Have you heard of the proverbial dancing bear? It’s apparently a Russian expression, which has its origin in some folk tale or other, and holds that the amazing thing about the performing animal isn’t how well it dances, but that it dances at all. This metaphor (sometimes substituting “dog” for “bear” after the Samuel Johnson quote comparing a woman preaching to a dog walking on its hind legs) became very popular in the heyday of “second-wave” feminism, whenever some consciousness-raising battle appeared won and another hurdle reared up in its place, when the very act of being female and expecting to be treated as human beings at the same time felt Sisyphusean in its difficulties. Sadly, the bear is still rearing its head, howling, dancing backwards and in high heels.

It doesn’t matter what the endeavor, career or hobby. Whether Presidential candidate or comic book writer or movie subject matter or just-plain blogger, a spate of “dancing bear” articles that appears like clockwork in the mainstream news, every few months or years, mining the same territory that comes down to “Look, women are doing things!” As if we need to be reminded we exist. It’s not how well the bear is dancing, it’s that it’s doing it at all! A fellow blogger once remarked that she could practically tell the changing of the seasons by how often she came across male bloggers wanting to know where all the female bloggers were, as a different male blogger posted this in almost exact 90-day increments.

Likewise, now that Gail Simone is writing Wonder Woman, DC’s longest-running, highest- profile book featuring a female character, we’re starting to see features pop up in all sorts of magazines pointing to the dancing bears again. “Pow! Zap! Women can write and draw!” And imagine, we can breathe and think as well! (more…)