Posted 2 months ago

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?

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: 

Posted 2 months ago

Things Organized Neatly

In relation to our second lecture “Collecting: The Magpie Eye”


Posted 3 months ago

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

Posted 3 months ago

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.
Posted 3 months ago

emmyc:

I tremendously hate it when artists do that whole boobs-and-ass-facing-forward shitty pose. You’d be surprised how common it is, even among non-deviantart artists!

Posted 3 months ago

There's a Lot of B*tching About Catwoman in 'Arkham City'

comicsareforgirls:

 

The Batman: Arkham City video game is out, and the consensus, from all indications, is that this is a very good game indeed. While a fuller review is on the way from our own Senior Batmanologist Chris Sims, a recent article by the gaming website Kotaku pointed out an interesting issue with Arkham City involving — wait for it — the character of Catwoman. Notably that when you play as her character, the game spends a disproportionate amount of time calling her a “b*tch.”At Kotaku, Kirk Hamilton breaks down his issue with the dialogue, and why it stands out to him even in a T for Teen-rated game that features torture, murder, and all manner of violence:

It starts at the very beginning of the game, when players (who have downloaded the Catwoman content) assume the role of Catwoman. I noticed that characters almost universally referred to her as “b*tch.” I went back through the Catwoman missions and recorded some lines.

“That’ll teach the b*tch to screw with Two-Face.”

“B*tch deserves it. You saw what she did to him in the court. It was only a matter of time before he got a little payback.”

“”I’ll make you meow, b*tch,”

“He sent Paulie B over to blow that b*tch’s secret hideout sky-high.”

“She’ll come straight back here… And when she does, I want you guys to blow that b*tch apart!

“He had her just where he wanted her and that b*tch broke free.”

“Ha, I only took half. The rest I gave away. I win, b*tch!”

“Help us decide if we should kill the b*tch who tried to steal from us, or let her go to do it again.”

“Two guns, b*tch!”

Posted 3 months ago

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?

Posted 3 months ago

Debates over the “idealization” and objectification in the portrayal of women in comics are often met with a reflexive response: “Men are idealized in comics, too!” It’s true, they are. But there’s different sorts of idealization, as this series of gender-flipped illustrations from Megan Rosalarian shows.

Dudes, I want you to imagine a world where most of the portrayals of your gender in comics look like the above. Are you going to think “Well, I really like the stories so I’ll just suck it up and read this anyway”? Or are you going to be alienated from reading most comics? Be honest. Are you willing to stare at that much thrusting crotch just to find out if Spiderman is gonna win?
Lots of people in the comics business look at their demographic breakdown and think women don’t like superheroes. The creator of DC Women Kicking Ass made a very apt point when she said, “Let me put it this way, if you keep keeping putting food on a kid’s plate and they don’t eat you do you assume they don’t like to eat or they don’t like the food? Right.”
Women like comics. And not just flowery manga and autobio stuff. We like superheroes.

Dressed to Kill 

Debates over the “idealization” and objectification in the portrayal of women in comics are often met with a reflexive response: “Men are idealized in comics, too!” It’s true, they are. But there’s different sorts of idealization, as this series of gender-flipped illustrations from Megan Rosalarian shows.

Dudes, I want you to imagine a world where most of the portrayals of your gender in comics look like the above. Are you going to think “Well, I really like the stories so I’ll just suck it up and read this anyway”? Or are you going to be alienated from reading most comics? Be honest. Are you willing to stare at that much thrusting crotch just to find out if Spiderman is gonna win?

Lots of people in the comics business look at their demographic breakdown and think women don’t like superheroes. The creator of DC Women Kicking Ass made a very apt point when she said, “Let me put it this way, if you keep keeping putting food on a kid’s plate and they don’t eat you do you assume they don’t like to eat or they don’t like the food? Right.”

Women like comics. And not just flowery manga and autobio stuff. We like superheroes.

Dressed to Kill 

(Source: Boing Boing)

Posted 3 months ago

justsayins: This needs to stop...and let me tell you why!

justsayins:

Okay. Guys. Guys. Two things.

1) I’m a martial artist. I’ve been studying since I was seven. I wouldn’t even hesitate to say that I’m good at it. I have done work as a fight choreographer for film, and I am trained in stage combat as well.

2) I’m a contortionist. Yes. Again, since…

Posted 3 months ago

For quite a few years now I’ve wanted to start reading comic books but never really known where to begin and didn’t want to go and stand around in a shop and not know what i was looking for so The New 52 DC universe revamp was helpfully for me. I don’t know if I’ve gone a bit over board but I’ve been reading:

Written by Brian Azzarello

Art by Cliff Chiang

and also

  • Batman Detective
  • Green Lantern 
  • Justice League

I’ve enjoyed all of them and do know plan on continuing them as well as starting others especially from marvel universe, which I’m sure will make my back balance happy…