Tag Archives: breasts

Feminine Power: The Evolving Roles Of Superwomen

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photo of superwoman pictures
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The most important thing to remember about this is that a lot of these graphic novels are outdated.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 …

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Study Says Women are Objectified, I Say ‘Duh’

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I recently read an article that said, “The European Journal of Social Psychology says that all our brains, regardless of our gender, view men as ‘people’ but see women cumulatively as their body parts.” Well, duh.

The study had volunteers look at photos of both men and women and then had the subjects look at isolated images of their body parts. The result was women’s isolated body parts were easier for the participants to remember.  So, we could look at this and say “women are always objectified,” and I was prepared to write that argument but then I remembered (again) DUH! Of course we are! I’m going to take a different road on this, ready?

Women are prettier than men and that is why our body parts are easier to remember. Think about it—breasts are better than no breasts. Rather, feminine breasts are better than masculine breasts. Give me a picture of boobs or a man’s chest and I’m staring at boobs. Even our butts are better—they’re generally perky and almost always round, and male butts are square with sometimes-harsh angles.  Women are round and soft and we have curves and stick out in all the right places, while men are straight, and angular and hairy. I don’t want to remember that! Do you?

I don’t think this is a bad thing, and I don’t necessarily think that we should look at this in an “objectified way.” No, I think we should look at this as art. We are art. Paintings, sculptures, muses; some are males but most are female. We’re just better to look at and that’s not a bad thing. Can we just agree on that?



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DC Comic’s Women Really Are Kicking Ass

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DC Comics has a department called DC Women Kicking Ass, and that alone is pretty kick-ass. However, what they’re doing is even better: tdhe brilliant ladies over at DC Women Kicking Ass have posted a bunch of images from an ad campaign for a Mozambique breast cancer awareness organization. They feature Catwoman, She-Hulk, Wonder Woman and Storm giving themselves breast exams. Says DC Women Kicking Ass:

“The images are quite striking. The faces of the characters are only partially seen, but the characters are easy identifiable. And while we often see women feeling or touching their breasts n comics, the art here is not sexual or exploitative and has almost a solemn feel to it.”

There is something still really beautiful and striking about the images and it really helps to reach a new audience. Breast cancer awareness has always had a lot of fun with its publicity, and this is really just another branch on the tree, albeit a very innovative one. The images show only the comic heroine’s mouth, and the girls are fully clothed, so as DC Women Kicking Ass stated, it’s not sexual – there is no come-hither stare; the girls’ mouths are firm and serious.

I’m really glad comic are taking this approach, a lot of people have a lot to say about women roles in comics. Some say it’s anti-feminist and they set a bad body image. But these girls kick ass, and they look good doing it. I’m a comic fan, and a fan of any message that tells women or men that checking your breasts is an important thing to do. So, DC Women Kicking Ass, I salute you!



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Advertising Scandal: For the First Time Ever, Teenage Girls May Be Influenced to Lie About Their Breast Size

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photo of aerie pictures photos double whoa advertising padded bras for teenagers

I hope you all are sitting down (it would be a bit strange if you weren’t) — American Eagle is selling padded bras to teenagers. I know. I don’t have a daughter myself, but I made sure to lock up a bunch of teenage girls I found milling about, lest they get ideas.

As ABC news explains:

commercial inflatable inflatable princess castle

American Eagle sells the Drew. It’s a push-up bra designed to boost more than just a young girl’s confidence – promising to add two cup sizes. American Eagle calls it the “Double Whoa” and it has some doing a double take because the bra is being marketed to girls as young as 15-years-old.

You see, the media has decided to act as though teenage girls haven’t been stuffing and padding their bras since the beginning of time, and that we ought to be concerned about Aerie’s “Drew” bra (named for the well-endowed Drew Barrymore, perhaps?) — following in the footsteps of Victoria Secret’s Miraculous bra, or La Senza’s double push-up, which promises to jump you up 2 full cup sizes — no toilet paper required. You know this already, of course, because Sarah Spangenberg already wrote up this story months ago, but this is a new controversy because from the ad, it’s clear they’re advertising to teenagers. Because of course they are. Because that’s who stuffs their bras.

17 Magazine’s Editor in Chief made this confusing statement:

“Girls want to look pretty, but they do not want that icky sexual attention. They just want to feel good in their clothes, they just want to feel pretty, and that’s what these bras are about.”

So… they do or don’t want the bra?

Because I can tell you, I have purchased a double push-up bra, and frankly — no offence to any well-endowed women — I hate the attention, even at 23. I’ve always wanted bigger breasts, but it’s disgusting how a bigger bustline somehow entitles men to make comments or behave in a way that they didn’t or wouldn’t to my usual C-cup self. But there’s another point — what about young women who are naturally large-chested? Aren’t we sending a message to those girls that they ought to be embarrassed about the size of their breasts and that their larger bust lines are over-sexualized naturally?

Controversy aside, it would be nice if, instead of offering to take women from a C to a Double-D, that they started offering bras for actual teenagers suffering with the pain of trying to find cute bras for real Double-D breasts, but that’s an issue for another time.

What’s your take? Is there anything shocking about this ad, or are they just appealing to the demographic most likely to buy this bra?

Babblesex



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