I just have to say . . . I'm really kind of floored by the response to my most recent comic strip. Um, wow? Thanks, everyone: I'm pleased that it seems to have resonated with so many people.

I've argued a few times over the years with people who don't like the end of Labyrinth. As I mentioned in the strip, I did indeed have a humongous crush on Jareth as a teenager (to the point of writing some truly dreadful fanfiction); I still find him extremely easy on the eyes. However, the film is very much a coming of age story in which a young girl (just on the cusp of womanhood) asserts her strength and independence. Distracting a character though Jareth is, Labyrinth is SARAH's story, and Jareth really is a villain; he's asking her to give up her power (up to and including control of her own emotions) in exchange for vague and dubious promises that amount to very little. She would have lost a lot more than her little brother if she'd accepted. (But of course, she doesn't: she asserts herself, and it's AWESOME. And if you don't like leaving it at that, well, there's always fic.)

As for Twilight, I'd like to think that the problems with it are pretty evident to a lot of people (there are a lot of great critiques and parodies out there; I enjoyed ~shinga's comics on the subject). However, I've been kind of alarmed to see it showing up in the blogs of pop-culture feminists as some kind of empowering example of women in fan(/geek) culture. (Whether Twilight qualifies as part of geek culture is . . . semantics, really. It's about vampires, however distorted the portrayal. I'd rather be inclusive, to a degree.) I've also encountered a rash of articles devoted to gasping in theatrical shock over the participation of women in said fan culture - again, using Twilight as a primary example. While I know that Twilight fandom is a bit hard to ignore these days, the idea that a) fangirls didn't exist before Twilight (or Harry Potter, for that matter) or b) this is a good example of a fandom WORTHY of those fangirls . . . bothers me.

I don't object to Twilight fangirls. Of course I don't: if there were ever a media fandom where women deserve to take control of their own experience, it's that mess. However, there have been female geeks for as long as there have been geeks, as we have to remind people EVERY SINGLE TIME something geeky (to any degree) proves to be popular with women. Which is frustrating enough as it is, but it's worse when combined with something as problematic as I find Twilight to be. I wholeheartedly hope that, in the future, Twilight's fangirls will find much better and more empowering stories to be fannish about. Meyer doesn't deserve them.

But ANYWAY, folks. I think I've soapboxed on the subject just about as much as I'm likely to for the time being (and aren't you sorry you encouraged me? I'm so long winded). I feel a little bad, because I haven't managed to make it all the way through one of the Twilight books, and I'm not sure I will. If the subject keeps coming up, I may feel obliged to, but for now I'm done.

I have a couple more Turtle/diary comics coming up, and then I'm definitely planning to get back to work on my silly story about the guardian angel-on-probation and her reluctant and skeptical charge. I'm looking forward to that kind of a lot.