Comic Book Wednesday: Anatomy Lessons

I have a poster on my wall that shows a collection of female Marvel comics characters, which I like because I am generally a fan of both Marvel comics and female comic book characters, so it's a win in every dimension. On multiple occasions now, when people who aren't comic book nerds have seen it for the first time they've asked me why all the the female character have such large breasts, to which I don't really have a good answer other than that they're comic book characters.

In truth, I don't really think about the proportionality of comic book characters anymore, probably because I'm so familiar with the genre that I don't think about things like that anymore. I understand that some people are offended by the fact that nearly every single female character in mainstream American comics is a double D with a 15 inch waist, because I do get that women aren't portrayed in a realistic manner, which can contribute to body issues in impressionable girls. I mean, Power Girl is just ridiculous and I wish Emma Frost wore more clothing, but I find that the people who complain about them are missing something fundamental because they are ignoring what comic books are.

Power Girl: Superman's cousin from an alternate timeline which no longer exists, maybe.

Just looking at Emma Frost makes me cold. This is not a practical outfit.

Comics are entertainment, and, ultimately, escapism. I don't read comics to better understand the world I live in. I read comics because I enjoy the world of the comics. They aren't portraying real people, nor are they claiming to portray real people, so holding them to a standard that is defined by what is real is dumb. I would contend that people don't read comics to see themselves reflected in the characters. They read comics to see scantily clad women and ridiculously buff men with superpowers fight it out for 22 pages. Also, sometimes the stories are good too.

Secondly, comics are a genre written by and for men, nearly exclusively. The fact is, there are very few women who read mainstream American comics, so comic creators shouldn't be expected to write/draw things that appeal to sensitive women's sensibilities because they make up such a small portion of the audience. Comics are a struggling industry to begin with, and if they were to risk alienating a major part of their audience (who are very easily offended to begin with, just look at the hullabaloo over giving Wonder Woman pants) just to satisfy a really small group of people who aren't buying comics anyways it would be really bad for business. And, ultimately, it is a business. It exists to make money by selling comics not to promote good body image in girls.

Thirdly, men are equally as ridiculously proportioned as women in comics, a fact that people tend to ignore. It is routine for male characters to have the musculature of a 'roided out body builder who is half giant. The 90s were particularly bad for this.

His forearms are larger than a baby. Think about that for a moment.

 This can't be good for the body image of your typically teenage nerd who reads comics. But no one wants to talk about that.

Ultimately, I just think that comics are comics, and that as a genre, like everything else, they have their problems, but, in the grand scheme of the depiction of women in comics, cup size is really the last thing people should be worried about. In a genre where female characters are regularly used solely as a plot device for the male character (see Women in Refrigerators), and where female characters have fewer solo titles and team titles than men, and where it was a huge controversy among fans to put pants on Wonder Woman, I think that there are better things to try and change.

I may not be the best judge of these things, but as a comics fan, and as a woman, I don't think people are making a big deal out of the right issues. Realistic anatomy is never going to happen in comics, in no small part due to the stylization of the art, but depictions of female characters as believable people can and does happen, maybe not often enough, but it does, so that's where I think people should focus their efforts. I think it may be more important for Wonder Woman to be able to wear pants than for her to be realistically proportioned, but that's just me.