The Sexualization of Women in Comic Books

[Aurgelmir]

Considering how a lot of women dress I would not be surprised if some of them would dress "slutty" when turned into a superhero, just saying.

That said Superheroes in general have a baaaaaad taste in clothing, which is the staple of the medium. If we should critique the clothing they wear it should be on the merit of bad taste than nothing else.

That said, the women of comics tend to be posed very sexy a lot, which can be called sexualization of women, but again the medium is so packed of "bad taste" that it hurts.

As I think I mentioned earlier we are also dealing with Idealized people here, both the men and women represent the Ideal of the artist so shouldn't the Ideal be more than regular life?

Also if you look at a lot of the female superheroes, most of them have a different body idol than let's say the fashion industry. I would argue that from a "ideal" body point of view comics are more healthy than High Fashion is, so its not all bad

 

[Super G]

I kinda, er, like her genderbended Star Sapphire picture. Yeah.

ANYWAY, the sexualization of women in comics doesn't bother me unless it is paired with misogynistic writing.

 

[shedra]

I read the article. She doesn't seem to really have a point.
Lets look at this objectively for a moment.
The comic book industry likes feeding its loyal fanbase to maintain a steady income. The fanbase is mostly boys. Boys like boobs. Get over it.
This also doesn't stop girls from buying the comics. Like she said, Girls like superheros.
You'd be an idiot to claim that the target audience (or even the potential audience) for comic books is equally boys and girls. More boys read comics than girls, that isn't changing.

The purpose of fiction is fantasy fulfillment. Attractive features make a character more compelling and likable.
If it is a male fantasy to be muscular and powerful, is it not a female fantasy to be beautiful and curvacious? It's also a male fantasy to be surrounded by beautiful, curvy women.

There are other contributing factors that I haven't seen mentioned here. In my experience, larger breasts are easier to draw. It's easier to make a woman look womanly with exaggerated curves. In my experience, when you go with smaller curves and less hourglassy waists then you get chewed out for making them "manish". I get this kind of criticism from girls moreso than boys.

Lets take a look at Star Sapphire. Whom I know to be a supernatural love warrior flying around in space and shooting pink beams of light at things. (Which is all I know mind you).

The image has her more conservative Justice League design and the more skimpy comic design from recent years. The skimpier design in my opinion makes more sense as a cosmic fantasy character. These designs are sexy, but not entirely without purpose.

Catwoman too. There is a reason she's designed to be sexual. She represents Batmans suppressed sexuality. Thats what makes her an antagonist for him.

I'm not going to claim that men are sexualized to the extremes that women are. (In any medium) I'm just going to say: does it actually matter?

 

[airrazor7]

-snip-

no, not from comic books, society has celebrities for that.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Dont get me started on the Sexualised Men.

Besides, the first one is quite... If she were a comic book character id be waiting for someone to kill her so id never have to see her again.

Note how much ive censored myself here

Dick "Greatest Ass in the DCU(I didn't make that name up)" Grayson comes to mind.

Really Escapist? A turned A?

Were I to guess, that is actually the mathematical symbol meaning "for all".

 

[trooper6]

To those guys who are saying, "Sure women are sexualized, I like looking at boobs! What's the big deal!"--despite hearing women telling you that it makes them uncomfortable I have this question:

Yes, you like looking at women. You like women's bodies. You like women's boobs. You like having sex with women (if you have done so). But do you like women? This is a serious question. Do you actually like women? Do you actually care about their feelings?

 

[Rix222]

Well yeah. People had their reasons to hate on the film, and you ignore all that just so you can make some bullshit point.

Charming.

No where in that quote do we see people accusing the bat nipples of ruining the franchise.

Here's what you said

Snip

You still have yet to show me anyone claiming that bat nipples singlehandedly ruined the movie much less the franchise.

I've seen many people hate on the movie, a couple mentioned the bat movie. None of them said it was the main reason the film sucked and all of them had a ton of reasons to hate all of it.

For you to ignore all that and say "look how much they hate it when males get the same treatment" is dishonest at best.

Did I say anywhere in my original post that it was the only reason the film tanked? No. It also tanked due to the awful dialogue, crappy plot, and emphasis on kiddy merchandise. The acting was terrible, the direction even worse. Those are also valid reasons why the film did so poorly, and I never said anywhere that the film sucked only because of sexualisation. I'll thank you for not putting words in my mouth.

What I said was that it was a prominent reason, and one of the most cited and brought up reasons. I gave you an example of critical reaction to the sexualisation of the characters, and you haven't commented on it. If you want further examples of how ingrained it's become in the public consciousness, just type "nipples + batsuit" into Google and see how many different websites you can find.

I have provided evidence on both occasions now to support the claim that Schumacher's sexing up of the Batsuit was a controversial, oft-hated move by the fans and a large part of the critic community. If you want more, there are thousands of discussions topics available on Google discussing just how 'horrible' the Batsuit in that film was.

If you're simply going to respond with more anecdotal evidence of "no-one I've met said this" or "I've never seen anyone who thinks that" then this discussion is done. I've provided multiple sources on the erotic nature of the Shumacher batsuit, the reaction from fans and critics, and examples of how it's entered the lexicon of the greater public. I hope next time you won't choose to put words in my mouth, and will actually make some kind of comment on the points I actually made: re, the sexualisation of Batman.

She is posting about oversexualizing women in comics while she draws lesbian porn comic illustrations and makes money off of it.....hypocritical much? She's complaining about a medium for oversexualizing women and making money off of it when she does it herself. Sure, her form of medium is meant to, but is no less guilty of it, and perhaps has some form of impact on the oversexualizing of women in comics as well as other mediums(as porn often does being the biggest selling industry..umm...ever I think?). So yeah, her complaint makes no sense, for every reason stated here, common sense of things, and hypocrisy. The topic is perfectly justifiable, but the actual complaints are not as they don't point out the real problem with why some female characters are bad, espescially when you're guilty of them yourself.

Erm, thing is, porn isn't trying to be anything other than what it is: people shagging each other. Porn isn't generally noted for it's storytelling qualities or remarkable presentation.

Comics, on the other hand, are allegedly about the exploits of super-powered costumed heroes. Sex is usually all but absent from the stories, except in the form of the over-endowed titillating female characters.

I don't understand your point. Because porn has oversexualised women, that means super-hero comics (a completely different genere and medium) can too? Well damn. Why does it matter what the woman who wrote the article does for a living? If she writes pornographic material, then surely that means she's better placed than anyone to comment on what is and isn't sexualised. If two women are intricately drawn getting off with each other in an adult comic designed for wank material, then I don't see how that is a problem. If Black Widow, however, is dressed like a stripper and endowed with an un-natural cleavage in a comic book story largely absent of sex, and one sold to kids at that, then I think there is a problem. No-one expects anything more from pornography than peopel fucking. Comics, on the other hand, are meant to be a story-telling medium. If they can't get over the objectification of a gender, then they're not doing it very well.

I really like how people either take things out of context or point out only one thing in a post and try to drive a stake into it. Did I say the topic isn't justifiable? No, pretty much said it was. Did I say she didn't have some points being made? Nope, I didn't say either and probably should have since I do agree with some things, but not important. What I did say was that complaining or trying to make a point about the oversexualization of women in any genre, and then going in and saying "Hey, I write lesbian porn comics" kind of randomly and posting a link to it when it doesn't need to be there, espescially in a topic like that, is somewhat bad form and almost seems to be promotional in a sense.

Now to get to the actual topic. Could there be less cleavage shown in Black Widow's outfit...sure, I suppose there could be, but it does seem these posts are forgetting something. Comics are a form of art, hence why they've been bumped up to being called graphic novels and even Watchmen got a nice award and such. Being a form of art, it's also a form of expression, so when you read a comic you are actually reading the artists imagination coming to life on the page before you. So you then have to keep in mind who is the one imagining the pictures being drawn and such, if they aren't also the one writing the dialogue and action sequences.....yeah, so it should really come as no surprise why women are drawn the way they are and men are drawn the way they are.

Now then, in terms of oversexualizing women in comics being a problem, yeah, espescially when as you said it's directed at kids and their outfits being sexualized have nothing to do with the plot. When those two things go hand and hand like that, it's an issue. Perhaps then comics might need some form of rating system if they don't already have one, or a stronger rating needs to be put in place and such? One that makes the writers understand that if they're writing for children, they can't have ladies in skimpy bikini outfits running around with such fantastical cleavage and what not.

Now then, back to the oversexualization point, seeing as how comics are finally seen as an art form, really, take it up with the writers and illustrators. It's their imagination your seeing, their picture of what they think the characters would look like. The only reason I would complain is if there's a company forcing them or persuading them to draw their characters a certain way just for money and not for the sake of the art, and it's not their actual imagery of what they picture their characters should look like. That, could be, might be and probably is a real issue. On the other hand, If that's not the case and you don't like it, deal with it or don't read it. Harsh but hey, that's the price of art, not everyone is going to find it enjoyable as beauty and all that is more or less based on opinion.

If you're worried about comics putting women in a negative spot light, don't worry, I think most of us men are big enough to know that no sensible women is going to go out in an outfit like that(Unless it's comic-con I suppose), and if someone doesn't, then either they aren't old enough to understand that(which I stated could be an issue) or need to imagine their mother wearing it....and then remember that their mother is also a woman. That should be a pretty heavy reality check for those people.

Now if we're talking about fan fiction oversexualization....dear god that really needs to just stop in any medium.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Sex fantasies sell? Stopping the practice might bring a different era of comics ( bye 80s gradual sexualization and 90s darker than black remakes, hello brand new trend!), so I can endirse it. Plus, some of the costumes are just riiculous. The Comedian said it well, it does look like they are just asking for it. On the other hand, job well done, hooded justice.
Now go and put some clothes on, Sally.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

You know, the unfortunate thing about Batwoman is that, while she?s not over-sexualized the way that many superheroines are, she?s still literally just the female version of a pre-existing male superhero. And pretty much the only thing that makes Catwoman remotely notable in the Batman mythology is ?oh, she?s that kinky thief in BDSM gear who often flirts with Batman?.

 

[Phasmal]

Your necro is bad and you should feel bad.
Nothin' to see here.

 

[Harley Q]

In fairness, I find it MUCH easier to draw females with more curves...maybe I'm just a bad artist... Anyway, as a girl/woman etc I don't really see a problem with female characters being all sexualised and such, as long as it suits the character.

Poison Ivy can be as sexy as you like because she oozes the pheramones and the like, but Catwoman wouldn't really benefit from running around in a G-string with a DDcup cos lets face it, burglars really should be inconspicuous, and i'm pretty sure you'd notice that creeping in your window.