Friday, June 02, 2006
Super Lesbians?
Only our most sharp-eyed readers know that the 'Villain and I have been known to read the occasional comic book. Indeed, my own attic is groaning with several thousand of them, mostly dating from the early to mid 1980s.
It was therefore with great interest that I read Debbie Schlussel on the "masculinity" of female superheroes and the renderings thereof. Her depiction of Wonder Woman's (d)evolution is worth the click all by itself.
I will say that I do not agree with her hint that these more muscular drawings necessarily reflect the creeping lesbianization of female superheroes. During the last twenty years or so there has been a minor revolution in the attitude of males toward female muscularity. Remember the impact of Linda Hamilton's cut physique in 1991's T2: Judgment Day? Young men, particularly, thought she was hot. This reflects the growing recognition of younger men particularly, even if not exclusively, that women can be hard and strong, not just soft and cuddly. The Title IX generation has come of age, and some men have revised their sense of female beauty accordingly. Virtually all the pencillers who draw today's buff female superheroes are, after all, men, and the women they draw would definitely want to have sex with them.
2 Comments:
By 
Dawnfire82, at
Fri Jun 02, 08:41:00 PM:
Jeeze, feminists whine and bitch for years to get women more involved in sports and the military, and now that they are and its being reflected in entertainment mediums it's yet another chauvanistic conspiracy? I hate feminists.
But I love me some female soccer players...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandi_Chastain
By Charlottesvillain, at
Tue Jun 06, 04:28:00 PM:
Talk about your tempest in a teapot.
By the way, my three year old can recite the Green Lantern oath, which is pretty cool.
