Sexism and Comic Books

Over the summer I spent a week with my mom and her sisters, and I was surprised to hear from all of them that when they were younger they all enjoyed comic books, and looked forward to getting new issues every month (This must have been in the 50's, I think?) and not just the pandering "Girl comics" like Little Lulu or Love Letters, we're talking real superhero comics. I was surprised by this because it's no secret that comic books today are pretty regularly regarded as sexist, with ultra-sexualized women that are simply sounding boards to their male counterparts rather than characters in their own right - An opinion I'm mostly inclined to agree with.

But I've been going through some classic comics trying to get my golden age education and I was shocked and pleased to see some very strong women. Betty Ross, for example, Captain America's love interest, is a pistol packing government agent who's not afraid to let off a few rounds in a pinch, and Lois Lane is the daring star reporter of the Daily Planet who's willing to risk her life for a scoop - interesting enough to warrant her own long-running comic!

As I moved into the Silver Age the difference was like night and day. Jean Grey is essentially a receptionist for the X-men that only exists for all of them to be in love with, and The Wasp is a useless boy-crazy whiner that only gives the team someone to rescue.

While the situation today isn't as bad as it was in the 60's, I really think it's still closer to that than it is the Lois Lanes of yesteryear.

What happened in those 20 years that so drastically changed how women are written in comics, especially considering the 40's and 50's were considered a much more sexist era in other media? Any opinions?

There is an undercurrent of sexism, because by and large this is entertainment by men for boys. Some of the "huge bewbs and big guns" stuff really makes me cringe because it brings the whole endeavor down a notch.

Lois Lane's classic appearances from my childhood mostly seemed to be serving as Plot Device: "Lois is in trouble! Save her!" But other superpowered female members of the various DC "Family" books mostly held their own.

As far as Marvel Girl and Wasp and their ilk, a lot of those were written by Stan Lee and for all his innovations he did have something of a blind spot when it came to women, treating them mostly as love interests.

So you think what I'm seeing is mostly early Stan Lee's own problems rather than a problem with comics as a whole? I could buy that. I haven't read any silver age DC yet.

But if my mom and her sisters were all into comics, I wonder when and why superhero comic book creators decided to sell out their female audience and focus just on boys.

I've been reading some Marvel titles for a long while now (X-titles, Elektra, Thor, Avengers, etc), and while sure, women heroes/villains are definitely drawn to appeal to men, I never looked at the majority of female characters as simple adjuncts to their male counterparts. As a woman, I am definitely sensitive to these issues and would take umbrage at Storm coming out with a tray of cookies while Cyclops and Wolverine plot their next adventure, but I don't see that. At least in my small experience with those particular titles.

As a side note, there's an interesting short about the evolution of Supergirl in the new Batman/Superman Apocalypse DVD that you might find interesting.

Lois Lane
Diana Prince
Barbara Gordon
Renee Montoya
Magaret Sawyer
Kate Kane
Zinda Blake
Dinah Lance
Helena Bertinelli
Stephanie Brown
Cassandra Cain

Nope...no strong female characters there...

As for why there was strong female characters and then a recession of strong females in comics more or less...

It's really quite obvious...

1930s and 1940s women took over jobs in various industries and this led to the image of the strong female, from the female baseball league to the woman in overalls image i can't remember the name of. This spawned a number of strong female characters. Such as the iconic Wonder Woman.

1950s and early 60s came with the McCarthy era and traditional values and such which added "families" into the various comics and made women, more or less, in comics, the home bodies to set an example of what good men and women were like, even super ones.

In the later 60s, the whole young hip woman that is strong but caring image came about, with icons such as Barbara Gordon, replacing her original Batgirl predecessor most people don't remember, coming to the front...

this led to the clash which you can see over and over again in media and I believe there is a trope for it. Can a strong woman be feminine? is a constant question within this era and you either have cold ******* that are more masculine, demure secretaries, or whores that slept their way to the top... Those comics that focused more on one issue or another created characters that would press the question in one area but not in others, such as X-Men and Jean Grey which talked about racism but largely ignored feminist issues while on the other hand Barbara Gordon's character in Batman talked of Feminist issues, but almost never talked about race issues.

it's not that these strong characters don't exist that came from that era, but there is obviously a battle between the various ideas of what a woman is in the greater cultural sense during this period resulting in some comics going with the tried and true "acceptable" stereotype, while others went with other stereo types... For example Lois Lane during the late 80s was still being portrayed somewhat as the cold hearted ***** while Cat Grant portrayed the Sleep to the top role...

Eventually as the 90s progressed and we got over a lot of race and gender issues the characters have become more multifaceted and not just a stereotype of one of the basic type of female characters.


This is also why Wonder Woman is Strong yet Sensitive and Caring while a lot of other Strong female characters are not Sensitive and Caring. Because of when she was created and the ideas of what a woman were then.



For a more general answer... It is expected that you would see that given the political and cultural climate of those eras...

PS. The whole "big bewbs" angle is BS... it is. Sorry, I don't know of very many guys that have rippling muscle, are rich, and are also handsome, and are smart... Hell I don't even know a lot of guys I would consider smart so the whole "it's what guys want to see" thing is just as applicable for "it's what girls want to see" as well with comics.

Relevant: Women in Refrigerators, the phenomenon wherein it is hazardous to one's health to be a woman.

Anyway, I've made my views on this known for years. Political debates aren't allowed on these boards. Depending on to whom you speak, social issues may or may not be congruently political issues.

So... I'm retired. Gorndt, I haven't seen you around these parts, but I wish you well and welcome you to the boards.

Thanks! I'll try to remain as apolitical as I can. I'm just excited because in my social circle I never get the chance to discuss comicbooks. I'm reading your link now and it's definitely interesting and relevant.

Let's not forget that when introduced Wonder Woman served as the JSA's secretary and a lot of her adventures had her being captured and chained up by the villains so that Steve Trevor could come to her rescue.

Then there were the likes of Phantom Lady, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Torchy, and similar characters who used sex appeal to sell comics to adolescent males. Don't forget that the 40s and 50s were the peak of comic book Good Girl Art.

If you're not seeing a lot of sexism in Golden Age comics it may be because you're reading books that were reprinted because they were considered the cream of the crop and a lack of sexism may well have been one of the criteria for them being reprinted.

My personal experience with female comic book fans is that they tend to follow books about male characters because while they like the genre, there is often a dearth of female characters that they like. Just because they're female doesn't mean they only read books about female characters.

Marvel seems to have a lot of positive female characters who are scientists and the like.

Back when he was gearing up for his review of the abysmal multi-part waste that was Amazons Attack, internet comic reviewer Linkara posted a video about the history of Wonder Woman (including her Golden Age creator) that I highly recommend to anyone who's a fan of the character or, conversely, doesn't understand the character. I suggest taking a look, since I believe it's relevant to the topic at hand.

Here you go!

I hate it when there's a thread that gets started and I go "Ooh! I have lots to say about it" only to find that pretty much everything has already been said. Can't you see that I want the credit for wisdom?!


But on a serious note, I always point out the standards that men are held to as well. It gets to the point where, if anything happens, suddenly every woman in the room looks at me to deal with it (I am a man, btw). Crazy homeless guy screaming outside our church? Yeah, let Blood deal with it because he's the guy around here. Man shot and bleeding to death? This looks like a job for Blood! Building is on fire? Let Blood break down the door and search for everyone...

The thing is that I totally do, and I actually get a kick from it. There's nothing akin to the thrill of staring death in the face and winning. It's masculating... BRING ME A WENCH!


There is something else that I noticed, though. The man and his drive to reproduce can't be held fully accountable for the depiction that women have in comic books because women will act that way themselves. I had to have my sister explain to me what it is that goes on, and similarly why girls like the bad boys and why it is that academic performance of girls drops after puberty.

Women will judge their overall "worth" in society directly by the attention and the praise that they receive from men. Like steam powered engines, but it's self-esteem (roflpun but seriously now). This is not exclusive or all encompassing, but bear with me. The attention that they receive increases their own self-perceived value depending on what the attention is for, who it comes from, and how much of it they receive. The bad boy praise syndrome comes from the subconscious belief that, since someone who is a careless troublemaker cares about you to some degree, that you must be very special. They will then keep trying to receive the bad boy's attention, conforming to his every whim and desire. Beauty is emphasized so heavily even in woman's magazines since the beauty will bring praise from men (though this admiration is closer to that of how wolves view sheep), and socially rectifying jealousy from other women. Even romance movies are about, as once put on Family Guy, "Strong women who doesn't know she's missing something in her life". Suffice to say, this has ruined romance movies for my sister forever.

The dumbing down and conforming happens with a lot of women. Men like being manly, and women know this, so they will provide ample opportunities for us to be manly by feigning helplessness on physical tasks and academics. Grades will intentionally drop so girls will get tutored or to conform to the bad boy/sports focused/rich person's ideal. When the man comes to the rescue, he feels manly and women receive attention. Everybody wins... only in the short run.

Long run problems, men view women as helpless, and women become helpless since they abandon their lofty goals to be someone's wife. Women give up their responsibilities and thus also give up the power that comes with them. I would see this all the time in middle school, and it even happened in my super-elite highschool where students were trying to be groomed for success. Though not as often in college, despite the rampant outbreak of implants.

Seeing damsels in faux distress everywhere I went, it would be understandable for someone to actually believe that women were real damsels in distress. Women rightfully complain about over depictions of this view, but must not forget that they themselves do this, and even idealize about being rescued despite how strong they want to depict themselves.

Repeat: non-ubiquitous, but nonetheless occurs.