Wimmin!

lumloon · 2016-05-16T16:50:26+00:00

Marked NSFW since it has a pic of scantily clad Mary Jane and Black Cat

This is talking about the objectification in women in comic books like Spider-Man, and how it's not all bad and it's not all good. The author's a straight male who made some keen observations:

When I read things like that, it becomes apparent to me is that the issue at hand with Vampirella or other comics is not necessarily how women's bodies are actually portrayed in comics, but who are the ones doing the portraying, and that is largely men. Many women resent the fact that the power to control how women are presented in media is largely vested with men - regardless of the fact that given the opportunity, many women just might not represent their sex much differently! In fact, I'm reminded of some of the controversy over the litigation years ago surrounding comedienne/former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell's late Rosie magazine. In the middle of some of the more esoteric details of the lawsuit including licensing and editorial control, neither of which I care to weigh in on, one point that was made was that Rosie was specifically peeved by the fact that it was a man with whom she was having the acrimony over editorial control. Obviously, the primary issues of the case may not have been much different regardless of the gender of the publisher, but gender apparently was the primary reason that the lawsuit moved from a strictly legal to a far more personal matter for Rosie. Normally, particularly as a result of Rosie's sexuality, I could just assume that she hated men, period, but that would probably be a very narrow minded and short sighted observation. It's more than likely that she's just plain nuts if her weird rants on The View were any indication, and being nuts is gender neutral.

I honestly believe there would be a lot less sensitivity about the issue if the scales were more evenly balanced between men and women creators, regardless of the nature of the portrayals. Although now that I think about it, considering Rob Lefield's art and others who draw in that almost obscenely exaggerated style - maybe there can never be enough balance. And let's be honest, there is a genuine inequity here, and it can't be denied or explained away. But, I don't believe that anything other than an economic "conspiracy" is at work. Big business has completely whored itself out to the almighty dollar anyway, I don't think the powers that be care about who buys the product, black/white, male/female, as long as someone is buying it in mass quantities - and whoever does the mass buying is the one who it is going to be targeted to. Admittedly, I've probably gone out on a limb, but I believe that the following observations support my opinions:

and

My point is not that I am trying to diss this type of entertainment. Hell, for the most part it's completely harmless, and most people, even kids, are more than capable of distinguishing healthy fantasy from unhealthy obsession. But the point is that both sexes (and sexual orientations) have their puerile interests, their guilty pleasures, and their fantasies. It just seems that many people prefer their offense to be "convenient." In other words, when it's convenient, we'll be offended. When it's not, we'll ignore it. That pisses me off to no end.

and

For example, one typical adolescent male fantasy is the rescue of the cute heroine from the diabolical fiend, whoever or whatever he/she/it may be. I mean, hey, when you looked as seriously malnourished as I did when I was a kid (definitely not an issue anymore at 45+), with dopey glasses and no social graces, you actually had more of a chance of meeting girls by rescuing them from diabolical fiends than through the normal course of interaction in those quasi-Nazi concentration camps with their rigid, Hindu-like class structure that are euphemistically called "junior and senior high schools." Usually in the healthy fantasies the fiend does little more than tie the girl up and think about doing all kinds of nasty things to her - but the story seldom, if ever gets any further than that. And once the girl is rescued by the hero (usually the idealized version of the fantasizer), then it's usually up to her to dictate how much farther the relationship went with the hero. Obviously she can't help but fall madly in love with her rescuer, but that's still her choice. Normal boys don't follow the fantasy to the point where they actually force themselves upon her - because then they'd be acting just like the bad guy! And frankly, when I was a young boy, I didn't realize that it could go any further than just some heavy petting. Hey, I grew up in rural Southern Indiana - o.k.? And boys who seriously consider going to the extreme have problems that have nothing to do with their reading material.

redditorriot · 2016-05-16T17:24:32+00:00

FYI, 'wimmin' was a preferred spelling of 2nd wave radical feminists in the UK as it erased 'men' from the word.

Carry on.

Title	Wimmin!
Author	lumloon
Upvotes	1
Comments	4
Date	May 16, 2016 4:48 PM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/4jm20l/wimmin/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/wimmin.949461 https://theredarchive.com/post/949461

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