Feminism and Comics
I’ve touched on this subject a couple of times before in these little ranty blog-posts, but I’d like to touch on it again as a number of my friends, who are feminists, have become more vocal about their opinions on feminism within comics.
I’m going to start out by, again, pointing out that I don’t identify as a feminist; I like the goals and offer my support, but I don’t feel I comprehend the full spectrum of arguments well enough to affirmatively say ‘yes, I am one of these’. I’d describe my own, personal stance as being more like ‘people are people, let’s all get on with each other and not be assholes’. It doesn’t quite address the inequalities experienced by many, but I think it’s a good starting point for life in general.
Comics are a very, very odd area when it comes to feminism. On the one hand, the modern independent and web press is very accommodating to those who previously would have been disenfranchised, those who might have once felt isolated, those who are standing up and speaking out against the mainstream. On the other hand, it is still dominated by industry giants, ones that garner the most public attention and attract the largest audiences.
The problem that I see cited most frequently is that there are a) few main female characters in the mainstream industry and b) they are still dependent on male characters to provide story movement or to help solve their problems. Drawing from my own experience, the best way to counter this is to actually disregard gender distinction and write CHARACTERS. I will concede that, in my case, I have a tendency to default to female characters; I believe this is because I am dissatisfied with the traditional definitions of ‘manliness’ our society hands us, and so I find more emotional flexibility in female characters. But, by having a large number of females in the cast, there is less focus on them being a ‘FEMALE character’, and more opportunity for them to be seen as a ‘female CHARACTER’.
I’m not saying that the solution to feminists’ concerns is to flood all comics with female characters. If anything, I could see that generating resentment among the dominant male reader population. What I’d like to see is, for a start, more women engaged in storytelling, to provide a greater voice in the creation of comics. I’d also like to see more male creators explore the complexity of their female characters. If there’s one thing that I can say that I HAVE seen in both mainstream and indie works, it’s the ‘sameiness’ or ‘tokenisation’ of female characters. They’re characters, they’re waiting to tell stories, do something interesting with them for fecks sake!
Anyway, thus concludes my half-asleep ranting. I’d love to hear what your thoughts are on feminism in comics in general, or even stuff that I’m doing that’s good or bad!
Toodlepip for now!
M.
The only thing I have against certain female characters if they got too much cleavage or inhuman-sized boobs. I haven’t noticed any of that yet in this story, but incase you do introduce one, don’t worry about me. Your story has many unique characters to cover that 😉
Oddly enough, this article was inspired by somebody pointing out that I tended to draw fairly busty characters! I don’t deliberately do it; in fact, the reason that many of my characters have quite large breasts is because when I started out drawing, I had this conceit that, when viewed from the front, the shape of a woman’s bust should be visible in the shape of their torso. Of course, as I gained experience (of the drawing type only, I’m afraid) I realised that my female characters’ breasts did not need to be so large.
You’ll probably notice that characters who have been designed more recently have smaller busts than characters who were designed back near the beginning. Compare, for example, Anita and Areej from the Crush Depth arc with Millie or Carlita.
I certainly hold no truck with ridiculously oversized breasts in manga; it looks ridiculous, screws up the costuming, and generally detracts from the character’s personality by focussing on their physical aspects. Cleavage, I’m probably more guilty of showing, but I don’t think I’ve ever done it to a ridiculous extent! Generally, most of my characters in general wear tops that don’t show cleavage, or if it does, no more than about 1/4 of the total breast height. Which, now that I review it, is really, REALLY weird way of putting it, and I do apologise…
Anyway, as long as I avoid the cleavage-window thing. I can recall only one character who gets one, Pinkie from the Miscalculation arc. I kinda regret giving her a cleavage window, because they just look ridiculous…
You don’t need to apologize! I respect and agree what you said in that paragraph! And jeez, that person who pointed out you drew busty characters? They probably just notice the bad parts more than the good parts.