December 2008 Archives

That's right, boys and girls, if you kiss too much, you can go deaf. A 20 year old woman in China serves as the cautionary tale de jour: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7772902.stm

Here's the rundown: woman and man kiss. They keep kissing. Pressure in the woman's mouth is reduced and the eardrum gets pulled out. Ear is deaf. Papers go crazy cautioning people about the various dangers of kissing, saying "doctors advise people to proceed with caution".

We've been getting the don't have sex, don't kiss, don't do anything of a sexual nature lecture for years, in schools, media, and at home. But what better headline than a documented case and headline of a kiss making you deaf?

With a Vice-President-elect like Joe Biden, the man who brought us the Violence Against Women Act, things should be looking up, right? Apparently not. By the end of the year, King County's Domestic Violence Unit will be no more. http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=16472

Budget cuts are all over the country and they are hurting Americans where it hurts. This, however, is the most devastating cut I have seen locally. Yes, job cuts are terrible and individuals are really hurting. But this is a decision by the state that not only effects jobs (civilian personnel will be let go and detectives and officers will be transferred elsewhere in the county), but it is the complte abandonment of specialized care and protection that worries me most.

Sergeant John Urquhart (who represents the King County sheriff's office) makes an excellent point : "At least in our opinion, the first role of government is public safety, that's what they have to do first, and quite frankly they're not doing this now". Urquhart also notes that the kind of special training, protection, and expertise provided by the Domestic Violence Unit will be "lost over time". This is simply unacceptable.

Luckily, the cut is not going unnoticed. County employees, victims' rights groups, victim service provides and even the sheriff's office itself are all extremely unhappy. I won't say that being vocal will bring the unit back. I won't be that optimistic. But at least speaking out about the importance of such state-sponsered services and protection, especially in a time and area where domestic violence is on a steady rise can help raise awareness. Not only will county executives feel the anger over such cuts, but the public will be exposed to what a serious problem domestic violence is. Hopefully, victims may also find the support they need in groups that may spring up in the wake of this devastating loss.

The economic crunch has been tough on lots of us. I suppose that it simply never occurred to me that the comic industry was suffering as well. 

http://girl-wonder.org/girlsreadcomics/?p=249

True, Birds of Prey was something I stopped reading a while ago (after Gail Simone), and Manhunter? Never really dug it. But Blue Beetle is one of my favorites! I can't really say more than Karen already has over at Girl-Wonder, but I do want to do a eulogy of my own. 

Blue Beetle is one of the the DC Universe's best comic books right now. The writing/artistic team, lately Matt Sturges and Rafael Albuquerque, have been phenomenal. Sturges writes with sharp wit blended with multi-dimensional characters and a captivating story-line, no small feat in an industry inundated with shock-value thrills, big boobs, and crappy dialogue. It is not often that a writer is able to balance the action and dialogue without something being sacrificed, but Sturges has done a fantastic job. Perhaps more impressive than this balancing act is his well thought out incorporation of current political tensions in the most recent story arch, which deals with the subject of immigration and immigrant labor. The excellent writing is well paired with beautiful art, which Albuquerque consistently churns out. 

 

The saddest part of this book's departure is that it signals a major loss to the mainstream comic industry's diversity. Blue Beetle is Jaime Reyes, a latino teenager. The core cast is almost entirely latino/a with a fairly even divide between men and women. Women in the series are not simply mothers and beautiful love interests, they are smart and willful subjects who drive the story through their actions rather than with incidents merely thrust upon them, as we see so much in pop culture and media. From the disabled Latin father, to the brainy female friend, to the powerful super-powered girlfriend, to the complex and badass woman crime boss (who is barely even a "villain"), the industry is losing some fantastic characters in Blue Beetle's termination. 

 

On the plus, as Karen also notes, there will be a lady Black Panther, a series first. Hopefully it's good and I can still have a well-stocked subscription box at my shop.