Sexism in Comics

After already setting the comic world aflame with the relaunch of their entire line, DC Comics has already managed to unintentionally spur itself up yet another controversy. On September 21, DC released Catwoman #1 and The Red Hood and the Outlaws #1, both of which since their release have been accused of being sexist towards women. Catwoman #1 ended with Catwoman and Batman raaaannndomly hooking up towards the end, and we learn that this isn’t the first time, and they always “keep their costumes on.” The Red Hood and the Outlaws’ new interpretation of the Teen Titans mainstay, Starfire, was of an amnesic alien that could not distinguish one human from the next with an extremely high sex drive.

The main complaint against these books is obvious here: they are objectifying women in these portrayals. Catwoman went from barely escaping explosions, going undercover, and brutally taking down bad peeps to simply throwing herself at Batman, complete with the costume (which also bringing up questions regarding DC’s new continuity, as previously Batman knew Catwoman was really Selina Kyle, and Catwoman knew Batman was really Bruce Wayne. Not too mention how odd it is to think that someone as serious and professional as Batman would even go along with that…).

On the other hand, Starfire went from being a fully developed mainstay of the Teen Titans to a character that is not even really capable of having any type of relation with ANY DC character now, as she can’t even tell them apart. Somehow these types of accusations lead to long-standing accusations of sexism in comics based on the fact that pretty much every female comic book character has a miniature waist and extremely over-exaggerated other parts.

Now typically, this is the part where one would talk about how either sex is wrong and comic books are sexist, or attempt to disprove such claims that comic books are sexist. But at his point, every time I hear these types of claims, my first instinct is usually to assume that someone is overreacting. I think it's because one of my favorite hobbies is video games, and time and t ime again you hear claims that video games are causing violence, and that they are ruining our youth. Sexism in comics is not quite as prevalent an accusation as violence is with video games, but it is one that I hear enough that I've just become kind of numb to it and automatically don't think much of the claim.

But if you were to ask me if I thought these comics were in fact sexist, my answer would likely be….kinda. To me, they are just stories like in any other media. And in any other media, such as television or movies, these types of plot lines and characters prevail. Pretty much every television show oversexualizes its characters at some point (Even Sara from CSI makes sure she looks nice before going to see a dead body). With that in mind, doesn’t this make it likely that the writer of books such as Catwoman #1 did not have any sexist intent, but was merely trying to keep in line with the type of storylines and themes that are successful in other forms of media, which seems like a perfectly logical thing to do? Doesn’t that make it seem like maybe, just maybe, there was no sexism intended here, all that was intended was entertainment?

Starfire’s situation is a lot more precarious. It’s hard to defend a character that no longer can tell people apart and successfully beds two characters in the span of 22 pages. I still stand by my assumption that, creatively, writer Scot Lobdell did not sit down to write Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 with the intent of being sexist. Likely, he was just trying to emulate themes from other media in comic book form. The result is a pretty sexist portrayal of a character, but I cannot believe this to be the intent.

Nor should one jump to the conclusion that all comic books are sexist based on these two cases. In the past month DC Comics has offered other titles, such as Batwoman #1 and Batgirl #1 that portray strong, independent women that are plainly not being objectified. I don’t think comic books are sexist anymore than I think television is sexist for putting shows on such as Desperate Housewives or Jerseylicious. Maybe the shows themselves are sexist, whether intentionally or not, but one should not judge the entire medium that way.

So are these comics sexist? Well, yeah, kind of. Sexism in comics is nothing new, just as it is nothing new in any form of any media. However, are comics as a whole sexist? I wouldn’t say so, at least not more than, oh, anything else.