I am really, really, skeeved out by how women are drawn in comic books.
It's not that the women are all drawn in an attractive way. From movies to television to literature, protagonists (whether male or female) are often attractive, good-lookin' folks.
I don't even particularly object to the sexualization of comic book characters. I think it's inappropriate for children; I think it's a little bizarre; but if you draw an attractive female character in a sexy costume, okay, to some extent that's a genre trope. This was pretty much how things stood in the mid-to-late 80's, when I was reading comics as a kid.
But damn, there's a difference between drawing your characters to be attractive, and violating the basic rules of human anatomy. Some of these female characters are walking around with what looks like basketballs stuck to their chests. I am amazed that they can reach past their own breasts to punch people.
Lay it on 'em, Nietzsche!
"And when I came out of my solitude and crossed over this bridge for the first time I did not trust my eyes and looked and looked again, and said at last, 'An ear! An ear as big as a man!' I looked still more closely--and indeed, underneath the ear something was moving, something pitifully small and wretched and slender. And no doubt of it, the tremendous ear was attached to a small, thin stalk--but this stalk was a human being!"
Except, replace "ear" with "boobs." In a huge percentage of the comics each week, there are these female characters with absolutely absurd chests and asses, and in just about every panel they're striking a pose to reveal their bustiness or their cleavage. Once in a while? Okay. But every panel?
Like, in general, when it comes to media I'm all in favor of sex, or weird kinks, or tasteful nudity - but (a) I don't really want it in my silly superman comics, and (b) if you're going to include this stuff, does it have to be done in such an inept, sleazy, pandering sort of way?
I feel queasy having this stuff in my house, because I think the secret purpose of it is to provide emotionally underdeveloped 40 year olds with jack-off material as they grow increasingly desensitized to actual human proportions.
