Women in Comics and the Tricky Art of Equality

Great article from the LA Times! 

Some good bits:

“They consistently make editorial decisions that seem designed to alienate women,” (Jessica) Abel said. “So it’s self-reinforcing. If you’re constantly straight-arming women, women aren’t going to read them. If they don’t read them, they don’t grow up imagining them. If they don’t grow up imagining them, they’re not going to make them.”

Though she disagrees with the practice, MacDonald says she understands why the so-called Big Two cater so heavily to teenage boys and men.

“They’re just terrified of getting the girl cooties on there and losing their audience,” she said. “Marvel and DC, they have a different goal, a different corporate mandate. Certainly for Marvel, they are absolutely part of Disney’s great master plan to have more boy readers…. For DC, as part of the corporate structure, that is more where they fit in.”

And interesting bits…

But even in the superhero world, new artists and more women are being brought in, partly in response to fan concerns.

“It’s definitely been a push,” said Bobbie Chase, editorial director for DC. “We’re pursuing people all the time who could be new voices for comic books, but it’s still going to be a predominantly male industry. I don’t think that has to change, but we can certainly make a much better balance.”

Chase doesn’t apologize for unrealistically sexy portrayal of DC’s heroines, but she emphasizes context.

“You’re doing idealized, muscled characters, so obviously they don’t look realistic, and they’re in costume,” Chase said, noting that the real measure of progress is in the personalities of such characters as Wonder Woman, Batgirl and Catwoman. “They’re not cheesecakey women books. They’re strong female characters.”

Chase points out that 25% of the editorial staff is women. Numbers for the creative staff were not available, but she said that more women are joining the New 52 roster in the coming months.

One of those women is Ann Nocenti, a veteran comics writer recently recruited to take over “Catwoman.”

“I think they reached out to me partly for that reason … as an effort to bring female perspective into comics,” Nocenti said.

But toning down Catwoman’s sexuality is not part of her plan, she said.

“She puts on a skin-tight leather black catsuit with one zipper,” Nocenti said. “Do you know anyone who dresses like that? If you did, you would assume that they were loving their sexuality. … I think there should always be intentionality to the sex in a character.”

Argh. Two things here: One, Catwoman is sexy. But that’s not ALL there is to her. We don’t solely describe Superman as ‘strong’ because there’s more to his character; and that’s what I want to hear about Catwoman. Yes, she’s sexy. But she’s also morally grey, she does what she needs to survive; she does actually care about other people; she’s funny; she’s empathetic; she’s really good at what she does and what she does is stealing. Tell me about the complex character, not about the SUPER SEXY character. I know that. Tell me something new. 

And two? When you’re talking about “idealized” characters, whose ideal? Men in comics are portrayed as the male ideal of how they want to look, while women are portrayed as how straight men want them to look. Men are who they want to be, women are who they want to fuck. So don’t give me this “everybody is idealized” garbage. I’ve heard it before and it’s a false equivalence. 

Also, I’m getting increasingly wary about Nocenti’s portrayal of Catwoman based on her interviews. If it’s anything like Winick’s, I won’t be picking up this book.