As someone who enjoys “geeky” stuff, I attended Comic Con on Saturday. The MCM Comic Con in London is special this year, as it contains more female guests than male ones, including feminist television heroes such as Felicia Day (The Guild, Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and Gillian Anderson (X-Files, Hannibal).
One thing I really liked about this Comic Con is the large attendance of women and the inclusion of female-friendly stands, ranging from a Hello Kitty station to various independent female comic book artists and vendors.
Another vital part of Comic Con is cosplaying and the diversity of the cosplayers. It allows people of all genders to express themselves and their love for their fandoms in a way that makes them feel like an integral part of a community, even if their interests vary.
The main guest and the highlight of the MCM Comic Con this year was Felicia Day. She has been dubbed as the “Geek Queen” and is worthy of the title. Besides playing Vi during the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and making Dr. Horrible show his good side in Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, she wrote, produced, and starred in The Guild, a web series. She also is an advocate for feminism and has allowed many male fans to become more informed in the topic of feminism, which helps to change the way women are seen in the media. Her web series The Guild has developed a cult following that keeps growing stronger, even though the series ended in 2013. During a roundtable interview, Felicia told me that she plans to write a new series. “Certainly it’s my intention to write another vehicle for myself, like The Guild. That’s what I’ve been working on the last couple months, ever since my book draft was done. Hopefully, before the end of the year, I can talk about more of that. It’s important for me just to create something that’s true to my heart, as The Guild was, which is kind of hard. It was so close to my heart.”
She also has a book that is coming out on August, called You’re Never Weird On the Internet (Almost.) She shared, ” It’s my journey of how I grew up a weird child, and was home-schooled, and went to college at sixteen, and grew up. I discovered internet videos because I just had something to say and I didn’t have another place to say it. I’m excited. It’s coming out in the UK. I actually have a publisher here, so hopefully I’ll be back to talk about that more, in August when it comes out.” She also discussed how she struggled in her career before gaining success with The Guild, which is something that she discusses thoroughly in her upcoming memoir. It’s hard to believe that the geek idol ever struggled, considering her level of stardom. However, that’s part of the reason why she’s so relatable and loved by fans. Despite having over a dozen press people in her press conference, she stuck around and talked to everyone, being polite and gracious. She even wore her own Bitchtopia sticker after the interview.
We need more women like Felicia Day in the media. Although women are starting to be able to have a bit more power in the media, working as writers, producers, and directors, we still have a long way to go. People like her encourage young women who want to be part of the industry to not be afraid of the obstacles they’ll encounter along the way and keep fighting to achieve success. Geek culture is known for being predominantly composed of straight white men. By having more female guests and including women like Felicia, who has accomplished so much in the media and opens discussions about feminism and how to combat sexism, women are able to feel more comfortable being part of this culture.
