Spiderman in a thong
An artist in India is challenging sexist drawings of women in comic books by parodying them using male heroes in poses typically associated with women.
She-Hulk has superhuman strength and speed and is one of the most formidable hand-to-hand combatants in the Marvel world.
Like Hulk, not only does she have physical power, she’s also completely green.
Yet, on a 1991 comic book cover, she is shown in a seductive pose, wearing a G-string bikini, with her curves sharply accentuated.
Because power shmower, getcher tits out.
SHREYA ARORA
The Indian artist Shreya Arora finds this annoying.
Her artwork draws inspiration from comic book covers but parodies the male superheroes using body language typically associated with women.
The result – covers with familiar characters, such as Superman and Batman, in strikingly unusual poses and outfits.
A scantily-clad Spiderman is pictured in only a thong, a coy Hulk covers himself with a newspaper, while an Iron Man with prominent buttocks crawls on a ledge.
I like her.
I like her too, but there’s this thing that’s been in the back of my mind for a long long time. I don’t know how well I can express it, but here goes.
People do these sex-object reversal things every now and then, and we all chuckle, me too. But the thing is, the men are always shown in exactly the same poses the women are shown in.
What I would do, had I the talent, is show the men, just as scantily clothed, but in positions meant to accentuate their manly charms. Something like what you’d see in gay men’s porn, but more pronounced. Show us the outline of cock and balls through the leotard. In close up. Show hero from behing. He’s doing something “manly”, but the focus is on his bum.
See what I mean? Having the men ape women’s poses is just a visual joke. Showing men actually made into sex objects, as males, would have more punch, and really drive the lesson home.
Maybe it’s just me?
She Hulk is also, unlike Hulk, actually very intelligent and a highly regarded lawyer in setting.
Why does the She Hulk retain her curvy figure rather than become massively muscled like her male counterpart?
Yeah, rhetorical question is rhetorical.
Um… the ‘satirical’ spiderman is not matching Shulk’s pose. He isn’t doing the self-hobbling arch of the lumbar spine. That’s a pose cliché as gender specific as the weird ‘one foot in front of the other, heel raised’ spokesmodel stance.
John, it looks like the arch is there a bit, just not as pronounced.
And I’m waiting to see Batman in high heels…
Lady M, be careful what you ask for.
In other sexism news, Hooters is shutting down locations.
That seems like a good thing on multiple levels: the world can do with less silly breast-related puns, bad food, and sexism. But the linked article tries to connect this decline to a study on PornHub that found that millennials are less likely to use “breasts” as a search term; therefore, the article reasons, millennials are less interested in breasts and not going to “breastaurants” like Hooters.
This strikes me as incorrect on two levels. First, I suspect that millennials are less likely to use “breasts” as a search term not because they’ve lost interest in breasts per se, but because they’ve grown up with internet porn and are have a hell of a lot more specific (and often hard-core) preferences than just I-want-to-see-some-boobies. Second, I think Hooters is taking a hit because their target market is dwindling. My impression has always been that Hooters relies on married men who are “rebelling” against their wives by doing a boys’-night-out with their male friends, but who aren’t so “rebellious” as to go to an actual strip club. Single dudes usually aren’t interested in Hooter’s because it’s a shitty place to meet actually available women, and a shitty sports bar to just hang out in. But I think that whole “going out with The Boys to escape the Ball and Chain” crap is falling by the wayside, as millennials are marrying later, are more likely to have friends of both genders, are pickier about quality of food and drink.
In the same vein:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-hawkeye-initiative
I have to dispute this, from my admittedly unscientific low sample size “experiment” – my students favor Little Caesar’s, and it’s hard to see that as quality food and drink. ;-) It’s cheap.
Which could still fit, since Hooter’s, though I’ve never been there to know for sure, is probably not cheap.
She-Hulk is almost the literal poster-child for the way women were portrayed on the covers of their own titles. In several of them, she directly addresses the reader or artist, pointing out that the position/outfit is absurd and exploitative–but of course, it’s still happening. In many ways, this makes the amount of objectification worse–she’s actually shown as having enough agency to be aware of the situation, but not enough to actually resist it in any effective manner.
iknklast,
I was thinking of millenials more generally — they’re not all students any more, some of them are in their 30s now! Even as to students (who have always favored cheap food), my recollection is that while Hooters isn’t expensive in a general sense, you can still find cheaper and better places if you’re looking for wings and mass-produced American lagers. Though I should note that I’ve only been to a Hooters maybe twice in my life, and not in the past ten years.