Sexism is a strange thing. You can be lulled into forgetting about it for a while and then it'll jump out at you all of a sudden because you dared to be out in public, you dared to wear your clothes, you dared to state an opinion. It's no secret that sexism is rampant in the nerd world--to be a female nerd is often a very taxing endeavor because you are constantly faced with angry little fanboys who want you to conform to their fantasies of silent women with very strangely-shaped breasts. In one such incident, DC Comics editor Janelle Asselin criticized the cover of a new Teen Titans comic book, which depicts an overly-sexualized female character. Asselin is obviously rather experienced with the comic books industry and didn't even call out a particular artist, just the way the woman was depicted, and yet she was met with rabid backlash that included rape threats. Why? Because the defenseless picture's feelings got hurt? Because comics are being called out for oversexualizing women? It's all nonsense. If a man said something about this picture, no one would say anything and we all know it's true.
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Byron Otis- I wonder what the scope of her threats were. It's terrible wouldn't let her give her opinion, and that people would react so harshly to something so reasonable is astonishing to me. I hope one day we'll be able to put all this nonsense behind us.
ReplyDeleteWe just need a change in attitude about women, because as a society our current one kinda sucks. Everyone just needs to realize that we're all in the same boat and all this unnecessary discrimination and hostility gains us nothing.
ReplyDeleteThis is utterly ridiculous. Women in the media are always hypersexualized as it is, to actually call it out then receive rape threats is insult upon injury. It may not seem like a big deal to those 'nice' guys who got their feelings hurt, but proper representation in the media is very powerful. We are constantly bombarded by media, either by choice or because we simply can't get away from it. I'll pray for Asselin's safety.
ReplyDeleteIt's a problem that Women are so oversexualized in the media, especially in the comic and cartooning world. It's ironic that she was sent rape threats, since most people think that oversexualized characters and skimpy outfits (what she was criticizing) encourage rape. I think that I may have actually heard about that particular new version of teen titans. It's saddening to see this because myself and many other students at Booker T. watched the cartoon version of Teen Titans as kids, and I especially don't enjoy seeing something from my childhood sexualized like that.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing wrong with sexual elements in the media but that's not the issue here- the issue is that women are constantly reduced to sex objects. A part of me thinks I'd feel better if men were more overtly hypersexualized too but the more mature part of me knows that that would only make the problem grow.
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