I guess in between writing books for The Pineys, I decided to light a trashcan on fire and throw it on the Internet, but I can no longer sit here and stay silent about what’s becoming more and more obvious to me. Feminism, regardless of its potentially noble origins, is helping to destroy the comic book industry. And let me be clear; this isn’t an anti-woman list. Women are not the ideology that is called Feminism (or, more accurately 4th wave feminism).

It is the ideology of Feminism and those who are in its thrall that is doing tremendous damage to the comic book industry, especially in the mainstream corporate media. So strap in and let me either validate what you already were suspecting or outrage you, fangirls.

1: Feminism denies reality. For more in-depth academic coverage of this point, please visit James Lindsay’s New Discourses channel on YouTube. But, in a nutshell, Feminism — regardless of whatever it was, is now a grievance ideology. Men have been oppressing women for centuries, and only by challenging and overturning traditional roles can we ever hope to be free. This is not reality.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t misogyny or injustice against women perpetrated by men, but it does mean that there’s no cabal called the Patriarchy forever oppressing women. Traditional gender roles didn’t just develop in a week; they evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, keeping humans alive and happy for much of that time. Additionally, many other factors contributed to humanity (both good and bad), so the idea of merely focusing on gender roles is the sort of tunnel vision thesis that only a university academic that’s never been outside Plato’s cave could believe.

And because Feminism denies reality, building a story on that non-reality makes it unrelatable and off-putting unless you happen to be a feminist. It’s a little like making a comic about people living on a flat Earth. Unless you believe the flat Earthers, you’ll probably scratch your head in confusion reading a story based on that false reality.

2: Feminism is an ill-defined concept. What are feminists? If I write a story with a female lead that saves the day, is that feminist? How many metrics of feminist dogma do I need to inject into my comic to make it so? Feminism is an ideology, not a science, so there’s no way to really know. Show two comics to two different feminists, and you could get two different answers.

You might say that you could make the women less overtly sexy and more “empowered” in the comic, but again, what does that mean? How many metrics of “less sexy” and “empowered” make it feminist? Like art, it’s all subjective, and you’re at the mercy of any feminist who decides to read and possibly decry your comic. This is why they say, “The left is a circular firing squad.” Feminists and Leftists eventually fall into a purity spiral where no one is feminist or left enough for the other because there is no objective metric, and the Leftists don’t believe in objective metrics anyway.

Consequently, going down this path might bring you glory and praise from the feminists, but you’re just as likely to receive scorn. And since the concept itself is ill-defined, your storyline will likely be too. Your focus needs to be crafting a good story with good art, not counting how many lines each female character gets to say.

3: Feminists aren’t funny. As I’ve often said in my videos, comedy is a shared experience. Feminists don’t live in the same reality, so their jokes don’t land with anyone other than feminists with the same version of Feminism in their brains. Any joke about gender roles will come off weird to an average person that isn’t indoctrinated in the feminist’s personal ideological brand.

One of the most recent examples was when Chelsea Handler posted a video about how great her life was without kids. From her perspective, she thought her video was funny. But many others, myself included, felt it was a pathetic self-own. Comedy is about punching up against authority; Handler’s comedy bit was making fun of people with families who choose not to be lonely, sex-crazed singles that drink in the middle of the day. People raising kids and just trying to get by? Not exactly a ripe target for sarcastic, TV personality millionaires.

I think this explains why much of the MCU humor in Marvel Comics comes off as unfunny and mean-spirited. You’d probably be that way, too, if you got drunk in your apartment alone with your cats every day.

4: Feminists react poorly to criticism of their Feminism. When you don’t have much of a sense of humor, you tend to get mad when criticized. Much of comedy can rely on the overreaction of a deserving target. Since feminists often have ideological blinders on and they do not share the same reality, pointing out this fact is likely to infuriate them. I’ll give you my personal example.

Years ago, I was at a comic con — I think Pittsburgh, but don’t quote me. A female comic creator wore a bikini outfit for a comic where she was the main character. She came by my table, and I tried to sell her my comic, but she thought she’d turn the tables and try to sell me.

Leaning over on my table, she gave me an eyeful of her cleavage, trying to press me and saying that the comic was outstanding. In my thirstier moments, I might’ve asked her out if I thought I had a shot at her, but after a few minutes of what sounded like too many red flags— I just wanted her to stop blocking my table. The following exchange went something like this:

“Well, at least give me a critique of my comic book.” *smile-smile, wink-wink*

“I don’t think you really want that,” I warned.

*gets all serious* “No, really. I would love your honest opinion.”

“Okay.” *exhales* “No one’s interested in your comic; you’re only selling it because you’re in that costume. They’ll buy it because they think they have a chance of having sex with you. They probably won’t even read it.”

That sent bikini girl off. She stormed back to her table in Artist’s Alley, and I returned to selling for a moment. Seeing a lull in traffic, I handed the reins of the table to one of my artists and headed for the bathroom. Along the way, I passed by the bikini girl’s table. I didn’t see her follow, but she chased me right into the bathroom!

After leaving the stall, I walked out to wash my hands, and she was standing there in full fury. (Now imagine how much trouble I would be in if the roles had been reversed.) Nevertheless, she lectured me about how wrong I was and how I was only putting her down because she was a woman.

I said, “Look, if you want to be treated seriously as a comic book creator, you must act like a serious creator. No one is going to take you seriously dressed as a booth babe. You are using your sexuality to lure in fans, not the comic. I get it, you’re hot, but your hotness isn’t adding to your creative rep. It’s competing and winning when it comes to the men.” (She was pretty hot, by the way.)

She stormed out of the men’s bathroom, and I spent the rest of the show telling my artists about what happened and making jokes about who might next follow me into a bathroom to complain about my critiques. (It was agreed that this kind of thing only happens to me.)

So this very hot woman was, essentially, ruined by Feminism. It told her that even in a bikini, in the middle of a convention center primarily full of men— People would have to take her art seriously and not look at her as a sex object, even as she literally shook her boobs in everyone’s face. Imagine if I showed up to a comic-con in a Speedo with my junk barely covered and then got mad; no one wanted to read my comic. (Gross, you don’t want to see that. Trust me.)

5: Man-hating makes characters unappealing. Any character that hates should probably be a bad guy. Someone who hates half the population of the Earth? Sounds pretty irredeemable. You definitely lose 50% of the audience out the gate, and since most women like and love men— Again, you’re just left with the same feminists who hate men as much as you do.

The worst is when a writer assumes that everyone is or should be as feminist as them. This comes across in Marvel comics whenever they talk about such nonsense as “male privilege.”

And replacing male cinematic icons with feminist women as they did in Indiana Jones and the Dial Destiny? How’d that work out? It’s the same thing in comics. Fans don’t like change to popular characters. Change the costume, change the artist, change the writer— These things can set fans off your comic forever, but completely undermining a previously manly character and turning him into a broken down, bitter Jedi or an old retiree with a dead son headed for divorce? What part of that sounds appealing to anyone other than hateful, vengeful feminists looking to even the score?

6: The Bechdel Test The test was based on a comic strip. The idea is that the movie, comic or work, or whatever must feature at least two women that talk to each other about something other than a man. I include it because I think this is just another distortion you should ignore.

When creating something, the process should call for whatever you discover it calls for as you’re making it. It may call for two women to talk to each other about something other than a man, but it may not. It may call for them to talk about something other than a man and then talk about a man in a second conversation. Does that count? Who knows? Only a feminist can answer the question, and that’s the real point. Feminists and Leftists decry gatekeepers, but they are the ones that really want to be in charge of what’s considered “acceptable” in the comic book industry and anywhere else.

If a comic book is entertaining, that’s all that matters. You won’t care whether or not it passes the Bechdel Test or any other test. If you read it and have a good time, you will want more from the same creator. Applying a gender litmus test to your plotlines while creating could lead you away from an organic and great plot.

7: Traditional gender roles help ground a story. When doing a comic book, you’re often doing a tale full of sci-fi, fantasy, and/or superhero elements. It’s essential to ground those stories in a reality everyone can relate to. Everyone has a family and knows what a mom, dad, siblings, and relatives are. Besides romance, it’s the most broad and basic appeal you can inject into a story.

The problem with Feminism is it subverts traditional gender roles constantly. It’s pretty much its primary purpose. This tends to drive the narratives so everyone is divorced, from a broken home, or a non-traditional family. Now I’m not saying you can’t or shouldn’t do those stories, but to live in a reality where those stories are the norm isn’t the reality on the ground. And the more you inject these non-traditional ideas into your story, the more you have to explain and justify, whereas you don’t have to explain much if your characters come from a nuclear family with two kids.

You create an uphill battle for yourself. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t do a story challenging gender roles or with non-traditional families, but you have to recognize that they are not the majority, no matter how much you wish that was the case. The problem with most feminists, again, is that they don’t live in reality. Everything oppresses women, so they believe these nuclear families should be different. That there is nothing more natural for a woman to have three children by three different men and never be married to any of them. Those stories can work, but only if you recognize how they fit into the actual reality on the ground. These families are possible, but they are not the majority. If you treat it as such, your story takes on a skewed tenor. Have you read the conflicting origin story of America Chavez at Marvel?

8: Feminism divides and limits your audience. The vast majority of men don’t like Feminism, especially the fourth-wave Feminism that currently plagues us. Most women don’t like it either, and it can get pretty divisive for the people on the fence about it.

Like Critical Race Theory and Queer Theory, Feminism has become a Gnostic religion. It requires belief and faith in the dogma and persecution of its heretics. Belief in the myth of the gender pay gap is one of these divisive issues. One could see how genuinely earnest (but ignorant) creators would seek to point out these injustices and incorporate them into their work.

And no matter who you are, it’s sometimes easier to believe that forces beyond your control hold you back rather than that you did not live up to your expectations. You undermine your protagonist by placing those myths in your comic and blaming others for a character’s failures. Who wants to read a story where Supergirl blames the Patriarchy for everything rather than punching bad guys? And by letting your character off the hook for their shortcomings, you short-circuit any possibility of character growth or a character arc, which is crucial to your character’s journey. “I defeated you, Thanos, because I was always awesome!”

9: If Feminism worked, the feminists would not have needed to take over comics. By Feminism’s own internal logic, women are fantastic and should be ruling the world. But if they’re so incredible, how did men get to be in charge in the first place? And if women can do anything, why haven’t they taken over by now? And if the Ladies of Marvel Comics were already so wonderful, competent, and talented, why didn’t they create a rival comic book company and crush Marvel and DC? How can the Patriarchy keep winning when the women are always so much better?

The short answer is women make different choices from men. Many women choose to be mothers and homemakers because it makes them happy and fulfilled. That just doesn’t leave them enough time to build comic book companies full of superheroes, and most women I’ve met are perfectly fine with that. And at the same time, there are female comic creators of note, but naturally, because fewer women opt for careers in comics, there are fewer of them, just like there are fewer men in nursing. Certain professions just suit women better. That’s reality, something the feminists continue to struggle against.

10: The comic book audience is mostly men. As I’ve stated in previous columns and videos, most comic book fans are men. I’ve heard numbers as high as 90% and one as low as 60-something, but even today— Men make up the majority of the fan base in the comic book medium. I’ll just go out on a limb and say that’s probably why comic books were full of muscle-bound dudes that punched other dudes through buildings instead of inviting them to a tea party for a reading of Gloria Steinem.

Feminists and other woke cultists have tried to turn the tide. They turned Marvel into a “lifestyle brand,” complete with podcasts that discuss Marvel’s “fashion.” Has it worked? Well, I’ve been doing comic cons and making comics for over 30 years, and it’s still primarily guys coming out to the shows. None of them have ever talked about fashion trends or the X-men Gala unless it was to laugh at how pathetic the concept is. Speaking of which…

11: Marvel Comics is being run into the ground. If there was ever a test case to show why feminists should not be put in charge of anything, it’s the current Marvel Comics. Like clockwork, about every month or so, an outrageously woke dialogue sequence from Marvel flies around social media for the fans to meme. From making Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean Grey into a “throuple” to the regular announcements of which character is now gay, bi-sexual, or trans, the feminists at Marvel have probably earned a lot of ESG points, but they have destroyed the Marvel Universe more thoroughly than Galactus on a bender. Fan fic is less embarrassing than what passes for comic books at the once Mighty Marvel.

12: The MCU is following it into a ditch. It started with Captain Marvel. Until that point, the MCU mainly had followed in the spirit of the old Marvel comics. But when Disney decided to bypass the original Captain Marvel (The one whose cosmic power killed him, even as he saved the universe.), the Ladies at Marvel opted to resurrect Carol Danvers and pass her off as some kind of feminist icon. Hollywood, apparently itching to jump on board with corporate suicide, said, “Where do I sign up?!”

Now the MCU is dying. We went from heavyweights like Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America to Ms. Marvel, Ant-Man 3: Quantum Mania, and Secret Invasion. All three of the latter projects had several layers of failure, mainly because the MCU seems to be following the lead of their current Marvel Comics (the ones that aren’t selling well) instead of basing movies on massively popular storylines. And after several delays, rumors exist that The Marvels will be delayed again. Excellent job, ladies.

13: Feminism is anti-romance. Since feminists have a problem with traditional gender roles, they often have problems with men’s and women’s relationships. Because no two feminists will agree precisely on the proper methods and behavior of courting a woman, men are left to guess or risk getting screamed at by the modern-day date.

You should have consent between both people having sex, but some would suggest you ask every step of the way. “Can I hold your hand? Can I touch your cheek? Can I kiss your neck? Can I kiss your lips?” Hey, slow down! You’re getting too steamy! This is a family-friendly website!

Like comedy, the feminists will likely suck all the romance out of anything they write because it will remove all the risk. In the quest to be ideologically perfect, the story is destroyed. Romance requires mystery, spontaneity, fun, laughter, and attraction— But the average feminist can only see things through power dynamics, so none of that matters. Is it any wonder they end up living with cats?

14: Men and women process entertainment differently. As I learned from RJ over at The Fourth Age, men and women have physical differences in their eyes. Women can see more subtle nuances of color that men cannot. That’s why the early comics are awash in primary colors, and the current-day comics are a jumbled mess of browns and beige.

Men want to see characters that accomplish things, build and compete. Women want to see stories about social status, relationships, and who sleeps with whom. There’s room in this world for both, and there was no reason for women to sacrifice men’s entertainment just to get a platform for their own. (Of course, now they have a platform as the medium is being destroyed.)

15: Pushing women into superhero comics over the last 50 years hasn’t worked. I’ve heard the old canard about getting more girls into comics for over 30 years, and it goes back decades before that. Comic book companies have tried a bunch of gimmicks, but none of them seems to work. Why did feminists suddenly expect it to work now? The arguments were exactly the same. The progressives of the 70s wanted women’s empowerment and chastised those that stood in the way even as their comic books didn’t sell. (Fortunately, that continued to be a metric for success in those days, which is why they were canceled instead of turned into movies or relaunched.)

One of the more popular comic books was the Barbie comic book at Marvel which was aimed at little girls, and I’d hardly call that a superhero comic book. Archie was also wildly popular with young girls, probably because the main thrust of the stories was the relationship between Archie, Betty, and Veronica. Again, boys like action, and girls tend to like relationships. If you’re going to launch a comic, launch it to an appropriate audience. Don’t launch a superhero comic where the men are emasculated and then call men misogynists for not reading it.

16: Feminists don’t relate to the average comic book reader. If you don’t live in reality or spend your time denying it, you don’t relate to many people in the real world. Additionally, since comic book fans are mostly men, most men aren’t feminists, and most feminists can only relate to other feminists.

After over 30 years of doing comic cons and making comics, I have a reasonable grasp of what the average fan looks for in a comic book. Assuming they’re not a collector, they look for sound art and a good story. They are primarily men that enjoy escapist fantasy with action and adventure. Is challenging traditional gender norms a plus for them? No. Escaping reality into a world of adventure doesn’t involve a stern lecture from some college-educated Karen about how they are oppressing her gender. It doesn’t matter that you took over Marvel and DC, hired a bunch of fellow gender cultists, and forced Superman or Spiderman to say your words. This isn’t reality; fans don’t want to hear it.

If you don’t want to make comics that appeal to readers, why are you making them?

17: One worldview makes for a boring comic book universe. In previous eras, superheroes had conflicting views. This added to the drama and made their personalities different. Green Arrow was cast as a progressive, while Hawkman was more conservative. Superman was a goody-two shoe that always obeyed the law, while the Punisher murdered organized crime figures in his war against crime.

But under a cult (which is feminist but more broadly Leftist), you cannot have these differences. Look at how Marvel has destroyed the Frank Castle Punisher character. Because law enforcement and military figures (mostly men and mostly conservative-leaning) used the Punisher logo, the “talent” at Marvel decided to change his logo and remove Frank Castle’s guns! Did this make the character or the story better? I say no. But I believe it did bring it more in line with what the current Ladies of Marvel think is ideologically acceptable.

However, that wasn’t enough. Next, they brought back Frank Castle’s wife from the dead! You know, the character that died and was part of the motivation for the Punisher in the first place? She then divorces him and takes his money, eventually banishing him to some kind of purgatory. Gee, that doesn’t sound like it was written by a bitter divorcee at all! Enjoying the thrills and chills at Marvel Comics, kids? Maybe we’ll castrate the Hulk next! Excelsior!

18: Feminism isn’t taken seriously. Hate to tell you, cultists, no one outside your intellectual bubble takes it very seriously. This is why a mini-industry has sprung up, making videos and memes laughing at this nonsense. This is 100% the reason for groups like Comicsgate and the Iron Age. These groups are reactions to the ideological conformity being imposed from above. This is why mainstream comics are crumbling.

The Feminists and, more broadly, Leftists see everything in power dynamics. Therefore, they concluded it wasn’t that their projects and comics weren’t popular; the reason they weren’t successful was because of the evil Patriarchy that controls everything. So they seized power. (“Why are there hardly any women represented in your company? Why do you make all these sexist comics? We’re going to boycott your comics unless you listen to us, even though we rarely buy them!”)

Call it browbeating, intimidation, or just plain ruthlessness— But what it isn’t is organic. No one asked these people to seize the industry and then force ideological change on all the characters, especially the fans. In fact, many people would’ve warned the feminists (myself included) that this couldn’t possibly work, and it hasn’t. Comic bookstores have become ghost towns, and comic book fans continue to read, but it’s everything from the past. The main complaint I hear from every comic book retailer is that no one is buying new books anymore. And I can attest that no one is talking about them at comic cons except to talk about the latest outrages and to shake their heads.

You’re a bunch of clowns, feminists, and I’ll tell you how this all ends. Any corporate comic company that continues to follow your advice will eventually either shut down, collapse, or get sold to someone that will do actual comic books free of your nonsense. You will walk away from the rubble, still declaring victory and still declaring the Patriarchy somehow ruined it all, not you.

Your best bet is to realize the dead-end cult you’re a member of and leave it immediately. Not every injustice is a personal affront to your gender. Were comic books a men’s space? Absolutely. Just as brunch places, shoe stores, and tea rooms tend to be women’s spaces. Men are not looking to fill your spaces with sports coverage and topless bikini girls; how about leaving us to our hobby the way it is? You can come inside the clubhouse, just stop trying to take it over.

19: Feminism is built on a house of cards and ESG. There’s a reason transwomen are infiltrating women’s sports and taking them over. In Feminism’s endless quest to transform and make everything equal, they opened their doors to Queer Theory. Without diving too deep into the rabbit hole, it means accepting transwomen as women. Period.

The house of cards in comics is simple: Anyone that says they’re a woman is a woman, and you must accept that without question. Therefore, even if you replace your entire staff with men who are just saying they are women— You’re still staffed with women.

In the past, progressivism run amok was always stopped by the objective metrics of whether the comic books sold or didn’t. Unfortunately, ESG has entered the mix. It stands for Environmental Social Governance and is a social credit score for corporations. Have a high score, and your company gets access to low-interest loans via venture capital, have a low score, and you might find your stock purposely tanked. The more Feminism and Leftism you jam into your corporate comics, the more ESG-compliant your company looks.

So no, these “woke” corporations didn’t suddenly realize the Patriarchy existed and something had to be done. They are doing this for the money. They are using you feminists, and they don’t really care how many sacred comic cows you ruin and humiliate.

This grift is all going to come crashing down one way or another. Either the companies stay away from ESG because they realize this will endanger their long-term financial viability, or the corporations that don’t will be so hollowed out there will be no audience for their product. Does anyone think taking out a low-interest loan to make more cans of Bud Light is a good idea? The grift’s being exposed, and short of enslaving the entire population and forcing them to read your comics, it will collapse.

And just as companies are avoiding hiring people with pronouns in their bio, you can bet that the proud feminists working today will be too radioactive to hire in the future. Meanwhile, mainstream comics continue to suffer— Bleeding fans to the rising crowdfunding creators like Eric July.

20: Female creators don’t need Feminism to make a great comic. But let’s end on a happy note; you don’t need to be part of this cult to make a great comic. It just needs to be well-written and well-drawn.

Don’t get caught up in what is and isn’t feminist. You don’t have to avoid discussing relationships from your female perspective just not to be feminist, and you certainly don’t have to hammer it into a story just to be feminist. What creators need to do is be themselves and find their own individual voice. That voice will be unique to you and only you.

Feminism is an intellectual box that confines you. By placing yourself in that box, you make your work less unique. And don’t think for a second that the ideological demands on being a feminist will stop. Just as a Leftist can never be woke enough, a Feminist can never be Feminist enough.

Follow your true calling because your uniqueness gives you the distinction no corporate comic can ever duplicate. I met a female creator who did a comic book about knitting. I don’t knit, but I thought it was fascinating. She was an icon amongst knitting circles and attended knitting conventions to sell her comic book. I don’t think it was feminist, but it was aimed at women and seemed very popular in her niche.

That’s what you want to do— Capture an audience regardless of their gender. And if your comic is genuine, heartfelt, well drawn, well written— And most important, adheres to a reality the reader recognizes, then you will do well.

Now go forth and create fangirls. Until next time, see you at the con.

Check out our previous Comic-Con 101 here!