Poke a Bigot in the Eye: "Captain Hydra"

[ysabetwordsmith]

I have decided that it's time for another round of "Poke a Bigot in the Eye." This time, it was inspired by Marvel declaring that Captain America is a Hydra agent, which I mentioned recently.


Possible Responses ...

* Sign a petition (or launch your own) to ask Marvel to cancel the Captain Hydra storyline.  Here's one on Change.org, which a fan tipped me to and I have signed.  If you know of any others, tell me and I'll add them.

* Post a negative review of the offending issue. Quote from it to let the creators hang themselves with their own material. Another option is to cite people who have been hurt by it.

* Boycott the *HYDRA!Steve Rogers stuff. You might also write a letter to Marvel explaining why and/or post about it so your friends know. If you're really steamed, widen it to all products by these creators and/or all Marvel products. You can do this temporarily or permanently.

* Buy something else which features an Unsullied Hero. Ask for that in crowdfunding. In a time when the mainstream is trying to take away heroes by dragging the best and brightest through the mud, look for ways to reward creators who are NOT doing that but instead are upholding what real heroes are.

* List your favorite Captain America canon or fanfic for other people to enjoy. "Glass Houses" is a nice one.

 

* List other things by/about Jewish authors, characters, or motifs. Remember that many of the Golden Age creators were Jewish and that played heavily into the content they created. Ben Grimm "The Thing" is one of my favorite characters.

* Visit the Beit Hashoah.

* Do a little tikkun olam by making a donation to Jewish charities. Anti-bullying organizations would also suit. I'm partial to Teaching Tolerance, run by the Southern Poverty Law Center. You might set the amount to the cost of a Marvel comic book or movie, and include a note both to the charity and to Marvel why you are doing this.

* Write something new. You can do a fixit of Captain Hydra, or something original with Jewish characters, or superheroes who are actually heroic, or whatever you like. I wrote "Rotten Fruit."

* Mention any of your own work that ties into this.  Stalwart Stan is one of my Unsullied Heroes, and I'm starting to suspect that Officer Pink may be too.  Both of them are heck on bullies.  "The Tallest Poppy" is about bullying and how Savoir Faire interrupts it.  Deborah Blum is Jewish, introduced in "Shaken," which also features excellent EFA.  A couple of characters in Cassandra's series, Yona Carris and Rachael Banigan, are Jewish.  Clay of Life is a Jewish series listed on my Serial Poetry page.

* Post your opinion about what makes a hero and what makes a villain. Write your personal code of ethics.

* Read about real life superheroes. It doesn't take extraordinary abilities to make a superhero, just extraordinary compassion.

* Learn a relevant skill. When hurtful things happen, it helps to know emotional first aid for yourself and for others. Here are some good grounding exercises. You might want to learn how to write or draw comics and design characters so you can make your own. Don't think you have the talent for it? *looks down* Dude, that bar is lying on the ground right now. Just step over it.


I'd Really Rather You Didn't ...

* Burn the comic books. Nazis and HYDRA burn books. This never ends well. Do not use the tactics of tyrants to oppose them. Instead, evade their attack and make a lateral strike against their core objectives. See above for ideas.

* Devolve into rants. This argument is about decency. The cleaner you can keep it, the better. I have already muffed this a bit; maybe you'll do better.


What have you done? What else have you read on this topic? What are some other ideas?

Comments

[siberian_skys]

Thank you for recommending Glass Houses. I needed to read that.

You're welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm glad I could turn people on to good fic.

[(Anonymous)]

This was not written by me. It is alsow awesome. http://archiveofourown.org/works/7073728

[siberian_skys]

Thank you. I'll give it a read.

[helgatwb]

I linked to that article on my Facebook. One of my younger cousins, also a comic fan, has started a discussion.

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

People need to talk about this.

Re: Yay!

[helgatwb]

I've been thinking about what else I can do. I tweeted Marvel. #SayNoToHydraCap and #IStillBelieveInHEROES. The first was an official hashtag, the other was new. I think that's one of the things they are trying to take away from us, so I wanted to let them know they couldn't do that to me.

Re: Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I've been thinking about what else I can do. I tweeted Marvel.<<

Thank you!

>> #SayNoToHydraCap and #IStillBelieveInHEROES. The first was an official hashtag, the other was new. <<

I have added these to the tags for my story "Rotten Fruit."

>>I think that's one of the things they are trying to take away from us, so I wanted to let them know they couldn't do that to me.<<

Sooth. They don't want us to have heroes. I disagree too. If they don't want to write heroes, fine, I'll do it myself.

I continue to squee every time someone tells me that they like my renditions better than Marvel's. :D

Peacebuilders

[draggon_flye.livejournal.com]

Marvel's declaration infuriated me too. I was rather at a loss for what to do until you posted this so thank you. In furtherance of this effort, I made a donation to the Peacebuilders Camp at Koinania Farm. (DW would probably eat my link if I posted, but you can Google it if interested). It's a small local (for me) nonprofit commune that runs a summer camp for middle school aged children aimed at teaching conflict resolution, tolerance, peace and justice.

Re: Peacebuilders

[ysabetwordsmith]

That sounds like a great idea. I'm sure those are ubiquitous in Terramagne.

[mashfanficchick]

I have a recommendation for donations: The Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Their focus is on how the specifics of the Holocaust (which they do a depressingly fantastic job of showcasing) can be broadened to generalities that infuse all racist/xenophobic campaigns and atrocities. (Note that I don't mean "campaigns" as in political campaigns; I mean it in the military sense.) Supporting this museum hits back at both the bullies of the past, and the bullies of the present...and, as an added bonus, technically supports victims of financial bullying, as well: the Simon Wiesenthal Center overall lost millions of dollars in the Bernie Madoff scandal.

http://www.museumoftolerance.com

Having just visited the museum's website to snag you the web address, I must say that I highly recommend that you check out the site: it seems almost tailor-made for this topic, what with the current poll being about bullying, and the home page quote being literally, exactly, on individuals mattering to the big picture: "How wonderful it is that no one has to wait but can start right now to gradually change the world." (Anne Frank, the subject of a new exhibit at the museum)

For what it's worth, I've personally been to the Museum of Tolerance, and feel that it actually does a better job than many more famous Holocaust museums and memorials because of how it focuses on how easy it is to get people to hate each other, and that the way to prevent another event like the Holocaust is not to try to change people's already-made-up minds about individual groups, but to teach them different ways of looking at the world: we as one people instead of many, or, conversely, as 7billion individuals, all of whom have more in common with each other than not.

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's a great recommendation. Thanks for sharing.

[thnidu]

Thank you.

(LONG overdue for collapse, leaving web NOW)

You're welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm glad you found this helpful.

[paradigmshifty.livejournal.com]

While I completely agree that the whole thing is a dick move and lazy writing, I must point out that everyone is making the assumption that Cap is a HYDRA agent. At no point has that been stated as fact.

Rather than lay it all out again, I will point you to the FB post I wrote a few days ago: https://www.facebook.com/predeceased/posts/10154197113413784

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Regrettably, Marvel has not only said that but elaborated on their intentions to do more of it. They have also said it is not a trick, but entertainers lie about that sort of thing routinely.

"It means on the most fundamental level that the most trusted hero in the Marvel universe is now secretly a deep-cover Hydra operative, a fact that’s really only known to the readers and to him. That makes every interaction he has with anyone take on a second layer, a second meaning."

[belenen.livejournal.com]

Fuckyeah I love this kind of response! excellent list!

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I wanted to create a way to organize responses to shit like this. Doing nothing and feeling helpless is bad for people. You can't always stop bad things from happening, but you can make a mindful response when they do.