If the demographics swing at the edges of the market the center will respond. Particularly if there is social pressure to do so. This is not a malicious endeavor it is a market response and we frankly don't have to be so hand-wringy about it.
What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me
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Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me
#12I can already hear the debate raging about weather or not the images or particular examples in this article are acceptable or defensible or not. I think it's totally fine for the comics that this one shop has are there. Artistic freedom! Great! What's not super is that it's really the only kind. It's like netflix with only action movies.
This article should feature a bunch of blank photos representing the comics that don't exist. Those are the problem. It's ok to have super sexed-up comics in the store, but it's really sad that's all they have.
Japanese manga is fully of sexy, weird, objectifying stuff that most people really wouldn't want their kids to see, but go to a bookstore in Japan and you'll also see bookcase after bookcase of manga totally appropriate for all ages with young girls pressing their nose into them. Stories about teenage girls getting picked on at school or trying to meet the right guy or saying stupid things in class. Stories about girls who are in bands and office workers and every possible thing.
I think the comic industry, video games, tech, and geek culture in general are all going through growing pains as they find adoption in a larger market. We need more articles like this helping people realize what a "normal" comic shop could look like. The comics we have today would still be in there, there would just be more variety and the market for comics would be healthier.
It's actually a better scenario for everyone.
Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me
#13I had a similar 'revelation' with violence in video games. I knew a lot of games were violent, but it wasn't until I found my 2 year old son watching me murder human after human with a crossbow in Tomb Raider that I 'got it'. It has ruined AAA video games for me.
I solved the problem by buying a Wii U. I'm not sure why that's better. I have killed hundreds of pikmin, squashed hundreds of goomba and worst of all, used the blue shell in anger. It's still incredibly violent, but I'm not willfully enjoying a murder simulator.
Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me
#14Terrible writing... Some people code like this. You look at what they did and just wonder why something that can be written in 3 lines is written in 200 lines of code.
Point made by author is still valid.
Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me
#15[deleted]
Nah dude.I get what you are saying, but if that is the case, why are male villians often grotesque, but female villians always (or almost anyway) just as sexy as female heros?
Heros are drawn for you to identify with as a power fantasy. The female characters aren't about who you want to be. It's about what you want to see.
That's why superman gets to be fully dressed, whereas super girl shows her belly and wears a skirt.
And even if you were right, that would mean that the ideal female super hero is usually wearing a skimpy outfit showing skin, and what does that say?
Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me
#16[deleted]
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 wit…
What do you really expect? Comic books are overwhelmingly read by men. Men who generally -- and don't downvote me, you know it's true -- don't get much female attention. Of course the authors are going to spice them up a bit for their intended demographic.
Men have comic books, women have romance novels (and don't tell me the covers for those books aren't intended to sexualize men and titillate their audience). It's not a crisis, it is what it is. Sex sells, BOTH ways.
Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me
#17Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me
#18[deleted]
Nah dude.I get what you are saying, but if that is the case, why are male villians often grotesque, but female villians always (or almost anyway) just as sexy as female heros? Heros are drawn for you to identify with as a power fantasy. The female characters aren't about who you want to be. It's about what you want to see. That's why superman gets to be fully dressed, whereas super girl shows her belly and wears a sk…
What are your feelings on romance novel covers?
Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me
#19These comics aren't aimed at young children, of any gender.
There are comics available for younger ones. Here in the UK my two read The Phoenix. It would benefit from more female characters, but they both enjoy it (boy 7, girl 6)
Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me
#20[deleted]
This is a false equivalence: http://www.shortpacked.com/2011/comic/book-13/05-the-death-o...
what absolute nonsense. I don't find these female superheroes any more attractive than the woman in the comic you linked to finds the muscled men attractive. There's no evidence that any fewer women find the muscled man a sexual fantasy than men find the big bewbed woman.