'Love your (drawn) body day'
by Jess McCabe // 16 October 2008, 18:18
Rachel at Inside Out has compiled an excellent list of "Five Characters Who Break the Paradigm of Feminine Beauty in Comics".
Because of my hate-hate-love relationships with the graphic novel ouvre, I've only heard of a few of these, and only properly read Dykes to Watch Out For - definitely some interesting reading material to check out. I'm planning to read Baker Street when I manage to break my reading pile.
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Laurel Dearing // Posted 16 October 2008 at 20:56
should look at sara from the maxx by sam kieth... actually most his works have some normal women in them, but not superheroes or anything. lol
Leigh // Posted 17 October 2008 at 10:14
Great post, Jess. Although the fact that only One Character in that list is from mainstream comics is interesting. Amanda Waller has drawn praise for being depicted as a morally complex, hard-as-nails characters. She has been show as capable of ambition, cruelty, patriotism and loyalty all at once and as such because a much more realistic character than her superhuman peers.
However, more recent depictions have painted her as an out-and-out villain, sleeping with Lex Luthor (A rich, exploitative white man) even! This has marked a disturbing trend to sexualise and simplify characters in the early 00's, as exemplified by the art work and scripts for flagship titles such as 'The Justice League' and 'Supergirl'.
As ever, if people want body diverse, intelligently written and non exploitative Superheroes I urge you to write to DC and Marvel comics and ask for them.
Saranga // Posted 17 October 2008 at 10:38
Wow, that Reagen looks amazing. I agree with Leigh's comment. We need to write to DC, we need to contact the artists who do stuff right and the ones who do stuff wrong. If you don't want to do that, comment on your log, comment on other's blogs! get your voice heard!
Aimee // Posted 17 October 2008 at 15:39
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TANK GIRL!
Laurel Dearing // Posted 18 October 2008 at 00:14
but tank girl is usually posed on the front of comics with bazookas for boobs lol
Saranga // Posted 19 October 2008 at 13:22
@Laurel:
I don't think Tank Girl is objectified like most other women in comics. The comic itself is quite anarchic and I think in context any emphasis on boobs is not gratuitous. When her boobs are actually replaced by guns I think it's saying a lot about other comics.
Sorry, not explaining very well here, I'm a bit hungover.