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I Read Comics

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Equalism.

Look, if you're going to put shit like this in every comic


then you DAMN WELL better do this in every comic


(Note: Of course I'm not claiming that drawing male superheroes in highly sexualized ways is the answer to the violent sexism in superhero comics. This is just to give me something to look at.)

posted by LT at 8:25 PM

8 Comments:

  • I honestly never noticed things like this until I started listening to your show and now I see it all the time and all over the place...and it NEVER fits the story, plot, anything. It's just pointless and it makes me sad that people outside of comics can see this crap and think it represents the medium.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:34 AM  

  • So if red hot lazers come out of supermans eyes, and ice breath out of his mouth. What the hell comes out the end of his penis?

    By Blogger spleenal, at 10:26 AM  

  • Honestly, this is what's embarrassing about being a comics fan. It's the same thing in the video game industry that I work in. Luckily, most of the comic movies don't play into this type of extreme titillation. I don't mind porn and I love comics, don't combine them in this manner.

    On the same note, I love Sideshow's work but this statue of
    Mary Jane is just stupid.

    By Blogger monsterzero, at 1:50 PM  

  • http://bp2.blogger.com/_YUUAn5bgpwo/Rh5rhRwJvcI/AAAAAAAAAUo/tDf_dqhEJ5Y/s1600-h/thotrcorps.bmp

    That's the address for a picture of Thor Corps #4. Asgardian packages were not the focus of David Campbell, but he is responsible nonetheless. "Feel the Power."

    By Blogger Joeyjojojr01, at 7:12 AM  

  • I watched an instructional video about how men were depicted in comics and I believe they are just as sexualized as women, only in a different way. It was an artist drawing the Punisher (just for an example) and he began by taking the proportions of the standard human body. He then altered the shoulders of the character to be roughly the size of a normal man's head. He based the rest of the musculature off that exaggerated proportion and then shrunk the size of the head in order to produce the optical effect of even more muscle.

    It's worth noting that while women nearly exclusively weight in at the low end of their healthy BMI, mean almost exclusively weigh in at the high end due to their muscled physiques. Point being, while women are slender and curvy in comics men are bulky and heavily muscled. The traits used to sexualize are different but the concept remains in the idealization of the human form to physical absurdity. Right or wrong it is, at least, equal.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:21 PM  

  • Posting on a super old thread, because I'm lame like that and I just googled in.

    Cross, the way superhero men are depicted in comics is NOT equal. Yes, they are drawn unrealistically, but they are not drawn to appeal sexually. There is no way in hell that there is a majority or even sizable minority of straight women or gay men who find shrunken heads and excessive musculature attractive on their sexual partners. The boy band dudes and the eye-candy actors don't look anything like that, and they are *handpicked* to appeal sexually. These superheroes are drawn as power fantasies for an audience that mostly consists of straight men; enormous muscles represent strength and therefore power. Both genders are depicted unrealistically, but they are both intended to appeal to the gaze of straight men. Ergo, not equal.

    By Blogger Meg, at 9:32 PM  

  • "Cross, the way superhero men are depicted in comics is NOT equal."

    I was suggesting that the fact both genders are exaggerated to ridiculousness is equal, first off. Not necessarily the goal. That is entirely debatable.

    "Yes, they are drawn unrealistically, but they are not drawn to appeal sexually. There is no way in hell that there is a majority or even sizable minority of straight women or gay men who find shrunken heads and excessive musculature attractive on their sexual partners."

    Well, two things are kind of getting crossed here. I was explaining how the illusion was made. No comic book character would look attractive if directly translated to real life because none of them are drawn realistically. That in mind, I am sure there are plenty of people that are attracted to muscular men. In fact, I'd suggest that nearly all sexual icons are very fit, but that's not really here or there considering that we can't very well compare comic characters to physical counterparts.

    "The boy band dudes and the eye-candy actors don't look anything like that, and they are *handpicked* to appeal sexually. These superheroes are drawn as power fantasies for an audience that mostly consists of straight men; enormous muscles represent strength and therefore power."

    One could also suggest strength and power are themselves attractive. I would suggest that, if the audience is actually meant to fantasies about being the heroes, the straight men targeted would fantasies about being attractive as well.

    "Both genders are depicted unrealistically, but they are both intended to appeal to the gaze of straight men. Ergo, not equal."

    It seems to be the hang up is that the targeted audience is straight males and that itself is unequal. However, those are the results that a capitalistic society can expect to get. Targeting the audience that tends to buy your product improves sales.

    Also, to believe that they are depicted unequally because they are targeted to straight men, one must accept that straight men and other groups either inherently desire to gaze upon different things entirely or are socialized to want different things. I am simply suggesting that we as a whole population like to see roughly the same thing in the human form since we achieve aesthetic consensus on a number of things. The argument isn't if comic book characters look appealing (in my mind) but the connotations attached to the way it's achieved. If we can get on that topic we can bond more with the heart of the issue.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:45 AM  

  • ZYZZ has a point.
    I mean, most comic book characters are misunderstood, unique people who often are hated and feared for being different. They can't really tell the world who they really are because they'd lose everything that matters to them and people they love would get hurt. They wear cool outfits, are in great shape.
    How could that POSSIBLY be aimed at gays?
    That must be why there are almost no gay characters except Apollo, Midnighter, Destiny, Anole, Northstar, Moondragon, Quasar, Ultimate Colossus, Batwoman, Mystique, Ice, Bunker, Karolina, Striker, Julie Power, Rictor, Shatterstar, Wiccan, and Hulkling.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 9:02 PM  

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