Sexism In Comics

The whole Harley Quinn suicide thing also came to light during Suicide Awareness Week. So yeah. That was classy.

The art contest was to draw one page of a larger issue. Odds are they chose a page from that issue that gave aspiring artists something interesting to draw, while still being positioned at a point in the issue where an Art Shift wouldn't be too jarring. An imagine spot of Harley committing Bath Suicide seems to fit the bill.

Or is it the very idea of having Bath Suicide in a comic book that you object to?

edited 29th Oct '13 11:43:41 PM by RavenWilder

I don't object to something like that appearing in a comic. What I find ridiculous is DC choosing that as the scene they want a bunch of aspiring artists to draw. There had to be a better option. As it was, DC was telling a bunch of people to draw pictures of a naked woman dead in a bathtub. If they didn't think that would go over poorly when people heard about it, then the people who set it up and approved it are all complete frigging idiots. There was no way it wasn't going to be controversial. No way it wasn't going to get negative attention, especially given the way DC as a company and comics as a whole have been getting slammed in regards to their treatment of women.

So I can't understand DC's reasoning in actually using that as the scene they wanted people to draw. It's like they put absolutely no thought into how it might be received. Which seems to be par for the course for DC for the past year or two.

To complement, a Bath Suicide scene is, in itself probably a bad idea. Sure, it is hard to judge without actually reading the issue, but given the past record of comics, it is hard not to fear the whole scene will be pointlessly and offensively sexualized. I personally don't mind all that much comic overspecialization, but doing so in a suicide scene is just terrible. To make matters worse, the character chosen to do it was a beloved character people was already complain to have been sexualized and mischaracterized in the New42. This scene seems only rubbing salt on the wound.

So, as Tiamatty said, the DC editorial are complete morons if they did not know this would receive bad press. That story could be the better written thing in the world and it wouldn't matter, because the readers would only be hearing about it, instead of actually reading it.

I can think of only one conceivable good reason for including such a picture in your contest: using it to winnow out the contestants whose instincts are to turn the scene into a creepy piece of fanservice*, and to identify those artists who are able to depict it ... well, "tastefully" still wouldn't be the word, but with a minimum of exploitation.

Unfortunately, I'm 99.99999% certain that wasn't DC's reason.

* And when Carl Hill, M.D. considers something "creepy," 'nuff said.

edited 30th Oct '13 6:14:50 AM by Jhimmibhob

Makes me wonder. If you get two groups of comic fans who can actually draw and paint. One group is an all male group and the other is an all female group and you ask them to each draw a male hero and then a female hero in any order. I wonder what the notable contrasts and differences could be?

What if it was a dead naked man in a bathtub?

The problem, as always, is that sexism is so very endemic in comics (and in wider culture, but that's not the topic of this thread :v ). If superhero comics weren't so obsessed with positioning women either as sex objects or victims or both, the bath-tub suicide drawing wouldn't be such a problem (it would still be creepy, but creepy isn't necessarily bad).

Male characters don't have all this baggage attached to them. The Joker naked in a bath tub with slit wrists just wouldn't be the same thing. It would also probably be played for creepiness, but in a different way.

If it was a man, the story probably wouldn't be written in the first place.

Link.

This is from Jimmy Palmiotti:

I have a ton of respect for Mr. Palmiotti.

And this is from a DC comics rep.:

This actually sounds pretty fun and entertaining with context to it. I really like the idea of Harley having a Loony Tunes-esque book.

edited 30th Oct '13 12:40:19 PM by RockLeeYourFace

So, false alarm?

Um, no, not really. DC still thought the general description was alright to put out there without context without even thinking that someone might react poorly.

Though I hold the editors more responsible for that than the writer who was just doing work standard and forgot to expand on it a little.

@Rock Lee,

Okay, that sounds a lot more reasonable. But it is as Wack'd and Canid said, the editors still completely screwed up by failing to notice how obviously easy this would be misinterpreted. That scene description is pretty terrible if the intent was for it to look wacky.

So, in short, never attribute to malice that which is equally explainable by ignorance and/or stupidity.

http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/news/124930-tess-fowler-brian-wood-is-a-dick.html

http://comicsbeat.com/comics-have-hit-puberty-and-its-not-pretty/

http://www.brianwood.com/statement/

A poster shared a tweet from someone else who said she had a creepy experience with Wood as well.

edited 16th Nov '13 12:59:13 PM by VeryMelon

THIS IS HILARIOUS!◊ I think the last bit is a reference to Fables.

I don't understand the point of writing your opposition into your comic, or why so many writers do that for a laugh.

Can't we just agree that they're dumb fucks and move on with our lives? All this does is encourage them.

Because the people said opposition are actively hurting might appreciate seeing these people ridiculed, and/or appreciate that someone else out there knows what they're going through.

In-universe there's a character telling this story to us by the way. She's a pretty cool person and likes Final Fantasy, Beyonce and comics by Kieron Gillen.

edited 3rd Feb '16 3:41:54 PM by LordofLore

In particular, she likes the stories by Gillen that featured one of Angela's new allies. It's very meta.

Final Fantasy when it was good or after it went to shit? Her whole credibility relies on this bit.

All of them most likely. She wants someone to play the victory theme after doing a flashy lightshow.

I rather like that Bor bit, because it doesn't satirize the views Bor is purportedly espousing so much as it parodies how Bor is generally used. Like, Bor is sort of an embodiment of raging, irrational conservatism and embarrassingly outdated misogyny - replacing all of his dialogue with joking summaries of his offensiveness is a good way to riff on how flat he is.

He's racist aunt Martha whom you tolerate at Thanskgiving?