Very, very tangentally related to something Doc Lemming was talking about

[james_davis_nicoll]

What's the correct response for a superhero who discovers their crime-fighting name, selected in all innocence and without malice, happens to be an ethnic slur?

Come to think of it, this situation has come up before [1]; the late Mark Gruenwald decided to give the new Captain America's sidekick the same superhero name the original Cap's orginal side-kick used, Gruenwald being unaware that there could be anything problematic about calling an African American man "Bucky". I know they changed the name but I don't recall how it was handled in-story.

1: Note that Marvel also once named a superhero after a combination of cocaine hydrochloride mixed with morphine sulfate; presumably Speedball himself was unaware of the other meanings of his name. In his defense, he was just a teenager.

Comments

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

"Given how much heroing is about perception and visibility, I think you may wish to change or modify your crime-fighting name."

cf. http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2010-01-23

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

After Gruenwald was alerted to the problem of calling a black man a buck, in the comic a black guy shows up and yells at Bucky (not any of the white dudes running the show), who then goes and complains to the higher-ups until he gets rebranded.

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I don't think there was a good way to do the scene.

If the black guy yelled at Bucky, as readers we say, "Hey, in-story the name was given to him." If the black guy yelled at the white higher-ups first, we're denying him a chance to be responsible for his own actions.

Not knowing the sequence, I hope that there was at least a panel where the African-American sidekick says, "I didn't know about the connotation, or I would have fought the name" or equivalent.

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

Though it's a little hard to believe that Battlestar would have never come across the term "buck", which still gets some play (especially in the term "buck wild").

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

Okay, I buy that. The implication is that Battlestar didn't think deeply about it, bought the explanation he was given, and this guy is pointing out the connotations. And Battlestar then goes and petitions for the name change, which gives him some agency.

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

Not that I am an indicator, but I have pretty much never heard the term "buck wild."

For that matter, only because I have friends who write (well, wrote...I don't know if they still do) do I have any knowledge of a negative connotation for the word "buck." Yes, it gets used in certain fetish circles, and every time I have encountered it, it was used to describe an African-American male, but I did not associate it with race, I...geez, how to say this?...I associated it with his role in the story. That being (obliquely) said, I can see that the use was consistent with a racial connection, I just didn't know about it.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I actually thought "buck wild" was considered to stem from offensive stereotypes of Native American Indian men, not from black men.

Am I going to have to go down to the basement and dig out my Dictionary of American Regional English now?

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

I thought that "buck wild" referred to the behavior of actual male deer in rut?

[seawasp]

Like many things, it depends. But overall I think if it's at all feasible to do so the name should be changed. One could for instance see "Superman" as racially charged (Nietzche and all), but changing THAT name... just not happening. Speedball is different -- *I* wasn't aware of that usage, and it's not racial or otherwise a direct slur, and if I were a superhero and told that this was one meaning of the name, I'd shrug and say, "eh. So what? I like the name and I'll make it work for me."

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Metatextually, of course, Superman was deliberate.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

In Speedball's case...well, there's that brand name of artist's pen involved, too...and given that Robbie Baldwin's father worked in the local DA's office as a prosecuting attorney, you'd think he'd have gotten his alias changed ASAP too.

No?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Didn't Robbie's dad think Speedball was a bad un? The name cannot have helped.

[seawasp]

I think the difference between the name of a pen and the name of a person, even a Nom De Guerre, is wide enough that there'd be no case unless Speedball's power was drawing people to death.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Speedball is also the brand name for the pen system most favored by calligraphers when I was a child.

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

The superheroes "Parker," "Flair," and "BIC" are coming out this year. Parker is apparently going to cross over with Spiderman, and there will be some name-ownership issue.

The character "Papermate" is not a superhero at all, but an Internet porn star.

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

SNOWFLAME FEELS NO PAIN!

Seriously, DC had a superhero who was MADE OF COCAINE during the same period Speedball was invented... and speedball is called Penance and is powered by cutting these days... so.

OT: did you change the skin of your lj on purpose?

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Actually he got over the Penance phase a couple of years ago.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Well, thank heaven for that, because that was a completely ridiculous reboot.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

But he still cuts himself if he needs an extra power-up, which I find hilarious.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Remember, superkids: if at first you don't succeed, cut your wrists and watch them bleed!

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I tried to go to S2 but it looks the same to me. Otherwise, LJ changed everything on us.

[dbdatvic.livejournal.com]

So, wait, he didn't change his superhero name to "Buck Naked"?

--Dave, will make things worse for food

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

This superhero was actually drawn. As I recall, he wore cowboy boots.

[rwpikul.livejournal.com]

Well, there is a superhero named Buck Naked in the Supermegatopia setting. He tends to pair up with Slut Puppy.

Yes, they do both live up to their names. In costume, activity and species.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

Depends on the context, and how likely anyone is to draw negative associations. If "Spook" is an insubstantial crimefighter from Alaska, is a different situation from a sneaky Badass Normal in Georgia. Same for other racially tinged, but not actual slur names: If the newly minted "Grand Dragon" is from Chinatown, and is deliberately drawing on his own cultural imagery, he should stick with it. On the other hand, if he was a suburban white kid who just thought the name sounded cool, he should probably change it.