Not only about misogyny in comics

Something happened that bothered me, and I thought that was what I would write about today, because it is still comics, and then do a comic review tomorrow, and we have this theme going.

My problem, as usual, is that there is always more to it, so I can tell one story, or two stories, or several, and try and sort them out, and it gets very long. So, I will write something about this today, and then I will do my review tomorrow, and the music reviews the next two days, and Monday I will probably be right back here. We’ll see.

Anyway, I’ll start with the thing that was comics. One of the comic writers whom I was following was sent final art on a character by the artist. I won’t name either of them, but the character was Catwoman, and my concern was with her costume. It wasn’t even a plunging V-neck because it was way too wide to be a V.

I’m not automatically against sexy costumes, but this was ridiculous, in both her body proportions and the costume. For one thing, it would be completely impractical for burglary and combat, because she’s just set to fall out. Technically there is a dangling zipper she could pull up, but it does not look like there is enough leather to cover her disproportionately large upper part, and it clearly already chafes too much, especially without a bra.

It might be a practical outfit for a stripper, but even then it might peel away too soon without the use of tape, and the rest of the outfit is too tight for easy removal, so really the only thing she could do is stay there and be leered at, like an object.

It bothered me, and I couldn’t leave it alone, so I replied something along the lines of how “Nothing says ‘powerful woman’ like a fetishized costume falling off an unrealistic body.” The writer didn’t say anything. The artist responded “Get a life.”

I get that this is his work, and he was proud of it. It was well-drawn. I also know that I actually do have a life, and that is really not the most devastating retort out there. Still, I was now more bothered.

I hate conflict. I want everyone to get along and be happy, and I don’t ever want to make anyone feel bad, and I certainly don’t want people to dislike me, though I often find that I actually can live with that. Still, I really felt that I needed to say something, and that was the thing to say.

When I say it has been coming up everywhere, I mean it. I recently read Pat Benatar’s autobiography, and she had to deal with a lot of sexism, and sexualization. One blog post about starting to stand up to sexism after putting up with it for a long time linked to another blog post that was similar.

The connection between those three was that even though they all had different levels of acceptance (with the one there was even complicity), they all reached points where they said “No more.” One realized she could, one did it because she felt protective of some younger girls, and one did it because reading about the other one made her feel ashamed.

Actually, I’ve read many good pieces lately. A lot of people have dealt with it, a lot of people have written eloquently about it, and they probably get more readers than I do. The people who need to understand the most probably are not reading those pieces, or not getting them. I had another experience a few days later that was interesting too, and I’m going to try and explain that, but I think this is where I need to wait for Monday.

For now, I am grateful that the MOOC is about gender, and that the conference has panels on gender, and that there are so many thoughtful and eloquent voices out there. It’s a start.