I don't necessarily agree that this distinction is definitive, and think there are too many situations where how a story is classed depends on how deep or shallow you look at it, but I certainly agree with your secondary assertion that such structures are handy for bypassing tired (or divisive) cultural arguments...
Though of course, I realise that I've probably been propagating one such cultural argument elsewhere today!
Hm. How much did you enjoy writing a post where you got to say "Dick" and "Fanny" almost constantly?
American comics don't really reach out to women or girls or children — and they don't, and they're probably not going to, ever
.. and that would be because...? I get the feeling you're caught in a circular definition, here: you're defining Real Comics as ones for a male market, and anything (like, say, manga or American-made sequential art reminiscent of manga) that isn't male dominated isn't Real Comics. QED. Yet AFAIK manga is the fastest-growing segment of the sequential-art market.
I didn't say anything about which comics are real or which aren't. The only series I buy regularly is a shojo title, actually. The best chance for a women-friendly American comics industry is indeed probably American manga. I just have trouble seeing that becoming the norm for a variety of reasons (Japanese manga being so much better established; American mainstream comics being unlikely to go there.)
I think it's a bad thing that American comics don't reach out to women. I wish they did. I don't see it happening, is all. I'd be happy to be wrong, though.
The only series I buy regularly is a shojo title, actually
Really? Which?
I don't see it happening, is all
If the manga and manga-like part of the market is growing much faster than the rest, I don't see how it can *not* happen. If the current industry doesn't learn, it'll just be different companies making and selling most sequential art.
All right; I think Jack Hill's Swinging Cheerleaders (which I reference in the column) probably has some elements of both Dick and Fanny. Obviously, it's all about swinging cheerleaders, which is the fanny part, but there's also a fair bit of male bonding among the football players, and there's arguably a good guy/bad guy dynamic between the quarterback good guy and the rich bad guy who wants to throw the game.
The male-male bonding isn't especially fraught, is the only thing...still, it's all I could come up with for the moment.
