Just in time for bikini season, Marvel is releasing TWO comic titles which feature an all woman heroine cast! But because we can’t have a female hero, super or otherwise, be something other than an object for teenage boy’s and men’s entertainment or a woman in a refrigerator, both titles are sexified up!
Via SeeBelow*, first up is Models, Inc.. Let’s let Marvel themselves tell us about it:
Fashion Week is always a hectic time for models, and this year is no exception. Between escaped wolves, robbery attempts, and overly friendly police officers, Mary Jane Watson, Patsy Walker, Jill Jerold, Chili Storm and Millicent (Millie the Model) Collins are testing the limits of their endurance. But when a brilliant young set designer is found murdered with three bullet holes in his back, and Millie proves to be the prime suspect, the models are forced to play detective in order to save one of their own!
Yeah. Just what I was looking for when I wanted a strong female character driven comic. Models who fight crime. Think the description is bad, just take a look at the cover, complete with the typical crap that goes with “women’s” magazines, like how to lose fat or articles about makeup.

As a female comic fan, those covers would not make me want to read them. And while I find them insulting, it’s the second comic that makes me stabby. Meet the Marvel Divas! Because nothing says superhero like “hot sexy fun”!
“The idea behind the series was to have some sudsy fun and lift the curtain a bit and take a peep at some of our most fabulous super heroines,” says Marvel’s Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, “In the series, they’re an unlikely foursome of friends–Black Cat, Hell Cat, Firestar, and Photon–with TWO things in common: They’re all leading double-lives and they’re all having romantic trouble. The pitch started as “Sex and the City” in the Marvel Universe, and there’s definitely that “naughty” element to it, but I also think the series is doing to a deeper place, asking question about what it means…truly means…to be a woman in an industry dominated by testosterone and guns. (And I mean both the super hero industry and the comic book industry.) But mostly it’s just a lot of hot fun.”

Who, exactly, is this for again? There’s the implication that we get to see them naked in the shower. The “naughty element” and “hot fun”. It doesn’t sound like a comic that is geared toward a largely female readership to me. Besides, I can’t imagine that if you wanted to get into what it truly means to be a woman in a male dominated industry you’d hear them talking about their romantic lives instead of talking about the sexism, discrimination, and frustrations actual women who do work in a male dominated industry deal with every day.
As if that alone wasn’t enough, Marvel’s editor in chief Joe Quesada had this to say about the criticisms:
If you’re [a] Marvel reader and truly feel we’re sexist, then why are you reading our books? Now, perhaps you’re not a Marvel reader, then if that’s the case, I’m not quite sure what you’re criticizing if you don’t read our books?
You get that? He doesn’t think they are sexist, otherwise why is he addressing the reader as thinking that way, and even if they are, he doesn’t care. Especially if you don’t read their books, then he doesn’t want to hear your opinion. He’ll do whatever it takes to make money, even if it means insulting and alienating readers. His idea of a strong woman and feminism is someone who can kick ass while looking sexy. Because it’s all about how a woman makes herself look for the pleasure of others, not what she accomplishes or even just what she wants for herself.
It’s crap like this that drives me to read good comics that can take issues, tell good stories, and often have beautiful artwork.
Technorati tags: marvel, comics, sexism