mrblakemiller said:
You make a sound argument, and I feel it needs a proper response.
I absolutely don't want to imply I hold a double-standard where women should be immune to all physical or emotional harm in comics, or that men shouldn't be exposed to these same situations.
Just like my own rape doesn't mean that men can't get raped or that it is any less a terrible thing.
But, and I want to be clear on this, I do see a very very different attitude writers and fans have about treating male and female characters in comics completely differently.
I understand that women in comics will always be big-breasted, statuesque, supermodel-perfect goddess. God forbid we ever had a "normal" looking heroine with a modest build. It's the same idealized male fantasy where all the men are walking mountains of rippling biceps, washboard six-packs, and mountainous pecks.
And I do agree that, in many instances, both male and female heroes go through similar problems, be it death, paralysis, de-empowerment, or even sexual assault. But it's very telling how people react to these.
I actually DO know that Nightwing was sexually assaulted. And yet, nobody, NOBODY mentions it. Nobody at all. Not unless conversations like these pop up. People act like it didn't happen. Why? Because they don't like talking about one of their favorite male heroes being a sex assault victim. It makes them uncomfortable. Hell, it makes ME uncomfortable because Dick Grayson is my FAVORITE DC hero (and my favorite Batman. Suck it Bruce). But why are people so ashamed to talk about it? Why is it something future writers ignored? Why is it something fans ignored and don't protest? They just choose to ignore it didn't happen. As a victim, who had to undergo extensive counseling, never talking about it, never dealing with it, never coming to terms with it, is so very unhealthy. To pretend it "never happened" is unhealthy. But, in DC's world, it "never happened" and they won't talk about it.
The way Batman dealt with being handicapped after Bane and the way Barbara dealt with it were entirely different. Now, I will NEVER say that Barbara wasn't a strong character, either before or AFTER she became wheelchair-bound, but at the same time, I also find it offensive that Barbara was ONLY kept handicapped, not because it was good for her, but because it gave them some "affirmative action" with handicapped readers. As one female writer said, "it's ridiculous to think that in the DC universe, where Cyborg runs around with robot legs, where heroes die and get resurrected so often, where certain heroes have the exclusive power to heal all wounds, or even in the Batman universe exclusively, with Bruce's millions, access to all medical technology on the planet, or even access to the Lazarus Pits, that Barbara either can't get the help she needs or she CHOOSES to stay crippled."
On a tangent, the only reason Barbara was even crippled to begin with was because Alan Moore wrote the Killing Joke, originally an "alternate universe", and, as much as Alan Moore is an influential writer, I'd also peg him as one of the most misogynistic, sexist, female-mangling comic writers in HISTORY. I can barely name any of his work that doesn't involve torrid amounts of excessive abuse, mentally, physically, or sexually, against female characters. Barbara was just on his chopping block that year.
More on point, my problem with how comics treat female characters isn't that sexual assaults occur. That's not the problem. But the problem is that they happen SO OFTEN (almost exclusively to female characters), for so LITTLE REASON, and they use sex against females as a crutch for telling easy-to-think-up ways of hurting a female character.
Was there really ANY essential story reason for Sue Dibny to be raped by Dr. Light that couldn't have been done in an alternative manner? Did Jessica Jones HAVE to be sexually assaulted for nearly a year to traumatize her into giving up superhero life? Did Mockingbird need to be raped to justify her murdering a man (which upset Hawkeye)? Did Joker HAVE to strip Barbara Gordon naked after he had already shot her? Was that COMPLETELY necessary?
To quote John Byrne, he acknowledged the problem and said "there's a difference between a female heroine suffering harm because she is a HEROINE and because she is a WOMAN. When a female police officer is shot, she's shot because she is a cop, not because she is female."
The problem is just that. A story like "the Rape of Ms. Marvel" occurs, not because of her occupation, but because of her gender. That is the worst feeling in the world, to be belittled, demeaned, diminished, and hurt just because of what you are (a woman, a black man, a homosexual, etc.) The problem with female heroines, MUCH more than male heroes, is their emotional and physical pain often occurs, not because they are heroes, but because they are WOMEN.
Therein lies the key difference.
