Decommodified Fetish

Earlier this month, I presented a panel on the misogynoir within science fiction, fantasy, and superhero fiction fandom communities at New York Comic Con. It was a glimpse of my forthcoming nonfiction essay collection, Misogynoir and Multiverses: A Black Girl’s Guide to Fandom Culture, which explores the racism and sexism directed toward Black women and femmes online and offline. While weaving cultural criticism and my lived experiences as a Black organizer in the South, it pays homage to my teenage years spent on Tumblr. In conversation with other Black women writers and academics, our panel is available to watch for free on YouTube.

One show we discussed on the panel that excites me as a Black nerd is Gen V, a college-centered spinoff of Prime Video’s superhero satire The Boys. Gen V follows Marie Moreau, a Black superheroine with the ability to bloodbend through biokinesis. In its second season, Jaz Sinclair’s portrayal of Moreau has tackled infertility, survivor’s guilt, and grief — let alone the show’s overall track record for navigating topics like gender identity, right-wing politics, and disordered eating. Thanks to characters like Moreau, my fangirl identity continues to blossom in ways I wouldn’t have imagined ten years ago.

Black women are often poorly written protagonists, confined to minimal side characters. Often, they don’t even make it to the final rounds of production. While shows like Gen V follow a frightfully similar timeline to our own reality, they remind me that we’re gradually headed in the right direction with the depiction of Black superheroines, witches, vampires, and other mythical creatures on screen. —Noella Williams