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"Years after she first emerged from the Batcave, Batwoman is coming out of the closet. DC Comics is resurrecting the classic comic book character as a lesbian...The 5-foot-10 superhero comes with flowing red hair, knee-high red boots with spiked heels, and a form-fitting black outfit."[emphasis mine]
the HELL?! So, Batwoman is back (to fill the void left by the "mysterious" disappearance of Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman), which is great, but to "diversify" she's gay. Ok. Ok, I can see how gay can be seen as a diversification tool by corporate schmucks. My question is, if the new Batwoman is so damn gay, why is she still wearing those Stripper Boots of the Patriarchy? I'm not saying she would fight crime in Birkenstocks or anything, but a conservative heel or flat-soled boot would be more conducive to fighting crime as well as giving the old High-Ho and Fuck You to traditional standards of comic book cutie hotness that has remained unchanged for, what, the last 50 years? Hell, why not fight crime barefoot?
Do you get what I'm saying here? You can put her in a rainbow tee shirt when she's out of uniform, you can have her kissing other women, you can have her scream from the steps of Gotham City Hall that she's a big ol' rug muncher and LIKES it, but the fact remains that DC is still dressing her up like a Superhero Sex Toy built for, and owned by, the Patriarchy. Just because you put the label of Lesbian on something that is so recognizable as the "traditional" and "accepted" form of the female as an inked wet dream, doesn't make it legitimate. Or especially diverse. Or even particularly attractive to lesbians.
Twisty over at the International House of Patriarchy Blaming says it much better than I ever could.
It's the shoes. The shoes really ticked me off. If you can fight crime so damn well in spike heels, then let fuckin' ANY of the other dudes try it. The only one who probably wouldn't have a problem would be Aquaman. and everybody knows he's just a puss.
- Mood:
WTF?
Comments
There's more, I'm sure, but I stopped paying attention, really, when I relized that Infinite Crisis was sucking.
That said, would you be reading comics (DC, 52, whatever) if they introduced a non-lesbian Batwoman? Or a Batwoman wearing sane shoes? Probably not. Which is why I don't entirely buy your outrage. It'd be like Dick Cheney deploring the direction Smallville's been moving in: he's not watching the show anyway, so wtf does he care?
Anyway, Erik Larsen (who drew my definitive Spider-man) has expressed some thoughts on the subject of female comic characters and their impossible/silly costumes.
sure, if she kicked ass! without the stripper boots. She could like to fuck frogs, for all I care. It's not about who you fuck, it's about who's fucking ass you kick in the comic book world. at least, IMHO
So what did one lesbian frog say to the other?
Well what do you know. We do taste like chicken.
*thank you* I now return you to your intellectual discussion. :)
"In the real world people come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and some of them are beautiful and some aren't, but there's an incredible variety there. I'd like to see more diversity in comics and less cowardice. Everybody doesn't have to look like the same boy and girl with slightly different heads. Women can be fat and skinny and busty and not so busty and everything in between. Men can look any number of ways. It's okay for white characters to look white and black characters to look black and Asian characters to look Asian and Latino characters to look Latino and every possible variation."
Why didn't DC take the opportunity to do something different with the new Batwoman, instead of just drawing the same old formula female figure and past the label "Lesbian" on her to sell books?
I did do some thinking about this in the car: although I dismiss all the recent DC diversification is a cheap stunt, I think more diversification is a good thing. Most of superherodom is white and male; changing that can only be a good thing.
Yes, the lesbian Batwoman is unrealistic, but these are comics. And, I'd argue that the "lesbian" who's pretty much your standard comicbook superheroine with the "hetero" filed off does have some precedent. If you look at early black superheroes (and heroines), they're pretty much white characters who are drawn to look black and, occasionally speak with more jive than ususal. (I say, "as usual" because, Sweet Christmas, everybody's hip to the jive in the 70's.) And yet, over years those characters grew into a more believable black identity.
I also think it's a good idea to have more gay comic characters: Northstar's a joke (sorry,
I'm not trying to excuse the notion of 1) recreating a Batwoman character 2) making her lesbian or 3) making her look the way she looks (though I don't think it's too bad*). As I said, this whole process of diversificatin' characters seems forced to me. I just think the outraged response to it (and not just from you) is disproportionate to the silliness.
On a side note, when I first read "Lesbian Batwoman", I thought, "They're making Renee Montoya Batwoman. Fuck yeah." Montoya, who started out as a character in the Batman cartoon series, of all places, is a badass cop who doesn't take shit from anybody and happens to be a lesbian. Gotham Central was an awesome comic book (about her and the rest GCPD). You want to read about a believable lesbian character who pwns, that's a good place to head.
* Her costume's the classic Batgirl costume with the Batman Beyond color scheme. Say what you will about the appropriateness of wearing heeled boots while kicking ass, but it's not an idea that popped up at the same time the lesbian thing did.
I said the same thing. Foolish man, am I.
But damn, if I wanted a kickass woman who wants women: Montoya is at the top of my list.
They've got Puck for Beer's sake!
Female superheroes are largely built as sex symbols, yes. But good for men! At least these days we see a powerful woman as something exciting rather than a threat to our wieners. But yeah, we're still going to want them to dress like strippers.
Comics are a fantasy world, invented for men by men. Some women read comics, awesome -- but mainstream companies aren't going to risk the market share that is generated by a she-mutant in a bustier for this fringe group.
Plus, who says a lesbian can't dress like a stripper? Practically every stripper I've ever tried to pick up has told me she's a lesbian. Go figure.
Secondly, I'd be willing to bet that those same stripper-lesbians think that stripping empowers them sexually. "I'm not just some mindless sex-toy," the young stripper thinks to herself, "I'm choosing to be a mindless sex-toy."
And who said that the fringe group wants a She-mutant in a bustier? How about a She-mutant in fatigues? or dressed as a ninja? or ANYTHING besides the vacuum-sealed unitard?
I'm being idealistic again, aren't I?
Men read comics, so comics should, generally, pander to the tastes of men if they're going to be successful.
It's a vicious cycle, though, because women generally avoid comics for the same reasons they do well with men.
Also, apparently women, in general, just don't get/enjoy superhero comics. They gladly devour Vertigo-type stuff, like Sandman but are, as a gender, "meh" about superhero comics.
Gee. I wonder why.
:)
I am incensed that you are so prejudiced against lipstick lesbians. I mean, you seem to be saying, "If you're a lesbian, you must be counterculture, and if you're counterculture, you have to be my counterculture."
second - I am not discriminating against those lesbians who like to buy makeup and do that whole thing. I'm discriminating against the same old cookie-cutter femme superhero that basically had a pink triangle sticker slapped on her ass and now she's all "counter-culture". it's asinine.
DODGEweave!
second - I am not discriminating against those lesbians who like to buy makeup and do that whole thing. I'm discriminating against the same old cookie-cutter femme superhero that basically had a pink triangle sticker slapped on her ass and now she's all "counter-culture". it's asinine.
So? She's a super hero. She dresses like a super hero. If she wore Army boots and frumpy jeans and a mullet and a little bat patch on her oversized flannel shirt, I bet you a ball of smack you'd complain about what a disgusting stereotype she is. ;)
Why should the new Batwoman, whatever her sexual orientation, still be confined in high heels? The shoes are a torture device, IMHO. They keep you off balance, cause callouses and bunions, lead to vericose veins and muscle cramps because the leg is in a flexed position even when the wearer is relaxed. Why would any sane superhero who knew what kind of acrobatics and agility they would need to fight crime wear a style of shoe that would be detrimental to their performance? I'll tell you, because it's a female character, and the only accepted image of a female super hero is busty with little to no clothing and in heels. (Ha! Nice little Freudian typo - I had typed "hells")
So, not so much that the lack of heels would indicate that she is a lesbian, but that the heels themselves are the token symbol of the female of the patriarchy. And for a superhero as cool as Batwoman is, the heels are superfluous. She shouldn't wear them, lesbian or not.
I'm cranky about Wonder Woman's various incarnations with ridiculous heels. It doesn't matter to me whether she's a lesbian or not (I'm sure that little comment years ago in JLA has been retconned out of existence by now). Any female superhero in high heels is completely ridiculous (unless she floats and flies by default).
I don't freaking care whether Batwoman is a femme (which is a term I vastly prefer over the so-called "lipstick lesbian," since a) I think the latter term is stupid, and b) I have the impression that "lipstick lesbian" is a label applied by straight culture, while "femme" is a queer culture term, frequently used in self-labeling) or a butch or something else entirely. It would be nice to see a butch as a superhero, because one sees them so very rarely (the femmes have the drawback of being more closely related to male masturbation fantasies).
As a character, I don't give a snap whether she likes makeup and heels in her normal life. Running around the streets, fighting crime and doing acrobatics in shoes likely to shorten her Achilles tendons, trash her feet, and break her ankles if she hits some rough pavement? Is completely IDIOTIC.