Reading @FeministaJones’ critique of @ObsidianFiles, emotionally-stunted (Afro-)MRAs, and their exhibition of toxic masculinity, I finally got the courage to write this rant on how toxic masculinity permeates Black male characters in Speculative Fiction.

While newer comics which include Black women in lead roles tend to allow for less assumptions about their appearance or capacity for adventure, I have noticed that the pool of appearance and expression for Black men in comics and SpecFic is very small.

This is the image that even Black Men who are comic artists and writers tend to portray about themselves. The Black Male appearance in fiction is almost always that exuded by a certain, small subset of men in real life.

From the moment that I started reading #SwordAndSoul fiction, I got the sense that the same predominance of the “masculine appearance” and alpha-male warrior characters that has played out in more established genres like Sword-and-sorcery fantasy and military space operas would help to define Sword-and-soul. But, in actuality, that predominance has intersected with the enamoring of “Afrikan” alpha-male stereotypes which are enamored by African nationalists, Afro-MRAs, Hoteps and the like.

Historically, the same thing happens in general comic works depicting Black male lead characters as superheroes and supervillains. I hardly see any room for queer, gender-deviant, non-alpha-male types in this master list of Black superheroes.

Right now, I’ve come to see most SpecFic depictions of Black male characters, where men are concerned, as a projection of “Afrikan” fantasies regarding “manhood” and “masculinity”.

Where is the positive gender deviance? Where is the diversity in depiction of Black men? Where are the Same-gender-loving Black men? The trans Black men? The “beautiful” Black men who defy their own stereotypes? The Black men who have long hair – dreaded or even straightened – who live their own lives? The Black men who are not afraid to be sensitive, or “feminine” in the eyes of others, or less willing to be violent? What about Black males who want to reach for more than what’s in, say, the hood or the suburb or the rural hamlet?

In these works, I see only a very small subset of the Black men who I’ve seen in my life. We have not made room for a diversity of Black men in terms of how they look, how they express themselves, how they react to pain/love/death/beauty/humor/fear/etc.

I think toxic masculinity permeates depictions of Black male characters in SpecFic. It’s unintentional and maybe institutional, but I think we need to include a wider diversity of Black male characters than the current lot we have. We need to broaden our horizons beyond what we’ve been told by others about ourselves.

I’m grateful for Black women being so involved in webcomics nowadays (as both characters and artisans), since they’re showing the way in what POC can see ourselves as. I just wish that Black men had just as much imagination about themselves.

Heck, I can’t see “myself” in most of these comic characters. A semblance of myself, but not the majority of my “not-so-masculine” self or my experience of gender. I’d like to change that.

Just my feelings.