Feminism in Comics

We had a lecture about how female characters are portrayed in comics, which could be a potential subject for out final presentation in January.

As a basic summary, we take about the reappearing tropes in comics to do with female characters, such as; Love triangles, where the pervasiveness of the trope is the problem, Two women competing for the approval of one man, the 'winner' is the better woman, who has the best qualities and appearance or where two men fight for one woman for validation or the woman is to confused to know what she wants. This can often come across as offensive as it can suggest women are stupid.

ALL major comic creators (Marvel and DC) are guilty of sexualising women, due to individual artists and writers ideas get filtered and changed so much as they go through the pipeline, and a lot of the creators are still men.

For instance, Starfire's comic intro in the new 52 features her wearing a tiny bikini, that barely covers anything, and asking to have sex with one of the male characters.

Even in the kids TV show 'Teen Titans', she wears the smallest skirt and top possible, kisses people to learn their language and is constantly helpless to be saved by one of the male characters, mostly the team leader Robin.

For a character that is constantly referred to as being a part of the strongest and powerful race in the galaxy, she is rarely ever portrayed as that.

Another example from the same series, is Raven. She is explained as being a bit of an introvert, constantly preferring to be herself, and closing herself off to everyone, never really liking to show any part of herself off. However, on the rare occasions that you see under her cloak, she's shown to be wearing a tight swimsuit, completely going against her character description.

A look on the Marvel side is when Rogue gains control of her powers... she automatically gains a boob window as well. For a character who covers her skin to stop skin on skin contact because of her powers, this seemed really stupid and unnecessary.

In short, sexuality in comics is a massive subject, which is a good topic to consider for my final presentation.

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