That's Not Really Super, Supergirl

[planetx]

Comments

[skweemish]

I was talking with Mae last night about Virginia Woolf’s essay A Room Of One’s Own-yes, we are total lit nerds in addition to being comic dorks-and how the trap of being female that Woolf describes in 1928 still exists today. Women and girls are still seen for little more than their sex, while men are seen for their actions and skills. No where is this more apparent than in science fiction, where often female characters are raped or get pregnant, simply because the writers don’t know what else to do with them

YES!!! Right now I'm reading The Last Man by Mary Shelley (I'm going on this proto-sci-fi kick) and despite the fact that it's written by NOT ONLY A woman, but the DAUGHTER of a feminist writer, it STILL ascribes to the norm you stated above! I'm seriously fucking mystified. The only women in the book are wives or foils, which seems to be the only role of women in not only sci-fi lit, but lit in general. It only serves to perpetuate the idea that women's worlds revolve around men - whether they're pleasuring men or torturing

[planetx]

Exactly!

It's amazing how far we haven't come.

[calliopeoracle]

you should send this in as a letter to the editor. :D

[planetx]

I might...I'd have to lose the hyperlinks though.

I seriously doubt it would do any good. The creative team behind Supergirl clearly have no idea they're doing anything wrong.

[earle_gorgo]

I want to read "Spiderman Loves Mary Jane."

[planetx]

You should. It's great.

Sean McKeever destroys the myth that comics written for girls can't appeal to everyone.

[earle_gorgo]

I read a series of panels from S-M lv MJ, and it was hilarious. It was Mary Jane narration in the place of all the dialog, which had Spider-Man saying things like "Here I am, look at me I'm so hot."

[planetx]

There's a great scene in the early issues where Spider-Man drops Mary Jane off at her house after saving her from something or other, and she asks him how he knows where she lives. And Spidey, being Peter, mumbles a few things about super powers and then runs away.

It's very cute.

[zephrin]

This just goes to show that Xena: Warrior Princess, is the best super heroine ever.

[planetx]

See, now there's a power fantasy!

[zephrin]

It's true; who wouldn't want to be a 6' tall super-warrior with a sword and a chakrum AND and sweet, devoted blonde sidekick and the ability to move instantly to broadway-musical-mode if the situation calls for it?

[sxyblkmn]

this has always bugged me because i've always liked supergirl (but it seems like DC has never known what to do with her, even back in her pre-crisis days)

the sci-fi i tend to like has both sexes treated like people. any warren ellis comic, any joss whedon show/comic. any alan moore comic.

hell, even "Smallville" has, what i like to call, "equal opportunity exploitation". for every scene you see one of the smallville ladies dressed in something skimpy, you have clark or lex or oliver queen walking around, flexing, with no shirt on.

(the only time i think she's been done right is when DC used to have her team up with Batgirl)

ok, i'm just rambling now...

[planetx]

It's really not the exploitation that bothers me. If DC wanted to take Supergirl in a Danger Girl or Chobits direction--adventure combined with nudge-nudge wink-wink naughtiness--I wouldn't mind so much, becuase those books are fun, and the audience is clear. I don't know who the audience for Supergirl is supposed to be. Shower scenes aside, it's not cheesecake enough to be for teenage boys (or forty-year olds who like teenage boy thrills), and, for all the reasons stated above, it's clearly not for female readers.

I honestly wonder who they think this comic appeals to.