Well, once again the ugly side of social media has shown itself. And once again it’s a bunch of fanboys who feel the need to act like assholes.
Chelsea Cain has been writing a great comic for Marvel called Mockingbird. The eighth and last issue came out last week. Over the last week a bunch of boys with too much free time decided they needed to express their dislike for the comic by harassing Chelsea Cain on Twitter, to the point that she deleted her account.
I’ve been a comics fan for a long time and while I do see some of this in person, most of these jerks only act this way online. The most recent was when Leslie Jones was bombarded by misogynist and racist comments and went offline for a while.
These same Neanderthals have been harassing women for years, they target women who play video games, write comics, read comics and like movies. It makes me embarrassed for my entire gender. I don’t know men who actually do this, maybe because I don’t hang out with assholes, but I have seen it and it is deplorable. It also seems to be men who are fans of comics and comic related movies who act like this. I’ve never seen this behavior when someone doesn’t enjoy a novel. And I would guarantee that 99 percent of these spineless asshats would never behave like this if they met the target of their bile face to face. That would mean having a backbone.
I’m 53 and there are a lot of things I don’t like. I don’t like pumpkin flavored coffee. That doesn’t mean I spend all my free time being abusive to people at Starbucks. If I don’t like something I just don’t buy it, watch it, read it. Pretty simple.
Chelsea Cain has written 12 or more books, all of them awesome. I’m a fan of her writing. I’m also a fan of Chelsea. She is wonderfully smart and always makes me laugh. She is also genuinely a fabulous person. I’m not just trying to be nice, she really is super nice.
So Chelsea, hang in there. You are loved by people who matter.
And to those of you who find this behavior acceptable?
You would do well to avoid meeting me or any of my friends in person. You trying to rationalize this behavior to us would be like bringing a Popsicle stick to a bazooka fight. You will lose.
Go back to your mother’s basement and overdose on hotpockets. Oh, also maybe think about getting a life.
Losers.
