Lou Feels Feminist RAGE
Sep. 13th, 2009 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
siamesaTwo posts in a day? Why in heaven's name is this?
Well, I shall tell you. This is the culmination of a rant that's been freaking building up in me for QUITE SOME TIME, and that is quite simply the fact that a lot of the time in comics I feel a little bit on the outside looking in.
Not in the fandom. The fandom has been nothing less than welcoming, and funfunFUN, and hilarious. And I haven't experienced any of the horror stories, where everyone in the comic store reacts in shock when a GIRL walks in. Generally I'm one of several girls in there, in fact, often including one behind the cash register.
It's just... the books. It's the fact that nine times out of ten, it seems, female characters are slotted into "love interest." It's that I can count on one hand the number of prominent, female Green Lanterns in normal costumes like the boys wear as opposed to bikinis and tiny leotards. It's going to the library, picking up a book, and seeing that on the back cover, freaking Birds of Prey is advertised as containing the "sexiest superheroines in the DCU." Not "badass," which is true. Not "well written," which was even truer. Looking at the back of that book, I didn't get the feeling I was supposed to think "Woah, Black Canary is an awesome person," I got the feeling that I was expected to think "Look, fishnets!"
It's not the big things, really, not nowadays. There are a lot of seriously awesome, kickass women in comics. Lois Lane has gone from falling out of windows and plotting to get Superman to marry her by any means possible to a severely awesome reporter who is, by the way, currently married to Clark Kent/Supes, andgoshdangitI'mthisclosetohavinganotherOTP. Wonder Woman is badass even if she does fight evil in a bathing suit. Soranik Natu is probably my favorite character in GLC, eclipsing even Guy Gardner.
But, still. Look! Boob window! Look, fishnets! It's not the costumes themselves (okay, fine, a lot of it is), it's the attitude. It's wanting to read a freaking STORY, not be presented with butt shots every two panels.
I love comics. I'm just beginning to be concerned that they don't love me.
Well, I shall tell you. This is the culmination of a rant that's been freaking building up in me for QUITE SOME TIME, and that is quite simply the fact that a lot of the time in comics I feel a little bit on the outside looking in.
Not in the fandom. The fandom has been nothing less than welcoming, and funfunFUN, and hilarious. And I haven't experienced any of the horror stories, where everyone in the comic store reacts in shock when a GIRL walks in. Generally I'm one of several girls in there, in fact, often including one behind the cash register.
It's just... the books. It's the fact that nine times out of ten, it seems, female characters are slotted into "love interest." It's that I can count on one hand the number of prominent, female Green Lanterns in normal costumes like the boys wear as opposed to bikinis and tiny leotards. It's going to the library, picking up a book, and seeing that on the back cover, freaking Birds of Prey is advertised as containing the "sexiest superheroines in the DCU." Not "badass," which is true. Not "well written," which was even truer. Looking at the back of that book, I didn't get the feeling I was supposed to think "Woah, Black Canary is an awesome person," I got the feeling that I was expected to think "Look, fishnets!"
It's not the big things, really, not nowadays. There are a lot of seriously awesome, kickass women in comics. Lois Lane has gone from falling out of windows and plotting to get Superman to marry her by any means possible to a severely awesome reporter who is, by the way, currently married to Clark Kent/Supes, andgoshdangitI'mthisclosetohavinganotherOTP. Wonder Woman is badass even if she does fight evil in a bathing suit. Soranik Natu is probably my favorite character in GLC, eclipsing even Guy Gardner.
But, still. Look! Boob window! Look, fishnets! It's not the costumes themselves (okay, fine, a lot of it is), it's the attitude. It's wanting to read a freaking STORY, not be presented with butt shots every two panels.
I love comics. I'm just beginning to be concerned that they don't love me.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Unfortunate portrayals of women
on 2009-09-16 11:07 am (UTC)