I recently did my usual trip to my local comic book store and of course went straight to the back issue section and bought some late 70s early 80s DC and Marvel. As someone who grew up in the 80s and 90s I love the ads in comic books from that era because it is a trip down memory lane. Anyway, I saw some ads for the Atari 2600/7800 and in every ad there were a group of boys and usually one to three girls sprinkled in as well. I've seen these ads before but it reminded me of an old Itchy Bacca video where there was a TED Talk with some high level lady at Apple who talked about the importance of women in tech and how when she was growing up (she was born in the early to mid 70s) they didn't allow women to learn about computers (yes she actually said something like that) and that her dad made sure she got into them.

Everytime she said something following the usual feminist script in tech/gaming (I was excluded because I was a girl) he showed those ads showing girls playing video games and the funniest one was a commercial from 82 for one of the first Apple home computers where a woman is talking about how the Apple is making her life easier. To this day I would love to meet a woman who is legit into gaming or other nerdy stuff.

If I ever go to the San Diego Con, I'd love to attend one of these feminists panels and after their usual whining (because they would never have any women who actually enjoy video games in at their panel) I'd love to ask "have you ever considered that what you call toxic fandoms are really just people who push back against someone who has no interest in their hobby and is only there to infiltrate?".

Finally I love pointing out that at my comic book store it is so nice to see the modern comics collecting dust for the most part and I remember the same issues of America Chavez sitting there when they tried very hard to push her as the next big thing. The back issue section is always crowded to the point that they sometimes have to put a 30 minute time limit on how long you can shop there. They also have a lot of tabletop gaming and for all the talk of toxic fans, they have always been more than happy to explain to me about the game they are playing.