrimination in the workplace, prove yourselves. Don’t fucking sign a paper to make yourself feel like you’ve contributed something All you’re doing is making an issue and inevitably hurting a company that never did anything wrong in the first place.

Assuming cuts were made strictly on the productivity of the workers, and only the least productive members were cut. Fair, right? As soon as you find out the least productive people were female, it’s suddenly discrimination.You hear one quote from someone who didn’t have the time to explain (who wouldn’t have been listened to had he explained anyways) and suddenly everyone thinks he’s the scum of the earth.

Oh, yes. It is completely on the impetus of women to prove that they should be treated with equality and respect. It’s not something any human being has the right to expect, in the workplace or anywhere else.

You know what “bitching” does? It raises awareness. It makes people think. It empowers people. There is no shame in talking about something that hurts you, even if you’re pissed off while you do it.

Why are you so utterly certain that no sexism is occurring here, when sexism occurs in the comic industry, and in fact everywhere, every single day? Why is it so completely unbelievable that when an industry notoriously unwelcoming to women drops their employment ratio from twelve percent to one that there might be sexism involved here?

Seriously? Any arguments of hiring “purely for quality” went on the window when they traded Nicola Scott for Rob Liefeld.

Also, guess what? Generalising the work of all women in sexist. Just assuming that all the men who were kept were more talented, more efficient, and higher sellers than the women who weren’t is sexist. Assuming that out of every woman in the indusry, none were “up to par” is sexist.

Congratulations. You’re sexist.

Shobogan says it better than I would.

This is worth reading. All of it.