I have this rule. It’s relatively new. I adopted it in the last year or so because, even though I don’t really believe in boycotts, I wanted to make a stand. To me, the stand is personal. I talk about it — I’m talking about it here, I talk about it on twitter a lot — but it’s about my own choices and what I feel good doing or not doing. I don’t expect anyone to follow suit. And, to be honest, I’m conflicted. I’m conflicted a lot about this rule, about when I choose to make exceptions or not, and about whether there’s any point to what I’m doing, or whether I’m cutting off my nose to spite my own face.

I don’t read comics about women written by men. Most especially, I don’t read comics about teenage girls written by men. And there are a lot of them. It seems like every time a new comic about a woman — solo, not a group title —  is announced, it’s written by a guy. Not always, but often. Especially at the Big Two, Marvel and DC Comics.

I was excited when they announced a new Supergirl title coming up out of DC Rebirth. It’s about time, with the TV show getting Kara Danvers a lot of attention while we’ve been tapping our feet and waiting for a main release comic for her (I’ve heard good things about Sterling Gates’ Adventures of Supergirl but, well, same issue). I’ve loved the character since I first saw the 1984 movie. I actually liked the New 52 version of Kara, including the Red Lantern run. And DC kept talking about diversifying.

This isn’t on Steve Orlando. I like him a lot. I’m a huge fan of his work on Midnighter.  He’s saying all the right things about the position he’s in. He respects women, women comic readers, and the character. He wanted to have a woman co-creator, and Emanuela Luppacino’s art looks as great as I’d expect (she’s maybe being replaced by Brian Ching for the ongoing, though?). He talks to and listens to women.

And, you know, I make exceptions in cases of men who are allies. I’m reading Rucka’s Wonder Woman. I still hype Pat Shand’s Robyn Hood whenever I get the chance, and all of his independent work. In the case of the latter, it’s really easy to justify: he’s a lesser-known writer working mostly in the indie sphere, who made a feminist, queer-friendly comic for a company whose covers are so awfully objectifying I wondered if they were a farce. And Rucka… I don’t know, I’ve spent over ten years reading Rucka writing women. So I make the exception to my rule because it’s my rule.

But Steve Orlando is writing for the Superman office. The Superman office where I can’t help but feel that, just maybe, if someone else were running things, DC would have taken a shot at a woman on this title. Or maybe not. Maybe there’s no one out there who could write the story. I don’t think that’s true, though. I’ve read a lot of great work by women comic writers in the last, oh my entire life of reading comics. And maybe none of them wanted the job. I don’t know, maybe.

I think about this a lot. Who gets to tell our stories? If a straight person was writing Midnighter and said  “there is not an issue that isn’t discussed with gay peers” would that be okay? Straight people have written Midnighter in the past. But would the current run be as well-received? Would the story be as good? Would it feel as authentic?

I don’t know. It’s all a gut check. A good writer can write anything, right? Except maybe a man really doesn’t know what it’s like to be a teenage girl, and so the story he tells about her will be inherently different — and less authentic — than what a woman who grew up as a teenage girl would write.  Of course, no writer knows what it’s like to grow up with super powers. There has to be some imagination.  Some artistic license. We accept it for aliens. I guess we accept it for women, too.

In the end, I don’t think it’s really about the writer. It’s about the state of the industry. It’s watching black writers  —  rightfully —  get hired to write books about black characters, and wondering when that will be expected for titles about women. It’s about my feelings. It’s my own sense of authenticity in the way I consume the media I love. Maybe I’m missing out on a great Supergirl comic.

Maybe we’re all missing out on the great Supergirl comic that a woman would write. I wish we could find out.