Females in Comics and Graphic Novels — Transcript

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1. 0:00how females are represented in comics
2. 0:03and graphic novels a video presentation
3. 0:05by Kelly buck rice
4. 0:17okay okay so some of the criticisms may
5. 0:20be obvious but let's take a closer look
6. 0:23throughout much of the 20th century the
7. 0:26persistent stereotype has been the slim
8. 0:28but well-endowed typically Caucasian
9. 0:31young female who is objectified by the
10. 0:33graphic construction of her body and
11. 0:34identity even when empowered as a
12. 0:37superhero these representations force
13. 0:42both male and female readers to
14. 0:44acknowledge their own sexual responses
15. 0:47while at the same time privileged in the
16. 0:49mail readers this design archetype
17. 0:51embeds the male gaze phenomenon common
18. 0:54across artistic media but this
19. 0:56hyper-sexualization has not been
20. 0:58restricted to female characters amongst
21. 1:00male superheroes we see excessively
22. 1:03muscular bodies squeezed into colorful
23. 1:05form fitting clothing more typical of
24. 1:07female fashions so we have a
25. 1:12juxtaposition of hyper sexualized male
26. 1:14and female characters especially within
27. 1:17the superhero genre but females are
28. 1:19often incorporated as token characters
29. 1:21or when they do occupy leadership
30. 1:23positions their stories typically
31. 1:25include a strong male supporting
32. 1:27character who can sometimes overshadowed
33. 1:31Stephanie Brown made a formidable Robin
34. 1:33but Batman extended her no memorial
35. 1:36after her death as he has for fallen
36. 1:38male Robbins and spider-mans marriage to
37. 1:43mary jane was revised entirely out of
38. 1:46the storyline objectified female
39. 1:51characters as well as gender ambiguity
40. 1:53in manga commonly serve as graphic and
41. 1:56narrative devices for exploring social
42. 1:58tensions relating to traditional and
43. 2:00dominant male roles in japanese society
44. 2:04design elements such as exaggerated eyes
45. 2:06revealing clothing body positioning and
46. 2:09movement effect this over at
47. 2:11feminization but as subjects of heroin
48. 2:13stories female manga characters are
49. 2:16often constructed with greater agency
50. 2:18and autonomy compared to their
51. 2:19counterparts in the Western superhero
52. 2:21genre
53. 2:22race and culture transect gender
54. 2:25constructions even within the context of
55. 2:28reimagined characters and scenarios
56. 2:30there is a persistent risk of exoticism
57. 2:33replacing caricature but let's look a
58. 2:36little farther back whoa that's way too
59. 2:41far back but you know her boobs may have
60. 2:44actually been a superpower Willendorf
61. 2:49woman is believed to have been an icon
62. 2:51of fertility in paleolithic europe she
63. 2:54is an early example of the iconographic
64. 2:56representation of social values
65. 2:58expressed through the construction of
66. 3:00women's bodies in artistic media art and
67. 3:04media reinforced social structures and
68. 3:07relationships with women's bodies having
69. 3:09historically be no device objectifying
70. 3:12them through control of the
71. 3:13representation of their bodies and
72. 3:15narratives
73. 3:45Oh
74. 3:53early 20th century suffrage propaganda
75. 3:57made extensive use of comic style art on
76. 3:59both sides of the argument one important
77. 4:02outcome was female creators accessing
78. 4:04public space to express alternate roles
79. 4:06for women pro suffrage artwork depicted
80. 4:09women with agency and autonomy and with
81. 4:12social and economic value that extended
82. 4:14beyond the home auntie suffrage
83. 4:18propaganda focused on stripping away
84. 4:20woman's femininity and reasserting male
85. 4:23authority in negotiating and reinforcing
86. 4:26the fundamental social structures that
87. 4:28were being challenged and those
88. 4:31insufferable suffragettes were turned
89. 4:33into a joke dark humor veiling an even
90. 4:37darker threat similar risk of change is
91. 4:42driving the present gamergate
92. 4:43controversy targeting female gaming and
93. 4:45comics creators who are challenging
94. 4:47stereotypes through the 1940s and 50s
95. 4:51female characters were limited to a few
96. 4:54stereotypes that reflected a society
97. 4:56coming to terms with social changes
98. 4:58after the large-scale movement of women
99. 5:01into the workforce to replace men who
100. 5:03had gone to serve in the world wars
101. 5:07even here we see the beginnings of what
102. 5:10would become the hyper sexualized design
103. 5:12arc type which expressed a new tension
104. 5:15for female readers how to retain
105. 5:17femininity while aspiring towards
106. 5:19strength and independence in the 1960s
107. 5:26romance became a predominant aspect in
108. 5:29the construction of female characters
109. 5:30including within the superhero genre but
110. 5:34this period also saw more conservative
111. 5:36body imaging in response to the comics
112. 5:38code implemented in 1954 while these
113. 5:44represented new possibilities for female
114. 5:46lives these stories continued to reflect
115. 5:48social structures and relationships that
116. 5:51reinforced male Authority and saw women
117. 5:53attain empowerment visa females and
118. 5:55still in subordinate roles in contrast
119. 5:58to their male counterparts feminist
120. 6:03political tension continued to be
121. 6:04explored through the 1970s and the 1980s
122. 6:07took hyper-sexualization to a whole
123. 6:10nother level for both female and male
124. 6:12characters the 1980s also saw shift to
125. 6:15serialized stories lay in the groundwork
126. 6:18for graphic novels as they had in Japan
127. 6:24although serialization allowed for
128. 6:26greater complexity in the development of
129. 6:28story arcs authentic representations of
130. 6:31female lives and experience were still
131. 6:33wanting of course part of the issue has
132. 6:36been the dominance of male creators
133. 6:38within the comics industry in reaction
134. 6:46to the domination of the superhero genre
135. 6:48and the male orientation within the
136. 6:50mainstream industry a robust independent
137. 6:53comics and graphic novels industry has
138. 6:55emerged giving female creators and
139. 6:57publishers a better space to work more
140. 7:00recent female characters and comics and
141. 7:02graphic novels have challenged
142. 7:04stereotypes of character and design
143. 7:06depicting much broader dimensions of
144. 7:09female experience Wonder Woman has been
145. 7:12transformed and both Thor and Captain
146. 7:14Marvel have been reimagined as women
147. 7:17although still representing the
148. 7:18Amazonian archetype x-men comics have
149. 7:21consistently cast female characters in
150. 7:24leadership roles though graphic
151. 7:26depiction tends towards
152. 7:27hyper-sexualization and exoticism and
153. 7:30there's been effort to recreate more
154. 7:32authentic minority characters without
155. 7:34eggs ought to sizing them new narratives
156. 7:39give us character and design archetypes
157. 7:41that represent authentic female lives
158. 7:43and experiences and stories with greater
159. 7:46dimension that explore issues of
160. 7:48sexuality and gender identity family and
161. 7:52intimate relationships
162. 7:58women's health sexual and social trauma
163. 8:03cultural minority experience including
164. 8:06refugee and resettlement characters
165. 8:11protesting exploitation and stories
166. 8:15about female leadership and adventure
167. 8:20many of these works incorporate a
168. 8:22journal like style that lends the
169. 8:25capacity for deeper exploration and more
170. 8:27complex narrative development and
171. 8:29notably it's not just female creators
172. 8:31but also male creators who have given us
173. 8:33some incredibly complex female
174. 8:35characters these examples represent a
175. 8:42true transformation towards empowerment
176. 8:44that is different in quality and context
177. 8:47from the transformations that
178. 8:48superheroes must go through to attain
179. 8:51their powers and have been accompanied
180. 8:53with new design arc types such as colors
181. 8:55and panel composition that support the
182. 8:57journal type style which brings me to ms
183. 9:01marvel 2013 Kamala Khan is one of the
184. 9:06most important characters in comics
185. 9:07history challenging persistent
186. 9:09stereotypes in the miss marvel character
187. 9:11and the overall superhero genre themes
188. 9:14she grapples with in her own storyline
189. 9:16as a superhero comics fan who ultimately
190. 9:18rejects a hyper-sexualized version of
191. 9:20The Miz Miraval identity when its thrust
192. 9:22upon her now I have to admit I did not
193. 9:26like the ms marvel story but that's my
194. 9:29distaste with the whole superhero genre
195. 9:31overall it wasn't Kamala I loved her and
196. 9:36I can appreciate her importance not only
197. 9:39does Kamal a challenge design and gender
198. 9:42arc types but she's also a female
199. 9:44cultural minority character who is
200. 9:46neither a caricature nor an exotic
201. 9:48interpretation there's so much more I
202. 9:52could say on this topic this video
203. 9:54presents an overview and synthesis of
204. 9:56some of the resources that are out there
205. 9:58but please check out the credits to
206. 10:00connect with more oh and stay tuned for
207. 10:05my next video that's in the works it's
208. 10:06on females in film and television
209. 10:24and Sue Storm was the first blah blah
210. 10:29blah blah blah blah blah love thank you
211. 10:40sorry sorry guys that one's on me this
212. 10:46is the sound of my voice talking bueller
213. 10:50bueller bueller so heavy must activate
214. 10:58super power can't catch me can't catch
215. 11:05me and this represented a tweet when
216. 11:09true love true love