Women and Comics

A recent editorial at Lytherus talks about seducing women into comics. It's an interesting piece, and hits many points right on the head. It includes statistics.

I'm a male reader, and I tend to agree with this whole-heartedly. I know that may sound weird, but I grew up differently than most. My whole life has always been surrounded by women. Many have similiar stories, and everyone has their own sob story, but women in the world don't seem to get the credit they deserve for everything they do, or could do. I'm not even going to pretend to know the secrets that are within women's minds, or how they think, but well-written female protagonists can be a draw for more than just women. Sure, sex sells to the average male adolescent, but there comes a time where these boys grow up, and instead of looking for giant bosoms, they are looking for just strong women to read about, or even just that rise to independance a young woman may go through. Especially in a modern world where a woman's self-confidence is being slammed down by everything around them, it's imperitive to show that not only appealing to women readers is a good thing that can help, but something that can benefit a readership on both sides of the gender coin. Comics have always been a form of escapism for boys, so why can't that be true for women as well?

This editorial brings that to light with statistics and sources, and commends Marvel for what they did with Women of Marvel and their other offerings. It's definitely worth a read, as it also asks is this enough.

My personal take on this is that X-23's new on-going is a step in the right direction in the superhero genre itself. Being helmed creatively by Marjorie Liu, it's taken a teenage female character and given her voice a chance to grow and breathe, to become her own woman. A comic that's not using sex appeal to push issues, but character drive and reality of the situation.