Remember in my “Meet The New Intern” post when I mentioned that a lot of my interests are pretty nerdy? Allow me to demonstrate:
In the minds of many, graphic novels (comic books) are not exactly the most respectful and pro-women form of literature. To many, the (often ridiculous) attire and improbable physiques of women are not encouraging. Groups of superheroes (and supervillains) in which there are one or two “token” female characters in a sea of men seem artificial and extremely male-centered. I understand that people would have a problem with fictional universes in which the heroic women are “objects” of contention between male protagonists, and villainous women are either femme fatales to tempt male heroes or only supervillains because they are getting back at a man who wronged them,* or not-genuinely-villainous antagonists whom men can seduce away from the “real” villains—who are male.
The most important thing to remember about this is that a lot of these graphic novels are outdated. Some of them were created when there were still restaurants in the United States that wouldn’t serve to women during certain times of the day. This does not make them okay—I do not buy the “it was a different time” argument.
But graphic novels are different, now. Not all of them—some writers are misogynists. Others are not. I think that it’s fair …
… to say that most are not. Now we’re seeing powerful, independent female characters driving stories in comics. We’re seeing same-sex couples as part of crowd on the cover of Spider-Man. We’re seeing same-sex weddings. Graphic novels are no longer the absurdly macho-man universes that they were in the 1980s. And that is wonderful.
One thing that people don’t talk about as much, though, is how superpowers are assigned. In college, one of my professors talked to us about the stereotypical differences in the superpowers of male and female characters. Essentially, males are more likely to have physical powers (especially super strength and invulnerability) and females are more likely to have psionic or magical powers, which require limited to no physical interaction.**
There are obvious exceptions (like She-Hulk, Mystique, and Wonder Woman). Outside of graphic novels, but still within the range of “things that you’ll see at Comic Con,” are contemporary fantasy stories. We’re seeing female vampires throw grown men across the room (and, oh goodness, I am not talking about Twilight. I think that the only group more negatively impacted by Twilight than women has been vampires). Even in the 1990s, shows like Buffy and Xena highlighted how you can tell a wonderful fantasy story with women as very physically combative main characters.
But I feel that it’s more important to note that these “girl powers” are not the same as the “girl guns” to which people refer in films. Female characters like Emma Frost, Jean Grey, Storm, and Scarlet Witch have “girl powers,” but they also happen to be some of the most powerful comic book characters, ever. Emma Frost and Jean Grey can read and control the minds of others. Scarlet Witch has the power to permanently redefine reality itself. As in, for everyone on Earth.
And all of this is why, at the age of seven, when so many of my friends were pretending to be Spider-Man or Wolverine, I was pretending to be Storm: the strong, black woman who can control the weather.
*Seriously. You guys remember that Green Lantern movie with Ryan Reynolds? You know the love interest character, Carol Ferris, played by the outrageously gorgeous Blake Lively? Well, she becomes the supervillain Star Sapphire (one of the villains to go by this name). Not because she’s ambitious or wants to steal things or create political change or because of some bizarre laboratory accident. She becomes a supervillain because Hal Jordan hurt her feelings. I only hope that this powerful, aggressively competent character whom we have seen in the first Green Lantern movie is portrayed with more reasonable motives on the big screen. Also, Blake Lively will look killer in any version of the Star Sapphire costume.
**As a writer, however unpublished, I think that female characters being given less violent roles might not be as sexist as we first imagine. Could part of it be about discomfort about violence towards women, or doubts about females being capable of violence? Probably. But, though I tend to prefer to give powers like super-strength and invulnerability to female characters, I run into a simple problem—it’s more inappropriate to write a story in which an invulnerable woman gets her not-so-invulnerable clothes ripped to tatters than it is to write the same fight scene with a man. It’s a weird and fairly specific problem, but it is a problem for writers. It would be an even bigger problem for people writing graphic novels who don’t want parents to forbid their children from buying them. Breasts are, apparently, just too awesome for some people to handle.
Love, love, love this. An amazing job. Major props for the Scarlet Witch shout-out. I think another great example of “girl powers” would be Black Widow, whose super powers are literally her feminine wiles (and is a known badass because of them). Or Sue Storm, who has the power to fade into the background, as all good women should do (and is married to douchebag-in-chief Reed Richards).
Haha — thanks! Though the Invisible Woman was also the most powerful of the Fantastic Four. Have you ever seen stuff in which she is mind-controlled? She takes the other three out pretty quickly. Also, I LOVED her in Civil War. Especially when she protected the heroes from Reed’s clone of Thor.
This is my bread and butter. Also, I have lots to say about this topic.
1. As a comics scholar, I wish you would have specified superhero genre graphic novel/comic in the written text. I know it is totally clear in your title and imagery, but it messed with me in reading. I say this because independent women writers are huge in other genres of long form graphic novels. Everyone always nitpicks about using the term “graphic novel,” because it is used by bookstores to legitimize comics as respectable. Blah blah blah, I say. I just usually see it referring to non-superhero long-form works, so it messed with me in your usage. I usually hear “trades” for long-form or collected superhero stuff around my LCBS, graphic novels if you visit the section in Barnes and Noble, graphic narrative by Hillary Chute to refer to long-form autobiographical comics, comics or comix by people like Art Spiegelman because people shouldn’t have to put a different name on it or try to take themselves too seriously. :p
2. Differences between misogyny and male privilege. You are right that a lot of comics authors aren’t themselves trying to act as misogynists, but a lot of them cannot see how much it sucks to play Final Fantasy and have the one of two that is your gender be the archer on the back row with white magic and somehow doing this in a bikini and GoGo boots (looking at you, Rosa from FF4 archetype). There isn’t an inherent problem with having women have these powers that are less physical, but there is a problem when people can only name the notable 7 or 8 exceptions that you mentioned when there are thousands or more of male characters across the mythos that get physical powers or super intelligence etc. It is also an issue to not write male characters in as healers or other “feminized” roles. Because as an escapist genre, your masculinity dictates that you must long to be physically strong rather than an empath with cool water healing stuff ala waterbending. /sarcasm.
3. I would also point out Catwoman’s spine issues on Catwoman #0. As a counter to that bit of weird anatomically impossible sexualization from DC, we have the lovely reboot of Ms. Marvel as Captain Marvel kicking so much ass. Sexuality as power isn’t an inherent issue either, but it is something that the real world throws at white** women to use for our economic stability in a country that used to consider us property and still don’t pay us equally. Marvel is generally better than DC on wider ranges of female characters, but DC also gives their superheroines more chances with title issues. I am a big fan of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, though I am not as up on her as Oracle and know how harsh that was to the differently abled community to reboot her. Also, Gail Simone squeeeee. And Batwoman is an awesome read too; her identity as a lesbian isn’t male fantasy fetishized, so that is a positive touch. I think things are getting better, but people (male people with buying power who still are catered to in the industry) need to support the women superheroes and diversity by buying the books. Or, change distribution models so that women are more likely to get into comics (I miss the comics rack at the grocery store checkout) and maybe visit their local comic book store.
4. Superhero genre as performing heteronormative male power culture with writers and staff mostly reflecting this bias. It isn’t that male writers cannot write female characters well, it is that most of them strive to write female characters rather than just characters who are embodied female. And their percentages of their staff are pretty woeful (looking at you, DC). Marvel is a bit better here.
**Racism is still an issue in comics, but also getting a lot better.
Well said! It is also worth noting that the professional comic writing landscape has changed dramatically, specifically with the advent of internet comics. These increasingly profitable labors of love often go beyond the simplistic feminine reductions like fridging, smurfette, and other misogynist tropes of the 80s. However, though I am in love with sites like dresden codak and gunnerkrigg court, I still have yet to see these powerful, interesting and fleshed-out female characters very often in smashy-punchy roles! What is the difference between how modern serial comic artists, graphic novelists, and web comic artists approach female characters?
@Greg,
I don’t know if you can make the comparison between those three types of artists because you have to consider genre. Jeffrey Brown’s girlfriend books aren’t really that comparable to Achewood, for example, and then you couldn’t really make a comparison between X-Men and Persepolis, right? I suppose you could, but it wouldn’t make sense to compare those female characters.
You two are totally outnerding me right now and I love it.