Genderbending in Tights and Cloaks

[cassiphone]

Jennifer Fallon pointed out this article on the lack of female superheroes in recent pop culture, as well as some intriguing gender issues to do with the Batman film franchise. I'll skip past the gay Batman stuff, because it's been said lots before. What caught my eye was that, the author, Dr Yvette Blackwood, points out something I've always

Comments

[azhure]

Yeah, Maggie basically gets nothing at all to work with, which is a massive shame. They didn't even make any effort to light her well, which makes her look awful in a lot of scenes.

[rachelholkner]

While I agree that her role is typically thin, I was quite comforted by the fact that at least she looks like a real person! Especially when her beauty is mentioned several times by other characters.

[rachelholkner]

Incidentally there's a new(ish) Huntress origin series that's been getting good press...ah, here's the article I read
http://thedawnchorus.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/women-we-love-ivory-madison/
I'm def. going to look out for it.

[cassiphone]

I still mourn the original Huntress. Because... well the current one is cool, but you can't *beat* being the grown up daughter of Batman and Catwoman. You just can't.

Hmmmmm...

[looneymoth]

Villainesses are a weird one... especially in Disney. They seem to be either hypersexual or dried up and sexless. It'd be nice to see a female villain whowas just a baddie without that other leyer on top.

[sazettel]

Waaaaaay, waaaaaay back in the day (the day of the early 70s to be precise), when the original Batman TV series (you know, the one with Adam West as Batman), there was an odd little commercial/PSA. There are Batman and Robin tied up and a bomb with a fizzing fuse in front of them.

In through the window comes Batgirl. Batman urges her to put out the bomb. Batgirl stands there and points out that she does the same work as Robin and gets paid less and is not going to save their lives until she gets equal pay for doing equal work.

I cannot even begin to imagine such a thing showing these days.

[procraftinator]

From the genderbending appreciative corner:

kids don't get a set gender identity until they're abut five years old. If we didn't condition them to boys = blue, girls = pink we would get a lot more boys in fairy costumes.

I'm not sure if this is interesting or tragic-ish.

*steps off soapbox and goes to nap*

[cassiphone]

Nods. But ADULTS set gender identity way earlier. And freak the hell out if it's crossed.

I used to dress baby Raeli in blue and then if someone wrongly guessed she was a BOY they would be hugely upset when I cheerfully corrected them. And they get way more bent out of shape if it's the boy wearing pink.

[battblush]

Have you seen Connor frocked up on Lee's blog? www.battersblog.blogspot.com.

And yes, I was horrified. Bad mummy. No biscuit.