(no subject)
I bought a Birds of Prey trade paperback yesterday written by Gail Simone (Birds of Prey: Of Like Minds), and it's an excellent comic. She also wrote a really good episode of the Justice League Unlimited series, which is partly what got me actually looking at Birds of Prey in the first place.
Simone also has a page here covering what she calls "Women in Refrigerator" syndrome. It was apparently coined after a Green Lantern where he comes home and finds out a supervillain has chopped up his girlfriend and put her in the fridge. It basically refers to female characters, especially heroes being abused/killed/whatever as a point of tragedy to the heroes they're related to (much earlier, Gwen Stacey, Peter Parker's girlfriend, was killed by Green Goblin). I turned to Birds of Prey also because I was sick of female heroes being written as sex objects and victims. At least Batgirl(Barbara)/Black Canary are now being written as competent heroes... In the 90s, Batgirl (Barbara) was paralyzed by the Joker, and Black Canary was raped, something a lot of fans resented since they unnecessarily victimized otherwise strong female characters. There's a difference between putting a character through trauma or hardship and just plain doing something for shock value to try to get more readers. I tend to feel the same way about a lot of female characters in anime, manga, and video games. Hell, I love Bleach, but Rukia is/was relegated from a major character to a damsel in distress plot device. At any rate, Gail Simone is the best comics writer I've read in long time, and I think I'm going to write her a letter. She's not some kind of crazy feminist (neither am I), just aware of the misogyny that tends to creep in to fiction... Reflects rather poorly on our society, doesn't it?
Simone also has a page here covering what she calls "Women in Refrigerator" syndrome. It was apparently coined after a Green Lantern where he comes home and finds out a supervillain has chopped up his girlfriend and put her in the fridge. It basically refers to female characters, especially heroes being abused/killed/whatever as a point of tragedy to the heroes they're related to (much earlier, Gwen Stacey, Peter Parker's girlfriend, was killed by Green Goblin). I turned to Birds of Prey also because I was sick of female heroes being written as sex objects and victims. At least Batgirl(Barbara)/Black Canary are now being written as competent heroes... In the 90s, Batgirl (Barbara) was paralyzed by the Joker, and Black Canary was raped, something a lot of fans resented since they unnecessarily victimized otherwise strong female characters. There's a difference between putting a character through trauma or hardship and just plain doing something for shock value to try to get more readers. I tend to feel the same way about a lot of female characters in anime, manga, and video games. Hell, I love Bleach, but Rukia is/was relegated from a major character to a damsel in distress plot device. At any rate, Gail Simone is the best comics writer I've read in long time, and I think I'm going to write her a letter. She's not some kind of crazy feminist (neither am I), just aware of the misogyny that tends to creep in to fiction... Reflects rather poorly on our society, doesn't it?