In the last year or so, there's been a growing community of feminist comic book readers in the blogosphere. Naturally, this has led to wider (and/or louder) discussions about the role of women in comics (as characters, creators, etc.) In recent weeks, comics blogs exploded over a few items, specifically the MJ-as-Grunge-French-Maid statue (what the hell's a comiquette, anyway?), the cover for Heroes for Hire #13, and the Nymphet collection. Since feminist comic book readers have been speaking their outrage over these issues, a number of other comics fans have predictably acted defensively, asking why we read superhero comics if we hate them so much, arguing that the misogynist state of mainstream superhero comics is due to market forces, and, when all else fails, calling feminists fat and ugly (or maybe not). A lot of this backlash is in reaction to the perception that critics of these items 'hate' comic books and are attacking them. Naturally, some comics fans react defensively to the perceived attack on their beloved medium. As comic fans, many are stereotyped as pimply, unemployed losers with Peter Pan Syndrome, so it's only natural comic fans might be oversensitive to criticism. There's a reason I don't tell people at work about my comic collection.
Why do I, a self-supporting, adult female, read superhero comics, despite the fact that I sometimes object to their depiction of females? Because the best are imaginative and interesting. As fantasy/wish fulfillment material, they afford the reader a gratuitous sense of power and strength--not just physical strength, but strength of character, poise in the face of danger, leadership of one's peers. When female characters consistently fail to display such strength, I feel like women still have a long way to go.
I like Star Trek for similar reasons. In addition to imaginative alien customs and things that go boom, Star Trek has a philosophy. It makes me feel good about humanity. Star Trek has ideals, its humans are resourceful and idealistic, they BOLDLY go where no one's gone before. That was my perception of even the original series when I was a child, because there were women officers on the Enterprise, and they were theoretically equal to men. As an adult, I often can't bear to watch those episodes, because even though they were ahead of their time forty years ago, their portrayal of women now seems hopelessly outdated. The regular female cast are basically a nurse, a telephone switchboard operator, and a secretary, none of them with more than a dozen spoken words per show. The female guest stars are largely either (a) the love interest of a fully-realized male character OR (b) irrational, even psychotic, shrews. I adore Star Trek, I enjoy watching it, I'll endlessly discuss it's deeper meaning, etc., etc., but I'm still going to complain that in the fourth season of Enterprise, after she's been commissioned by Starfleet, the fact that T'Pol is wearing those catsuits and high heels instead of a uniform like everyone else's is stupid.
A few weeks ago I walked into my local comic shop, and they were watching an episode of the 1980s "Spider-man and his Amazing Friends" cartoon. I vaguely remember watching this as a kid, and I was so hungry for female characters of any significance at that time, I'm sure I liked Firestar. In the episode being shown in the store that day, Dracula ensorcells Angelica to be his love slave (or the closest G-rated analogue), and at some point Angelica is so overcome by conflicting inputs, she faints. I observed that of course the female character faints, as well into the 1980s female characters passed out at the drop of a hat. The store clerk added that he'd seen several episodes of the cartoon in recent days, and that Firestar was always falling in love with the male guest (even Kraven the Hunter).
I expect better these days than delicate, fainting flowers desperately seeking a boyfriend.
Think of the average comic book large-breasted woman in jeopardy as an
actor in blackface. That's not a woman--it's a man in disguise, playing
the stereotype of a woman, and doing it with such broad strokes that no one is
fooled by his disguise. Some people find any man in woman's clothing
funny. As soon as a guy with a mustache straps on fake boobs and a
skirt, some people laugh (see the Hasty Pudding Club's extravaganzas). I've never found
that sort of thing funny, any more than I find blackface funny. Real
drag queens, however, can imitate women in a way that makes you wonder
what gender they were born into. I want a comic book superheroine who's
so well-written and drawn, I can't tell if the creator is female, and I
don't care.
I enjoy good story, a plot that makes sense, dialogue that feels realistic, emotions. I love fight scenes and big explosions and technobabble, but those things can't exist in isolation, without a coherent story and characters. I want characters who don't exist solely in relationship to others; characters who do not exist solely as decoration or damsel-in-distress; characters who are consistent in their behavior (not unchanging, since growth over time is to be expected, but not multiple personality disorder, either--Typhoid Mary excepted). I want to be able to tell one character from another, to see individual personalities.
Over on Dance of the Puppets, Marionette points to a new set of icons made by looking2dastars: "I Hated Judd Winick before it was cool." I'm displaying the Deathstroke icon here, and I can't explain why any better than looking2dastars does:
