This is an open letter to the comic book community regarding the trend of sexualizing superheroes or supporting characters that are established as being minors.
This is by far not a trend unique to the comic book medium -- in fact, it is, at least to my knowledge, far more prevalent in music, TV, and movies.
But I think since we are in the business of spinning tales of Heroes, maybe we have a little more responsibility.
When you present minors in a sexually provacative way -- skimpy costumes, cheesecake, etc. -- you are doing two things:
1) You are sending the message to teens that it's okay to dress this way and be a sexual object.
2) You are seending a signal to those attracted to teens -- "jailbait" chasers -- that somehow their sexual desires for these girls and boys are socially acceptable.
Though the idea of "barely legal" is sort of considered merely "naughty" -- radio disc jockeys and comedians joke about being sexually aroused by developing teen icons like Dakota Fanning or the Olsen Twins -- there is a very ugly side to this.
I should know, because, as I write in my book, from the ages of 13-16 I was the target of the sexual interest of several men, including one who lived in my house and regarding whom I have gaps in my memory that I do not wish to pursue.
When I was 16 -- and hot and "barely legal" hubba-hubba -- I was seduced by one of these idiot adults who got off on my "sweet innocence." I count myself lucky that I didn't get pregnant or catch AIDS from this scumbag -- but it was merely "luck" that I didn't.
These jack-offs who prey on teenage girls -- and boys -- do so not only for the sexual thrill but because they either possess the mental age of a child themselves and/or are insecure and want to "boss around" their sexual partner.
And I just had one of these morons tell me recently that had there been more of a taboo surrounding sleeping with minors -- had it not seemed so acceptible by both our environment and society -- he probably wouldn't have tried it.
So I am taking this issue out of the merely theoretical and telling you that -- from my own experience -- the sexualization of teenagers ends up hurting people.
There have been many fine teenage female characters in the past and present -- Spider Girl, Stargirl, Spoiler, the girls from "The Runaways," the new Hawkeye, Batgirl II, Kitty Pryde.
Presently, the biggest iconic teen superheroine we have is Supergirl. Though I am not 100% up on my Kara lore, I believe she is indeed a minor. Since this is the case, and given her worldwide fame as the most famous teenage superhero second to Robin the Boy Wonder (who, as far as I know, has not had that many cheesecake covers with his massive package straining against his too-tight green undies), she probably should be portrayed and drawn accordingly.
Of course, the whole crap with the current Supergirl started when Leonard Kirk was pulled off the book about 5 years ago and replaced with Ed Benes. Kirk's rendering of Supergirl, assisted by the very capable Robin Riggs, was one of the most realistic and yet attractive illustrations of a teenage girl I've ever seen in comics. There was never a sense of "exploitation" in his pencils -- just a sense of humanity and fun.
In contrast, Ed Benes's version of Supergirl was pure sex.
At the time, the book was going to be cancelled and frantic brainstorming went on as to how to revitalize the character's image. It was thought that Kirk's rendering was "too boring" and could not compete in an industry full of Witchblades, Fathoms, Lara Crofts, and the sexy Mutant-of-the-Week. The word was -- we need a hot new artist.
So this one idiot came up with a brilliant idea:
"Hey, you know that guy from 'Gen 13?' His stuff is really good, nice and sexy. Look at the body on Fairchild. Wow. Maybe we can use him?"
Based on this suggestion, Benes was put on the cancelled "Supergirl" as an experiment.
Sales went through the roof.
Supergirl was now one hot piece of ass. As were all the female characters in the book. Including the granny.
"Supergirl" was still cancelled, but based on the sales, a new path for the character was set.
And you know who came up with the idea of putting Ed Benes on "Supergirl?"
...
I did.
Wow.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what to say.
I mean, you're not directly responsible for Robin - after doing a yeoman's job on Leonard's pencils for 4+ years - not being immediately assigned to another project when this happened (while Leonard had his pick of the bunch), and the subsequent drop in our income for way too long a period... but man, I feel like I should be really, really angry with you.
Only I'm not - it's in the past, it's how things are with freelancers, it bothers me far more than it bothers Robin. But it's yet another instance of inkers getting left out in the cold when there's an editorial change of mind and direction, no matter how many times they've bailed out those same editors (while the pencillers always seem to get a relatively large amount of slack). And it's still going on.
That's what's intolerable to me - the way reliable artists, particularly inkers, are just tossed aside when these things happen, with no regard for and no memory of all the times they've saved their editors' schedules.
That's always going to be the problem with any sort of job in this medium Elayne... if sales on a book dips (like if viewership on a television show decrease) often the creative team can/will be tossed for another. It's par for the course I'm afraid. Take a look at what's going on over at DC with THE FLASH. The book has been a solid performer for a long time. DC decided to mix it up and toss the status quo out the door with INFINITE CRISIS (incorrectly I might add IMHO) and replace the popular Wally West with Bart Allen. The book got a high prolife push and two writers familar with the character of the Flash were put on the project to great acclaim (Danny Bilson and Paul De Mao who were behind the under appreciated FLASH T.V. Series, as well as the DIsney flim version of THE ROCKETEER) and great hype. Eight issues later and dwindeling sales, the writers are already out (at least four issues short of their expected run in fact). I'm unsure if there is a new artist on the book also, but in the end part of the editor's job is doing whatever he/she can to keep sales up, and often that means making a decision on creatitive steams that isn't always one they enjoy.
ReplyDeleteIt also sounds to me Val, that you are kind of blaming yourself for the "sexation" of the current Supergirl. Well. perhaps not blaming, but at least listing yourself and a solid contributor to Kara's current "vamp" status. I don;t think this is something you should be beating yourself up over. you did your job, which was to look out for the sales of the book.
I was a HUGE fan of Peter David's Supergirl and I was extemely disapointed to see it go by the wayside. Couple that with the fact that my wife's nickname has been "Kara" and "Supergirl" for a long time (she even has an "S" shield tattoo) there was little doubt I would be buying the current incarnation of Supergirl. Despite being uneven, I have enjoyed the series to a point, but have a few times been a little uncomfortable with the fact that Kara (in the series) is basically 16 years old and not only is constantly half dressed and barefoot (when not in her costume) but lives on her own and has a much older guy (Capt. Boomerang Junior) who she constantly hangs out with. I'm no prude, trust me and far be it from me to attempt or even pretend to play the part of Uber-Mortality Man... cause that's just not me... but I do feel that there's an underlying message coming through on the book that is just wrong. I have no problem with Kara's independace in the book... I applaud it in fact... but I'd like to see some responsibility tossed in there also. None of us doubt that the cheesecake helps sell the book... and in the end sales are the main thing DC wants... but I guess I'm still native enough to expect a little bit of decorum from the editors or management to take a look at some of the small messages being pushed and saying "Hey, whether or not kids read this book, we should be a little more responsible here."
Sigh. One could only hope.
In any case, I'm sure I could cast my vote for a reduction in such mentality by not buying the book, and since I continue to pick it up every month I'm in a way contributing to the sitation... but I haven't planned on dropping it for that sole reason. Does that make me wrong? I tend not to dwell upon it that much... but yeah... it at least means I'm not part of the soultion in any means.
I actually read the "new Supergirl" and have to say that the character would wear such skimpy things because she is 16 and is immature.
ReplyDeleteNo 16 year old girl is going to believable be covered up like some Amish bride.
So maybe there is a Catch-22 here being that media may fuel the fire for 16 year olds to dress this way, but if you put one that doesn't then it won't be believable and may also turn people off.
But you can then look at Wondergirl who does not dress like some 2-bit hussy and quite frequently appears in Supergirl as a friend and confidant, and sometimes helps Kara with her maturity issues.
The High School issue of the series was pretty fucking great, in my opinion.
Elayne, I'm very, very sorry.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, the fate of the book's art talent was settled before we were asked to brainstorm for new talent. I remember Mike McAvennie having ulcers because he had to fire the colorist first, how he said he couldn't sleep. And he felt horrible about everything -- Kirk, Robin, etc.
Looking back on it, the Kirk/Riggs Supergirl was the perfect rendering of a young woman -- fun, pretty, but believable & strong.
But at the time, I was told "think of a new Supergirl artist." Of course I was an assistant, a nobody, but I took the chance and brought up Benes; I had a stack of Gen 13 comps under my desk.
Ironically, it was looked upon as a brilliant choice. I justified my recommendation specifically because the art looked "sexy." It was that cold. It was my shot at a cold, calculating business decision.
I felt "proud" that though I was a woman, I could show the "boys" that cheesecake art didn't bother me, that I was immune, that I was "in to win," that if I was promoted I would make similar choices, that if I had my own books I wouldn't turn them into "wimmin's comix."
Well, karma kicked my little skinny hiney, huh?
It's so funny, I wrote this whole long post about how sexualizing teens is wrong, how the direction of Supergirl is wrong, etc, and only until the very end of the post did I realize how Superchick started down that track. It's like I realized it as I wrote the words.
Boy.
Boy, I'm a jerk sometimes. This is like the punchline for a "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode.
Well, I can only make up for it now but trying to do something right, which is to speak up.
And though I know the "normal" teen dresses in skin-tight t-shirts with the word "naughty" on it and low-rider jeans with their thong showing -- it's really really really f**ked up. In a book that teenagers presumably read, why add to the peer pressure to dress like a f**k-toy by presenting this as normal? Why not strive to be better? Why throw up our hands and say "when in Rome..."
Rome fell.
This is one of those issues that I cna't make heads or tails of.
ReplyDeleteOn one hand there is this part of me that believes that having a young, female character dressed in skimpy clothing is not wrong in and of itself. Leonard Kirk and crew did draw an attractive Supergirl and made her as "real" as a series of lines made to look like a woman can look, but that doesn't make a "sexy" series of lines any less valid. Ed Benes seems to like to draw the latter and he does a fantastic job of it. Just because there are some truly disturbed people in the world that would prey on young women and this type of art may feed into their obsession doesn't mean that this type of art shouldn't be presented. By the same token I have a very hard time accepting that a comic book would mess with a girl's self-esteem.
On the other hand I find myself more and more disturbed at the sexualized images of teen-age girls. I am about to turn 31 and as much as I like to admire the female form there is something creepy about checking out a hot young thing that is potentially half my age because all I can think of is the fact that when this girl was born I was 14 or 15 (or older in some cases) and that's just wrong. This is why Ed Benes run on Supergirl gave me a few problems. There were shots of the girls' locker room and it made me uncomfortable for reasons that included thinking that it was creepy to be seeing that and the smell of desperation that sex was the only thing that could save the book.
So it's a weird situation and I am caught between my own moral compass and my affection for cheesecake. Sometimes I have no problem with it. Other times, like with Benes on Supergirl and especially the fact that he made Barbara Gordon stacked like the Library of Congresss, I just get creeped out. I'm also caught between my empathy for anyone who feels that they are unattractive because of what they see in movies, music and yes comic books and the other part of me that thinks they should just suck it up and deal with it.
It's like being Two-Face, except I don't feel like pulling off a series of crimes involving the number two and no one, as yet, has thrown acid in my face.
I guess I really don't feel like Two-Face at all.
Sigh.
Like I said about the High School Issue,
ReplyDeleteSupergirl Vol. 5, #11 by Joe Kelly
Honestly many bitched about how this didnt represent a real high school because High Schoolers aren't this mean, etc. etc.
But I thought it was probably the best issue of the entire series so far, because that IS how High Schoolers are, especially girls.
And the thing that it showed was that you can't judge a book... because the "pretty Abercrombie girl" who should have been the evil bitch from hell ended up being the good one, and the "punky" girl who you'd think would be the "cool nice one" ended up being the caddy cunt.
She tried to do the normal girl hiding as one of us, and it didn't take. Kara is just herself, and she likes to show her mid drift, but she's a 16 year old girl, impulsive and trying to find who she is.
Once she grows up, she'll ditch it to a more "womanly" outfit.
And yes I am a male, but I am a gay male, so I don't read it for the "hot chick," I read it because I like Supergirl, and I enjoy reading the book, and the Michael Turner design that they use now I actually really really like, because it is pretty representative of the character.
ReplyDeleteWonder Girl is the same age, but her character wouldn't ever wear something like this, so you have the depiction of a teen girl who isn't bearing all and busting out of the chest, yet still beautiful, and frequently appears in Supergirl.
Sammy,
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you about the high school issue... I thought it was fairly well done... I'm not too old to remember High School, and there were certainly people in school like that from what I recall. It might have been a *little* over played, but films like HEATHERS, MEAN GIRLS, and this issue are closer to reality than we might like to admit.
As for the Wonder Girl issue, yes you are correct about your description of her, but I rememeber when she was introduced and appeared in Wonder Woman and she wasn't drawn as a complete knock-out, but as a slightly awkward and average looking girl. I didn't see why they had to change that, but then of course I realized that in the comic world a character cannot be popular unless they look like a model.
Remember Zephir from HARBINGER? She was not only an overweight girl, but was geekish as well and was quite a fun character. I like silm and beautiful woman as much as the next guy, but I don't need all of the characters in the comics I read, shows I watch or movies I view to be supermodels.
Oh pshaw, Val, don't worry about it - as an assistant you didn't have the hiring and firing power, so I don't really blame you. And I'm sure Benes' agent had as much to do with him getting hired as you did. ;) I recall Mike being very gung-ho about Benes because Rob had mentioned he was "in the Jim Lee" mold - we didn't know at the time he'd insist on Alex Lei inking him and Rob wouldn't get back-up.
ReplyDeleteOf course, you know that the answer to "why not strive to do better?" is "because there's no incentive to if doing 'worse' sells more books." The ideal is to do the kind of work that both sells books and makes the characters attractive and appealing without being oversexualized, but that requires thought and craft and time and way too many artists opt for the easy way out (kind of like a stand-up comic opting to work blue rather than actually come up with a funny and smart act).
I should also say I really, really like Ian Churchill as a person; I met him at Bristol last year and he's a smashing and personable guy with a terrific and smart fiancee (who looks like a normal woman, not a comic book woman). I'd like to see him do less exploitive work but, again, that's the kind of thing that might require incentive from above.
Robert Heinlein once agonized over the fact that the Manson Family fixated on some of the things in Stranger in a Strange Land.
ReplyDeleteI once got an email from a guy who'd read a humor piece that I co-wrote and concluded I had secret access to his military file. He wanted my help in clearing his name and undoing his psychiatric discharge.
American society did not get better after the Comics Code was established after Fredric Wertham's "Seduction of the Innocent." And it wasn't because the CC "didn't do it right."
What I'm trying to say is that you might try to forgive yourself a little. Supergirl would.
Your post about about the problem of sexualizing minors was spot on target, Valerie, except that you seem to be oversimplifying things a bit regarding the Peter David Supergirl.
ReplyDelete1. Wasn't the Peter David Supergirl in her early 20's, and not a minor? (I'm referring to Linda, not the Kara who showed up in the last PAD arc.)
2. The sales spike you cite was caused in large part by the hype surrounding the meeting of the 2 Supergirls and the return of the "pre-Crisis" Kara Zor-el. Maybe a "sexier" Supergirl contributed in part, but there was more to it than that.
3. I actually read the last two issues of PAD's Supergirl and found them quite enjoyable, NOT because Benes' Supergirl was "pure sex", but because Peter wrote an entertaining and poignant story that was well-illustrated by Benes. I didn't think much of Benes' art before Supergirl, but here he showed some strong evolution as a storyteller.
4. The teen Kara in PAD's arc didn't come off as very sexualized to me. She wore the classic Pre-Crisis costume; it was the adult Linda who wore the bare midriff. Yes, I missed the start of the arc, and maybe the fact that I'm NOT one of those "jailbait chasers" blinded me to some more obvious cheesecake, but that's how I saw things. And, for the record, that Benes Supergirl poster you feature was done years after the PAD series ended.
In short, I don't think you should take any blame for the current Lolita-ized version of Kara. That blame should rest on the shoulders of Jeph Loeb and the dreadful Michael Turner. (They had her running around Gotham naked in her debut, for Pete's sake!)
And to Elayne: Kirk and Robin did a fine Supergirl as well, especially with the unenviable task of replacing Gary Frank (who was my favorite on the book).
I think the book's problem had much less to do with the art and much more with PAD's "throw shit at the
wall and see if it sticks" attitude regarding the character. "Look, she's an angel with wings of fire!" "Look, she's the Bruce Timm Supergirl!" Look, she's..." --- You get the idea.
Hey, Val.
ReplyDeleteEd Benes isn't even the problem.
An industry run by immature man-boys who force artists into being pigeonholed to get jobs, molded as sexy artists, nurtured as cheesecake artists...
...that's where the guilt should lie.
Someone like Yanick Paquette, to me, was guilty of preference of the ass shot.
Still, various editors actually make him draw women from all other angles. A novel idea, that.
It's just like a film director.
Mike Nichols gets Natalie Portman to kick butt in CLOSER.
George Lucas gets a bad performance out of the same actor in three STAR WARS films.
The fault doesn't lie with the casting director in either case.
Ditto to what notintheface said. After purchasing the trade to "Many Happy Returns," I can say that I can't even tell that the art is cheesecakey because Peter David created a captivating story that I was lost in.
ReplyDeleteIt's not your fault, don't try to put blame on yourself for it.
Subsequently, I do believe there is good news on the horizon. The co-writer of an upcoming three-issue arc of Supergirl, Mark Sable, is now posting over at the Girl-Wonder.org forums and is patently aware of the criticisms we have with the artwork on Supegirl.
I always hated the new look for Supergirl. She looks like the cheerleader who everyone assumes has slept with the whole team.
ReplyDeleteI guess the line between cheesecake and exploitation isn't as clear to everyone.
The animated version of Supergirl with the t-shirt was the best. I assume that's the look you said you liked most?
You know, I have to say I didn't like the "t-shirt" Supergirl costume. The Supergirl outfit used throughout the forst half of Peter David's Supergirl run (before the white t-shirt look) will always be my favorite. Pretty much the classic look for the most part. That's the one I most identify Supergirl with.
ReplyDeleteRougewolf hit the nail fairly well on the head with his thoughts about the new outfit. It DOES remind me of a cheerleader outfit and it's almost like they're playing it off on the "naughty schoolgirl" look that Brittny Spears used a few years ago and is so popular in various "cheesecake-ish" magazines. (You know what I mean).
Damn, I miss Linda as Supergirl. Peter just made her such a great character. I'd love to see DC bring her out of limbo... if she even "exists" in the DCU anymore.. or ever did due to Infinite Crisis.
Furthermore, here's another reason why the current costume needs to be taken out:
ReplyDeletehttp://digital-eraser.livejournal.com/26323.html
Hey,
ReplyDeletejust my two cents. I think exploitation of minors is ALWAYS wrong, and there is no doubt about it.
But the market has been playing with sexual instinct since the dawn of man, so it's always going to be the same.
Music sells sex all the time (Fergie, anyone?), so unfortunately it's not surprising that super-hero comic books (which tap into male teenager power fantasies) try to tickle the reader with gratouitus ass shots and stuff like that.
In an ideal world, people would buy comics (and books, and albums, and DVDs) because of their "artistic" content, but this is not an ideal world.
Sorry if my English stumbled, but I am not English (I come from Italy)...
She's a 16 year old girl who wants to be wanted and loved and to have fun.
ReplyDeleteWhen she figures out who she is, and what her purpose is, I am pretty sure she will ditch the slutty cheerleader look and get something more mature.
I always wanted to say that I don't think that the sales skyrocketing was because of Benes. I think it's because of Kara Zor-El. Issue #1 of her series sold 120k, it's really easy to believe a series that reintroduced her as the real deal could bump 5k.
ReplyDelete