Take away my feminist card, I'm about to defend Adam Hughes
I could just let this hide in a comment on someone else's blog, but screw it. First, I think Saranga's point there about the unfortunate tendency in Anglophone culture to call anyone in a thong a slut is quite right. Second, I may as well call some of y'all on it, too. It kind of needs to be aired a little bit.
(Note, that Saranga is not trying to defend the statue overall. See her points here. I'm a lot mellower about it, but I've lived through Sue Richards in the horrifying skimpy costume with the cutout "4", so this seems...at least not nearly so obnoxious by comparison. And I have a pretty pretty poster by Carl Potts of the X-Men women sunbathing, & I even bought a couple of those Marvel swimsuit specials back in the day. I'm not going to pretend I'm too pure or too sane to find comic-book women in provocative poses tempting.)
What follows is my comment on her post:
OK, I think I tend to absorb the opinions of those around me a bit, so I've just sort of accepted the outrage over the MJ statuette.
But, yeah, to be honest, the outrage took on a life of its own, & people's anti-thong prejudices got in there.
MJ was designed to be A TOTAL HOTTIE. That's her original character pitch. She's not the sweet modest girl next door, she's the wild hippie girl with the face of a movie star. (And the recent teen Mary Jane comics? Full of retcon nonsense.)
So, yeah, a sexy, wild hottie who's been shown as knowing Pete was Spidey long before they got hitched; being, you know, wild, hot, sexy, & slyly smiling upon finding his Spidey-togs in the laundry. Not out of character. I was rereading some Mackie Spider-Man issues today, so, really, ask me about the Parkers being out of character.
That said, some people are just skeeved by any artistic prurience. I get that. I sympathize with people's reactions. But on its face, the statue was not the travesty some thought.
(Note, that Saranga is not trying to defend the statue overall. See her points here. I'm a lot mellower about it, but I've lived through Sue Richards in the horrifying skimpy costume with the cutout "4", so this seems...at least not nearly so obnoxious by comparison. And I have a pretty pretty poster by Carl Potts of the X-Men women sunbathing, & I even bought a couple of those Marvel swimsuit specials back in the day. I'm not going to pretend I'm too pure or too sane to find comic-book women in provocative poses tempting.)
What follows is my comment on her post:
OK, I think I tend to absorb the opinions of those around me a bit, so I've just sort of accepted the outrage over the MJ statuette.
But, yeah, to be honest, the outrage took on a life of its own, & people's anti-thong prejudices got in there.
MJ was designed to be A TOTAL HOTTIE. That's her original character pitch. She's not the sweet modest girl next door, she's the wild hippie girl with the face of a movie star. (And the recent teen Mary Jane comics? Full of retcon nonsense.)
So, yeah, a sexy, wild hottie who's been shown as knowing Pete was Spidey long before they got hitched; being, you know, wild, hot, sexy, & slyly smiling upon finding his Spidey-togs in the laundry. Not out of character. I was rereading some Mackie Spider-Man issues today, so, really, ask me about the Parkers being out of character.
That said, some people are just skeeved by any artistic prurience. I get that. I sympathize with people's reactions. But on its face, the statue was not the travesty some thought.