Three days ago,
Mary Cagle of the webcomic
Kiwi Blitz recently posted a comic she entitled "
The Progression," in which she satired the disingenuous male feminism of artists who create highly sexualized "empowered" female
characters. While the comic doesn't refer to any specific artist, many people believed that Blitz's comic was triggered by
cyborg-themed amputee pinup sketches artist Aaron Diaz posted to his Tumblr blog about a week ago, which he deleted shortly after Cagle's comic was posted. (If that last link goes dead, just scroll down.)
Aaron Diaz, author of the popular
Dresden Codak web comic and outspoken critic of sexist character designs,
took this quite personally, responding both on Tumblr and
Twitter. Diaz has a strong reputation for being a genuinely good guy who comes out on the right side of most issues; however, Diaz's uncharacteristically terse response has garnered a great deal of negative attention. Over the past few days, multiple women in the webcomics community have weighed in, culminating in
Magnolia Pearl writing an open letter to Aaron Diaz yesterday: "You’re allowed to make art with male gaze. But please call a spade a spade."
Of course, this isn't the first time some one else has called Diaz out on his
heavy-handed use of the "male gaze." Solomon's
Your Webcomic Is Bad and You Should Feel Bad blog (
Part 2) addressed the issue back in 2008.
Personally, I hope Diaz continues his comic, and I hope people continue reading his comic. For all of its excessive use of the male gaze,
Dresden Codak does feature some genuinely
awesome female characters, along with
plagiarizing bears,
nerds who play philosophical tabletop RPGs, and a lot of other fun silliness.
