On the Spider-Woman cover: Certainly a comic book cover pales in comparison to other recent news events on some level, at least in its urgency, except when its such a blatant affront to decency and a slap in the face to so many female readers (of which there are too few as it is!), from the comics company I most adore and identify with, involving arguably my favorite character of all time. Ask anyone, Im always going on about her. Jessica Drew is an incredible character when portrayed right. Thank you Bendis. Look, apologists for this new Spider-Woman #1 cover (look it up if youre curious and can handle provocative female poses, Im not linking to it): You can do all the mental gynmastics you want to say its just art, or a fictional character, or just a special edition for collectors, or no worse than others, and show all the male counterpart crotch-shot examples you want. The truth remains, its all down to Composition. Its reasonable to assume the artist sketched out a few choices for the character slinking around on a rooftop, as Spider-Woman is known to do. It makes sense for her powers and personality. That pose can be evocatively, excitedly, portrayed from any number of angles, and this is the one he, and Marvel, chose. It would be no better if he only did the one pose and Marvel jumped straight to approval for the sake of deadline; a discussion should have been had. There is no. other. way. to interpret the layout and composition of that cover given her placement in the image than Look at her butt first. Stare at it for a while, then let your gaze fall down the image toward her face if youre so inclined. Let me say that again: Butt first, then face. The (American) eye favors, just as with reading, viewing art top-left to bottom-right. It was done on purpose to titillate, and frankly, my Spider-Woman deserves better. That is the definition of Objectification, and why people are upset. I would be embarrassed to hand that comic book to my teenaged daughter, someone Id love to be reading some Marvel along with me! If they havent already and I just missed it, I hope Marvel gets out in front of this asap.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 03:52:43 +0000