Sympathetic characters in refridgerators?
A while back I stumbled across Women in Refridgerators, a study of the apparently-overwhelming amount of abuse that goes on to women (or girls) in superhero comics. It is named for the rather horrific strangling and stuff-of in a refridgerator of one of the Green Lantern's girlfriends. I've thought about this a lot and have come to some conclusions.
First, I think females are more sympathetic. At first I thought this was connected to my knight-in-shining-armor syndrome, with men wanting to protect women, but as I thought about it, it occured to me that women also find female characters more sympathetic, though for different reasons. (I'm interested to hear opinions on this assertion.) To summarize: seeing a woman in peril will set one's heart racing more than seeing a man in peril; seeing a woman get shot is more horrifying than seeing a man get shot; knowing a woman is in a building with a bomb will make one gnaw one's fingernails more than if it were a man. This is not misogyny (a word that gets thrown around too much these days), but simply maximizing emotional impact. However...
There is a line, where it just becomes gratuitous. Sue Dibney comes to mind. And Ms. Marvel in Avengers #200. The phenomenon's namesake would certainly seem to qualify. Where exactly is the line before it goes too far? I can't say for sure.
Curiously Aunt May is missing from the list, and let's face it, she hasn't had anything too tasteless happen to her, but she's certainly been in more peril than most characters. And what about abused men? Spider-Man's been through hell. Ms. Marvel's boyfriend was beaten to death by Mystique, while disguised as her. My very first superhero comic's premise (Iron Man #165) is that Iron Man must traverse a trap-filled castle to save his good buddy, Rhodey, who is tied down and covered in black widow spiders. (Muahahaha! I love old comic books.)
My conclusion is that, while there IS a problem with misogyny in comics, the Women in Refridgerators phenomenon exaggerates its scope. On a related subject, I think the problem with women being sexualized in comics is also real, but exaggerated; well, at least it isn't much worse than men, who have exaggerated physiques and run around in skin tight outfits as well.
First, I think females are more sympathetic. At first I thought this was connected to my knight-in-shining-armor syndrome, with men wanting to protect women, but as I thought about it, it occured to me that women also find female characters more sympathetic, though for different reasons. (I'm interested to hear opinions on this assertion.) To summarize: seeing a woman in peril will set one's heart racing more than seeing a man in peril; seeing a woman get shot is more horrifying than seeing a man get shot; knowing a woman is in a building with a bomb will make one gnaw one's fingernails more than if it were a man. This is not misogyny (a word that gets thrown around too much these days), but simply maximizing emotional impact. However...
There is a line, where it just becomes gratuitous. Sue Dibney comes to mind. And Ms. Marvel in Avengers #200. The phenomenon's namesake would certainly seem to qualify. Where exactly is the line before it goes too far? I can't say for sure.
Curiously Aunt May is missing from the list, and let's face it, she hasn't had anything too tasteless happen to her, but she's certainly been in more peril than most characters. And what about abused men? Spider-Man's been through hell. Ms. Marvel's boyfriend was beaten to death by Mystique, while disguised as her. My very first superhero comic's premise (Iron Man #165) is that Iron Man must traverse a trap-filled castle to save his good buddy, Rhodey, who is tied down and covered in black widow spiders. (Muahahaha! I love old comic books.)
My conclusion is that, while there IS a problem with misogyny in comics, the Women in Refridgerators phenomenon exaggerates its scope. On a related subject, I think the problem with women being sexualized in comics is also real, but exaggerated; well, at least it isn't much worse than men, who have exaggerated physiques and run around in skin tight outfits as well.