International Women's Day!

To celebrate, have a delightful picture of the women of the DCU.

I think it's a really neat caricature showing various DC heroines personalities.
I have no idea where I found it or who did it though.  If anyone can enlighten me, leave a comment!
Happy International Women's Day everybody!

Women's introduction in the new DCU - the conclusions! part 3

Phew.  Nearly there.

As a reminder, you can read the introductory post setting out what this mini project is about here.
You can read the findings, i.e. the nerdy numbers, here.

My first reaction upon looking at the numbers was one of pleasant surprise.  45% of women were introduced without reference to their sexiness and without establishing them as a love interest.  This is pretty good.  This means that the women  are introduced as just another character, and their gender/sexuality are not relevant to the story (at that point).  It would be nice if the percentage was higher, but actually it's not too shabby.

It's important to remember that these numbers don't tell you anything about the quality of the book, and certainly don't tell you anything about whether the depiction of the characters is sexist.  For example, the Wonder Woman book featured Hera in a cloak, clearly naked underneath, and also 3 party girls who served as Apollo's Oracles.  The Flash introduced Iris leaning over a hole and the image is all boobs.
The depiction of these are not sexist at all, but when you contract them with Catwoman or Starfire in Red Hood, you can see that those books are clearly sexist.  Yet each book gets a yes for drawing the woman sexually.

Having a woman introduced as a love woman is also not necessarily sexist, given that stories about human relationships are pretty important in the grand scheme of stories.  The problem (in my mind) would be if all storied about women put them as love interests.  But clearly that is not the case here.

The data also doesn't tell us about the ratio  of male characters to female characters (something I regret not asking about actually).

The data also doesn't tell us if the women were introduced with other roles as well as love interest.  Also something I regret not asking about.

Right now it feel that my conclusions are mostly about what the data doesn't tell us.  Hmm.

What do you all think?  What conclusions can you drawn from the data?  Is there any other way you'd like to see the data analysed?  Do you think I've missed something?

Let me know!  Let the discussion roll!

Women's introduction in the new DCU - the findings! part 2

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.

Analysing the role of women in the new DC Universe - part 1

All the furore about the treatment of Starfire and Catwoman in the  DC relaunch got me to thinking about about how female characters were presented in the new DC Universe.  If you only read the reviews of Red Hood and Catwoman you’d think that the DC books were a hotbed of misogyny.  I started pondering if this really was the case – certainly the books I read seemed to treat their female characters fine. 

Then the thoughts expanded and expanded and lo and behold, I came up with an idea of doing a bit of research onto how women were introduced in the new DC 52.

NB: I couldn’t have put this together without the help of Eyz, theyallfalldown and JimmyMcG.  Major major thanks to these guys who re-read a lot of comics for me and answered my questions about the women in the books.

So, onto the work.  I summarised the research project thus:

“Basically, what I am interested in finding is how the major female characters are portrayed in their first pages of the new comics (the number 1s), mostly centring around whether they are presented sexually or not”

I asked my co researchers to report on the following:

A description of how the major female characters are introduced in every new DC book.

I am looking for things like -

State of dress

Style of art (tits and ass aka Starfire vs normal proportions aka Power Girl or Wonder Woman)

How they are described by other characters (If applicable)

How they describe themselves (if applicable)

If they are introduced as being in relationship, flirting or something else romantic/sexual.

I wanted to know if the characters were drawn overtly sexual as I feel that could indicate a sexist treatment.  I also wanted to know if they were introduced with a reference to their physical looks, or as the partner of another character, because if they all were introduced like this, it would indicate that women in the new DCU exist to be primarily sexual beings and linked romantically with men (or women, I’d be interested in seeing if any women were introduced as lesbians too).  I term this phenomenon, the 'love interest'.

I requested that the reporters look at only how the character is presented on the first page they appear, not in the rest of the book – I believe this is important because the first impression we get of them generates an image of the character that is difficult to shake off in later times.  Considering that this takes place in a relaunch, it is entirely reasonable to suspect that DC wanted the readers’ first view of a character to be the thing that hooks you in, that scene that tells you all about them and who they are.  I think the way the character is represented in their first scene is indicative of how DC views them and their role in the new status quo.

I specified major characters and I explained that major should be taken to mean:
Female superheroes and supervillains
The women who have historically been partners of a hero/villain (e.g. Iris West)
Any notable female sidekicks (whether new characters or old)
Plus those women we know from the old DC who may only have cameo (like Power Girl in Mr T).  Basically this equates to every female character excluding those existing in the background with a non speaking role, such as being a face in the crowd.

I gave examples of the following:

Selina Kyle was introduced by her breasts on the first page of her comic (very sexual)

In Teen Titans, Cassandra Sandsmark was introduced by Tim describing her as gorgeous (not sexual, but definitely introduced with an emphasis on her looks).

In Mr Terrific, Power Girl was drawn normally, but wearing just a t-shirt in Mr Terrific's apartment, implying she's been intimate with him (i.e. introduced as being in relationship/fling)

In Wonder Woman, we first saw Diana in bed, naked (but I don't think this was done in a sexually ogle-y manner).

After some queries I sent all reporters the following:

As a reminder about what I want - I am not so much interested in the value judgement we put on the images, e.g. whether or not they are sexist, more about what they show, as I mentioned below.

Your reports don't have to be really long - a  few lines will do, but if you want to explain your reasoning that's also fine.  Basically I am looking to discover what the DCU says about women, not assume I know what it says and then try to prove my hypothesis.  So, we need to look at the books with an open mind.

What I want to do is look at how the women are presented and then extrapolate about what this means for representations of women in the new DCU.   i.e. are they introduced as sexual/romantic beings, is the emphasis on their looks and/or their sexual relationship to them men around them. I intend to make generalised commentary and possibly do some statistical work too. 

I realise that the methodology isn’t completely robust, there’s a lot of human bias coming into play in everyone's reports.  This skews the results so without a really strict marking scheme and formal framework in which to work in, the reports from each person aren’t completely comparable.  However, if someone would like to take the findings and build on them to do a better study, please do!  Just let me know what you find OK?

The reason for asking other people to help was because I a) couldn’t afford each new DC title and b) didn’t have the time to report on all of them.

The type of reports submitted varied in style, some reports gave me a bullet point list, others gave me prose talking specifically about how the women were presented, others gave me mini reviews of each comic.  I tried to extract the relevant information from each report and put it all into an excel table where I then did some nifty sorting according to group of titles and the results of each question. 

N.B: Stating that the introduction of women has a sexual or romantic overtone, does not mean they are misogynistic or sexist.  It is perfectly possible to portray a female character in a relationship with someone else and not have it be sexist, and it is perfectly possible to portray a woman in sexual manner without it being misogynistic.  Determining whether or not the introduction of women was sexist or not wasn’t the point of this study.  What I wanted to discover was if there was an overarching similarity in the way the women were introduced in order to find out what the cultural discourse surrounding women new DCU is (and see if there is a set discourse).

So, onto the findings!  Or, see next post. Conclusions coming up in a third post. :)

Most memorable moments in the DCU

For women characters.   The DC Women Kicking Ass tumblr is running a month long series of posts aboutt he most memorable moments in the DCU, for female characters.  This link will take you through to all the tagged posts and I whoel heartedly reccomend that you do go have a look.  So many chars are covered: Stephanie Brown, Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, Earth 2 Huntress, Oracle, Birds of Prey, Supergirl, Cass Cain, The Question, Black Canary.  Professioanl writers are even contributing posts: Gail Simone, Bryan Q Miller and Phil Jiminez.  

There's still lots more moments to come, so do head on over and read the posts.  In particualr read this one, about Babs and Dinah's relationship.  All posts are awe inspiring and they make me so proud to be part of this fandom.

Birds of Prey get musical

On Batman: The Brave and the Bold tv show the Birds of Prey got a little musical number.  It's full of inneuendo, it's a bit silly, but it's a darn catchy song.  You can view it here.  Go watch it, I'll wait.

Now you've watched it, here's a transcript of the words (found here):

Hit It
(music starts)
Good evening all you gentlemen
mobsters creeps and crooks
Men in tights come after you and still your off the hook
for those who scare and terrorize it's the dawn of a brand new day
You scum can simply call us the one and only Birds of Prey

Green Lantern has his special ring
Pretty strong that little thing
Blue Beetle's deed's are really swell
but who will bring him out of his shell?
Flash's Foe's they finish last
Too bad sometimes he's just too fast!

While all the boys can always save the day
No one does it better then the Birds of Prey
The one and only Birds of Prey

While all the boys can always save the day
No one does it better
No one does it better then the birds of prey

Green Arrow has Heroic traits
That is when he's shooting straight
Hey!
I'm just saying!
Aquaman's always courageous!
His little fish, less outrageous!
Plastic man can expand
becomes putty in a hand

While all the boys can keep you punks at bay
No one does it better then the birds of prey
the one and only birds of prey

While all the boys can always save the day
No one does it better
No one does it better then the birds of prey

Batman throws his batarang
what a weapon, what a bang
check out that utility belt
sure can make a girls heart melt
He's always right there for the save
I'd like to see his secret cave

While Batman does things in his special way
He'd do it better with the birds of prey
While Batman always seems to save the day
No one does it better
No one does it better then the birds of prey
birds of prey


meow!




Well I don't know about you, but that wasn't quite what I was expecting from a kid's cartoon!  saucy enough to make you laugh but innocent enough to go over kids heads.

I'm not quite sure which hero I feel sorry for the most..probably Aquaman or Green Arrow.  Poor ducks.

I wonder how the other heros match up.  What do you reckon the Birds would say about Mr Miracle, Hawkman, Booster or Superman?

In completely unrelated news, I just discovered this dramatic chipmunk clip and this clip of someone taking badgers on a walk.  It's adorable.  You need sound.

Addicted

Well I'm at my Dad's and it turns out I am truly addicted to the internets. So hello all.

Whilst looking for the Hal Jordan/Star Sapphire DC minimates (he's got his own lantern!) as mentioned by Sea of Green I found this:

Black Canary Ami Comi
Oh dear god that is ugly. I mean, really truly, bad. On the whole, this line sucks. The Huntress one, ok, actually not *too* bad looking, if you ignore or accept the huge perky boobs. Harley is playful and fun, could be improved with the removal of the fishnets, but is perfectly good with, and I have a total soft spot for the Diana figure.
The rest make me shudder or at the very least wonder why they bothered, (Zatanna and Cheetah, for instance).

Still, Huntress vs Batgirl, looks pretty special, would be better if Huntress had more clothes, but I can easily get over that gripe, cos it's so lovely anyway, and at least is in line with some depictions of her costume. :-)

I'm also hoping for Wonder Woman: Amazonia but I know I'm not going to get it.
Christmas makes me not buying stuff easier, I think. Except i spent £19 on comcis today and bought two books for me on Tuesday...

Fun things

In an effort to focus on the good things in life I bring you the following:

Bears and Menstruating Women. Should you camp?
This reminds me of my friends corgi, who recently went to the trouble of digging out her used tampons from the bin and eating them. 3 of them. They had to take the stupid thing to the vet and it was prescribed it some sort of laxative. I was thoroughly grossed out.

Pac man pie chart

Menstrual Painting
I like the one done on the bathroom floor.

Optimash Prime! Best. Toy. Ever.

Lolcatz

Power Girl gets own series Now please lets make it a little more consistent than the Supergirl one, ok folks?

Women of the DC Universe poster 'tis wonderful. (In my head this is a kind of alternate universe where Kate Kane isn't a total femme and would wear trousers. Everything else remains the same though) And Adam Hughes manged to draw the hands ok. Ivy and Harlequin look like they are lovers sharing an intimate moment. Kara is spot on. Power Girl looks like a goddess.

Edit: Also the pirates app on facebook, awesome!

The menstrual posts and Optimash Prime toy were first seen on Occasional Superheroine's blog. the Optimash Prime toy had me giggling on the floor for 5 minutes.