(Untitled)

[agent_garibaldi]

Sexism in comics is, ever-so-slowly, sneaking under my radar as not just A Bad Thing, which duhobviously, but as a Thing I Really Care About. I was just having a think- comicfans, could you back me up on this? I was trying to think of the whole "Which supers would actually, seriously, class as good role models for 8-12 year old kids?" I have the

Comments

[cowprintavenger]

Sandman is pretty damn non-sexist and mostly the characters (not including the twisted, psychotic ones, obviously) would be pretty good role models. Dream is a hell of a good role-model for anyone wanting to be an emo kid, anyway!

[ohnefuehlen]

Sandman also had one of the very, very few good rape scenes in a comic ("good" here meaning not hideously stereotypical/exploitative). So, yeah. Not sure if any of the characters really qualify as role models, though, if only because you can't really base your actions/beliefs on theirs (at least, on the Endless).

[infinidimincorp]

What? What about all the stuff with Death? She's totally a role model, she even gave that lecture on how to clean needles if you're going to inject drugs. She's a concerned citizen.

[ohnefuehlen]

I guess I'm thinking of "role model" in a "what would X do" kind of way. Asking yourself what the anthropomorphic personification of death would do in moments of crisis may not always be useful. Also her team-up with John Constantine to explain how and why to use a condom was wonderful and awesome.

[infinidimincorp]

Sure, you can't aspire to be an anthropomorphic personification of Death. But I'd hold that of all of the Endless, Death is the most human. I don't know, I can't really remember the books properly, but I'm sure Death faces a fair share of personaly conflicts without the up her own arse attitude of the rest of the Endless. I think of her as being enormously compassionate, she stands up to her brother's sulking when she sends him to hell, she's empowered, she's wise, she likes hot dogs. She comes up with great one liners like: "One lifetime, same as everyone else." (Or whatever it is.)

Clearly I should read the books again.

[ohnefuehlen]

It's been a while for me, too - I may be overly downplaying her humanity. They probably deserve a re-read.

[cowprintavenger]

Dude, Sandman always deserves a re-read.

[cowprintavenger]

See my comment further down...I think that all of the Endless have human issues going on, and they deal with them in human ways (albeit through making it rain for 3 centuries when you've been dumped, rather than going and kicking a door or something, but still. It's the same principle). I do agree that Death is the one who has the most human qualities about her, but then she possibly has more contact with humans on a face to face basis, as it were.

[ohnefuehlen]

It's in the back of one of the Death comics, I'll lend you them. They're quite lovely.

[cowprintavenger]

I don't know if I agree with that, I think that although the Endless obviously aren't human, they still have some issues in common with your average person, and ways of handling them that young people could learn from. I think that's one of the things I like about the Sandman comics - it's set in a very fantastical background, but there's a lot of very down to earth stuff going on.

I think there's also a lot of good stuff about handling life in there as well, so even if the characters themselves aren't necessarily role models (and I still think some of the characters could be), there's still a lot of positive things that a reader could learn from them. There's so much about loyalty, relationships, handling problems, and so on...it's all stuff that would be a positive influence on a young person reading it.