comicsareforgirls:

Link Dump

Okay, since I don’t have my laptop anymore, I’ve accumulated quite a few links I haven’t had a chance to post yet so I’m just going burn through them here. Sound fun?

• [ABOVE] The Escapist’s Bob Chipman explains why sexism in nerd culture is not okay.
• Robert Kirkman is releasing a prequel for The Walking Dead’s resident female ass-kicer, Michonne. Unfortunaty, he’s decided to release it in Playboy. What could possibly go wrong?
• Ms. Marvel is getting “promoted” to Captain Marvel, a spiffy new haircut, and a new ongoing series written by Kelly Sue DeConnick. (I’ve always found Carol Danvers to be kind of a boring character. Her powers are pretty generic, her one-piece-swimsuit-with-red-sash costume is an eyesore, and though I’ve read quite a few comics with her in them, if pressed, I really couldn’t tell you much about her personality. Compared with the likes of the Invisible Woman, She-Hulk or Storm, she’s never really measured up. Still, I dig her new look and Kelly Sue’s never steered me wrong before so I’m in.)

And for anyone who missed ComicsAlliance’s fortnight-long look at sex and sexism in comics last month, here’s pretty much every article from it I haven’t already linked to: 

• Ross Campbell Talks Curvy Girls, Sexy Boys And Warrior Women
• Colleen Coover’s Small Favors: A Girly Porno Comic about a Woman in Love with Her Conscience (Colleen Coover is the best. Fact.)
• Gilbert Hernandez’s Birdland Offers Alliteration, Transfiguration, Penetration (If you’re unfamiliar with the series Love and Rockets, by Gilbert and his brother Jaime, run out and pick up some trades this very second; you won’t be disappointed.)
• The Playboy: Chester Brown’s Unflinching Autobiography of Sexual Awakening
• King City and Perverts of the Unknown Creator Brandon Graham on Porn, Sex and Honesty (I haven’t read PotU, but King City is fantastic.) 

I relation to our lecture on play where we briefly touch on gender roles in toys and playing.

comicsareforgirls:

Tropes vs. Women: Women in Refrigerators

A couple of notes from me:

• In addition to death of trope-naming death of his girlfriend Alex DeWitt, Kyle Rayner (Green Lantern) has also had two other WiR incidents. During Infinite Crisis, the death of Kyle’s girlfriend Jade causes him to adopt the (more powerful) identity of Ion. The death of Kyle’s mother during the Sinestro Corps War triggers his transformation into the supervillain Parallax. (How Kyle’s current girlfriend, Soranik Natu, will be brutally killed remains to be seen.)
• Allow me to play continuity cop for a moment and point out that Stephanie Brown didn’t become Batgirl until after she was brought back from the “dead.” Still, her not getting a memorial in the Batcave like Jason Todd was pretty f’ed up. (This oversight was explained after it was revealed that she didn’t really die and Batman goes “Yeah, I totally knew you were alive. That’s why you didn’t get a memorial. Lulz.” However, that doesn’t explain why Jason Todd’s memorial remains in tact after his return.)
• I’m not sure it’s exactly fair to classify Big Barda’s death as WiR as it was part of the larger story where all the New Gods were killed. (That Big Barda was found dead mysterious fits the mysterious deaths of other New Gods, both male and female.) On the other hand, Mister Miracle’s role in Jim Starlin’s Death of the New Gods miniseries does seem to fit the trope, so I’m torn.
• The video skips one of the most terrible WiR stories in modern comics. In Brad Meltzer’s god-awful Identity Crisis, Sue Dinby, wife of the Elongated Man, is murdered on his birthday. The Elongated Man discovers her mangled, burnt body lying next to her present for him, a pregnancy test revealing that she was pregnant with their first child. Later in the series, Sue is revealed in a flashback to have been raped by the supervillain Doctor Light. The series ends by revealing that Sue was killed by the Atom’s ex-girlfriend Jean Loring, whose mental breakdown is used to advance the Atom’s character development. Maybe Meltzer should stick to writing hacky paperback thrillers.

comicsareforgirls:

s-p-o-o-k-i-e:

Somehow, this is the same character.

The top image is Harley Quinn’s design from Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995), where she was first introduced. The second image is Harley’s design in the game Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009), the next from Batman: Arkham City (2011), and the final being the infamous DC reboot (also 2011 I believe).

Let’s take a look at these really quickly. The first costume shows the harlequin theme quite well, and you know what else? It’s pretty sexy. It’s sexy but it’s not completely ridiculous. Unlike her Arkham series costumes, which made the addition of… Yep! Pigtails! While she did dawn pigtails in the animated series, it was when she was when the hood was off. And the harlequin hood kind of fit maybe due to the whole harlequin theme. Because to go with her child like disposition we need blonde pigtails. I’m calling infantilism on these two. I suppose the nurse outfit is “clever” due to her origin story…? And the only thing that strikes me as harlequin related AT ALL in these costumes in the use of color, and the small diamonds on her pant leg in Arkham City. As for the last costume… It just strikes me as down right out of character.

Slowly but slowly this character has been watered down.

So when people tell me “things are getting better!” —especially when they say this about the portrayal of female characters in the media— I can’t believe them. Look for yourself. If anything, I think it’s getting worse.  

Meanwhile, her Puddin’s look has stayed virtually the same across all media depictions. Maybe we need some fan art to equalize the pornification, no?