philippos42 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
philippos42) wrote2009-12-07 05:01 pm
philippos42) wrote2009-12-07 05:01 pm
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Sexy is not a bad thing. Nor is it the ony thing. Repeat this to yourself.
Quoth the "Bomb Queen" artist:
I give a little slack to the villains (disclaimer: I do a villain book). Villains are often extremist / extroverts — it helps with the ego. It also sets them apart from the *heroes* on moral and ethical grounds with the reader / audience.
Wait, in what way is Power Girl not an extrovert? It seems perfectly obvious that that's what she is.
This is not the first time I've heard a preference for wacky sexy costume elements on vilains. And I find it troubling, in that "sexy=evil" way. If it's not taken as slut-shaming, it's taken as making villainy exciting & desirable.
From a writing standpoint, I oppose excessive stereotypes. There should be introverted good guys & bad guys as well as extroverted good guys & bad guys. (Not that the costumed types are going to be especially shy by nature.) Neither side of the coin should be devoid of characters with modesty, immodesty. sexiness, sexlessness, pride, humility, idiosyncratic scruple, recklessness, consideredness, or other things that don't have directly to do with the issue (of law, ethics, or allegiance) that makes one a hero, villain, or "in-between."
I love Power Girl. I like the Authority's Apollo for similar reasons. I'd probably like him more if he were straignt & at least half naked--then he'd really tap into my idea of Apollo. Big, bold, blond(e), exponent of an ideal form of your sex, crossed with superhuman strength. Angelic, almost. I dig that.
Similarly, old-school Hawkman is teh sex. Or Nightcrawler when you get him out of the flat black of the costume & have him in his shorts (thank you Alan Davis for you Excalibur run).
This is not me being gay. This is me appreciating the ideal of a fit man. I absolutely had a boy-crush on Van Damage when I was younger. I didn't want to have sex with him so much as I--what, wanted to be like him? No, even more, I just admired his physicality. (Being able to do the splits with that much muscle takes dedication I was in awe of but never quite had.) Straight men in this country would do well to let themselves appreciate male beauty instead of getting all homophobic about themselves. They might get in better shape.
But I digress. Being sexy is not a crime. It's not a sin. It's not a character flaw. It's a good thing. A desirable thing. There should be heroes, male & female, who embrace their sexiness. And there should those who downplay their sexuality, think they're ugly, or whatever, as well.
None of this justifies drawing all women as the same skinny abstraction of femininity like Jim Lee. We need to get back to drawing characters in comics, rather than just the same two figures (burly guy & small-boned lady) in different war paint & calling it different characters.
As for Power Girl: After the shiny yellow & white bodysuit she wore in Justice League Europe, the first attempts to put her back in the white leotard (or even minidress, wasn't it for a while?) looked kind of sad to me, like she was dressing up a slip (if minidress) or a cheap non-custom leotard (if leotard) with a ragged cape. Even the busy white/blue/red number with the kite cutout she wore post-Giffen was at least not bland. But Amanda Conner has made the classic color scheme work. It looks like it's actually the sort of material that would stand up in a fight, & it could perhaps even stay opaque when wet.
All that said, I would totally love writing a character who runs around in a t-shirt & panties because she's just that tough & fast, & she genuinely doesn't care what people think--for an arc, anyway.
Or a heroic character with a tiny bit of Bomb Queen in her. Or even Evil & Malice's mom (who was a hero, if I remember right).
And then there's this guy:
The logical endpoint is doing R- or X-rated stories so that there can be nudity, but then the characters are no longer heroines. They are merely sex fantasy objects.
Merely? Oh good lord. Hey, it's good to know that Kirika & Chloe stopped being characters when they took their clothes off late in Noir. Oh, wait, they didn't.
I am going to just have to write my own Apollonian superhero, huh? Shiny, flies naked, possibly gold....
I give a little slack to the villains (disclaimer: I do a villain book). Villains are often extremist / extroverts — it helps with the ego. It also sets them apart from the *heroes* on moral and ethical grounds with the reader / audience.
Wait, in what way is Power Girl not an extrovert? It seems perfectly obvious that that's what she is.
This is not the first time I've heard a preference for wacky sexy costume elements on vilains. And I find it troubling, in that "sexy=evil" way. If it's not taken as slut-shaming, it's taken as making villainy exciting & desirable.
From a writing standpoint, I oppose excessive stereotypes. There should be introverted good guys & bad guys as well as extroverted good guys & bad guys. (Not that the costumed types are going to be especially shy by nature.) Neither side of the coin should be devoid of characters with modesty, immodesty. sexiness, sexlessness, pride, humility, idiosyncratic scruple, recklessness, consideredness, or other things that don't have directly to do with the issue (of law, ethics, or allegiance) that makes one a hero, villain, or "in-between."
I love Power Girl. I like the Authority's Apollo for similar reasons. I'd probably like him more if he were straignt & at least half naked--then he'd really tap into my idea of Apollo. Big, bold, blond(e), exponent of an ideal form of your sex, crossed with superhuman strength. Angelic, almost. I dig that.
Similarly, old-school Hawkman is teh sex. Or Nightcrawler when you get him out of the flat black of the costume & have him in his shorts (thank you Alan Davis for you Excalibur run).
This is not me being gay. This is me appreciating the ideal of a fit man. I absolutely had a boy-crush on Van Damage when I was younger. I didn't want to have sex with him so much as I--what, wanted to be like him? No, even more, I just admired his physicality. (Being able to do the splits with that much muscle takes dedication I was in awe of but never quite had.) Straight men in this country would do well to let themselves appreciate male beauty instead of getting all homophobic about themselves. They might get in better shape.
But I digress. Being sexy is not a crime. It's not a sin. It's not a character flaw. It's a good thing. A desirable thing. There should be heroes, male & female, who embrace their sexiness. And there should those who downplay their sexuality, think they're ugly, or whatever, as well.
None of this justifies drawing all women as the same skinny abstraction of femininity like Jim Lee. We need to get back to drawing characters in comics, rather than just the same two figures (burly guy & small-boned lady) in different war paint & calling it different characters.
As for Power Girl: After the shiny yellow & white bodysuit she wore in Justice League Europe, the first attempts to put her back in the white leotard (or even minidress, wasn't it for a while?) looked kind of sad to me, like she was dressing up a slip (if minidress) or a cheap non-custom leotard (if leotard) with a ragged cape. Even the busy white/blue/red number with the kite cutout she wore post-Giffen was at least not bland. But Amanda Conner has made the classic color scheme work. It looks like it's actually the sort of material that would stand up in a fight, & it could perhaps even stay opaque when wet.
All that said, I would totally love writing a character who runs around in a t-shirt & panties because she's just that tough & fast, & she genuinely doesn't care what people think--for an arc, anyway.
Or a heroic character with a tiny bit of Bomb Queen in her. Or even Evil & Malice's mom (who was a hero, if I remember right).
And then there's this guy:
The logical endpoint is doing R- or X-rated stories so that there can be nudity, but then the characters are no longer heroines. They are merely sex fantasy objects.
Merely? Oh good lord. Hey, it's good to know that Kirika & Chloe stopped being characters when they took their clothes off late in Noir. Oh, wait, they didn't.
I am going to just have to write my own Apollonian superhero, huh? Shiny, flies naked, possibly gold....