An overdue article from the Beat that is really directed at itself and other comics news blogs. It's entitled Stop wondering where all the female creators are, and go find them! and was triggered by a comment made by Mairghread Scott, who is currently writing a Transformers title for IDW:

In her post, she mentions that when she took over on IDW's Transformers franchise, she sent round messages to prominent sites and bloggers, asking if they'd be interested in interviewing her about the series. She even mentioned that she was the first female writer to ever handle the franchise as she pitched herself for interviews. Barely anybody responded to her.

More directly (from her post):

The response from the fansites was overwhelming positive, but the response from the general news sites and "advocates" was... nothing.

To step away from the Beat's point that sites need to look beyond Marvel & DC (which is a good point in its own right), that fan vs. "advocate" discrepancy really hit me, and it's something i've noticed before. Sites like The Beat and Mary Sue, which have a (laudable) feminist focus, almost never talk about the actual comics, and when they do it's usually a reaction to a press release. Cheering the announcement of an all-female X-Men team. Lamenting the cancellation of yet another female written / female lead character title like Journey Into Mystery. But they never seem to actually talk about the books when they are ongoing. I remember when DeConnick's Captain Marvel series was announced, the Mary Sue was pretty excited. When i saw that i wondered if they'd regularly promote the book, and after we'd read a few issues and had mixed feeling about it i went and checked to see if they had reviewed it. Nothing. I just checked now and still nothing other than the occasional "DIY Carol Danvers Supersuit Sweater" type of thing. This is a book that has been at cancellation numbers since inception and could use an influx of readers from these heavily read sites, or, if applicable, prominent criticism that Marvel might see and react to on where it might be failing.

I made fun of Tom Brevoort a while back but in one sense he's right: actual comic reviews are relegated to the bowels of CBR and the like. The sites that complain about lack of female representation (or anything else) ought to engage more with the comics.