What? I supposed to ignore this bullshit indefinitely?!

[eumelia]

Because my righteous rage has been, for the past few months, been a little too much and since I enjoy having people enjoy my writing I was trying to cool off on the whole "I'm angry and this is why..." posts.
It was working.
Until I saw these:







For more 360 degree images of this abominable "comiquette" go to Sideshow Collectibles


Now I've read the many... very many... livejournal entries, blog posts, newsletter issues and more, about this for sale image of Mary-Jane of Marvel Comics.
I wasn't sure I had anything to add.
Other than the fact that I'm, uh, outraged?!
That this, this! is how the Big Wigs (which includes Joe Quesada the Editor in Chief) at Marvel decides to approve the portrayal as one of the best known non-superhero/heroine characters of the Marvel Universe.

This is, by the way, just the latest incident in which they deform a female character in order to titillate the "target audience" into buying these God awful statues.
They did it to Emma Frost:



And if you thing Marvel are the only ones... well, shall we see what the DC Big Wigs (Dan Didio and Paul Luvitz, are who I'm thinking about) do to their Heroines. Or more to the point, allow to be done and approve it for sale!
My own personal heroine, Catwoman:


Supergirl... lucky she's wearing a cape... otherwise she's be showing cleavage on both ends:



This, my readers, is such bullshit!
It is in fact, as the icon says: "...bullshit, guano and horseshit all dumped together in wasteland".
And no, I don't think the outrage is "too much", it should spread like wildfire, the Internet must be awash with girls, women, boys and men, furious at the literal objectification of female characters to nothing more than cheescakery, T&A images made, to promote the company and not the actual characters who all happen to be women.
I'm not being over sensitive, I'm being totally serious.

It's all fine and dandy that the heroines wear skimpy outfits and are at times (most of the time) posed and sexualized, I don't like it, but it's better than it used to be and I do believe the Big Wigs are listening to a certain extent and are trying to see that their "target audience" are not just teenage boys, who really don't need to be encourages to view women as sexual objects.
They do it just fine with the rest of popular culture showing them that this is the fact.

However, since Mary-Jane is not a heroine. She is in fact the spouse of Peter Parker, one of the most if not The Most Popular Hero in Comics, Spiderman. And as such she obviously does his washing and cleaning and presents herself to him as the "little woman" she is.

Yes, that was sarcastic.

In addition, the genocide in Darfur must be stopped.

וכמו כן, צריך לעצור את רצח העם בדרפור.

Comments

[bitter-moss.livejournal.com]

I have nothing to add, but that's freakin' terrible! *sigh*

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Why?

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Because I was appalled by the thing, but many female friends of mine were not, and wondered why I was appalled by it. I wound up feeling as if I had no right to be appalled by a woman embracing the power of her sexuality.

Which... just goes to show the power of differing perceptions.

.. and how risky it is for a guy to ever have any opinion on these sorts of feminist issues.

[lord-dingsi.livejournal.com]

a woman embracing the power of her sexuality

... by doing laundry?

On a sidenote: yes, it's risky for guys to have an opinion on feminist issues. Just like for women. And, yes, sadly you get attacked from both sides, depending on the person's world view. Sometimes even feminists attack other feminists. *shrugs*

Don't let it discourage you. Me, I am glad for every guy who "gets it". :)

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

By being sexy and empowered whilst doing laundry, yes.

I mean I can see the argument. And I'm all for women owning their sexuality.

And I can also see the argument that several of my female friends made that the statuette was clearly tongue-in-cheek.

But this was, in my opinion, an extremely tacky statuette. Plus, really badly made. It's ugly and inelegant.


And on a sidenote, I think it's entirely possible for guys to be feminists too. I just... it makes me sad how the actions of the vocal minority have managed to make 'feminist' so often a word used as an insult. :(

[stateofwonder.livejournal.com]

Who knew that Mary-Jane was secretly a soft core porn star?

[tychoelite.livejournal.com]

That one of Emma Frost is terrible D:

[ayellowbirds.livejournal.com]

I'd be more appalled if MJ hadn't always been drawn as nothing more than an back-arching artist's fantasy. About the same goes for Emma Frost and Catwoman...

For me, it's not what they're doing to these characters. They've been doing this to these characters for decades. It's more about what they're still doing with female characters, about why they aren't stopping and looking at themselves from the outside. It's about why they think that a woman whose waistline suggests dietary problem is believable as having super-strength, about why Batwoman has high heels in excess of an inch if she's leaping from rooftop to rooftop. It's about why one of my favorite roleplaying game magazines (soon to go out of business because the parent company is switching to digital distribution) still gets outraged letters any time a male character is featured with a bare chest or otherwise presented as a sexual being.

It's not about what they are doing, it's about why they aren't doing something else.

[aesiron.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is pretty horrible but I don't really see where the portrayal of Emma Frost is all that different from her characterization in comics.

Re: Super Retarded Statues

[kkglinka.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be nice of this (http://www.fictionalart.com/temp/kotobukiya_catwoman.jpg) and this (http://www.fictionalart.com/temp/kotobukiya_batman.jpg) existed? (Don't mind me; Catwoman fan wandering through).

Words

[(Anonymous)]

Alright man. How is this defiling characters? Mary Jane in the comics is known as being a sultry red head. She was wild and sexy while Gwen Stacy was calm and conservative. This portrayal of Mary Jane is the same one we've been reading in the comics. Emma Frost is seductive, she got Scott to cheat on Jean so of course she's going to be all about sex. And I hate to break it to you but that's how Supergirl looks in the comics and if you're going to complain about her almost showing off her ass well that's why she has the cape. Lastly, Catwoman's character has always been seductive as well, she's the only character who can seduce Batman on a regular basis who rarely has a serious romantic lead. If you're going to complain about these characters being well endowed and seductive and revealing, then you might as well complain about how Superheroes are portrayed as muscular, and powerful.