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.
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.
