BATGIRL: A Question of Boobage
Recently, in feminist comic book circles, there's been a lot of talk about the second Batgirl, Cassandra Cain. There's been argument that she is a fetishized or unrealistic character.
From my limited experience, I've never had that problem with her character. I mean, it's also cool to have an Asian American female represent in the very homogenized BatFamily. I like her character's social awkwardness and in the issues darkportent gave me, they seem to address the Asian American stuff pretty tactfully. And her costume is definitely not slutty--it covers her in black, head to toe, without even showing any of her face.
What kept me from buying the last volume of the series at the comic sale Jared took me to was the boobies. The writing is excellent, and I like the League of Assassins. So my problem truly lies with the way the secondary characters are portrayed. Holy crap. Do ALL the women in this universe have gigantic, unrealistic tits? And why can't the bad guys cover their chests? :_:
BAD GUY WARDROBE MALFUNCTIONS
For example: The woman above is Nyssa Ratako, elder daughter of Ra's al Ghul. She was such a brilliant criminal mastermind, she was able to successfully assassinate her father and take over his empire--the empire he ruled for hundreds of years. However, she seems to be missing the front panel of her shirt. How does she keep her boobies from popping out? And what are the strategic benefits of showing your henchmen your belly button?
This is Lady Shiva. Lady Shiva is arguably the most talented martial artist in the entire world. Yet, she seems to have forgotten to zip up her shirt. I won't even go into how that get up is like, as Darth Fabulous would say, "More hideous than like, Sidious."
[DARTH FABULOUS: the Force grants him incredible fashion sense. in fact he openly refers to Darth Sidious as "Darth Hideous" and turned to the dark side because he hated that the Jedi wear brown ALL THE TIME.]
The boobies unfortunately get even more frightening.
BOOBS PERFORM IN AMAZING WAYS
I don't have very large boobs, so they don't like, fly around when I do jumping jacks and stuff. Maybe breasts totally do work this way and Pop Mhan isn't kind of stretching realism in his art. But to me, these boobs were frighteningly large and bounced in mysterious ways.
Dinah has like, the shiniest boobs ever
Okay, not weird boobs, but definitely lesbo fan service
I don't know who this is, but her tits are humongous too.
Shiva's boobs are actually larger than her arse.
She is amazingly skinny.
How this strange proportion helps her perform martial arts is beyond me.
OMG HER BOOBS ARE POINTY. And her legs are beefy.
Death by her hand? More like death by her boobs?
Her boobs are swinging! And pointy!
It must run in the family! Cassandra's boobs look like they are detachable!
So I don't know why people are complaining about how Batgirl is drawn, aside from pretty large boobs (clearly inherited from her mother) she is probably the least scantily clad character in this comic book. There's a lot of stuff to criticize before you get to Cass. Like the fact that apparently, if you expose your chest, it makes you a better assassin!
edited and x-posted to scans_daily
From my limited experience, I've never had that problem with her character. I mean, it's also cool to have an Asian American female represent in the very homogenized BatFamily. I like her character's social awkwardness and in the issues darkportent gave me, they seem to address the Asian American stuff pretty tactfully. And her costume is definitely not slutty--it covers her in black, head to toe, without even showing any of her face.
What kept me from buying the last volume of the series at the comic sale Jared took me to was the boobies. The writing is excellent, and I like the League of Assassins. So my problem truly lies with the way the secondary characters are portrayed. Holy crap. Do ALL the women in this universe have gigantic, unrealistic tits? And why can't the bad guys cover their chests? :_:
BAD GUY WARDROBE MALFUNCTIONS
For example: The woman above is Nyssa Ratako, elder daughter of Ra's al Ghul. She was such a brilliant criminal mastermind, she was able to successfully assassinate her father and take over his empire--the empire he ruled for hundreds of years. However, she seems to be missing the front panel of her shirt. How does she keep her boobies from popping out? And what are the strategic benefits of showing your henchmen your belly button?
This is Lady Shiva. Lady Shiva is arguably the most talented martial artist in the entire world. Yet, she seems to have forgotten to zip up her shirt. I won't even go into how that get up is like, as Darth Fabulous would say, "More hideous than like, Sidious."
[DARTH FABULOUS: the Force grants him incredible fashion sense. in fact he openly refers to Darth Sidious as "Darth Hideous" and turned to the dark side because he hated that the Jedi wear brown ALL THE TIME.]
The boobies unfortunately get even more frightening.
BOOBS PERFORM IN AMAZING WAYS
I don't have very large boobs, so they don't like, fly around when I do jumping jacks and stuff. Maybe breasts totally do work this way and Pop Mhan isn't kind of stretching realism in his art. But to me, these boobs were frighteningly large and bounced in mysterious ways.
Dinah has like, the shiniest boobs ever
Okay, not weird boobs, but definitely lesbo fan service
I don't know who this is, but her tits are humongous too.
Shiva's boobs are actually larger than her arse.
She is amazingly skinny.
How this strange proportion helps her perform martial arts is beyond me.
OMG HER BOOBS ARE POINTY. And her legs are beefy.
Death by her hand? More like death by her boobs?
Her boobs are swinging! And pointy!
It must run in the family! Cassandra's boobs look like they are detachable!
So I don't know why people are complaining about how Batgirl is drawn, aside from pretty large boobs (clearly inherited from her mother) she is probably the least scantily clad character in this comic book. There's a lot of stuff to criticize before you get to Cass. Like the fact that apparently, if you expose your chest, it makes you a better assassin!
edited and x-posted to scans_daily