xkcd is a very well known geeky webcomic by Randall Munroe. It is one of the few web comics from which the artist is able to draw a full-time income.
xkcd regularly features women characters, including as geeks such as mathematicians and hackers, and has featured strips which are critical of certain geek treatment of women. However, it is also criticised for some content which relies on standard anti-women humour, in particular "Your Mom" jokes. xkcd also does not pass the Bechdel test very often.
Contents
Strips with a feminist point of view
The following xkcd comics have at least arguably a feminist point of view:
- Pix Pls
- How it works (Feministing discussion thread here.)
- Friends
- Graduation ("I'd get to be the girl in the tower, only I'd be the one rescuing people.")
- Nerd Girls ("At least, due to your constant fawning, we have an excuse for our social ineptness. What's yours?")
- Snacktime rules (mother is major influence in nerd development)
- Penises ("They are about this big. Now, can we just move on?")
- Marie Curie
- Rejection (see Nice guy syndrome)
- Pickup Artist (Deconstructs pick up artists. This comic also fits under the "strong female characters" category.)
Strips with strong female characters
The following comics feature strong female characters:
- Fight: a woman takes technical revenge on her boyfriend
- Exploits of a Mom: a mother names her child in such a way as to corrupt SQL databases that don't quote correctly
- 1337 Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5: the adventures of a young girl, the greatest hacker in the world (who has, however, mostly male teachers and protectors)
Criticisms
- xkcd parody on A Softer World, which parodies xkcd's tendency to portray geeky activities as sexy or inspiring if done by women, but not otherwise.
- The strip Creepy was criticised in several places for normalising sexual approaches to unknown women. See Sociological Images and Shapely Prose.
- The strip Suggestions objectifies a woman (note also the "alt text" when hovering over the comic).
- The strip Pix Plz seems to be a criticism of the treatment of women as sexual objects online, but the criticism comes from a man, who then punishes the transgressor by commanding a woman to fire a gun.
External links
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