Wonder Woman Gets a Woman's Point-of-View 210
theodp writes "Traditionally, comics have been by, for and about men. But more and more women are breaking into the traditional boys' club. Beginning with Wonder Woman #14, the superhero's tale is being told by Gail Simone. It's a break from nearly 66 years of being written for the most part by men. '[Her work as a blogger] led to a writing job for the all-female comic 'Birds of Prey' for DC--which became a short-lived, live-action TV series--and in turn won her the "Wonder Woman" job. Simone says she sees a change since she wrote her refrigerator rant 10 years ago. 'At that time, the trend was towards grim stories where female characters were killed,' she says. 'We only had a handful of female characters to look up to. Today we're not seeing those stories so much.'"
What about Marsden's Bondage Themes? (Score:5, Interesting)
Marsden was also a bit of a pervert. His wife and their live-in slave... er... maid, lived in more-or-less open polygamy. They were his bondage slaves, and were apparently quite happy to be so. This theme, of feminine happiness through obedience and subservience, is repeated frequently through Wonder Woman. Not only did Wonder Woman frequently get tied up with her own magic lasso, but pretty much all the Amazon girls loved being bound, spanked, or otherwise disciplined by their superiors.
While you may disagree with Marsden's symbolism, any retelling of Wonder Woman that leaves out the bondage isn't really doing the subject very much justice. Wonderwoman need not end up stuffed in a refrigerator, but she does need to be frequently paddled to keep the story moving.
Excuse me? (Score:3, Interesting)
Read the rant. Completely disagree. FYI I don't have hairy pits or legs.
Doesn't every character/hero of consequence go through some life-defining moment. She writes as is every female goes off to a grimson end or a tragic moment but uh hello...there's life....there's character building...there's a good friggin story.
Look at the list and it blatantly leaves out key figures in the comic universes. Examples:
Superman died
Batman was paralyzed only to come back and take out the sorry sack of shit who replaced him
Robin died
Spawn was a crusader who was reborn in hell...how more tragic is fighting for what you believe to be a noble cause and hello you go straight to hell
Wolverine was used, abused, lost his memory and then ended up working for the X-men
Sorry...but a personal pet peeve is a feminist fight without a true argument. Sorry to say but women were allowed the same fates as men. I personally love when the woman is a villain. At least we're acknowledged as a threat. A good story always involves a sad or grimsom moment for the lead character. Thankfully women have been subjected to same fates of men in the comic world.
No, they do exist. (Score:4, Interesting)
But wait, she's not the caricature the far-right draws of the militant feminist. She was just a jerk. Women can be jerks as easily as men.
A few years ago I was talking to a Women's Studies professor at Florida State and I related this story. I also mentioned how angry I had been at the time, still was, to be lumped in with rapists just because I opened a door for someone who had a double armload of books. This professor listened, considered her words very carefully, and then said clearly I needed to take her introductory Women's Studies course so that I could understand the jerk's "context". I said I didn't really care about her context, it was a stupid comparison to make, and the hate directed at me was entirely undeserved and uncivilized. "Yes, but that's the point, you see," she explained to me patiently. "You've never opened your eyes and thought about what sort of life experiences could make her react in such a way, or the actions you did which provoked this response. You only care about your own male-oriented view and undercutting the validity of her life experience." (I am not quoting her exactly, but I am quoting her pretty darn close. It's been a few years, but the outrageousness of the dialog has made it stick in my memory very clearly.)
She went on for about another ten minutes before I had enough and stormed away.
The woman in 1993 was just a jerk. The Florida State Women's Studies prof who defended her and not once expressed a sentiment of "yes, she was a jerk"? She was the right-wing caricature of a feminazi.
Fortunately, people like her seem to be rare. At least, I've never found one outside of a Women's Studies department. (And I've met one Women's Studies prof since then who characterized the Florida State prof as "what a bitch!", which did my heart no end of good.)
Re:Fine by me... (Score:2, Interesting)
where's the tenderness? (Score:3, Interesting)
Still, no compassion for this girl you scared, and it's fairly clear that you scared her. Yes, it's likely she might have acted different if some girl ran up. However, just imagine a shy girl, first semester (maybe) in a large University , away from home, maybe just out of the 'date rape discussion' they force on every freshmen, walking back to her dorm, minding her own business. Random guy comes up and without any introduction get into her personal space. Then she gives a quick not even half though explanation, about why she got jumpy, but that proves she is a militant feminist.
What you should have done was announce yourself, saying perhaps 'let me get that for you'. I do it all the time, and a couple of times I've had them size me up for a second, in particular when I've blindsided them. I sincerely hope that someone doesn't judge you as harshly. Dude, you really need to take a fresh look at both of those conversations, I'll be that you see them differently, if you step back from yourself.
Re:Excuse me? (Score:3, Interesting)
You can say whatever you want about the TINY, TINY percentage of females in comics who have died over the years, but Jason Todd was VOTED TO DIE BY THE FANS, and nobody gave it a thought, because men are supposed to die.
The percentage of men in comics who are killed, maimed, depowered, and disfigured DWARFS the female characters both in percentage and number.
Hell, the ORIGINAL Superman was beaten to death. His wife just passed away naturally. Chalk up old Lois to the list, I guess. And it isn't important the way that Kara Zor-El died, only that she did. Who gives a shit about heroism when you can have kvetching instead?
Batman and Superman couldn't BE Batman and Superman without being alive or being able to walk. It's kind of a prerequesite to the job, and they obviously aren't going to have anything major happen to them since they support so many books. Hyppolyta didn't stay dead. And Barbara Gordon is a more important character now as Oracle than she ever was as Batgirl... and the reason she isn't walking right now is because she CHOSE not to, in a story that Gail wrote.
The entire line of thinking is fucking stupid. Most of the main characters in comics are men, because men are the people who buy the majority of comics. If you want to build up conflict, you can do it a number of ways, but when you want to build up a tragedy for a character, it's going to come in the form of hurt to someone that character cares about, and MOST of them are heterosexual men, therefore most of their love interests are going to be women.
Did it have to be Sue Dibny in Identity Crisis? Yeah, it pretty much did. Sue and Ralph have been around in comics for years, but aren't really important characters. Sue in particular had a reputation for being sweet and fun, so it made sense for her to be the target if you're going to have to kill off a non-hero character important enough to the other characters for them to all panic without directly impacting any of the other books. Likewise, Jean Loring wasn't an important character, UNTIL she killed Sue. Now, she's one of the most important characters in the DC comics universe.
But you know what? If it had been a guy killing another guy the exact same way, you wouldn't have given it a second thought. Because men are supposed to be violent and kill other men, but women are supposed to be precious. What utter bullshit.
Re:Fine by me... (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm counting on two things in her Wonder Woman run... which actually started a couple of months ago, so this story is kind of late, but anyway...
The same standard of quality storytelling and hilarity she's shown on her previous books, such as Birds of Prey (about ex-Batgirl Barbara Gordon, now super-hacker Oracle, and her various superheroine operatives). So far, we have evil Amazons and talking gorillas, so all is well.
And, as in her previous books, plenty of equal opportunity nudity.
Re:Fine by you... (Score:3, Interesting)
http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/2005/09/boob-war-climax-everybody-loves-power.html [blogspot.com]
Ever notice how every strong female on Heroes is either killed off, raped or suffers an attempted sexual assault? Except the motor mimic girl, but the show went on hiatus mid beatdown.