Thompson gives a brief review of each comic series, as well as "Female Positive Bonus Points" for each. These were fun to see, and proved how much the portrayal of women in comics are improving. For example, on the comic Princeless, she says "Not only is this about a great young heroine that thwarts stereotype at every turn and opts to be the master of her own destiny, but it’s a heroine of color too, which is far too rare." I had never heard of this comic either, but not only is this one progressive in its depiction of women (while being a young adult book) but also in its use of a heroine that is not white.
In Birds of Prey, she talks about the great art in her "Female Positive Bonus Points:" about the artist, Jesus Saiz, she says "he manages to draw drop dead gorgeous ladies without the need for any aggressive male gaze. " This is still a new concept in comic book art, showing women that are beautiful and even sexy without being too objectified.
It was nice to find an article praising the strong new depictions of women in comics instead of just bashing the less appealing ones.
The comic "Princeless" really interests me because we have not read any comics with colored female superheroes and I honestly never even thought about it. While this class is more about gender than race, this would definitely be interesting to read and analyze.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michele's comment, other than Storm, we've had very little exposure to superheroines with diverse racial backgrounds. Another thing is that we've had little exposure to powerful females heroes who are very young (pre-teenage years). I'm going off the assumption that the character from "Princeless" is at most twelve years old. The only superheroine around this age we've discussed before was little Mary Marvel, who was portrayed as somewhat of a joke in the superhero world.
ReplyDelete"Princeless"looks like a nice change of pace. Like Azi said the only other young superheroine we discussed was Mary Marvel who wasn't really taken seriously. I looked up "Princeless" and learned that
ReplyDelete"The story of Princeless is that of a Princess (Adrienne) trapped in a tower and guarded by a dragon as she waits for a prince to rescue her. But this princess has decided she’s had it with that and instead escapes, commandeers the dragon, and heads off to rescue her sisters, similarly trapped in towers and awaiting their princes."
Adrienne is a strong independent character. She seems like a young female superheroine that can be respected instead of looked down upon as the kid sister.
I hate to be the barer of bad news, but while this article highlights only a few progressive examples, bad examples that objectify women or ones that are homogeneous in race are much more prevalent. I feel as though this article only shows how little progress there has been in creating a greater balance between both genders and amongst all races in comics. If and when the industry truly reformed its ways there would be no need to point out a few great examples because there would be too many to choose from.
ReplyDeleteThe cover of "Princeless" seems, right off the bat, childish and not very interesting. The use of the color pink makes it seem like its a story about a little girl, reminds me a lot of Mary Marvel. Arielle even proves my point that she is somewhat like Repunzel, not very admirable in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWhat many of you guys have said we did not read any young or colored super heroines in class, so "Princeless" seems like an innovative heroine although the cover seems to be geared to younger audiences.
ReplyDelete