Wonder Girls
Sep. 10th, 2006 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eumeliaI am a fangirl.
I make no secret of that.
I am shameless in my love of pop-culture.
I *squee*, I howl, I love, I gush and am often annoying.
Buffy, Angel, Star Trek, Star Wars, Farscape, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Batman, Spiderman, Wonderwoman, X-Men and more and more and more.
I am also very much aware of the shortcomings pop-culture has in regards to many a social discourse, the list I present above is awash with sexism, classicism, racism and many an ism that really... well, I kinda don't like.
Buffy (and its spin offs and offshoots, I speak of Angel, Firefly and Fray) are created, written and produced by self proclaimed feminists and feminist-sympathisers, and it's a true child of of the 90's and the early 00's and it's very progressive in its ideals and ideas, indeed "Joss is love", but sometimes Joss doesn't do things very well *cough*Willow*cough*. But again, for the love of Joss, we let it slide because overall, Buffy is Good.
I won't go into detail with the entire list, I mention Buffy, merely because it is my favourite fandom and one I know very intimately so I m able to speak of it to a very large extent.
There is however a fandom that in the past few years of my life has become practically the same level as Buffy and that is comic books (not Manga, because while there are a few mangas and animes I really like, I do not own nary a manga, other than some yaoi smut :) and nary an Anime, the only ones I truly enjoyed were Rayearth, Miyu and Hellsing). Comic Books and their intellectualised brothers, Graphic Novels.
The amount of sexism and sexual objectification towards not just regular female characters, but the actual super hero women in incomparable, and despite my love appreciation to Frank Miller's writing, his treatment of women in his stories is of the worst I had ever read.
Are there exceptions, sure, of course there are, but notice that even Wonderwoman, THE female Superheroine has the most debasing weakness of all - if she is tied up, she is powerless - Yeah, that just screams liberation.
Batgirl, lovely Barbara, one of the best sidekicks in Comic Book history, is shot, paralysed and becomes a faceless computer, from Heroine to Secretary. Do I even need to mention Birds of Pray and the fact that both Hellena and Dinah are dressed in completely unpractical clothing in order to fight crime.
Supergirl, yeah, her mini skirt and midriff are really needed, we really need to see all that skin and prove she's bullet proof. Cousin Clark has his head and hands showing, and that's "plenty" skin.
The new Batgirl, Cassandra - she is probably the epitome of the "object girl" - she's the best fighter in the Bat-family, only Batman can actually beat her in hand to hand combat, but she can't read, write or TALK and her mask is faceless, that's right, one cannot see her eyes, nose, mouth or hair from beneath that mask.
That goes beyond the little bondage fetish we see with Wonderwoman, this is full blown BDSM fantasy!
And this is just DC!
Need I mention the terrible treatment of Elektra, she's supposed to be a fucking Ninja, where's the Ninja man in his five inch stilettos! Jean Grey who died, three times! I mean come on, you want to kill her, let her die in that one heroic way, but why make her die twice more!
Mystique, who has the potential to be as a great villain as Magneto or Apocalypse is reduced to a fantasy fetish to the average male, oh yeah, she's empowered by using her body and her sexuality, give me a break!
Sue Storm, outshone not only by her husband, her brother and her other teammate, but by her very powers, she is the Invisible Girl... not even the Vanishing Woman, the Invisible Girl.
I can go on.
Shall I?
I make no secret of that.
I am shameless in my love of pop-culture.
I *squee*, I howl, I love, I gush and am often annoying.
Buffy, Angel, Star Trek, Star Wars, Farscape, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Batman, Spiderman, Wonderwoman, X-Men and more and more and more.
I am also very much aware of the shortcomings pop-culture has in regards to many a social discourse, the list I present above is awash with sexism, classicism, racism and many an ism that really... well, I kinda don't like.
Buffy (and its spin offs and offshoots, I speak of Angel, Firefly and Fray) are created, written and produced by self proclaimed feminists and feminist-sympathisers, and it's a true child of of the 90's and the early 00's and it's very progressive in its ideals and ideas, indeed "Joss is love", but sometimes Joss doesn't do things very well *cough*Willow*cough*. But again, for the love of Joss, we let it slide because overall, Buffy is Good.
I won't go into detail with the entire list, I mention Buffy, merely because it is my favourite fandom and one I know very intimately so I m able to speak of it to a very large extent.
There is however a fandom that in the past few years of my life has become practically the same level as Buffy and that is comic books (not Manga, because while there are a few mangas and animes I really like, I do not own nary a manga, other than some yaoi smut :) and nary an Anime, the only ones I truly enjoyed were Rayearth, Miyu and Hellsing). Comic Books and their intellectualised brothers, Graphic Novels.
The amount of sexism and sexual objectification towards not just regular female characters, but the actual super hero women in incomparable, and despite my love appreciation to Frank Miller's writing, his treatment of women in his stories is of the worst I had ever read.
Are there exceptions, sure, of course there are, but notice that even Wonderwoman, THE female Superheroine has the most debasing weakness of all - if she is tied up, she is powerless - Yeah, that just screams liberation.
Batgirl, lovely Barbara, one of the best sidekicks in Comic Book history, is shot, paralysed and becomes a faceless computer, from Heroine to Secretary. Do I even need to mention Birds of Pray and the fact that both Hellena and Dinah are dressed in completely unpractical clothing in order to fight crime.
Supergirl, yeah, her mini skirt and midriff are really needed, we really need to see all that skin and prove she's bullet proof. Cousin Clark has his head and hands showing, and that's "plenty" skin.
The new Batgirl, Cassandra - she is probably the epitome of the "object girl" - she's the best fighter in the Bat-family, only Batman can actually beat her in hand to hand combat, but she can't read, write or TALK and her mask is faceless, that's right, one cannot see her eyes, nose, mouth or hair from beneath that mask.
That goes beyond the little bondage fetish we see with Wonderwoman, this is full blown BDSM fantasy!
And this is just DC!
Need I mention the terrible treatment of Elektra, she's supposed to be a fucking Ninja, where's the Ninja man in his five inch stilettos! Jean Grey who died, three times! I mean come on, you want to kill her, let her die in that one heroic way, but why make her die twice more!
Mystique, who has the potential to be as a great villain as Magneto or Apocalypse is reduced to a fantasy fetish to the average male, oh yeah, she's empowered by using her body and her sexuality, give me a break!
Sue Storm, outshone not only by her husband, her brother and her other teammate, but by her very powers, she is the Invisible Girl... not even the Vanishing Woman, the Invisible Girl.
I can go on.
Shall I?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-09-10 08:17 pm (UTC)I've recently become a big fan of the DC Universe (Just finished watching JJustice League Unlimited's last season) and - in general - women fall into a few lame categories:
Accessory to / Imitation of an already established male character (Super-Girl, Bat-Woman, Aqua-Girl)
Useless Eye Candy (The list is long).
Or original - but horribly lame - creation: Wonderwoman - The entire Magic (sort of) Greek Mythology (sort of) Brand New Mythos (Sort of) origin is a little confusing.
The only great female character in the entire run is Hawk-Girl, who they had to invent for the animated universe - because there really WAS no other good female character to draw from in 60+ years of D.C. Comics. And she really didn't develop until the end of Season 2.
It doesn't help that there are so few female writers and artists in comics. Somehow, Joss Whedon hit really well with Buffy - an original character that female viewers relate to, while still being interesting to the male audience. There is no revealing spandex costume, no "Grrl Pwr!" monolouges, and there remains a consistent (if fanciful) framework around the powers.
Personally, I also like the Oracle character, but that's just because I give any character without spandex +100 points. (If you had super-strength, would you feel the need to wear only bright, stretchy clothes?)
This will be a problem until we have a female comic writer who is the equivalent of Jack Kirby (How many unique heroes did his imagination spawn?).
no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 02:38 pm (UTC)What? No, that's not right at all. She's been around for years before that, as one of the "accesory to" types. The only thing the animated universe did was mix her origin with that of Hawkwoman.
Kirby was an artist first, and a writer second. You can argue that he gave the characters life, but he was still most frequently working off of someone else's ideas. The only work he can realy claim sole credit for is the Fourth World stuff he did at DC- the New Gods, et cetera; as well as the oft-forgotten Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers. Most of the characters he created on his on receive little notice, those which have succeeded (Darkseid, Orion) had nearly no recognition outside of comics until the DC animated universe came together.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-12 06:50 pm (UTC)But Kirby was the co-creator of the Fantastic Four (Lee/Kirby) and Captain America (Simon/Kirby), so that has to count for something.
I really think that the generation getting their first exposure to super-heroism from the DCAU are getting a pretty good treat - better that SuperFriends anyhow.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-10 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 07:17 am (UTC)She always took her friends (specifically Buffy) for granted, she showes no ability to empathise or sympathise with other people and she used Tara's vulnuability to her own ends.
She always had a lot of potential to become more, but she was made untouchable, a Goddess.
The beauty of Buffy (the character) is that even when she returned from the dead in S6, she remained a person we sympathised and empathised with.
Personally, I felt a whole lot worse for Tara when she died than sympathise with Willow's loss.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 07:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 07:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 02:59 pm (UTC)Actually, she's probably more powerful and more helpful to the Mission as Oracle than she ever was as Batgirl.
The original concept/storyline of The Killing Joke enrages me past all reason, but I think what has been done with Oracle, especially in the capable hands of Gail Simone in Birds of Prey, is an excellent example of making a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
The new Batgirl, Cassandra - she is probably the epitome of the "object girl" - she's the best fighter in the Bat-family, only Batman can actually beat her in hand to hand combat, but she can't read, write or TALK and her mask is faceless, that's right, one cannot see her eyes, nose, mouth or hair from beneath that mask.
Cass and Steph -- Spoiler, later Robin IV -- have among the least revealing female costumes in comics, which I vastly appreciated. Manhunter's Kate Spenser is another woman who doesn't bare so much skin.
The faceless mask... dude, it's *creepy*. It's supposed to be creepy. Cass' Batgirl outfit is direct from Helena Bertellini's fiddling with Babs' Batgirl design in No Man's Land.
Agree with you like whoa about the rampant sexism in comics -- have you been recced girl-wonder.org yet? -- but I adore Oracle and I like Cass' Batgirl uniform.
*uses Cass icon*
Date: 2006-09-11 03:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 03:19 pm (UTC)What do you mean recced?
I visit there often and read most of the columns.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 02:59 pm (UTC)I loved the (first two) X-Men movies, but i can't stand how Mystique is reduced to Magneto's lackey. This is relatively recent convention that started outside of the comics, and has nothing real to back it up.
I never got into Elektra, so i can't really say much about her.
Of course Wonder Woman is bondage fantasy. Her original creator advocated BDSM (though not precisely in those terms) with women dominating as the solution to all the suffering in the world. He also based her appearance on one of the two women he lived with.
Cassandra is no longer Batgirl. She's reclaimed her roots as an assassin, taken the post of leader of the League of Assassins, and has dropped off the radar temporarily. She is not wearing a costume, and appears to have gotten past her speech and writing difficulties. A new Batgirl has shown up in Birds of Prey, but her identity remains unknown.
How is being concealed by a computer screen as Oracle so different from being concealed by a mask as Batgirl? At least she's dressing in realistic clothing, and she's actually become incredibly powerful. She may be the number one non-superpowered threat to criminal activity. If you doubt her ability as a heroine, pick up the Batman: Cataclysm trade paperback. Just because she's not running around on rooftops doesn't mean she's not just as heroic, if not even more.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 03:16 pm (UTC)I am unfortunately very behind, because we get the issues quite a bit later here in Israel.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-12 03:20 am (UTC)As it happens, i've read most of the things i mentioned there. We have a lovely comics collection in the library here at school, which i partake of frequently.
If you really want to talk about the treatment of female characters in comics, look into this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Refrigerators
no subject
Date: 2006-09-12 07:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 09:47 pm (UTC)On another note, I am learning how to play Magic (www.wizards.com/magic/). Often the card art is magnificent, and to give them credit they picture many women as warriors. But the women are almost always portrayed wearing armor that emphasizes their breasts. The chest-cones of fantasy armor are worse than useless -- they would direct a sword or spear point directly to the sternum. Anyway real women warriors, like other professional female athletes, would have so little fat on their bodies that their breasts would tend to be much smaller than normal. The illustrations irritate me.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 09:57 pm (UTC)Indeed the women illustrations in RPG are extremely irritating. Its speculated that Amazons would remove a part or all of their breasts in order for them not to be in the way when they fought.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-12 07:23 am (UTC)As to Magic art:they are simply following the general fantasy art trend, which is not surprising, since companies tend to be conformist and conservative unless they see a profit in being non-conformist.I suspect the trend itself has its roots in the pulp covers of the 50s, personally.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-12 07:29 am (UTC)Thank you for clarifying that, I knew, but wasn't sure.
Regarding Wonder Woman
Date: 2006-11-02 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-09 07:04 am (UTC)