For a while now, people have been driecting a sometimes critical eye at the treatment of women characters in Marvel and DC comics, wondering if there might not be some unfortunate trends in evidence. (Latest example: half of one of a few happy super-hero couples was found dead in her kitchen, the venue of choice for such discoveries, by her husband, who’s really, really sad.)
Then, people were discussing the state of comics journalism and whether its practitioners might aim a little higher.
Then, prominent comics bloggers started to notice one of those cyclical mini-waves of people dropping Marvel and DC monthlies.
Now, Newsarama has posted an interview with Brian Bendis with the apparent purpose of congratulating him on avoiding that silly, knee-jerk feminist backlash that so often results from sequences like that found in New Avengers #35. After accepting the kudos of Matt Brady and bemoaning our excessively sensitive times, Bendis assures readers that he went out of his way to avoid the interpretation that…
“…something rapey was happening.”
Well, I’m convinced.
October 19, 2007 at 9:46 am |
I think Bendis actually wrote that into the script Newsarama linked to.
“4- Jigsaw is filming and smiling. This was fun. But not fun in THAT WAY. It’s NOT RAPEY AT ALL, OK? Even though Jigsaw is leering at Tigra’s perfectly round bazoongas [feel free to show them spilling out of her shirt all over the place, Leinil, uh, not to titillate or anything but because, um, they're a symbol of her female POWER] and clearly getting off on all of this, it’s NOT CREEPY OR SEXUALIZED OR EXPLOITATIVE AT ALL.”
October 19, 2007 at 10:01 am |
And how thoughtful, sensitive, neutral, and not leading the Newsarama introduction and coverage are!
October 19, 2007 at 10:23 am |
I know! It’s an example for all of us who care about issues of bias.
October 20, 2007 at 11:06 pm |
Adam Warren owns the big two yet again.
I’m often one to roll my eyes when people bring PC into the mix when discussing goofy superhero comics, but that stuff was pretty damn creepy. I can understand why Bendis would think a scene like that is appropriate since he did start out writing hard-boiled crime fiction, but when you’ve got a woman with double-Ds who supposidly has superpowers you shouldn’t be suprised when people call you out on your bullshit. Bendis always came off as a pretty smart and cool guy too, but then again working at Marvel seems to have this kind of effect on people…
October 21, 2007 at 5:48 am |
That he does, Huff. Empowered is pretty much the only successful example I can think of of having your cheesecake and eating it, too.