Lara Croft and the Australian Army
July 29th, 2007
As editor of Pop Culture Heroines I’ve had to really examine the role of female comic book characters and the positive or negative images they put out into society. It’s hard to look at Spider-Woman in her extraordinarily tight outfit and the overtly sexual style that she is generally drawn in and argue that she can be a positive female icon. And at PCH we tend to try and focus on positive rather than negative. It’s easy to launch into an essay about women being treated as objects in superhero comic book circles, you have to dig a little deeper for the positives which there are indeed plenty of once you get past the aesthetic.
That is why when I read about the Australian Army’s internal recruitment campaign I was torn over my reaction and which side of the fence I come down on.
On one hand, being a huge comic book fan I am straight away attracted to the artwork, purely on an art basis. I can see what the brief was and how the artist got to the conclusions. I’m assuming that they were told to present the woman in a comic book hero light to show that the roles that they are performing are just as important as the front line and just as heroic. In this regard I feel that the artist has achieved what they set out to do. However some of their judgement is questionable especially in my opinion the dental nurse/dentist poster I don’t know does it have a suggestive undertone?
Half of these posters I think are passable, in that you would have to be imaginative in order to put a sexual context (not hard really just ask any teenager). But the other ones are just suggestive and have poses that show a lack of familiarity with the role.
There are other reasons that have been suggested for the removal of these posters, reasons that personally I probably can’t really comment on as I have no idea what it is to be a woman but the portrayal of these ‘characters’ all have them in form fitting uniforms looking perfect with their hair and make up done. Does this send the wrong idea not only to men but also to woman that in order to be successful you need to try and live up to the impossible Barbie look even when changing tires? Apparently in all fairness the male version of these posters has a chiselled jaw super man wearing tight overalls. I guess you’re not going to put ugly people up there are you? Once again we come back to the brief and more often than not comic book characters look perfect unless they are villians.
Take a look at the other posters and let me know what you all think!
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Wow you are right these are suggestive, but I would be willing to bet recruitment numbers are up.
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The thing which makes me cross is that there were male orientated posters too and the media didn’t show them. It would have added balance to the story and rounded off the intended effect. At least that’s what I imagine.
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