18th October, 2007
Minus the Gaze
Thursday, 12:38 pm in Books & Comics
Originally from a discussion here, but I just have to share it…
You know, sometimes it hurts. You spend all this time investing in tempering your inner feminist, telling it that it’s over-reacting to seeing depictions of women in comic books with their rivet-nippled inflation tits, saying that it’s not that exploitative because, hell, it’s not like the guys are running around wearing a great deal more.
And then something like this comes along and just totally shatters all your carefully-built illusions.
![[ image ]](http://archive.void-star.net/image/20071018_badass.hana.jpg)
Isn’t she beautiful! Look at that grace, that determination, that intensity, that head-to-toe ninja outfit, those muscles and – could it be, could it possibly be? – not a single piece of cheesecake. No boobs, no butt, no cameltoe; just a badass ninja-chick scaling a wall. Isn’t it just everything you’ve ever dreamt of? Everything your heart has wanted to see, ever since you were a little girl; a female hero who has all of the strength and none of the Gaze?
Like I said, she’s beautiful. There’s just one problem.
That’s not a woman. That’s Batman.
Admittedly it’s Batman from the Japanese period-drama Shogun of Steel Elseworlds, which is particularly notorious – in the slash community and out – for making Bruce a girl seemingly for the sole purpose of getting him/her into a romantic relationship with Kal (that’s the guy in the top two panels). And here’s where we get to the heart of my problem, because externally Hana might be a girl, but – as 
jen_in_japan pointed out – seemingly the only reason she’s treated so well in this comic is because, like, it’s disrespectful to ogle Batman’s boobs. I just can’t get over those arms; she looks so strong, and can you honestly tell me that other female superheroes are drawn that way?
Yet she’s still feminine; she spend a great deal of the first part of the story walking around in beautiful kimono, and even in this picture her eyes are still very obviously that of a woman (about the only thing that is). And it’s infuriating, because it’s so well done… but it always comes back to the realisation that the only reason it’s done this way is because the character isn’t ‘really’ a woman.
And you can’t disgrace Batman.
- Comments By » Maja
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hmm...
Perhaps She/He is drawn in such a way because they didn’t want to offend the MALE readers of Batman, as after all, Batman is primarily a “boy-comic”. Many of the comic books created are made primarily for the male marked, and as such they naturally want to make it “interesting” to “read” about female heroines running around in tight outfits being able to throw cars across the country… One should never underestimate the demograph of prepubic male teenagers unable to get laid.
And perhaps they didn’t think people would find it acceptable making Bruce look like Barbie? Readers are only willing to put up with so and so much craziness before they give up and move to a different comic.
I know only of one female comic heroine who is drawn in a realistic, yet beautiful way.
Sure, she has tits and ass. But she’s no Barbie. She’s anatomically correct
Her name is Dawn.
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Perhaps She/He is drawn in such a way because they didn’t want to offend the MALE readers of Batman
Yes, that’s pretty much what I’m saying. It’s disrespectful to portray Batman in a cheesecake-esque way, even when he’s currently being a woman. I recommend checking out the discussion on the LJ mirror, where people’ve summed it up more succinctly than I’ve done here.
Her name is Dawn.
But Dawn is cheesecake; actually explicitly so (in the comic she appears as people want to see her). IIRC, Dawn comes directly from the ‘Bad Girl’ era in comics, too, where big-breasted scantily clad ladies were running around wielding swords and whatnot. The Bad Girl era was unashamedly 100% all about soft porn and violence masturbation fantasies.
And that’s my whole point, because while strong (physically and otherwise) female characters do exist, there’s always cheesecake. The really striking – and incongruous – thing about the image of Hana is that you couldn’t even tell she was female just by looking at that picture out of context. Even the eyes, I’d bet, people would overlook because of the simple fact that she hasn’t been drawn in a pose that shows off her T&A.
I mean, to be perfectly frank this is the reason you can tell comics are drawn mainly for and by men. Because if you’re depicting women for a female market then you don’t need to put giant cleavage in every shot, or to make up spurious reasons why it should be. Which isn’t to say that women should be neutered, only that there’s a time and a place for looking like you’re about to walk onto a porn shoot, and going into battle isn’t it.
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cry for dawn
Ey, no calling my Dawn cheesecake. Art with her made me get into designing in the first place
My point was that she’s more “realistic”. Not in character, but shape obviously, considering she’s a Goddess and all… There’s no oversized unnaturally large silicon breasts with perky small nipples and a couple of meters of long skinny legs. She’s a woman, and her artist let’s the world know it. But she still looks like a *real* person. The fact that the artist challenges the Christian Faith and Wicca at the same time while portraying a devious woman with mad humour is to me, just a bonus.
I’ve personally never been very fond of having to spend money on a comic spending the majority of the read trying to figure out what gender I’m looking at… If I’m looking at a woman, I’d like to know. And if it’s a man, oops. Elfquest, anyone?
Unlike latest edition of X-men with the portraits of, as an example, Storm. Abnormally tall, skinny and with Pamela Anderson-tits. There’s your cheesecake. The Barbie-doll.
Which again can make you wonder why Hulk still sells. Last time I checked, he was still one big green mountain of rage, not a little blond frilly with a push up bra.
But comic art as evolved rather drastically over the years. The cleavage and skimpy “half-napkin” outfits are the latest trend. 10-20 years ago they had smaller breasts and more clothes on, 30-50 years ago they were almost shapeless with full coats and whatnot.
I’d like to say I hope they’ll be more realistic-looking in the future. But considering that people DO run around half naked with oversized breasts these days… meh…
And I can’t seem to think of any comic which was created specifically for the female marked. Except for Bewitched.. but that’s for the younger population… Was Witchblade a halfassed attempt?
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But seriously… they turned Bruce into a woman? …… why?
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Ey, no calling my Dawn cheesecake.
I think I’m not necessarily saying it’s bad – I mean, I love Chastity from the same era – only that it is the only way women are depicted. ~Belinda [h] gave me this link about Frank Miller’s treatment of Vicki Vale in All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder. That’s what I’m talking about.
It’s not just the physical depictions; it’s everything. The whole mindset.
And I can’t seem to think of any comic which was created specifically for the female marked.
If you’re talking historically, comic-read was a lot more popular In The Old Days than in the last thirty years of so. Stuff like Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane was directly targeted at a female audience. In modern times, Marvel had an aborted attempt called Trouble which was an attempt to revive the old romance comic genre but mostly just turned Aunt May into a slut and outraged pretty much everybody. Then they relaunched with Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane in manga format and that’s done a lot better.
In indie comics there are a few more, but I can’t think of them off the top of my head because I don’t read them.
Last time I was in my Friendly Neighbourhood Comic Store I actually remembered seeing a publisher of Western manga-format comics that was very obviously directly targeted at the existing female comic book market (geekgirls, a little bit gothy).And, of course, manga is popular in the West now; I’d count that, because DC and Marvel are and that’s why they’re getting antsy.
But seriously… they turned Bruce into a woman? …… why?
So he could finally have the romance with Superman everyone’s know has been coming for the last 60 years? And then die, of course. No happily ever after on this plot.