I’m going to preface this rant with a few important details.
- Yes, I consider myself a feminist.
- When it comes to comics – no, I do not have a problem with bare midriffs, large breasts, disproportionate figures (unless they’re Liefeld), or Power Girl’s boob window. Not at all. But I recognize that some women do, and I don’t think they are wrong. As the great Bill Hicks said- “opinions are just that.”
But this? That is ri-goddamn-diculous. Ridiculous. I’m not reposting the image for several reasons, but the main one being that I don’t think it needs to be posted all over God’s green internet. Just go look at it on Jill’s tumblr and let it rest there. If you don’t feel like clicking, I’ll describe it for you: Teela, bad ass metal He-Man contemporary ball kickin’ warrior Teela, walks down a hallway with some dudes and for no reason whatsoever takes off her clothes.
It’s like they are trying to get me to stop buying their books. If DC were a puppy, I would roll up a newspaper and bop its nose. “NO, DC. No. Bad publisher. No.” Who the fuck let this happen? And I’m not even talking about someone saying “hey, this is going to piss of some chicks and feminists,” I’m talking THIS IS STRAIGHT UP SHITTY COMIC MAKING. Even in pornos the ladies have reasons for taking of their clothes (trust me – I’m the porn correspondent. I know these things). And then, after stripping, she gets pinned under a cabinet and needs to be rescued. It’s like a kick in the perky little fanny, and I just rolled my eyes so hard I saw the back of my skull.
Yes, Teela’s traditional costume is skimpy. So is He-Man’s. Not even remotely the point. Here, have some skimpy, non-submissive badass Teela.
Does DC think it has to work to gain/retain it’s hetero male readership? Trust me – you’re good. But I would be willing to bet 99.99999% of comic fans, regardless of gender identity and sexual orientation, give zero shits about Teela being sexier, because – here are two shockers – they already think she is, and it’s only a fraction of a fraction of why they read a He-Man comic to begin with. Know who else is sexy? Every single superhero ever. What they are not, however, is arbitrarily strippy.
A few nights ago, a friend who is new to superheroes asked me the difference between Marvel and DC. My reply was “eh, kinda like the difference between Coke and Pepsi.” It seems my reply should have been “one is constantly improving the way the world views comics and increasing readership and sales between genders by consistently producing good projects in all mediums and the other becomes more archaic and irrelevant every day.”
Before giving a book the OK, the Powers That Be at DC had better ask themselves if it would make Wonder Woman give them the stink eye. God damn, DC. You have Superman and Batman. How do you keep screwing this up?
**I wrote this yesterday, but held off on publishing. I thought maybe I was getting trolled, or that there was a good excuse for this, or I dunno – I’m just dumbly naive. The closest I’ve come to seeing reasoning is one of the creators claiming that this just shows Teela is one of the guys, which actually just makes me angrier.