Dear DC, Please Stop. Just Stop.

Dear DC,

Thank you, for once again trying to prove that you want to change how we all interact with one another and the world at large. Thank you for having no problem being at the forefront of this change, the face, if you will.

I hadn't realized until today, googling all your new children's apparel, how subservient women are supposed to be. I hadn't realized we were supposed to show our exemplary attitudes by remaining true to ourselves and only dating Batman or Superman or another hero. Sometimes I get ahead of myself and starting thinking, I know, terrible of me. Worse yet, sometimes I even dream of a world where their might be sexual and gender equality. Silly, of me. I needed you to point it out to me.

I understand now that things like this are why men of a younger generation, boys really, might get the idea that I and other women like me are "fake geeks". After all, we want to be our own heroes. We want to see stronger female roles, but it's actually all about the men. No, it's actually all about the straight, male heroes who we are supposed to want to save us from whatever demon of the moment is plaguing our gentle beings.

So, thanks for setting those records straight and reminding all the little girls that they aren't supposed to want to be Wonder Woman or Batgirl, they are just supposed to want to marry Batman or at least date another hero. The boys are supposed to become the heroes, get the girl, and score whenever possible. I appreciate all that you are doing for these new generations while we try to move forward with the times.

Sincerely,

Stevie

Problem the first: Score? Really!?

Problem the second: Batgirl's uniform is Black and Yellow, not Pink.

Problem the third: Why can't they have options like this for both sexes?

THAT, for all of you now wondering if I have lost my mind, was sarcasm. It was also a lot of edits, but that is because I can be incredibly mean when I am angry, and trust me, I am angry. I am trying not to be mean, though, because you know what? Some people probably walked right on by those pajama's and those kids shirts, and all they thought was "Hey, that's pretty cute." and you know what? They are. Well, maybe not the "Score" one. That one is just irksome to a rather scary degree.

The decline of DC has been going on for a while and it's sad, because they have such amazingly complex and interesting characters, but they can't seem to let go of their sexist commentary, both in and out of the comics, long enough to save their once beautiful empire. Wonder Woman was my hero. I know people who grew up looking to Batman, to Superman, to Green Lantern, to The Flash. Now where do they turn? Marvel. They turn their kids to Marvel as well. Do you know why? Because Marvel doesn't feel the need to tell little girls their only worth is to marry or sleep with a super hero. Because Marvel has options for both girls and boys to be heroes, to be sidekicks, to be whatever they want. I'm not saying they get it right all the time, but they are doing a pretty good job of it.

DC, however, seems to want to place girls in one of three categories: Homemaker, Sexpot, or Lesbian. That's all we get to be. Even the female heroes and villains have to be placed in those three. "Uh oh, Wonder Woman was a bit too wonderful, let's give her to Superman, he is strong enough to control her like she ought to be." It hurts (and amuses) me to say things like this because I adored Wonder Woman growing up, her early comics were amazing. You know, before that halfway mark in the 20th century meant they needed to rewrite her and make her every action and thought about Steve Trevor. The American woman needed to be twice as subservient after WWII because they'd gone and gotten jobs to provide for their families while their men-folk were off fighting a war. Heaven forbid those men come home and find a capable woman who figured out how to take care of things so he wouldn't have to worry about it while he was gone. Better let him think nothing worked at all! I know their were men out there who were proud of how strong their women were, why couldn't the media take that stance?

That is a completely different topic, though. Moving on!

Why the heck do the DC marketing and apparel departments think every girl wants to wear a pink version of a hero uniform? Batgirl doesn't need to be pink. Her Uniform is black with canary yellow accents. Simple, pretty, neutral. Wonder Woman is red, white, and blue with gold accents (or silver, depending on the artist.) Super Girl is the same colors as Superman, no need to change it! Just sell matching skirts! Hawk Girl is green and yellow, plus you could print wings on the back! Black Canary wears solid black, easy! Wonder Girl is, well, Donna Troy is black and silver, Cassie Sandsmark wears Jeans and a tank top. A TANK TOP! How hard is it to sell a copy of that tank top to little girls? I mean, if we are going to go New 52 it would be the red cropped shirt, so make the shirt and just don't crop it. Done. Simple solution. Why say "no, better make it pink. No girl wants to wear red and gold."? I was not a little girl that wanted to wear pink all the time. I wanted to be Cat Woman, actually, so I went through a stage of black turtle necks and black leggings with black boots when I was about nine years old. Mom wouldn't get me a whip, though, She was pretty sure I'd use it on one of my brothers. She was a pretty smart lady.

There are so many female heroes out there, we need to have more options for girls. We also need to have T-shirts in blue that say "Super-Husband in training" and let little boys know they are allowed to dream of growing up to be Wonder Woman's or Batman's spouse if that is what they want. We need options! Don't cater to a select few in an attempt to propagate a stale ideal that the rest of the world is trying to overcome. Girls are geeks, too. We want to be super heroes just as much as the boys.

I should probably stop ranting now and get back to work, Stevie

Got Bit By A Toxic Spider and Didn't Even Get Cool Powers :(

I mean, I knew I wouldn't be like Spiderman since he was bit by a radioactive spider, but I was hoping for like, a really hot toxic avenger meets Spiderman, you know? I could have rocked the superpowers. Seriously. Mostly wouldn't have used them for evil, either. Mostly.

So my summer has been crazy, I hope everyone else's was less so. Spending a couple days with doctors wondering if they were going to cut your arm off can kind of put a downer on things, you know? That being said, my fear of spiders? Not going away any time soon. I can say, though, that I am much more willing to take the chance of getting close enough to squish them dead myself. So long as it's not Molly the Daddy Long Legs in my bathroom, she keeps things from getting in through the window. She's a pal.

My roommate, the illustrious Cal, has gotten a new chicken. It looks like a zombie. She claims it's name is Benji, however I refuse to believe it can be referred to as anything other than Chombie, the Chicken Zombie. I feel like I should write children's books about her backyard exploits. She's a sweet little thing, even with the red eyes and 2 extra claws on each foot. I rather enjoy her more than the other chickens, possibly because she doesn't peck at any of them and it makes her seem friendly. She is smart enough to be lulling them into a false sense of security before she turns the rest of the peep. That's right folks, a group of chickens is called a peep. You have no idea how much I giggled over that information.

Zombie marshmallow creatures. It will never not be funny.

Lost my job. I say lost, but that implies sadness. While I miss a few of the people I worked with, I am glad that I am no longer there. Things were strange in that office and I stayed because I knew the people and the job, well it wasn't easy, but I knew the job as well. I did a lot of things that weren't part of my original job description, but those things needed to be done so I took them over. And then I took over more things. I started redoing training manuals (always with permission) and streamlining procedures so that we didn't have eleven extra (and redundant) steps. I did all of this without ever getting a pay raise. In fact, when I had hired on full time I had taken a pay cut. That was fine, I liked the people, I liked the location, I felt like it was worth it. I was told that after about 6 months I would have a raise. in the two years I worked with I received no raises, I did twice the work originally expected of me, and I spent the majority of it depressed because I felt unappreciated and none of the management team gave praises.

That being said, here are a few key things I think people should understand about running a company.

- If all you ever do is tell people what they need to do better and what they haven't done well enough, if you never point out the things a person does well ... the employee has no idea that you value them. - When you yell at your employees, it makes them feel that you, as management, don't actually know what you are doing. - When you chastise people in front of others, it is unprofessional and people lose confidence in your ability to lead. -Calling your employees your kids is incredibly demeaning - Standing on your toes to look down an employee's shirt and shake your head about cleavage while you yourself have a lower cut top? That is just sad. Also, it's a form of sexual harassment.

So there is my thoughts on that. As I said, I was not sad to leave. I miss some of the people, my Cat Lady especially. The Holy Yoga Rock and Rollah (aka the Cat Lady) was amazingly awesome. We would have a beer after an incredibly stressful day and just let everything roll off of us.

I have a new gig now, one with an AMAZING view, and people that I enjoy and an actual HR department. Not that it should really be an issue since people here know how to behave in a work environment. Yesterday I even wore one of my Sneaky-Geeky outfits, all I received were compliments. Things are looking up, my arm is still attached, and my yearly trek to Atlanta was amazing. I'll updated soon(ish, let's be honest here.)