You can read about my goals with this mini project here. I recommend you do read that post as it will explain exactly what we were analysing, and without reading it, this data won't make sense.
Now, what did we find out?
We've got 52 titles..
In which there are 97 female characters (including one kid)...
Looking at the titles -
27 of the titles feature female characters that look sexual, either by their clothes or because of the way they are drawn. That's 51% of titles.
29 titles introduce female characters as a love interest. That's 55% of all titles.
Combine these, and there are 33 titles that feature female characters that are either drawn sexually, or are a love interest. That's 63%. Some characters are drawn sexually and are love interests, some are love interests but not drawn sexually, and vice versa.
Of the female characters themselves...
41 are drawn sexually, that's 42%.
41 are love interests, again, 42%.
53 characters are drawn sexually and/or are a love interest. That's 55%.
4 titles had no major female characters in them (Batman and Robin, Detective Comics, Justice League and Men of War)
No women were introduced as the love interest of other women.
I looked at the ratio of titles per subgroup and female characters per subgroup. You'd hope that if there was an even spread of female characters the ratios would be roughly similar. They aren't. Instead we have:
Subgroups: Batman:Green Lantern:Justice League:Superman: The Dark: The Edge: Young Justice
Titles per subgroup: 11:4:11:4:7:9:6
Female characters per subgroup: 14:5:20:6:15:15:19
So, no correlation between female characters and subgroups.
Justice League Dark, Suicide Squad and Legion of Superheroes all have 3 female characters that are drawn sexually. No other comics had a higher number of sexually drawn characters.
Justice League Dark had 4 female characters as love interests, this is more than any other title.
As for subgroups:
The Justice League books had the most number of female characters (20).
The Green Lantern books had the least number of female characters (5).
As for which books has female characters drawn sexually and/or as a love interest.. here is the list:
Subgroup Title Sexual? Love interest?
Batman Batman: The Dark Knight Yes Yes
Batman Birds of Prey Yes Yes
Batman Catwoman Yes Yes
Batman Nightwing Yes Yes
Batman Red Hood Yes Yes
Green Lantern Green Lantern Corps Yes Yes
Green Lantern GL: New Guardians Yes Yes
Green Lantern Red Lanterns Yes Yes
Justice League Aquaman No Yes
Justice League DCU Presents Yes Yes
Justice league Green Arrow Yes Yes
Justice League JLI No Yes
Justice League Mr Terrific No Yes
Justice League The Flash Yes Yes
Justice League Wonder Woman Yes Yes
Superman Superboy Yes Yes
Superman Supergirl Yes No
The Dark Animal Man No Yes
The Dark Frankenstein Yes Yes
The Dark Justice League Dark Yes Yes
The Dark Resurrection Man Yes Yes
The Dark I, Vampire Yes Yes
The Edge All Star Western Yes Yes
The Edge Blackhawks No Yes
The Edge Stormwatch Yes Yes
The Edge Suicide Squad Yes Yes
The Edge Voodoo Yes Yes
Young Justice Blue Beetle Yes Yes
Young Justice Legion Lost Yes Yes
Young Justice Legion of Superheroes Yes Yes
Young Justice Teen Titans No Yes
Titles with no female characters drawn sexually or as a love interest:
Subgroup Titles
Batman Batgirl, Batman, Batwing, Batwoman
Green Lantern Green Lantern
Justice League Captain Atom, The Fury of Firestorm, The Savage
Hawkman
Superman Action Comics, Superman
The Dark Demon Knights, Swamp Thing,
The Edge Deathstroke, Grifter, OMAC, Stormwatch
Young Justice Hawk and Dove, Static Shock
Next post will feature my thoughts and musings on what this all means. Or as otherwise known, the conclusions.
A note: This may well make you lose faith in the entire thing, but I figure I should confess - my maths isn't very good. I've gone over and over the figures (done using excel - it's a godsend) and I think that mathematically speaking, they make sense. But now my brain is a bit fried so if you notice a glaring error in the results please tell me! Then I will redo them.
I can send the findings as put into an excel chart to anyone who wants them.
Now, what did we find out?
We've got 52 titles..
In which there are 97 female characters (including one kid)...
Looking at the titles -
27 of the titles feature female characters that look sexual, either by their clothes or because of the way they are drawn. That's 51% of titles.
29 titles introduce female characters as a love interest. That's 55% of all titles.
Combine these, and there are 33 titles that feature female characters that are either drawn sexually, or are a love interest. That's 63%. Some characters are drawn sexually and are love interests, some are love interests but not drawn sexually, and vice versa.
Of the female characters themselves...
41 are drawn sexually, that's 42%.
41 are love interests, again, 42%.
53 characters are drawn sexually and/or are a love interest. That's 55%.
4 titles had no major female characters in them (Batman and Robin, Detective Comics, Justice League and Men of War)
No women were introduced as the love interest of other women.
I looked at the ratio of titles per subgroup and female characters per subgroup. You'd hope that if there was an even spread of female characters the ratios would be roughly similar. They aren't. Instead we have:
Subgroups: Batman:Green Lantern:Justice League:Superman: The Dark: The Edge: Young Justice
Titles per subgroup: 11:4:11:4:7:9:6
Female characters per subgroup: 14:5:20:6:15:15:19
So, no correlation between female characters and subgroups.
Justice League Dark, Suicide Squad and Legion of Superheroes all have 3 female characters that are drawn sexually. No other comics had a higher number of sexually drawn characters.
Justice League Dark had 4 female characters as love interests, this is more than any other title.
As for subgroups:
The Justice League books had the most number of female characters (20).
The Green Lantern books had the least number of female characters (5).
As for which books has female characters drawn sexually and/or as a love interest.. here is the list:
Subgroup Title Sexual? Love interest?
Batman Batman: The Dark Knight Yes Yes
Batman Birds of Prey Yes Yes
Batman Catwoman Yes Yes
Batman Nightwing Yes Yes
Batman Red Hood Yes Yes
Green Lantern Green Lantern Corps Yes Yes
Green Lantern GL: New Guardians Yes Yes
Green Lantern Red Lanterns Yes Yes
Justice League Aquaman No Yes
Justice League DCU Presents Yes Yes
Justice league Green Arrow Yes Yes
Justice League JLI No Yes
Justice League Mr Terrific No Yes
Justice League The Flash Yes Yes
Justice League Wonder Woman Yes Yes
Superman Superboy Yes Yes
Superman Supergirl Yes No
The Dark Animal Man No Yes
The Dark Frankenstein Yes Yes
The Dark Justice League Dark Yes Yes
The Dark Resurrection Man Yes Yes
The Dark I, Vampire Yes Yes
The Edge All Star Western Yes Yes
The Edge Blackhawks No Yes
The Edge Stormwatch Yes Yes
The Edge Suicide Squad Yes Yes
The Edge Voodoo Yes Yes
Young Justice Blue Beetle Yes Yes
Young Justice Legion Lost Yes Yes
Young Justice Legion of Superheroes Yes Yes
Young Justice Teen Titans No Yes
Titles with no female characters drawn sexually or as a love interest:
Subgroup Titles
Batman Batgirl, Batman, Batwing, Batwoman
Green Lantern Green Lantern
Justice League Captain Atom, The Fury of Firestorm, The Savage
Hawkman
Superman Action Comics, Superman
The Dark Demon Knights, Swamp Thing,
The Edge Deathstroke, Grifter, OMAC, Stormwatch
Young Justice Hawk and Dove, Static Shock
Next post will feature my thoughts and musings on what this all means. Or as otherwise known, the conclusions.
A note: This may well make you lose faith in the entire thing, but I figure I should confess - my maths isn't very good. I've gone over and over the figures (done using excel - it's a godsend) and I think that mathematically speaking, they make sense. But now my brain is a bit fried so if you notice a glaring error in the results please tell me! Then I will redo them.
I can send the findings as put into an excel chart to anyone who wants them.
You might want to re-check Suicide Squad, Batwoman, Voodoo, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, possibly Nightwing though I'm not sure off hand.
ReplyDeleteBasically this list is not very accurate. Any conclusions drawn from it are highly problematic.
In addition I'd check Batwoman carefully for subtext before saying no woman was introduced as a love interest for another woman.
ReplyDeleteOr, you know, text when she's on a date.
Dear anonymous.
ReplyDelete(This is Saranga replying, I am posting this from work and it usually won't let me log in, hence the probably anonymous handle from me.)
I am wondering if you read the first part of these posts. We were only looking at the first page where on which we saw the character. For Batwoman, this was a big splash page of Kate Kane in her Batwoman garb, crashing through a window. She was not on a date with Maggie in these pages.
If we were looking at how the women were portrayed throughout the comic, your comments would be applicable. As it is they are not.
Saranga
Oh what do you know. It logged me in for once.
ReplyDeleteWho in Birds of Prey was a love interest? It's an all-female book, and the leads are all single or widowed.
ReplyDelete