Thinking Out Loud: Skimpy Costumes

I must have started and discarded this article at least a dozen times. I think that representation of women in comics is a big issue, especially if it's putting women and girls off the medium, and I think the physicality of how female heroes and villains are drawn is a big part of that. However, I also believe that the issue is a lot bigger than just skimpy costumes, and laying the problem at the feet of a single problematic trope is not only a bad approach, but only makes the problem worse. Before we get too much into it, we need to discuss two things that the internet hates, Privilege and Feminism, as I believe it's a misunderstanding of both of these which can cause issues for many. First up, let's check my own privilage and credentials on this one; I am a heterosexual, white, cis-male who grew up middle class in Australia and went to private schools. Being Poly, I "technically" come under the Queer banner, but I almost never experience any detriments from this, so it's not really part of my identity. I don't know what it's like to grow up as a women and experience the constant barrage of bullshit about appearance and beauty standards and I never truly can understand, but I can do what I can to bridge that gap of understanding with learning, which I do through my profession as a Mental Health Youth Worker. 

Also, I love superhero comics, and I want them to continue, but also continue to get better. Sadly, Power Girl's boob window and Carol Danvers' Warbird costume are part of the history of comics, and I don't want to erase that, but creating an environment where readers and creators understand that sort of thing isn't good enough anymore should be a priority for the industry. The flip side of all this, which is something that does tend to bug me, is that any comic with a female character in a state of undress is quickly held up as being "part of the problem" and the entire comic is disregarded. Probably what bugs me the most about this is the (often literal) judging of [comic] books by their covers; but also, any subtlety is lost and the debate quickly becomes binary, which is never a good thing. One comic often held up for ridicule is She Hulk, especially the brilliant Dan Slott run, which had cheesecake covers of the titular heroine, much as previous incarnations had, though this time, the intention is clearly ironic. A friend of mine once posted one of these parody "He-Hulk" images on Facebook and when I pointed out that the comics in question were quite feminist internally and well worth a read, I was told, in response, that if the covers were like that, why bother to read them? 

Was that an extreme response? Certainly. An irrational one? Not really. The medium of comics (especially Superhero comics) is less than a century old, but the only real efforts to produce gender diverse comics in the mainstream started in the late 1990s, change has been slow. At least things are changing, like Janet Van Dyne starting out as an airhead fashionista and now being a powerful fashion-mogul and occasional leader of the Avengers. She-Hulk has gone from a jokey pin-up to a competent lawyer and beloved celebrity. Gwen Stacey has gone from a fetishised corpse to probably the best version of Siper-Woman. The industry is getting better, and the popularity of the television and film adaptations of characters is helping, with Supergirl demonstrating a college-age heroine with a job and complex issues instead of a midriff-baring teenage cheerleader. I mean, I will defend the miniskirt and crop-top version of the costume for teenage Supergirl, but only because I've worked with enough teenage women to be all to aware of the pressures and issues that encourage that kind of behavior in some. Things will keep getting better, hopefully, until then, encourage the women in your life to get to know Spider-Gwen, Atom Eve, Kate Bishop, Kate Kane and all of the other great women of comics past and present, even if the art is a little off-putting at times.