If you read comic related blogs or feminist blogs, you’ve probably seen the controversy that’s erupted over a statue of Mary Jane that’s being produced. There are tons of sites linking to this story.

I think that it’s probably pretty obvious where I fall in this particular discussion. I was reading some of the sites talking about this, and one in particular caught my eye.

 

I guess it’s hardly fair to talk about this issue without stating my opinion on the controversy, right?

I think that the statue in question is ugly, first of all. The proportions are all wrong, and the way she’s standing is impossible and disturbing. I’ve heard that it’s supposed to be an homage to the 50s era cheesecake pin-ups. If that’s what it’s supposed to be, it fails miserably. I love the pulp era, and this thing completely misses the mark.

Further: it completely mischaractorizes MJ. MJ isn’t cheesecake. She has, traditionally, been powerful and smart. Might she do Pete’ laundry?

Sure, she might.

Would she do it in such a stupid fashion, with a trashy pink thong riding up several inches over low-rise jeans wearing a top that’s clearly several sizes too small?

No. Fucking. Way.

MJ is supposed to be a class act.  She’s a model and a theater actress, she’s supposed to have style and poise. This thing makes her look trashy and stupid. 

That’s my stance.

Am I surprised by the reaction of the comic and feminist community? Quite frankly, yes. I don’t know what it was that inspired such strong reactions over this particular statue, given how common these things are. Statues like this are hardly rare, unfortunately. So, yeah, I wouldn’t have expected this kind of reaction. Personally, I think that it’s largely a good thing, though. Speaking out against things like this and pointing out the sexism involved, I think, tends to be a good thing.

As a comic fan, statues like this, and the blatant hyper-sexualization of other characters always makes me cringe. I’m tired of women being treated like sex-dolls in comic books, and I’m tired of the industry embracing misogyny like it’s going out of style. I want to see an industry where women are recognized as a valid part of the audience, and where male and female characters are treated with equal respect.

Okay, so why did that site, in particular, intrest me?  

One of the big things that interested me and that inspired me to write was the post itself. Video Store Girl is writing in response to a commenter who made (what I readily admit was a poorly thought-out) comparison to MLK on a previous post. VSG rightly calls the commenter to task over the comparison, which is totally fair. She then goes on to say:

Oh, news just in — Stephanie & Mary Jane NOT REAL PEOPLE.

Here’s some links regarding the real oppression of women — real women, not comic book characters:

Afghan girls struggling to get education

Women enslaved in global sex trade

Domestic violence

Now go compare your struggle as a comic book fan angry that Stephanie doesn’t have a trophy case to the s**t these women went through.

…You can still discuss Power Girl. But break it up a little bit. Maybe devote 50% of your bandwith to Stephanie getting her trophy case, and 50% to Afghan women setting themselves on fire because their lives are so damn miserable. Or maybe 75% Stephanie, 25% Russian sex slaves.

These kinds of comments always strike me the wrong way. Here’s the thing: It’s entirely possible to feel strongly about and be involved in serious conversations and activism around “serious” social injustices and also be vocal about shit like this. The fact that I read, write about, and make fun of comic books doesn’t mean that I’m not well-read on issues like female genital mutilation, or that I don’t give a rat’s ass about “serious” racism or homophobia, or whatever.

The other reason comments like that rub me the wrong way is that it treats pop culture like it’s not serious. I’ll grant, there are certainly issues that are more important than a statue of MJ. I’m not sure that anyone was claiming otherwise, but if that’s the claim, fine. I don’t think that it’s fair to treat pop culture like it’s insifnificant or unimportant, though. Pop culture is a major driving force in how we, as a society and as individuals, identify ourselves. Are we going to deny that, say, MTv has an effect on the ways that young people dress, talk, and interact with the world? Do I need to point out how Clueless changed the way that young people talked?

Is this one statue going to radically change the ways that some fan-boys see women? Unlikely. That being said, this is just one element in a really large industry that does have an effect on the ways that fans see the world. I think it’s a tremendous mistake to pretend that pop culture, even comic books, are insignificant, or that fighting the sexism in that industry isn’t “important” work.

One thing that I really like about that particular page, though, is what a wide cross-section of responses there are. There are some great feminist responses to the whole thing, some pretty moderate responses, and then you get the real gems, like this:

Rational Mad Man said…

I agree.
Anyone whose offended by this is an idiot.
Every single male superhero being published is shown in at least one “bbefcake” shot every single issue. Yet no one whines about opression or misandry. Grow the hell up and stop bitching about irrelevant crap.
Its exactly this type of behavior that makes “feminist” such a dirty word.
Men like cheesecake. Women like beefcake.
Deal with it.
Most comic readers are men, ergo an intelligent company will provide them wit the types of merchandise they want to buy.
Deal with it.
Men like seeing women in cheesecake poses. We like womens bodies, we like to look at womens bodies, we like to fantasize about having sex with those women whose bodies we admire (even if those women dont actually exist), this has always been true and will always be true.
Deal with it.
Or maybe you can’t?
Afterall they do call it “bitching” for a reason now dont they?

I didn’t waste my time going over it there, because this guy makes it pretty clear that he’s not interested in a rational conversation, but it’s worth looking through here to see the sort of harmful, hateful attitudes that people like this are pushing.

First of all, I made it clear in a waaay earlier post, that my opinion on the whole “Men get objectified in comics too!” argument is absolute bunk. The idea that there are beefcake shots in every single issue is silly (beyond the obvious hyperbole). RMM seems to be of the opinion that beefcake shots in comics are somehow appealing to women, but that doesn’t make sense taken with “Most comic readers are men…”Unless, of course, you recognize that beefcake shots are not meant to appeal to women, but are, rather, meant to appeal to straight men. The “beefcake” shots he’s pointing to are rarely hyper-sexualized in the way that women in comics are. What they are, are images meant to appeal to hyper-masculine fantasies about what a hero is supposed to be.It’s simple: (straight) men read comics. So, it’s important to include lots of images that will appeal to (straight) men. So, that means lots of the sexy sexy women in clothing that accentuates sexual charactoristics that the reader would like to fuck. The men in comics are not sexual objects- they’re the objects of power-fantasies for men. The reader doesn’t want to jump Batman, he wants to be Batman. Beefcake pictures aren’t supposed to make you think “Woah! Check out Batman’s package!” they’re supposed to make you think “Check out how manly he is!”

RMM also ignores the power dynamics at play here. It’s easy not to complain about the occaisional hyper-sexualized male in a comic book (I honestly can’t really think of any) given how many other men there are. Men in comics come in all shapes and sizes, and if you end up not liking one hero, there are dozens of others to choose from. Women don’t really have the same options. There are a few comics that feature strong, capable women who aren’t hyper-sexualized, but nowhere near as many as there are for men.

I’d also point out that RMM misses out on the fact that there are homosexual comic fans, too. So, no, not all men probably like cheesecake, even if we assume (incorrectly) that everyone likes to see blatantly hyper-sexualized images of characters.

And, really, it’s more of the same shit. Men like seeing cheesecake. We like women’s bodies. We like like to fantasize about boning women. *sigh* We’ve heard it all before, right?

It’s the same basic sexism as “natural” argument that comes up any time someone challanges a sexist industry. Comics are for boys, and boys like sexist stuff, so we can’t expect the comic industry not to make sexist shit, right? After all, sexism is natural, and businesses want to make money. So, apparently, that makes it okay?

Thankfully, there are a lot of us who don’t think it’s okay.

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 1:28 pm and is filed under comics, feminism, pop culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.