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Feminism and the Comic World
- Warped Role Models and Subtextual Abuse
By
Hi there. I’m a female comic artist. I drew comics since I was a kid,
it’s been a love most of my life. Even if I’d been warned about what I
was in for, I don’t think I would have not taken up such a grand and
wonderful art form. What’s that I’m saying? Comic drawing? An art form?
Well yes, it is. It requires all the skills and hard work that any other
art form requires, and a good slab of talent. That’s why I love it so
much. I think I know why you may feel a little confused comics are
just line drawings and are dime-shop crap. Most people probably think
that, because comics aren’t taken seriously in the West. Comics will
probably never get taken seriously unless real changes happen. Why?
They’re backwards. They are *so* socially backwards that it hurts.
When I was a kid I was interested in comics, but every time I tried to
read one I got quickly bored. I’m sure there are a lot of girls that
felt like me. I stuck to comic strips like Garfield and Calvin & Hobbes;
they didn’t bother me so much. It wasn’t till I was older and looking at
comic books that I realised just why they annoyed me so much. Firstly,
they catered specifically to boys. Whether young or old, they were drawn
for dicks. The only characters that really *did* anything were the male
characters. They hunted, they saved, they searched and they looked into
themselves. They looked perfect and their girlfriends were more perfect.
Oh let’s talk about that. The girlfriends. I think that always annoyed
me the most. Even in titles like the X-Men and Batman, women were built
like Drag Queens after having about ten silicon implants with Gravity
Defying Tit Boosters, and wore very little at all, with nipples popping
out from the material like steel rivets. Even if they were doing things
the men were doing, they couldn’t do that without being scantily clad at
the same time. It made me so angry that I couldn’t even pick up the
comics anymore. Of course, this was all ten years ago. Things have
improved by now, right? Right?
Wrong.
I’ve sworn off buying mainstream comics. I have a realisation in the
back of my mind that despite my skills, I will probably never have a
comic that will sell as much as those mainstream comics ever will, and
not because the mainstream comics are better than mine [or any other
female created comic for that matter]. It’s because overgrown dickless
morons rule the comic industry. Even with all of the anti-sexism
movements that have swept through our society, the mainstream comic
world has wrapped itself up into a little cocoon of fantasy, where no
one is imperfect except the male heroes cause it’s cool to be a flawed
maverick, where women are long-legged alien-proportioned
flotation-device bosomed things that only wear scraps of spandex so that
the comics can be sold to children under 12. Of course, confront any
comic-boy on the rife sexism, and you get these following jewels:
"What about Elektra? She’s the main character of her own comic series!"
Elektra wears a thong, people. A red thong. I don’t remember seeing a
promotional picture of her where she *wasn’t* spreading her legs wider
than a synchronised swimmer on crack.
"Jean Grey has been a leading character in the X-Men series since the 60s!"
Don’t get me started on her. She is the single-most abused,
disempowered, pathetic cock-whipped excuse of a useless bint that has
ever dared to show herself on a printed page. She’s been the sexual
prize between two lead characters, made to be all powerful then stripped
of that power as if it were ‘evil’ for her to ever be such a thing, and
is touted as the main representative of all heroic female-kind amongst
X-Men fans and by Marvel Comics themselves. She is consistently ruined
and killed and pulled down to nothing, only to be brought up for the
cycle to start all over again. This is supposed to be our role model?
Get real! The comic boys claim that it’s ‘angst’, and that bad things
really happen. Sure, it does, but don’t expect me to look up to some
women that seems to thrive on that shit.
You’d think that with time, this sort of thing would improve. Looking at
the industry on the surface, you’d probably assume it has. I mean,
there’s no heroines lying around waiting to be saved anymore, the girls
are out kicking ass like the boys, right? Right? Again: wrong.
The girls are always dependent on the men in some way. Even if the girls
are amazingly strong and wonderful, their positive attributes are what
the male characters see in them and deem wonderful. It is all seen
through the male perspective, and women are something alien. Women are
only worthy if they’re openly sexual, and if they’re not, there’s
something wrong with them.
A wonderful example is the character Jubilee. Now, for non-comic
readers, she is a young lady, about 15 years old in most comics,
half-Chinese, loud, opinionated, frenetic, confident, generally
well-clothed and delightfully flawed in many human and non-irritating or
sexist ways. She’s not a sexual character (probably too young for the
writers to bother with) and she is happy in herself that way.
Personally, I feel she’s the best female character that Marvel has ever
produced (besides Rogue, but she has her own issues in sexism that I
will discuss later). She’s the most balanced, the most emotionally well
adjusted, she takes no crap and doesn’t hesitate in giving up the sass.
She’s also the *most* hated character in the X-Men fandom.
Gee. What a surprise.
Now to Rogue. Rogue, by all appearances, should be a good feminist
example. She’s a character in the X-Men series, very open with her
opinions, sassy and smart, doing her superhero thing and kicking butt.
However, it all seems to be a huge set-up for the comic boys, as they
seem to think that just because she can’t touch other people (If you
remember the X-Men movie, Rogue is a genetic mutant that has skin that
is deadly to touch. That’s all you need to know the rest is too
complicated), that she should be miserable in some way. She’s
represented as the ‘tragic’ character, all because no man can ever touch
her. Now, hmmm! I don’t remember the last time a fella touched me, and I
don’t see myself as a very unhappy person. Sure, the human contact thing
is sad, and she adjusts to that, but we don’t get to see that. All we
see is her pining after her dead-beat asshole boyfriend (thief,
womaniser, general jerk-off with an ego a mile wide), just cause she
can’t touch him. Gee, isn’t that great. And recently, she’s been given a
whole bunch of powers so she’s all powerful and practically helpless
because she can’t control them. Anyone feeling deja-vu?
What’s worse is that Marvel are jumping on the ‘Faux Feminism’
bandwagon, trying to make out that they’re hip and with it, when they’re
just as backwards as always. Jean’s up there with her new-look
army-haircut, amazing floating boobs and midriff tops, all
super-intelligent and witty, yet still she can’t resist the lure of a
big meaty hairy man with an armful of claws. Doesn’t that just say a lot
about her? Yep she’s dominated, again, in the huge hulking arms of
some testosterone pumped chunkhead.
Of course, you’re probably thinking, "What the hell do I care about this
stuff? Let the jerks have their masturbation material and let’s worry
about the real world." Well, this is a messy area, because it’s all tied
up in censorship, parenting issues and other vein-popping subjects that
people get nuts over. Recently a webpage accessible to children ran an
article about an upcoming storyline in the X-Men series, crying "See!
EMMA FROST naked! See! JEAN GREY covered in SPERM!" I wrote a letter to
the page, saying such things weren’t appropriate in a page that wasn’t
marked for older audiences, and they basically told me it was my own
problem and they aren’t responsible for what they publish (even though
they ARE. Talk about trying to feed me bullshit). I complained about it
to my comic-reading female friends, and was severely disappointed.
"They’re just comics. I’m more concerned about the real world."
"This reeks of censorship, and if we try to stop this, we have to stop other stuff as well!"
"I’m not a feminist."
Personally, I say screw censorship. This is not about censorship. It’s
about actively shunning and keeping a whole sex out of a perfectly good
art form, and stopping them from ever making any real money from it
unless they surrender themselves to the shoddy morals that the Big Boys
set up in the first place. Again, you may think what the big deal is
they’re only comics.
If we had the same attitude about paintings, movies, music and any other
art forms for that matter, many talented and amazing women would never
have had the recognition and success that they *deserved*. Forget our
greatest jazz singers. Forget ever finding out about Camille Claudelle.
It wouldn’t have happened if things hadn’t changed (although there’s
still a lot of work to be done in those industries too, it’s nowhere
near as tragic as the comic industry is).
The comic industry never learns, and no matter how you try to correct
them on their pathetic value systems, you’ll only get smacked down or
ignored. I know I’ve tried. Does that mean I’ve given up? Hell no. I
write my own comics, and I don’t try to ‘aim’ them at women. I don’t
‘aim’ them at anybody. They’re just stories. Men are no stronger than
women and women are not anything less than the men. Women are drawn in
regular proportion, are still sexy but sexy because *they* want to be,
and because it pleases *them*. I keep writing, I keep drawing, I keep
doing what I have to. I support other independent comics (otherwise
known as ‘indie’ or ‘alternative’ comics), and don’t buy those that
offend me. I miss out on a lot I love some of the storylines and ideas
in the X-Men, I’m a huge fan of the movie and the cartoon, but I can’t
thoroughly enjoy them like others do. I always get angry somewhere along
the line.
I’ve been called a militant feminist for voicing the opinions I’ve given
here, and even had women strongly object to them. I still stand by these
opinions though, and I hope that somewhere along the line, the hard work
that I put into what I love will pay off. If not, then at least I know
I’ve given it a shot.
Nancy vents her frustration with a four-page comic about herself as a female comic artist
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