A recent post on Vanity Fair with title ‘Suicide Squad’s Harley Quinn; the Most Divisive Character in Comic book History’ and the presence of wonder woman in the movie batman versus superman in 2016, have indirectly shown that there is a surge in the demand for more female superheroes. These female superheroes are so distinguished by some characteristics which are peculiar to them. These projected characteristics include but not restricted to” Freedom, dominance and loudness. These characteristics undeniably express the idea of feminism (Erikson & Eric 1968).
Unfortunately, the world has been grappling with the issues of stereotypes and negativity in the comic industry, with females landing roles like secretary, nurse and wife. As Maya Angelou; an African-American poet rightly put, ‘how important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes’. This is an important and salient point in the society. Nevertheless, it has always been neglected due to low consciousness from the male folks and an uncomfortable docility from the female folks (Mustafa, 2015).
According to Betty Friedan, in her book ‘The Feminine Mystique’ (1960), she suggests that all women wanted were to be happy homemakers. This means that women have always been represented as being indecisive, superficial and only engaged in domestic roles in family and society. Interestingly but unfortunately enough, these ideologies have permeated different areas in our lives. A vivid example is seen in comic books, and many more. According to Stabile (2009.), superhero comics build around the premise that someone needs to be protected and saved, and that someone is perpetually female or at least feminized, while the role of the protector or threat is masculinized (Erikson & Eric 1968).
The female vulnerability is also used as the reason and justification for the protector’s acts of violence. This can be justified by Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex’, which perceived women as second to men in a patriarchal society. The Second Sex laid groundwork for the second wave of feminism, during which lot of heroine characters emerged in the comic industry with a theme of equality in strength and capabilities. They pursued the idea that girls could do anything boys could do, and often better, especially if they stuck together (Robbins, 2002).
Nevertheless, between the 1960s and early 1970s, there have been significant changes in the comic industry, as characterization of female characters not only became stronger, but also included a great increment of female contribution in comic scripting, illustration and productions. With these huge shifts in female representation in the comic industry, it then makes it necessary that studies are conducted into the nature of these changes in the portrayal of women in comics (Young & Thomas 1993).
Thus this study examines the role and status of women in the comic book industry, with a commitment towards the nature of treatment of women in a male-dominated industry like the comic industry after 1960. In this study, there will be a cursory look at the ideas of equality, freedom of speech and value as it is used in the world of comics. Several case studies such as wonder woman, superman and X-men will be used to compare and study how female portrayal has changed in the comic industry (Abbot & Lawrence 1986).
The Idea of Equality in the Portrayal of Women in Comics
The late 1930’s witnessed female writers battling challenges of equality in representation of both male and female characters. Society demanded based on stereotypical outlooks, that male characters were represented as powerful and strong, to the detriment of the female characters (Widzer & Martin 1977). With this, female characters were often kept as supporting roles, and often projected as the victims, who needed less attention than their male colleagues (Abbot & Lawrence 1986).
The debut of the first female superhero comic ‘Wonder woman’ stirred the industry’s hornet’s nest, as it came from a perspective that has never been given a chance to thrive; the gender balancing ideology. It came to prove the bit that females could handle male jobs in comics. It sought to break the pre-WWII role of females in comics as wives, nurses and secretaries (widzer, 1977).
Astonishingly the role of women changed during World War II when patriotic characters emerged and attracted the interest of both genders. According to Marston” Creator of wonder woman, in The American Scholar (1943), he expresses that the role of male and female characters in comic is ought to be equal. He further argues, ‘Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength and power. Women’s strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus the allure of a good and beautiful woman (Young & Thomas 1993).
Figure 1 – Superman vs. Wonder Woman?
Therefore, the above analysis shows how alien it was to depict women as being equal to men. It portrayed the inequality that had shaken the foundations of the comic industry, with the males being the heroes and the females always being painted as the victims or a mere appendage to the hero’s prowess and actions (Erikson & Eric 1968).
Freedom of Fashion in the Portrayal of Women in Comics over the Years
The implication of equality in power, has surprisingly affected how women are described in comic books, as regards costume. A case study is seen in the idea of ‘whip and chains’ in the costume of wonder woman (Widzer & Martin 1977). These items derive its dominance from the colonial days since the colonial masters escorted slaves in chains and chastised them with whips. Since there was a need to represent the heroine in Wonder Woman as enigmatic, independent and strong, there was a need to tweak her costume to represent all she stood for. The wonder woman was intended to be a stereotype breaker and this was to be seen in her speech, fashion, gaits and strides (Abbot & Lawrence 1986).
However, according to Scott Campbell, the idea that super heroines should be completely covered is unrealistic and illogical. He further explain on the illogicality by holding to the view that a woman’s full representation does not depend on how covered her body is. While the storms about overt sexualisation of female characters in comics may have influenced the decisions of writers, the idea of total covering of the feminine body still is not sufficient enough to represent the woman in a female character (Widzer & Martin 1977).
.
An instance can be seen in the costume of She-Hulk, whose one piece suit covers the necessary body parts but not all. This is so, since her character needs freer movement than decency and armour. Even in reality, images of false decency as depicted in dressing are presented to women as something they should aspire towards (Widzer & Martin 1977).
.
Figure 2 – Superheroes & Little Rants from a Canadian Perspective (not all Canadians. Just Me)
The revolutionary costume of wonder woman has met a lot of criticism due to the politics of the industry. The politic that allow the masculine Superman to wear costumes that will visibly show his great abs and muscles but will frown at the ‘revealing’ dresses of wonder woman (Young & Thomas 1993). A brief comparison of the dressing of the two superheroes above; Superman and wonder woman, will show no difference in their dress sense. Super man’s source of attraction to the opposite sex was visibly shown, just like that of Wonder woman, whose costume did not reveal too much. The industry’s major criticism against the fashion sense of wonder woman was that they felt it did not depict the traditional timidness and decency of the woman. Freedom of fashion should be encouraged in the female dress code and sense, just as it is being encouraged amongst their male gender (Young & Thomas 1993).
Value in the Portrayal of Women in Comics
Nominal value as opposed to real value is what the situation was supposed to be, all things being equal. This means the standardizing condition, as opposed to the typical occurrence in the society. Philosophising with respect to the case study of female comic heroes, it is important to make distinctions between what is on ground and what should be on ground (Abbot & Lawrence 1986).
In various comics that women have been featured, their real value has been always opposed to the nominal values of women. Women are supposed to be portrayed in their strength and valour too. Their value in the society should eclipse the portrayals they get in comics. Women should not only be portrayed as being walk, needing help and reverently submissive to every dictate of the male hero. The nominal value of every woman should involve her ability to do exactly what her nature allows her (Widzer & Martin 1977).
Simplistically, if her powers allow her to dominate the male folks in a comic book, the society should not restrict the mind-set of the script writer or producer into thinking her nominal value should not meet her real value in the comic. Therefore the female should be fully represented in her strength and not always quarrel on her weakness. Both sexes have weaknesses but the female weaknesses are always more portrayed in comics. This is opposed to the nominal values the woman stands for (Abbot & Lawrence 1986).
It is no longer news that comics have moved from being a source of entertainment to being a source of socialization for children. Children on a daily basis read comic works and it informs their formative cycles. The females who always read books where the males are always the heroes and the female only derives her glory from the achievement of the male hero will grow up, thinking that the male is perpetually superior to her. This is not supposed to be the case since her nominal value is greater than the real value of the woman as portrayed by society in general and world of comic in particular (Young & Thomas 1993).
Therefore, this chapter of this assignment tries to advocate for a meeting point between the real value and the nominal value of women in their comic portrayals. When this happens, comics like wonder woman will be more appreciated as people have confessed it helped them stand up to bullies (Widzer & Martin 1977). What the audience reads watches and hears end up being a major part of their socialization and these nominal values should not be swept under the carpet of neglect and trampled upon by the continued decay of reality. What ought to be, in the portrayal of women in comics should ‘be’.
Conclusion
As discussed above, the theme of this study has revolved around the representation of women in comic industry. Using some case studies like X-Men, Catwoman and Wonder woman, the study has examined the roles of women in these models, with respect to equality, societal value and freedom of fashion. It has been so discovered that the society has witnessed a paradigm shift from a totally patriarchal inclination to a loosely patriarchal society.
Equality has proven to be difficult to be reached between the characterization of male and female heroes (Erikson & Eric 1968). Since females constantly hold roles that make them submissive to the male protagonists in comic books, it is important that the place of women in production of comic books should be revised. The idea of females being utterly restricted in their fashion and costume to the detriment of their roles have been criticised heavily in this work. Also, the portrayal of women as powerful and leaders in comic books as regards contemporary and erroneous societal value of dependence of women has been duly castigated.
Conclusively, the continuous search to increase the roles of women in the comic industry has been enduring. At some points, it has seemed the battle has been lost, but at other times, there is evidence of improvement in the portrayal of women in the comic industry. Some corrections have been made with regards to the representation of women in the industry, but some impediments still exist since most women in contemporary comic works derive their roles from the characterization of the hero who is invariably a male.