Week 12 - Lumberjanes Issues 1-5 (5 points)

Issue # 1 – 1 point

    Finally, something for gay people that doesn’t have over the top sex and violence. I mean, obviously this book can be read by anyone that isn’t gay, but as someone who grew up looking and talking like a lot of these girls, it feels very much down my ally. Will we see men in Lumberjanes? I really don’t care. This is a girls’ space and I’m fine with that.

    I've seen some of Noelle Stevenson’s other work including She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and Nimona. Lumberjanes feels very similar in tone and gayness. And by gayness, I mean there’s a character with an undercut (I had an undercut most of my time at college). The character’s personalities are always put forward above their status as female. No character is traditionally feminine either. Nobody wears pink with long blond hair and a skinny waist. Many of these women look like people I have actually met.

Issue # 2 – 1 point

    Two volumes in and two characters have already smooched and flirted. Yes. More please.

    The cute simplistic designs has me attached to these characters already. I’m immediately latching myself onto the character whose face looks most like a upside down triangle because how relatable is that? Very.

    I did not know what to expect going in, but I am surprised that there is a larger plot involving lots of action. She-Ra was similar in this tone. Noelle Stevenson does one style of tone and luckily I really like it.

Issue # 3 – 1 point

    This is the first issue with a male character who takes the form of a giant stone monster. We are confronted by the patriarchy immediately as he challenges the Lumberjanes to and arm wrestling competition and insists that none of them can beat him. As someone who grew up female I’m very familiar with this kind of masculine posturing. There is a global assumption that women cannot beat men in a test of strength, but one of the janes, the most feminine among them, happens to be a practiced wrestler, and she uses physics to rip the giants stone arm off.

    I imagine many men would decry this and say, “But wait! That’s not right! It’s unrealistic that a girl could beat a giant stone man in arm wrestling!” Except that doesn’t really matter. If the same thing had happened with a smaller male character ripping off the giant’s arm, such a crowd would not be complaining. Being familiar with the video games industry, these arguments are unfortunately commonplace.

    This story is a fantasy and in my fantasy a girl can rip off a giant’s arm because I said so. And that’s all you need to know <3

Issue # 4 – 1 point

    The patriarchy arrives, part TWO!!! I mean I it really feels like that. This time, instead of a giant stone man, it’s a giant human boy scout commander. He is loud, aggressive, crude, and unfeeling and touts these traits as masculine and admirable – a textbook description of toxic masculinity. The boys in his troop are kind, gentle, stoic and resourceful, but their macho commander tries turning them into his little mini-me’s. This is similar to how toxic masculinity is spread in the real world, how it is often taught and not innate. To further run with the scenario, the boy’s become possessed and act like wild dogs. The metaphor being that toxic masculinity is often thrust upon people who do not want it, and in reenacting these traits boys often lose themselves.

    Long story short, there are indeed boys in this series.

Issue #5 – 1 point

    DINOSAURS. That is all.

    I can’t say that there is anything new in this issue in terms of theme. There is new hijinks of course that involves VELOCIRAPTORS so I cannot complain. There was an elderly women with agency in this issue, which is rare in action media. It also never pointed out like “Woah! Grandma’s got moves!” She just can turn into a bear and hit things. I appreciate when media doesn’t point something out like that. Because if a character says something like “I cant believe I got beat by a girl” it establishes that getting beat by a woman is not the societal norm and the man should feel extra shame for failing to perform better than a woman. When a line like that is NOT said, it simply gets to be someone beating someone else in a competition and nothing more.

    I like this series. I think I will read more of it.