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Sep. 10th, 2006
Wonder Girls
Sep. 10th, 2006 10:08 pmI 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?
