Four Color Comics

Two great posts this weekend about sexism in superhero comics.

Johanna, host of the always-brilliant Comics Worth Reading, seems almost resigned, defeated. She’s willing to surrender and move on to other types of comics.

I don’t know whether adults read superhero comics out of nostalgia or habit or because they’re the easiest kinds of comics to find or because they’re comfortable entertainment or because they really like the genre best. But after a certain point, I have to wonder if it isn’t easier to go read something aimed more at you instead of trying to change the cow into a giraffe. Yes, it’s important to point out that there are women who read superheroes, that it’s not all just men… but it is majority male, and most women who read comics prefer to read other things.

Meanwhile, over at Shelly’s Comic Book Shelf, the eponymous author discusses the anti-women bias in comics. She, too, seems almost to accept the state of women in comics as something that’s not going to change. Comics are a male-dominated world.

In a way, the whole medium, and probably every other artistic endeavor, is a fantasy of someone. Comics is a collaborative fantasy, if you will. Freud would have a field day with this.

Shelly believes there are bigger issues facing women (the erosion of Roe v. Wade, for example) than they’re portrayal in comics. It bothers her, yes, and she’d like to see it change, but it seems like a difficult fight, one perhaps not worth fighting.

I’m aware of the argument that role models are needed, along with providing examples of healthy interactions. I agree. But as with TV, I enjoy what I enjoy and I don’t want things changed because someone else says they need to be changed. What sells will always control the product. Sex sells. TV has had its backlash, so now we have cable. It’s one thing when something comes to you vs you going out to get it. I just don’t like censorship, though I’ll go along with parental controls and oversight. Yes, we need more comics for kids, but Wonder Woman and the rest of the superhero books aren’t really them anymore and haven’t been for decades, not for the little kids. I want more variety, but I also have no problem with sexual fantasies, including BDSM, being played out in comics. I just want my chance to lust after the guys in the same predicaments as the women. To me, it’s the context, the quality of the writing, the skill of the artist. I don’t want a steady diet of any one thing, but I’m an adult and can decide what I enjoy reading. Or writing, for that matter.

As a man, I’m often frustrated with the portrayal of women in comics. The provocative art doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the thin writing. Some writers — Brian Michael Bendis and Brian Vaughan, for example — seem capable of creating complex female characters, and even making them take the lead from time-to-time. But a lot of the women characters are still weak two-dimensional cutouts.

Sure, there are teams like the X-Men where the women hold their own, but in most cases, the female superheroes are secondary. I’d love to see a big-name comic character along the lines of the marvelous Action Girl (about which more at a later date).