DC Comics and women | Quit Your Day Job

Originally posted on 1 year 3 months 6 days. This blog is no longer being updated - you should come check out my new blog: Too Short To Be A Storm Trooper

After reading Catwoman, Supergirl and Wonder Woman the other week I was surprised and more than a little pleased with the internet community when I discovered that I was not alone in thinking DC had missed a huge opportunity with the relaunch to treat their depiction of women better. Instead they seemed to go down the opposite path and pushed as hard as they could in the direction of treating female characters as props for the entertainment of younger males.

For some reason the word empowered over in the halls of DC means “has lots of meaningless sex and wears no clothing”.

Of course some people don’t see this as a problem, some think that it’s the way things are done and we don’t need to consider the role models we are setting not only for young women but also young men. I was going to write up something lengthy around my thoughts on the matter but to be honest some people have already done the heavy lifting for me and whilst I don’t agree with every single little point I do agree with the overall thoughts expressed in these articles:

My favourite is Dear DC Comics because I think DC comics should listen to a 7 year old girl who seems to have more sense than DC. Which is supported by the following Shortpacked! comic:

I have friends with young kids who are beginning to discover the awesomeness of comics but I can’t imagine which of the DC 52 I could recommend to a still forming mind that’s not specifically a children’s title like Tiny Titans (that’s not to say that I’ve got one for Marvel either at the moment). But even for those kids who do read Tiny Titans and then want to move to Teen Titans, the jump is pretty huge (in fairness I haven’t read TT#1 yet so I am assuming it’s a jump – it certainly would be to any of the titles I have read).

***Update*** Just read Teen Titans #1 and so far it’s reasonably family friendly and Wonder Girl is wearing clothes

These articles are all good reads around the subject:

Andrew Wheeler’s description of the Catwoman cover is particularly delightful:

We’ve known for a while that the cover to the Catwoman reboot has the character lying on her back barefoot with her legs in the air, baring her cleavage and pouring sparkling white droplets over her boobs. It’s very tasteful. It sets the tone. She’s a thief, you see, and that’s what thieves do; at the end of a long day of thieving they lie on a rooftop and throw diamonds away. Erotically.

The problem is and a lot of people seem to be missing this is that we’re not saying don’t let characters have sex or discuss mature themes, it’s probably not appropriate for every book though and female characters should occasionally be an actual role model rather than a sex prop. It’s important for both sexes to see this because boys need to learn to be men and girls aren’t props and shouldn’t have to see themselves as such.

Also a good read:

Jon Hamm Talks About Rape And The Lack Of Positive Male Role Models

DC did respond via Twitter to the complaints about Starfire:

We encourage people to pay attention to the ratings when picking out any books to read themselves or for their children.

In fairness to DC they are right, a character who has been predominately pushed to a younger market is now in a comic book that is rated T for Teen which means 12 or older and parents should know what it is that their kids are reading and work out if it’s cool for them or not. I would argue that the depiction of Starfire though isn’t really for a 12 year old and even if it was is this still the best use of DC’s writing and artistic talents?

Would love a conversation about this in the comments but note that ignorant comments will be treated as such

3 thoughts on “DC Comics and women”

Jeff on October 4, 2011 at 1:52 pm said:

I totally agree. My kids (both girls) are more in the Mickey Mouse ages at this point, but honestly I can’t think of a comic book that I would encourage them to read over the next few years, even into their teens.
We’ve invented a few superheroes in this house that we tell stories about. Small scale kids stories. I’m pretty sure the topic of sexiness has never been remotely approached, and my kids are clamoring for more stories all the time. They just want to hear about people helping other people.
- Lee on October 4, 2011 at 8:27 pm said:
  
  The invented Super-heroes sound cool -- maybe there’s a market for children friendly characters that aren’t from the big two companies??
  - Jeff on October 4, 2011 at 11:13 pm said:
    
    I’ve actually considered writing the stories out from time to time. Most of them are just silly, but it could make a decent kids book, or comic, with a little massaging. We started with “The Secret Three” but the cast has expanded over the last couple of years to 5, I think. Every time I consider doing it, though, I start thinking in terms of marketing instead of story, though, and that’s not the right way to go. Plus there needs to be a visual component, in my opinion. I can’t draw, and it’s a bigger project than I’m willing to ask someone who can draw to get into for free (especially because I think I’d be pretty opinionated about it). So… it’s still on the maybe pile.