Dear Erik Larsen,
I sadly regret to inform you that your latest column is based on overreaction and an apparent inability to accept criticism. Questioning how a female character's bra size adds to the story does not amount to censorship. Yes, comic book writers, artists and publishers have every right to design their characters how they see fit. I have yet to hear any feminists calling for legal restrictions on the cup size of fictional characters. I am also well aware of the existence of big breasted women, and small waisted women, and women of any size and shape possible.
However, as consumers we have the right to examine the product that we are buying. We have the right to question the value of superfluous physical traits, and we have the right to question the motives of the creators who designed those physical traits. We also have the right to spread our findings to other consumers, so that they may consider them when making purchases.
Sincerely,
A Rabid Feminist
The strange thing about that column was that I haven't really noticed any great movement to lessen Power Girl's bra size.
ReplyDeleteIf anything, it's been the exact opposite.
What censorship is he talking about? Or does raising questions qualify as censorship now?
I didn't find his self-centered logic convincing. And I never liked Savage Dragon either...
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I'd point out that while Matt Baker may have drawn a busty Phantom Lady, her bosom and figure were of human proportions. Most of the heckling I've seen about the newest incarnation has been based on the drawings showing her with grotesque, impossible, and utterly nonhuman flotation devices...as if the artist had never even seen a picture of a real breast.
ReplyDeleteAnd if this is really all there is to the character, whose fault is that? Look back at her origin, summarized by Don Markstein:
"Sandra Knight, daughter of Senator Henry Knight, a pampered Washington, DC socialite who contributed little or nothing to the world. One day, on the Capitol steps, she saved her father from an assassination attempt, and that gave her a taste for adventuring. As she fashioned her evil-bashing outfit, she took the trouble to appropriate an amazing invention that happened to be lying around the house — a 'Blackout Ray', capable of casting dark just as a flashlight casts light, which had been given to her father by an inventor friend, a Professor Davis. This basic scenario — Washington setting, senator's socialite daughter, wielding what might be called a "flashdark" — was used in most of Phantom Lady's later incarnations..."
Are we supposed to believe there's no potential there for an interesting character and interesting stories? Washington intrigue? A bizarre invention? A frivolous child of privilege who discovers a love for adventure? That's nothing? Yeesh! A writer who can't turn that into a good story shouldn't be in the writing business.
Most of his argument is quite reasonable, and I support his assertion that there should be more diversification of body types in comics. But it is something of a stretch to suggest that large breasted skinny women in thongs are under-represented.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's still not censorship.
You still read his colum?
ReplyDeleteI... Well I'm a little saddened.
No, a friend who shall remain anonymous e-mailed this one to me.
ReplyDeleteI would love to take his column at face value, but the cynical side of me says that he's just peeved at getting razzed for the way he draws women in *Savage Dragon* and is generalizing to avoid explicitly saying, "Chicks, quit hating on me personally for drawing nothing but ridiculous boobies in my book."
ReplyDeleteThey still publish Savage Dragon?
ReplyDeleteSeriously - I thought it had died out in about 1999 or so.