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He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Today's soundtrack: Lazlo Bane "Superman" ::
A hot topic in the comic community is misogyny and the representation of women in comic books. I suppose it's become pretty hot-button especially lately because of Marvel putting out a Mary Jane statue where she's seen washing the Spider-Man costume in a basin while wearing a low cut top and a hiked up pink G-string, but that's besides the point. I mean, it's always been there. We're talking about a medium where Power Girl, one of the most powerful and ass-kicking-est females in the DC universe wears a costume that has a peek-a-boo hole for her cleavage and Tigra over at Marvel fights crime in a bikini. That's right, a bikini. Yeah, I may be a little late to the party, but I am going to weigh in on the subject.
First of all, let's do talk about crime fighting while wearing a bikini. I don't get it. Why? I mean, unless you're completely invulnerable to physical attacks, like She-Hulk or something, you're just asking to be shot or stabbed. I also do not see the appeal in looking at it from a reader's point of view. I mean, we ARE talking about drawings here, and pretty much when you draw a comic book character in a skin tight outfit, it doesn't really matter how much surface area the costume covers up, the figure is pretty much going to look the same anyway. I mean, when you draw them, you draw a "naked" figure, then pencil on clothes, and these clothes don't particularly change the shape of the figure, what with being skin tight and all. So whether she's wearing a bikini or a neck to toe costume like the Invisible Woman, you can still see her nice figure. There's really NO NEED to depict anyone in a bikini, ever.
I'd like to point out that while I do have a kinda problem with girl characters fighting crime in bikinis, I don't have an issue with the neck to toe skin tight outfits. I mean, speaking from the fictional comic book universe sense, they have invented various things like unstable molecules and extremely light weight body armors, so that's something I'm okay with. And let's not start in on how even the outfits which show virtually no skin, that cover the character's whole body, but still being skin tight is inappropriate and objectifying to women. Well, see, the male characters dress that way, too. Superman and Batman and Spiderman ALL run around in skin tight outfits, show off their ripply muscles and a physique I could never hope to achieve, but I don't have a problem with that at all, so the same sort of costumes on the girl characters don't bother me either.
Now that I've sort of brought it up, let's talk about body types. Yes, the women characters in comics are curvaceous and have nice breasts. Sorry. But consider that they are also athletes. You have to be in good shape if you're going to go hopping roof tops and swinging around the city on a zip line, don't you? Not to mention having to fight large groups of hired thugs in hand to hand combat. You better believe that there is intense physical training involved, and if you get in Olympic level shape, you're going to have one heck of a body. I mean, just look at some real life women athletes. Laila Ali, for example is a world champion boxer who is muscular, but also maintains a feminine figure, and yes, has a nice set of breasts on her, okay? She does. She's a real life woman who could kick my ass as well as the asses of every guy I know in rapid succession, so you can't tell me that Wonder Woman has an unrealistic body type because it's quite similar to our aforementioned female boxer. Yes, there are certain artists who only know how to draw women's bodies one way and they just have different heads on (*coughJ.ScottCampbellcough*), but that's the fault of particular artists not knowing how to draw and not of comics in general.
While on the subject of particular artists, let's not lump them all together as drawing women inappropriately, okay? Some artists are notorious for their horribly over sexed look of their female character representation, but there are those who can draw a perfectly beautiful woman and NOT depict her as a sex pot, too! Let's look at Catwoman, a female character known for her sexiness and running around in skin tight leather outfits. In the 1990s, there was a Catwoman series which was illustrated by Jim Balent, who delighted in depicted her in as many gratuitous poses as possible, showing off her butt and boobs on every page. Nowadays, there is an all new, all different Catwoman series which is currently drawn by David Lopez and he still draws a good looking Catwoman, but he doesn't display her cheesecake all over the page at all. You can notice several instances like this all over the industry, most notably with Wonder Woman's series which started in 1987. Originally drawn by George Perez, he depicted Wonder Woman, the Amazons, and goddesses all as regal and queenly, with innocence, dignity, and respect. Later on, Mike Deodato started drawing the comic, and suddenly the Amazons are all about showing a little leg and bending over so we can get a glimpse of their goods. So you see, you can't just lump in ALL artists as over sexualizing the women in comics, it's those certain ones out there who are giving them all a bad rap! I'm looking at YOU, Rob Liefeld!
I guess when it comes down to it, there is still sexism in comics, yes, but I can't help but think quite a lot of what some people are looking at is something you'd have to REALLY read into to consider it misogynistic. Okay, maybe you never liked the fact that Wonder Woman's outfit is little more than a bathing suit, but if you read about how she is depicted as a person (isn't that a core feminist point, to know the person and not only the hot body?) and not just complaining about her clothes, you'd KNOW that she's not eye candy at all, but in fact a no nonsense warrior who is not afraid to kill a man if she absolutely has to (even Superman won't admit it has to be done because there is no way around it sometimes). And yes, women are depicted with great bodies in skin tight costumes, but, hey EVERYONE is, men and women alike (I didn't hear any girls out there complain about Robin's original costume with little pants!) because if you're going to be a vigilante, you have to be athletic! I won't complain about the broad shouldered men with package enhancing pants who give me self awareness issues if you don't complain about the push up bras, deal? All I'm sayin' is these days, in the modern comic, women depiction has evolved into well rounded characters who can kick ass better than their male co-stars, but there are, and probably always will be, artists out there who get their kicks drawing chicks in slutty (one of the many reasons I could never get into the original Gen13 series... poor Fairchild), demeaning poses, so don't put down the ENTIRE industry because of those bastards.
William (Giving comics a fair shake... maybe)
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