The Chux Wagon

kateordie:

“My new column is up! In which I talk about the ‘if you don’t like it, don’t read it’ defense and the real-life consequences to sexualizing girls’ heroes.

I’m really proud of this one.”

——

This is a great, very personal article. 

I wish I could say the “stop whining you ragbitch” comments were a surprise, but they’re basically proving the problem.

I’ve never been a superhero comic fan (like I could count the amount of superhero comics I’ve bought on one hand), but the recent misogynistic-writing/drawing conversation has been completely fascinating. It bleeds through into gaming as well - I’m having a hard time being interested in the new Batman game with the horrific character designs and over-use of ‘bitch’ when Catwoman is playing. Dead Island had the horrible coder-facing joke of “FeministWhorePurna” as the special move for the female character. Etc etc, sadly. 

Usually super hero movies handle this a lot better (there tends to be a much wider swathe of people and talent working on a movie than a comic). I loved the lady in Captain America (even if she wasn’t much part of the story, she dressed awesome and was strong), and X-Men Origins handled teenage body-issues shockingly well. They stuck out much more so this year just because of the discussion of sexist stereotypes in the comics and games that spawned them.

It’s sad that “she didn’t dress embarrassingly slutty” is a current watermark for female characters in superhero stories, but there we are.

Aaaand then the cover for the new Avengers comes out and has Scarlett sticking her ass out for some reason.