Monthly Matinee March: The Necessity Of Another Side

Come One, Come All, Come See The Show!

Today, Today The Redoutable , The Renowned Yasmine Pirouz Graces The Stage With A Few Words On Seeing From Another Perspective.

What is the necessity of considering women’s perspectives, as men share their perspectives about women in creating comics for other men and boys? About two months ago, a couple of things happened in synchronicity, leading me to ask this question.

First, in digging through my stores of dozens of comic books (so I could find my copy of The Walking Dead to give to a dear friend of mine, as I am NOT a zombie fan where he is)— my friend influenced me to actually take some time to read through all the comics in my possession that I had not read before.

Not my Cardcaptor Sakura, Ranma ½, and Steven Universe, nor my Runaways and my Squirrel Girl, but namely the ones my brother had previously given me from HIS stores. So I made stacks of "neat" piles in my room, and pulled out a random selection of single paperback issues that just so happened be from each of the past 4 decades of the 80s, 90s, 2000s, and 2010s--- i.e. within contemporary adult male readers’ age groups today.

And I started to read the following issues:

Hercules: Prince of Power #1(March 1983)

Cage: A Hero for Hire Who’s Working Overtime Volume 1 #2 (May 1992)

The Adventures of Superman #11 (June 1993)

StormWatch #3 (July 1993)

Gambit Volume 1 #4 (March 1994)

Black Panther: Black and White #54 (April 2003)

Constantine: The New 52 #13 (June 2014)

Most notably, all of these comics share certain attributes in common:

1. They are action-hero comics whose target audiences are straight school-aged boys to young adult men;

2. All of them are written and drawn by men, with women making up, on average, one member of the overall production team as either a colorist or editor (i.e. women did not have a role in creating the narrative portion of these stories), and;

3. They are all published by the three largest (and thus most influential) comic publishers in the United States: DC, Marvel, and Image Comics.

And then, while in the process of reading these issues over the next couple of days, I equally saw a very… interesting… live stream video that appeared at the top of my list of YouTube video recommendations: "What Do Women Look For In A Man?" This is very important, but I'll get to why in a sec.

Each of these comic issues features women in very distinct, and dare I say predictable ways... sadly, surprising to me for how little they change over the years up to this most recent decade.

If you haven't already, NOW is where I suggest you look at my video above, as it describes in depth just how these comics portray women overall.

... Seen the video? Cool!!! Please read on.

Yet, beyond the "well-known" kinds of portrayals of women in media for men… where for instance, in ALL of these comics, the only subject women talk about are other men (none of these past the Bechdel test), or where diversity in identity only becomes more prominent in the most recent issues...

...it's the aspect of what men show that they want from women, over the course of these issues' timeline, that I see is exceptionally intriguing--- both what is overtly portrayed, and what is subtly portrayed. Interestingly, each comic shows an aspect of women, traditionally feminine ideals, and/or community and empathy that somehow highlight a LACK that the main male characters see in themselves. The male characters want these traits, and/or rely upon them to survive, even IN the limited and objectifying scopes that women are portrayed.

In Hercules, Tyne Pryntess, Hercules's main love interest in the story, is described as “an empath… beings who can sense emotions, that sort of thing”, and she shocks Hercules at how easily she can calm his violent wild horses when he parks them at her customs check. At the end of the issue, Hercules turns to her in repentance, wanting her help and affection despite chasing after a different woman right in front of her.

In Cage, teenage boy Troop describes how the feminine aspect of community (versus the traditionally strong masculine aspect of “going it alone”) helped his role model rapper M.C. Large shift from street villain to respectable artist with a channel for his anger... and indeed influenced him positively as well--- noting that "there's only so much you can take alone.”

In Stormhawks, the male hero Winter notes that “one man can make all the difference” in trying to fight the attacking villain…but can only break free from his shackles when his two female teammates Diva and Fahrenheit release and power him up. He begs them not to stop. And in spite of Gambit proclaiming that as a thief, he can never have loyalties, love, or a dream of matrimony, the titular issue ends describing him as still “searching for the love he can never have.”

In Superman, as Jonathan Kent searches for the soul of Clark in the afterlife, he powers through amnesia, memories of war, and demons while he is alone, where it’s only with the help of the powerful female cosmic being Kismet and her intuitive knowledge that Kent heads in the right direction and remembers that he is indeed looking for his lost adoptive son.

And in Black Panther and Constantine alike, both of the female leads act as catalysts for the titular heroes to rise above their shame AROUND how they have treated women… either by accepting responsibility for the child they’ve fathered by their girlfriend (Black Panther) no matter the reluctance, or to literally “be a better person”, via a magic spell Zatana casts on Constantine.

So yes, from a negative standpoint, where there are no other women included in the creative process of describing women in these comics, I see that in this small yet relevant sample, men have written and drawn women as narrow vehicles for the main male characters to grapple with their emotions at best, and as sex objects at worst. But at the same time, I see that each of these men writes equally about how the male characters rely upon women and traditional aspects of femininity to help them out of their painful circumstances. And indeed, in all of the comics where relationships show up as a theme, all of the male heroes profess a desire TO connect with the main women in each comic.

Bringing me to the YouTube video I mention above: “What Do Women Look For In A Man?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCzKM1GjAM8

I’ll tell you right now, everyone, that while I could not stomach watching this entire video BECAUSE of the one-sided (and frankly incorrect) statements I saw these men making, you are more than welcome to watch the whole thing and inform me if there’s some important stuff that I missed. Personally, I didn’t see that this platform is where I could make the biggest difference in trying to change anybody’s mind about anything.

Just the same, I did dare to participate in the live chat, where you can see my comments @ 25:59- 28:45, to point out the obvious I couldn’t ignore:

That if this group of men wants a more comprehensive idea of what women want from men, in order TO connect with them, they’d do well to actually include women in their conversation--- for everyone to hear each other. And then two commenters made remarks to me that confuse me to this day:

Commenter one: “Fishermen don't listen to fish talk about how to catch fish”…

Me: “I think that’s a shame, because fish could tell you what they actually go for.”

Commenter two: “Would you tell a cannibal how to catch and eat you?”

Me: “If you’re saying that getting eaten by a cannibal is how women should view men going after them, then I think that’s problematic for everyone involved.”

And then I left. The greatest irony to me in all of this is this contradiction--- where in this instance, straight cisgender men are describing how they want to connect with women in kind, but from a perspective that does not directly ask other women what they have to say for themselves. Only… assumes, and judges.

Hence the primary reason I see that it is a necessity for men to include women in the process of making comics featuring women for other men and boys, is not only to teach future generations of men how to see other women, but equally, to achieve the connection with women that they tend to want themselves. BY understanding and listening to them, instead of considering and portraying women in such ways that no real woman would behave, want to be seen, or treated. Where we form our ideas of each other is through media and the stories we hear, after all--- and with comics as a VERY popular media source these days, it seems to me this is a great place to start.

Which… THANKFUL disclaimer: I see that there exists a wider scope of men creating comics today with more realistic portrayals of women as people, and of realistic people overall existing in varieties of ability, gender, sexuality, race, class, etc--- such AS a few of my favorites written by straight, white cisgender men that I highly recommend:

Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell (www.gunnerkrigg.com)

Problem Child by Brian Ellis (www.problemchildcomic.com)

Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley (not a webcomic but a graphic novel detailing a young female chef’s desire to have career autonomy before attaching herself to anyone else, and the choices she makes in grappling with this.)

While these comics are not geared specifically to men and boys as an audience, and are not mainstream-published, they still are an absolute positive in the discourse that IS shifting in how men view women. And for their independent channels, each author works with other women and/or draws feedback from online communities that are HIGHLY diverse in their viewpoints.

When we can shift overall and feature women's perspectives in mainstream comics specifically for men and boys as well, I think, is where we’ll start to see greater connection return for everybody. And I’m happy to do my part as a fellow storyteller to help usher this empathy along the way.

To check out  two-sided comic that is for all genders ages 12 and up, about linking relationships between elemental people a "feminine" fantasy world, and artists in the more “masculine” real world we live in, go to www.toruslink.com and start with Volume 1. And check out my video series “Torus Link: Linking Sides” @ www.youtube.com/toruslink, to see how empathetic parallels indeed exist between us all in real life.