What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me

Harvey Quinn isn't a superhero or "role model" either like Superman/Batman.

Ms. Marvel is a good character but of course drawn for men.

And I am bracing myself for the WW movie, I've got a really bad feeling. Wish it had been Joss Whedon running that show.

Speaking of Whedon, it is too grown up concepts for a seven year old perhaps but Buffy Season Eight in comic form is pretty great.

I might tend to disagree with the author's final conclusion, that his daughter is too young to understand (at least about sexism and double standards, if not sex). Talking about this subject with your daughter when she brings it up is absolutely appropriate. There is lots of societal pressure on very young girls to fit a specific mold. It starts with very mundane differences... like short/long hair.

Two weeks ago, for example, my daughter and I had a play date with a friend and his son. As we're leaving the basketball court, and putting on our winter jackets, my daughter says to him: "that's a cool jacket". To which the son replies: "this is a BOY jacket". My daughter laughed and said: "that's silly".

Anyway, speaking of Comics, PaperCutz has some very nice ones that my 5 year old daughter loves: http://papercutz.com/comics/monster

Having recently been on a comics binge after 20+ years of reading very few US comics and only slightly more European comics, and definitively not being very sensitive to this issue, I must admit it's still very much more noticeable today. The number of "lets make sure her ass shows" "shots" is much higher than I remember. Occasionally you even have characters comment on it. I'd think that if this was as prevalent when I was in my teens, I'd have much more vivid memories of it.

Most of the characters that were clearly targeted at children when I grew up are now clearly targeted at adults or at least teenagers. E.g. compare X-Men, Spiderman or Avengers from the last 10 years with the 1980's. The dialogue and over-exposition and extensive abuse of soliloquies alone in the 80's Marvel was something I didn't even remember from when reading it as a kid, but which makes a lot of them unreadable to me except for the nostalgia today (compare with Alan Moore's legendary Swamp Thing run which has kept fantastically), but the drawings were also lot less "realistic" and so I at least don't remember the same amount of overly sexualized images.

But at the same time, as some of the commenters on the article points out, there are also a number of titles with characters that fit better for younger readers, and some of them with female leads, and generally more diverse such as the new Ms Marvel (which is a teenage muslim girl of pakistani descent) as Marvel in particular seems to want to capture a wider audience.

The difference is that the big muscles on the men help them to achieve their superheroic aims, protecting others, evil plans, etc.

OTOH the giant tits on the women would only hinder them. Hell, even light jogging looks like it would be difficult.

This is an extension of how society values men for things they do, but women for things they are.

The curves themselves are excessive, but look at the outfits and your argument comes tumbling down. Male superheroes are rarely portrayed in a sexually suggestive manner. Female superheroes see physically impossible cleavage and tons of skin as par for the course.

The exaggerated features make male superheroes look powerful, while female superheroes look like playboy bunnies. It's like you're supposed to identify with the former and lust after the latter — they're both drawn to male sensitivities.