But now you have a lot of female fans who are basically doing the same thing, trying to live vicariously through a book series that frankly presents relationships in an incredibly unhealthy manner. If the tables were turned and there were stores dedicated to Twilight, would any of us be surprised if they were male-phobic? After all, who wants to be faced with the reality of real boys when one can fantasize about Edward Cullen?

I never really saw a lot of gender issues back in the day when I rode my bike to the comic shop every Friday (back when comics came out on Friday), there were plenty of people, male and female in the first shop I ever went to regularly and when I started frequenting 21st Century Comics (yes, to my eternal shame, I’m one of the people who introduced Carl Macek to anime), there were still plenty of girls who hung out there too. As I got older and started driving and expanding my range, places like Carol’s became hangouts because I ran a C/FO chapter and she was one of my members. It’s really only been at conventions that I’ve seen any overt snickering about female attendees and that hasn’t been for many years.

Seriously, the few who have a problem with it, the nerdy, smelly fanboys who hold signs, are missing the point. The same fantasy-prone nonsense that the fanboys have done for years is appearing in the fangirl crowd and instead of recognizing it, they’re making fun of it.

It’s two clueless ships that point at each other and laugh in the night.

I do think today’s fanboys feel overwhelmed by all the estrogen and lack alot of the social skills to just let them be. It’s sort of funny looking on this from the sidelines, it’s like looking at 3rd graders and each sex fears getting cooties from the other. You just chuckle and wonder who will be shagging whom in just a few years.

They’ve had the run of the park for so long that they’ve forgotten that it isn’t polite to fart and not say “excuse me.” or that daily showering is expected. They’ve gotten used to the fact that other men will tolerate their peccadilloes more than most women will. They’ve gotten into a mode where they can behave like the comic book guy from the Simpsons without a touch of irony and get away from it.

Opening fandom to new fans means inviting people who haven’t inured themselves to the trolls of the fandom. It means that we get fresh young people to point out that the Emperor has No Clothes. We have to justify our acceptance of the worst of our kind. It also means that we have to accept that many of these newbies will be gone once the trend passes.

So we can try to insulate the fresh fans from the crusty ones. We can offer them guidance into the wonders of comics by sharing out favorites (and not so favorites) without judgment of what they like and dislike. We can try to engage them in the breadth of wonder we all share as fans and try to let them see why we can appreciate the cruft of fandom just as we appreciate the fresh blood.

And maybe, just maybe, we can change some of the stereotypes from negative ones to at least neutral ones.

Granted, every fanboy I’ve met has always been very cool, nice and conversational. I chalk up the “comic store thing” to my role as an endangered species or something. Of course, it’s not the first place I’ve felt out of place in a retail store (I’m a minority, too), so I just don’t patronize those kinds of places. My money’s not good enough for you? Fine, I’ll spend it somewhere else.

But, your point is well taken. The rabid fanboys can’t have it both ways and should just accept that there are people out there that like things they’ll never like. Sure, I don’t care for rabid fans one way or the other, but I don’t begrudge them their right to like what they like. All of fandom doesn’t need to get along and sing around the campfire — we just need to respect one another and move along.

I’ve also found that boys tend not to consider comics aimed at girls to be comics, they tend to reffer to them as magazines, as though that makes them a lesser thing.

It’s a sad thing, cause it’s pure bollocks.

The thing is there are very few sane fangirls out there. I’ve never been to a con in the states, so i’m basing this on my UK and german experiences. But out of all the cons ive been to in the past decade almost every girl i’ve met has made me wonder if they need a rabies shot.

I’m not saying all girls are like that, because i have met some sane ones who are just as if not more knowledgeable than the average guy fan.

The problem is the ratio of genuine fan, to the ‘he’s hot so i’m a fan’ styled rabid fan.

Then of course there’s the psycho way they tend to act. If you crtiercise their pet love they go psycho on you (literally). I’ve seen more than one girl carted out of the con because she flipped out on someone who didn’t like what she liked.

I don’t think i’ve seen a guy flipping out at another guy cause he dosent like the same thing.

As a result guys tend to treat girls as though they’re all rabid and in need of a rabies shot.

Also the whole way girls act over their fandom is a huge thing. I don’t think i’ve ever seen a group of guys giggling like they’ve been gassed just because a girl looks sexy in a movie.

I got dragged to the twilight movie and had to sit through watching a bunch of normal school girls doing just that. Not something/

Robot 6 has it wrong on one point though. The out cry over Twilight being adapted as a manga isn’t so much that it’s aimed at teen girls, rather that it’s a pile of crud.

There are several better vamp stories aimed at girls that would have been better recieved than Twilight.

My friends daughter was a Twilight fan for all of 6months, after that she said she got bored of it and it didnt interest her anymore.

The twilight saga is the female version of the Eldest saga (aka Eragon). It’s baddly writen, and a pile of garbage, but has been well publicised and aime at a very specific age group that will buy it.

But, as i said, it all bois down to the illussion that comics are only for boys. However the industry is largely to blame for that as well i think, since the vast majority of titles released are aimed at boys. There are very few girl aimed comics these days. And most of the ones i have seen are aimed at the early teens (13 and under).

Maybe if companies started to release more comics aimed at the girls in their teens, attitudes would change.

In that regards i’d suggest doing what they did with the witchblade manga.

Pick up some fairly short shojo manga (say a max of 5 or 6 volumes), flip and colour them, and release them in chapters.

I don’t like it when manga is butchered like that, but in cases like this i think the ends justify the means. In so much as it gets more girls reading manga (albeit through the back door), but it also helps to change the missguided delusions of comics being a boy only domain.