Blowing bubbles in my chocolate milk.

'The Head and the Heart' - or - 'If rule 63'ing everything is wrong I don't wanna be right'

Of course when they took the photo Steve was looking into Bucky’s armpit and it the middle of laughing about something, and Bucky couldn’t help complaining on the way home, “Jeez, Steve, you’re supposed to look like a fearsome headless horseman!  Now we just look ridiculous.  I spent fifteen cents on that!” 

Steve just shrugged and gestured at the odd pairing they made as they walked — Steve with his odd walk and his wrinkled clothes, Bucky with his easy saunter and pressed vest, “Bucky, look at us.  We *are* ridiculous.”  Bucky laughed and tucked the photo in his pocket.

HEYMONSTER’S ‘STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER’ PRINTS ARE THE INSPIRATION YOU NEED

By Chris Sims

You know, I think it’s high time that we get some new saints around here. I mean, no offense to Lucy of Syracuse or any of her devotees, but as impressive as carrying one’s eyes around on a golden plate might be, it just doesn’t have a lot of relevance to my life. I don’t even know where I’d find a golden plate, especially if I didn’t have any eyes to look for it with.

Fortunately, artist Heymonster (also known as Spencer) has offered up a set of suitable replacements. In a series of prints called “Strong Female Characters,” Spencer has taken some of the most prominent women of pop culture and boiled them down into downright saintly inspirational images.

Comic!

She lives in a tower, she’s got a curse.  A vague curse.  But still.

You’ve heard the argument that male superheroes are sexualized simply because they are often bare-chested. But a man taking off his shirt doesn’t make him a sex object. It’s actually rare to find examples of male superheroes who truly are sexualized the way women are in comics. Here are ten examples.

And in all the examples, while they are sexualized they aren’t objectified. You see them in full-body shots. They’re flexing and powerful, the center of attention with other sexualized, even objectified, women surrounding them (especially in those swimsuit issues). The outfits and scenes are full of their own personality and who they are. You can’t swap out different characters at will with no change in the scene (aside from maybe the Scarlet Spider pic)

You don’t get a closeup shot of Thor’s ass as he climbs up a ladder. You get a full-body shot of him, including his face and what he’s interested in and doing. 

Noh-Varr is specifically dancing to impress a girl he just had sex with and we can assume would like to again. He’s in control of what is happening, he’s aware that Kate is watching him. He’s inviting her to keep watching. He has agency in the scene. 

2) Requisite linking to Dave Willis’ Sexy Batman comic

I think it’s too easy in sexualization and objectification discussions to equate nakedness with objectification — it seems like such an easy metric!  If the discussion moves past that, then it’s usually about the “sexiness” of the pose.

But the bigger issues are actually:

1) Who the sexiness is for.  Yes, there are examples of sexy, vulnerable men, but usually they’re sexy and vulnerable for their own sake.  The audience is encouraged to sympathize with them, to care about them and their character development.  Whereas sexualized females are there for the audience or for the male protagonist.  That vulnerable girl in the back?  We not supposed to care about her internal life, her character development.  Her vulnerability is solely designed to titillate/please *us*, the audience.  This is why spandex is magically tighter and thinner on women than on men.  (There’s plenty of shots of Spiderman with his crotch towards the audience, but how often do we see the outline of his penis lovingly shaded?  His butt deliciously shrink-wrapped?  His nipples carefully highlighted?  All his poses are about ACTION — what *he’s* doing to advance *his* story.)

Just as a casual illustration: here’s a quick doodle of a pretty naked Winter Soldier Bucky being vulnerable for himself, and another of him clothed, but being vulnerable *for me* (mwahaha).  HMMM WONDER WHICH ONE IS MORE OBJECTIFYING?

1 | 2 | 3

4 | 5 | 6

SECRET AVENGERS #10 Cover

By Tradd Moore (lines) and Matthew Wilson (colors)