Over the weekend, I re-watched one of my favorite movies: Serenity. One thing I really enjoy about it is that is does not follow the stereotype of female heroes as sexual objects. Of the nine main characters, four are women, and none are as useless as many female characters can be. There's Kaylee, the intelligent mechanic; Zoe, second-in-command and a former soldier; River, clever (though somewhat insane) and surprisingly kick-ass; and Inara, the high-class "companion." There is a lot of irony in these characters, and the way they are always more than they seem. River, for example, is crazy. However, she is actually one of the smartest characters, a brilliant girl who surprises viewers at every turn. In addition, for a small, skinny 17-year-old girl, she is one of the best fighters of all the characters when put up to it. Inara, too, is really interesting in the irony of her character. She works as a "companion," which is essentially a prostitute. However, in the culture of the show's setting, companions are extremely high-class, more similar to an ancient Japanese geisha than what we think of as a prostitute. Even with this occupation, Inara still is not particularly sexualized, especially when compared to many other female characters in today's media. Although it's not that surprising to have such different female characters in this movie, considering it was made by Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it's refreshing nonetheless to see that strong female characters are still out there.

Comic books

I must admit that before this class I never really read any comic books. I became familiar with general superheroes through movies and the Universal Studios theme park. The Dark Knight and The Fantastic Four movies are some of my favorites. This class sounded interesting because I had watched Buffy in the past, but I did not realize that I would experience so much enjoyment by reading comic books. Comic books are so much more than entertainment though. Almost everything has some sort of political or racial meaning. Looking through all of the advertisements really tells a deeper story about the time period in which the comics were written and maybe even a reason as to why the comics were written.

Also before this class, I never realized how many comic books featured superheroines. I only really knew about Wonder Woman, but there are so many more that we have read about in class and even more that we have not read about. This class is really letting me see that comic books are definitely not just for guys. If more people took a class like this or just researched more about comics then I feel like these comic books would become even more popular, with both males and females buying and reading them. I can't wait to read more!

Since most everyone else who has posted before me seemed to focus on sexuality, I decided to stick with that theme but focus it more. I thought of the least sexual super heroine we've discussed, Mary Marvel. The first issue about her that I read during class was from 1945. My goal was to see if she has become more sexualized in the following issues. Between 1945 and 1948, there were only 28 issues about her. Though I couldn't read through every issue, from looking at the covers (which you can see at this website: http://www.comicvine.com/mary-marvel/49-25309/?) it seemed liked the writers kept her character basically the same for those three years. Her outfit remained as conservative, her poses very nonsexual. I began to wonder if when they redid her, how much she changed then. I learned that she reappeared in The Power of Shazam! series from 1994 to 1999. There were a few changes made to her. First, her outfit changed from red to white (new outfit seen here: http://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/images/5/5b/Mary_Marvel.jpg), but other than the color change, the outfit remained fairly conservative and she still remained very nonsexualize. Second, instead of transforming basically from a 12 year old to a 14 year old, she now transforms into a full-grown woman. But even with these changes, Mary Marvel still remains one of the least sexualized female superheroes. Is that why she isn't as famous as Wonder Woman? Or why her comics only last for a few years at a time? Is sexuality that important in selling comics about female superheroes?

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I wasn't entirely sure what to write about, especially for my first post, so I went on google and typed in superheroines to see what came up. I found an article called "Top Ten Skimpiest Superheroine Costumes" at this link: http://www.bamkapow.com/top-ten-skimpiest-superheroine-costumes-602-p.html. When I thought of superheroines while I was growing up, I thought of someone who was supposed to be a role model; someone strong, intelligent, and clever. I never knew much about them, but I thought they would be someone I could look up to. After starting this class, and reading this article, I see that superheriones were more used as just more pleasure for men. They wear hardly any clothing, or in some cases simply no clothes at all. The Savage She-Hulk's outfit, number ten on the list, covers a lot compared to the other nine heroines on the list. Supergirl's outfit isn't horrible either, but her skirt is a little short. Fire and The Engineer are both naked. Tigra, Shanna the She-Devil, and Red Sonja are all wearing what look like really skimpy bathing suits. The top three skimpiest outfits on the list, Witchblade, Vampirella, and War Woman, can hardly be considered outfits at all. It is disgusting how superheroine outfits are designed so they can be "sold".

After reading the blog guidelines, I thought it would be a good idea to make my first blog about something general. So, I went to youtube and searched "super heroine comics.” I found it very interesting that most of the results that popped up referred to "sexy" or "hot" super heroines, even though I did not search with those words. I watched the video titled "Marvel and DC Comics Superhero Girls by DSNG Artist," and found the images truly offensive and crude (here's the website; proceed with caution!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZBnRaQ1m_E) After this video, I watched a clip about the first team of super heroines: Femforce. It gave a brief description of each member of the team. I found it interesting to see how these characters were described: Ms. Victory is a "tall blonde" who took vitamins which transformed her "into a beautiful juggernaut..a powerful force for freedom," She-Cat is "feisty, spirited [and] sexy," and Nightveil is a "dark, brooding beauty.” All of these bios reinforce our class’s opinion that superheroes/super heroines must have physical beauty. Did anyone else search super heroines on youtube and find something interesting?

IN a world of damsels in distress and scantily clad super heroines, there exists one girl above the rest. One girl with a big. freaking. scythe. Maka Albarn, of the series Soul Eater is a typical school girl, whose teachers instruct her not in the subjects of algebra and English, but in how to fight evil and defeat madness personified. In essence it is a school for super heroes, but what I found most interesting was the fact that there are two categories of student. Those that are masters and those that are weapons. Maka Albarn is the wielder of her best friend named Soul, who has the ability to transform himself into a scythe. As you may or may not know, scythes are notoriously hard to wield, and even worse for defending oneself. Yet Maka shows a proficiency beyond her years and she, along with Soul, are star students of their year. To me, Maka and Soul's relationship is the epitome of equal partners. A sword cannot wield itself, and a master cannot fight without his/her weapon. But even though Maka is a strong, confident, and somewhat conservative girl, her friend/weapon Soul often teases her about her lack of sexuality, and constantly compares her to their mutual friend Blair, the witch cat, who, while sexy, ends up being one of the weaker characters in the series. Does a high sexuality equal less power and vice versa and are Soul's teasings the manifestations of sexism or simply a schoolboy crush?

Episode 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apzgClzK-7w

Notable Moments:

00:00-2:53 the opening

04:25-05:46 the fight

06:50-7:37 the flat chested joke

09:10-09:30 the witch cat Blair (NSFW)

16:06-19:40 the resolution/anti-climax

P.S. feel free to watch the whole episode. Its a great way to procrastinate :3