What’s your favourite comic book story with a female lead? Remember the time your favourite female character stole the show?

What makes a good story? Does your answer change if we’re talking about good stories starring girls and women?

From March 18th to the 24th, write, draw, vblog, or podcast about your favourite stories with female leads. Let’s celebrate our favourite characters, creators and each other!

Please see the FAQ for details on the hows and whys of WWAC.

The poll will stay open for one week. Round two will run from March 18 – 24.

Nominations will stay open until February 8th, same bat time and all that jazz. After that we’ll allow a week to vote on the nominated topics. Round two will go live in March.

To get you guys thinking, here are the topics we voted down last time. If nominated they’ll be options again.

• Girl Comics, The Next Generation
• Women in Comics
• What It Feels Like For A Girl
• Writing, Drawing and Reading The Body

To nominate a topic, simply comment on this post.

This week we got together to look at WiR, to see what had changed in the intervening years, both in the comics we all love, and ourselves and our responses to the phenomenon.

This is the master list of responses to Women Write About Comics’ first blog carnival, Women In Refrigerators: 13 Years Later. We hope that you will take the time to read all of these posts, to comment, and to take the opportunity to get to know each other, writers and readers all.

• reflecting on the question, by didyoueverstoptothink.
• Lois Lane Through the Years, by Saranga.
• In which I am a negative nellie for some reason, but am actually passionate and excited!, by Claire.
• responding to the issue, by certainshadesoflight.
• Women In Refrigerators: 13 Years Later part one and part two, by Elisabeth Pfeiffer.
• Women In Refrigerators: 13 Years Later, by Corrina Lawson.
•  Breaking the Vicious Cycle, by Erik Bear.
• WIR (huh) what is it good for?, by Erin of Literate Knits.
• Women In Refrigerators 13 Years Later, by Megan.
• Ms. Marvel, a History of Refrigerators, and the Modern Day Fridge, by Boudika.
• Defrosting the DCnU (or not), by Jess Plummer.
• Women In Refrigerators 13 Years Later: time for an additional way to examine women in comics, by Sue of DC Women Kicking Ass.
• the evils of the evil that men do, by supergabbie.
• Our Princess Is In Another Refrigerator, by Fuck Yeah Black Widow

Thanks to all of our contributors and readers, and to everyone who linked around a roundup or favourite post. Special thanks go to Sue, Kelly, and Ragnell, who gave the carnival a huge promotional push in its early days. You guys are rockstars.

And so, we bid round one of Women Write About Comics adieu. Stay tuned for news about our second round; nominations will open soon.

Our Princess Is In Another Refrigerator, by Fuck Yeah Black Widow.

The flipside of that is that people cry refrigerator, they invoke a powerful trope without thinking about its context, and it becomes a meme more than a critical vocabulary. Here’s the thing about superheroes: they punch things. People get punched. Danger is the genre’s middle name. A woman isn’t fridged just because she’s captured, and female characters need to triumph over impossible odds just like their dudelier counterparts, and sometimes, that shit is going to get bloody. To say otherwise is to cultivate a myth of feminine fragility. I once had an argument with a man about ladies getting bloody noses in his comics. At first I thought he was complaining about the visceral violence of it, how unsettling it was when that violence was applied to women. But then I realized he was just complaining because it made them un-hot.

the evils of the evil that men do, by supergabbie.

The reason I avoided took so long to read this was because of one very important detail: Felicia’s past was retconned to include a rape, in college. Yes, overcoming rape stories can definitely be empowering and inspiring to read. I can’t deny that is representation that is healthy, especially for survivors, when done respectfully. However I have yet to read a comic character rape-origin (and yes there are many) I thought was any of those things. Not that I’ve read every one, but still. Women do not need to have been raped or abused to become empowered or strong or significant. It does happen — btw, comics, it happens with men, too — and there is nothing shameful about taking power for yourself from something like that. Hell, some stories can even pull things like off well. (See Alias.) But the FREQUENCY in which it happens with women in comics is what’s appalling. It isn’t just characters that have it written in from the get-go: no. They take other characters who are independent on different merits and declare that the reason they are that way is because they were also raped, that this the ONLY way to derive strength and independence for a woman. Survival is an important thing to take seriously, and it’s just disgusting and insensitive to imply people need to suffer catastrophic violence to be relevant.

Women In Refrigerators 13 Years Later: time for an additional way to examine women in comics, by Sue of DC Women Kicking Ass.

Thanks to Gail Simone we have a name for what we don’t want in comics. And I think a lot of what we do want is because of her as well. I think we’ll be seeing lots of moments from her Birds of Preyrun which not only avoided the refrigerator it offered up plenty of “Bechdel test” passing as well.

I’m not sure a clear cut set of criteria for what it is that women want from superhero comics will emerge from this. Perhaps we may even left with in the same place as Supreme Court judge Potter Stewart in trying to describe what pornography is, “I know it when I see it.”

But let’s try to see them. Dig out your moments that make you want to keep reading female characters in superhero comics. Identify the moments that make you keep going despite the issues, the objectified asstastic art and the refrigerators.

If someone asked you, “show me what you want for female characters”, what would you show them?

As always, Sue is looking to the future. This sounds like a fun project!

So that’s it, ladies. Round one of Women Write About Comics is at an end. Look for a master post and some final thoughts (not from our sponsors) tomorrow.

Nominations will open soon for our round two topic.

Thanks so much to all of our contributors and readers, and everyone who’s helped to spread the word. You made this blog carnival a success. Your community spirit, positivity and genuine love of comics is inspiring.

Defrosting the DCnU (or not), by Jess Plummer.

You probably already know this too, but this past September, DC canceled their entire line of titles and (conditionally) rebooted their universe with 52 brand-new series. I won’t get into the reasons or my very loud opinions on the reboot generally, because we’ll be here all day. But here’s the thing about the reboot and WiR: every single one of DC’s many past fridgings could have been undone. When you rewrite your entire universe, there’s no reason to keep any past deaths in continuity. Instead, with one exception, DC not only hasn’t undone their fridgings, they’ve removed the characters entirely.

Ms. Marvel, a History of Refrigerators, and the Modern Day Fridge, by Boudika.

Anyone who knows me knows that I really love Ms. Marvel. She’s one of my all-time favorite characters, and certainly at the top of my list of favorite Marvel characters. So when I heard about the blog carnival topic “Women in Refrigerators, 13 Years Later,” I couldn’t help but feel like writing about it while looking specifically at one Carol Danvers was the way to go. Why? Well, because I’m more familiar with her than a lot of other comic ladies and, if you look at the original list of WiR, she stands out. She’s got the longest line of things that have happened to her and the little note at the end says it all. SHEESH!

Women In Refrigerators 13 Years Later, by Megan (this blog’s maintainer in chief /self-plug).

But it’s not just that it seems perfectly natural, it’s that every instance of objectified sexual violence exists because a creator chose to tell that story, that way. Someone reached into the big bag of tropes and decided that yes, the villain is gonna assault and kill the hero’s girlfriend in this issue, and the only comment she’ll have on the situation is her tears.

Don’t worry about the deadline, ladies. If you’ve got a post in progress and you can’t finish it this weekend, we will still link to you. So press on!

Elisabeth Pfeiffer has posted the second part of her article on sexual violence against women in comics:

I have created a list of women in comics who have been sexually manipulated/abused/molested/assaulted or raped. Others are victims of some kind of sexual violence, or were killed solely for their sexuality (ie. Silhouette) Some of these I took directly from the Women in Refrigerators list, others I researched on my own. You can read more about why I compiled this list here. This list is by no means exhaustive. It is a numbered list to show the actual number; not to qualify them in any ordered format.

WIR (huh) what is it good for?, by Erin of Literate Knits

We had it right. It’s not enough for us to be indignant and to speak out. It’s not enough to confront the writers and editors over this online, in the letter pages, and at cons. The only way to change the comics industry is to become the comics industry.

We’ll do another roundup before the end of the weekend, as procrastinating contributors send in their links. Much love to all of you.

• Ladies, we’ve registered the domain womenwriteaboutcomics.com for your linking convenience. Traffic to that address will now redirect here. Your old links will continue working just fine.
• We also updated our Twitter profile. Too pink? Too Jean Grey? Not enough of either?

Now for the answers to some of your questions:

1. Yes, there will most definitely be future rounds. The next one will be mid-March and the topic nominations process will begin shortly after this round of the carnival concludes.
2. Yes, we do have plans to set up shop on Tumblr. We’ll have a Tumblog ready for the next round.
3. Yes, you can participate, even if you’re not a pro blogger. The carnival is open to everyone from creators, to pro and amateur bloggers, to fans. Please don’t feel intimidated!

First off, certainshadesoflight reflects on the difficulty of just responding to the issue:

It’s harder to write than I thought.  It’s hard to put into words how it makes me feel as a woman to constantly see a female character I love so much be treated so poorly over and over again.

I hope other people are thinking of posting some content for this conversation this week.  It’s an important conversation to have and it’s essential that we share how we feel as women when we see this kind of stuff.

Next, Elisabeth Pfeiffer and Corrina Lawson get analytical, looking at what’s changed since WiR was posted, what hasn’t, and what needs to change.

Women In Refrigerators: 13 Years Later, by Elisabeth Pfeiffer (aka georgethecat)

While we work to end sexual violence and tell the world that one rape is too many, we are told that because women experience sexual violence disproportionately anyways, that it’s going to pop up when creators of fictional fantasy escapist worlds want ‘realism.’ This ‘realistic’ element is often portrayed through grossly stereotypical tropes that are lazy, ignorant, and rely on heterosexist and misogynistic ideas. One extremely common such example is the woman running away from the gang of would-be rapist men (as seen in Green Arrow no. 1 [Brightest Day 2010] by J.T. Krul and Diogenes Neves). The hero swoops in just at the right time to save this woman from being viciously and violently gang-raped. This moment is never mentioned further because it is nothing of consequence; it is just a normal occurrence in the life of our hero. (And through my gleaning of the reviews, it seems to be of no consequence to the general storyline, either, except to show how heroic the male character is; and, it is almost always a male or more masculine character who does the saving in these scenarios)

Women In Refrigerators: 13 Years Later, by Corrina Lawson of GeekMom

To me, the bottom line is that the problem lies behind the scenes.

DC right now has two female creators on their new rebooted titles, Simone and Ann Nocenti, who’s taking over Green Arrow. Without a strong creator who sells a lot of books to stand up for a character, like Geoff Johns did with his Green Lantern characters or Grant Morrison did with Batman or even Scott Snyder with Batman, female characters are going to get overlooked–let’s not even get started on the other missing Batgirl, Cassandra Cain– in favor of other pet characters who happen to be male because, well, 98 percent of the creators and the vast majority of editorial are male. (One bright exception to this is Batwoman, who is backed by the amazing talented artist and writer, J.H. Williams.)

So while the characters in the comics might be treated better right now than thirteen years ago, the real change, the one needed behind the scenes, is sorely lacking. Things will never truly change until that does.

Finally, Erik Bear of Cold Dark Matter sent us this response to our theme:

Superheroes are a men-centric world. Written and drawn by men, assuming a male audience, with male central characters. Thus the women are incidental, usually side characters, objects to be desired or protected, defined entirely by their relationships with the men of the series. And they’re drawn to reflect that. Sure, there’s body dysmorphism for both sexes in comics, but it’s only the women that get distorted into sex objects that always pose for maximum T&A. The men are always hypersculpted icons of power, with nary a hint of sexual characteristics even when wearing a skintight body suit that ought to leave nothing to the imagination.

That’s if for today, but there are still more great posts coming to a blog, tumblr, and facebook page near you!

First off, didyoueverstoptothink of Tumblr and WordPress reflects on the difficulty of responding to this week’s theme, Women In Refrigerators 13 Years Later:

Women In Refrigerators, the site, helped me realise something. It’s something I’ve taken with me ever since. I know that I, the silent, stunned girl reader, matter. I know my thoughts and my responses matter.

Next, two very different and interesting contributions that we enjoyed reading. Saranga looks at Lois Lane’s characterization and look over the years, and Claire argues that we’re past Women In Refrigerators.

Lois Lane Through the Years, by Saranga.

Superman has one costume.  Details change, like the size of the S shield, the height of the pants, the specific shade of the suit, but it is always recognisable as the super suit.  Even on Smallville, when that Clark didn’t suit up until the very final episode ever, he always wore a combination of red and blue that signified him as different from the other characters.

Lois doesn’t have that.  In the comics she is recognisable by her dark hair, you contrast her with the other characters, but you mostly recognise her from her dark hair.  In the movies, or the TV shows, it’s different.  these things build a Lois that is recognisable through attitude, language and relationships with other characters.  But as to how she looks? That is utterly dependent on the era in which she is being portrayed.

In which I am a negative nellie for some reason, but am actually passionate and excited!, by Claire.

My opinion of Women In Refrigerators is that it was absolutely necessary. Simone and team were brave and bold to publicise what they noticed and it’s a horrible, horrible (lazy)trope that needed to be identified and spoken about. It needed to become a meme or a buzzword and comic book feminism owes a lot to the.. event? as a whole.

But despite basic differences to the subjects we’re talking about, I’m with Hope. I don’t think it is, as a marching banner, overly useful right now. To me, anyway.

At this point, I think it’s too easy* to forgive a well written example for being good** and too easy to shrug off a badly written one for being just pulp trash, it probably won’t even stick as canon. I think it’s too easy to use (or just to hear) the phrase in the way that “Mary Sue” became corrupted and near-meaningless. I think we’ve just about used it up.

We’ll have more roundups for you throughout the week. Contributors inform us (after much prodding) that their posts are on the way. Also, we’ve seen some drafts and they’re amaze.