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Art by James Killian Spratt’s

As we continue our 10th anniversary SPECTACULAR here at the Beat, I thought it would be fun to look back at the top posts since 2010. (I don’t have stats for the first five years but I can pretty much guarantee they were all about Alan Moore.)

1. Funny X-men Sex Videos (2011)
2. Frank Frazetta 1928-2010 (2010)
3. The Strange Case of Grant Morrison and Alan Moore, As Told By Grant Morrison (2012)
4. Scott Lobdell: I Apologize to Mari Naomi (2013)
5. Wonder Woman and Superman Have Some Sex(2012)
6. Comics have hit puberty…and it’s not pretty (2013)
7. Archie drops the Comics Code…Wertham dead forever
8. End of an era: Tokyopop shutting down US publishing division (2011)
9. Matt Fraction Says Iron Man 3 is as Big as The Avengers! (2012)
10. SAGA #12 banned due to gay sex scenes
11. New York Comic-Con 2013: creepy camera crews, Arizona’s big cans, and harassment (2013)
12. The wild, all-naked JOHN CARTER comic Disney does not want you to see (NSFW) (2012)
13. Hollywood mystery: Who is trying to kill Pacific Rim? (2013)
14. Marvel layoffs: The cheapskate is coming from inside the House of Ideas! (2011)
15. 90s club kid version of Quicksilver from Days of Future Past revealed (2014)

I’m happy to see posts by writers other than The Beat on this list—Laura Sneddon, Steve Morris and Hannah Means-Shannon all charted.

Is there anything to be gleaned from this? In my decade of blogging I have learned that there are a few topics pretty much guaranteed to get traffic:

1: Sex. But as I learned to my dismay, Google AdSense doesn’t like sex. Despite what Google thinks, I never ran adult content, only a few headlines, like Steve Morris’s brilliant “Wonder Woman and Superman Have Some Sex.”

2: Alan Moore. Or people who don’t like Alan Moore. That said, with his increased availability and the number of websites that write about him every day, we’re getting a bit overexposed on this.

3: Gender issues. Sort of an offshoot of #1, but not quite the same. Despite my best attempts not to be pigeonholed as a “Writer about women,” I have to admit, some of my best, most passionate writing is on this subject, hence the two longer posts about comics and its gender issues here.

4: News. Like I always say “news makes views”  and actual breaking news will always get an eyeball or two.

I don’t use keyword searches or SEO for post titles, just what amuses me. Once in a while, it clicks.

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By Gayle Sulik

A blogger who goes by the name of The Accidental Amazon recently asked: “When did breast cancer awareness become more focused on our breasts than on cancer? Is it because our culture is so obsessed with breasts that it slides right past the C word?”

The Amazon’s questions are important — but they are inconvenient; blasphemous to the pink consumption machine, disruptive to the strong societal focus on pink entertainment, and anti-climactic for the feel-good festivities that have swallowed up popularized versions of breast cancer awareness and advocacy. Her questions are sobering — but sobriety is the last thing that a society drunk on pink wants. We’ve been binging on boobies campaigns and pink M&Ms for too long, and we’ve grown accustomed to the buzz.

After a federal judge in Pennsylvania declared that the “I ♥ Boobies!” bracelets worn in schools represented free speech protected under the 1st Amendment, an interesting debate broke out about language as well as the legitimacy and usefulness of the boobies campaigns. The judicial system, focusing on the former, upheld the tradition that people are free to express themselves unless what they communicate is lewd or vulgar. To them, “boobies” did not fit this category because they were worn in the context of breast cancer “awareness.”

Much of the ongoing debate, and I use this term loosely, has been about discerning whether the Pennsylvania judgment was sound. Is “boobies” an offensive word when used on bracelets or t-shirts in schools? For the most part the discussion has been a polarized virtual shouting match about prudishness versus progressiveness. The commentary quickly “slid right past the C word” to focus on the B word. Boobies is far more titillating to the public than CANCER.

And why not? Sex sells. Playboy, Hooters, Pin-Up girls, pink-up girls. What’s the difference? Women’s sexiness is for sale to the highest bidder, or for $4.99. We’re not too fussy. It’s all about “the girls” getting attention from the boys. Of course, the undercurrent remains that all this nonsense really is about breast cancer. Boys wrote on facebook pages and in editorial posts that they “LOVE BOOBIES” and – in the spirit of breast exam – they’d love to “feel your boobies for you.” Some snickered at anyone who expressed concern about the accuracy of the campaigns, the fact that they diverted money from more useful endeavors such as research, or that they focused on women’s breasts to the exclusion of women’s lives. “Get a life,” one boy said. “Don’t be so angry,” chimed another. Women and men alike chided those who felt differently. After all, who are we to rain on the happy boobies parades?

Peggy Orenstein has tried to place the issue in a larger context, that these “ubiquitous rubber bracelets” are part of a new trend called “ 0 Comments on Boobies, for fun & profit! as of 1/1/1900