I love, love, love comics. I love the artwork, I love the storylines, I love the action and the humanity. I love the characters, I love the struggles, I love the conquests of good over evil, and sometimes I even love the conquests of evil over good.
What I don’t always love is the women.
I understand that much of the comic book audience consists of males aged 18-35. I understand that the people producing these comics need to cater for their main audience. But as I turn page after page, I often become increasingly perplexed at what has been dubbed ‘boobs and butts syndrome’. Skinny women in tight and skimpy lycra outfits. Women drawn with tight abs, perky breasts and even perkier nipples – provocative, stimulating, stunning.
And sexist.
I can hear people’s eyeballs rolling in exasperation as they read that word. It’s thrown around alot lately, but it’s not thrown around lightly by me. I use it to describe beauty pageants, I use it to describe airbrushed “models” in cheap men’s magazines, and I use it to describe the impossible to live up to images of female comic book characters.
When my 13 year old niece wanted to know why I read comics, I was excited. I thought this was my chance to introduce her to the world of comics I loved so much. I took great care in trying to pick out an age-appropriate comic book that would draw her in straight away. But all I saw were pages of women whose unattainable body image would make a teenage girl feel even worse about the way she looked because she couldn’t look like them.
In the end I settled on “Birds of Prey”, mostly because you rarely see Oracle in anything other than jeans and a t-shirt. But even my favourite all-female, all-ass-kickin’ comic book had Huntress in her midriff-baring, skin-tight costumes. The first time my niece saw her she said: “Wow, I like her,” followed almost immediately by: “Do you think I could ever look like that?”
What could I say except that no real woman ever does.
Cool article Michelle.
It’s true, women are misrepresented in comic book form and most media forums.
There’s enough pressure for our youth to conform to what is society’s expectations of beauty without them opening the pages of their favourite comic book and seeing it there too.
This is all too true. And i think your last line is really a good response, especially as in introduction to a discussion with your niece as to how images are manipulated everywhere, even when it’s photos instead of drawings.
My one beef is the word “Superhero” should be added before “comics”, because there are lots of other kinds of comics out there, some with some pretty realistic depictions of women :D
So true! I hope it’s getting better – it seems like it could be. But then I opened my email from Comixology on Wednesday showing the new releases. Most of the covers seemed at least “ok”. But at least three were waaaaay out there. I don’t want to seem overly sensitive, but when did it become okay to expose everything – as long as the nipples are covered?
I completely agree with this, my main beef with this is that there’s absolutely no point in it. If artists want to draw scantily clad women that’s up to them, but they shouldn’t expect me to want to pay for it. Sometimes it don’t even make sense, I doubt tiny miniskirts, boob windows and high heeled boots are all that useful in combat. If the male characters were dressed in as little clothing as your average super heroine, eg, tiny speedos and had the area behind those speedos drawn in detail with every contour fully rendered it’d look just as stupid.
This is 2011 this shouldn’t still be happening, I’ve seen too many comics where comic creators think it’s fine to just rely on T and A instead of talent
Your scenario with your niece made me think, what comic from my collection would I pick in that situation. the comic I settled on was “formerly known as the justice league” issue 1. The first main female to show up was Sue Dibny dressed in a jumper and sensible pants. Another female character was mary marvel, when she first appeared was dressed similarly to Sue and even when she’s in costume her outfit is more modest than most female superhero costumes I can think of. Sure, Fire shows her midriff but that’s not bad, and sure she looks naked when she’s on fire but well, she’s on fire clothes would burn up anyway it, it makes logical sense. This is how it should be done, the female characters aren’t just there for male readers to get their jollies they act and dress like real people. In fact you see more skin from Booster gold who is dressed only in swimming trunks and sunglasses for the whole issue and given his personality and the situation (he was sunbathing) it doesn’t come off as nothing more than fan service.
My favourite female superhero character is Big Barda who manages to maintain her beauty and femininity while dressed in full body armour, which only exposes her face, and she kick ass and it’s pretty clear she wears the pants in her relationship with Mister Miracle.
I love it…You’re absolutely right. Now its funny because when I got into comics I never once looked at a scantily clad woman and got turned on or even really cared. I love art in comics, but its art, and its not going to excite me, even if I was a pubescent (did i spell that right?) youth. I got into Witchblade not to long ago and the story could be awesome, granted it went all over the place in the beginning, she is a bad bitch…BUT WHY THE HELL DOES THE WEAPON ONLY COVER HER NIPPLES AND COOCH??? Thats right I said cooch wanna fight about it? She’s not the worse, theres a ton of bad costumes on females, and hardly any are practical. If they’re gonna be slutty and pointless can someone at least explain why their costume is slutty??? Thats all I require, just an explanation. Personally, I think Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk are done right (As right as possible for now).
While I agree I must say that the same stigma exists for male archetypes in comics. When do you ever see a male protagonist who is slightly overweight and shorting an old windbreaker. The fact is that comics are idealized and amplified images of what goes through our minds. I do agree that they are, in many cases over sexualized, (read my article on Conan that is coming out; there is a lot about sexualization in media) I do think that this is not one-way.
The only difference between men and women in how sexualized and unatainable their bodies, minds, and abilities are portrayed is that producers, artists, and writers tend to give men clothing and women a few pieces of painted duct tape as their outfits.
I agree with Arch, the sexism in those comics is not hot and not a turn on… in fact all it does is prevent me from sharing certain comics with my young brothers. I guess my point is only that the ‘unattainable form’ represented in comics is not just a problem for young girls but boys as well. I know Most of us will never have Captain America’s Abs.
I’m sorry, but I have to disagree. What’s wrong with beautiful women? Beautiful women automatically have superpowers over men LOL, they don’t need the sci-fi version. I create pin-ups (http://www.WonderlandArt.biz) and I don’t think what I do is sexist at all. I’m celebrating the power of beautiful women. These are FANTASY characters in a fantasy world. What is wrong with showing beautiful bodies? Aren’t there enough fat ugly people in the real world? Do people really want to see art depicting them? The wonderful thing about art is that you can create beauty and fantasy and invite people to escape into it. Beautiful bodies are, well, beautiful!