Blogpost 3: Female Eyes

Recently many comic book / book movies were released, it wasn’t really interesting because it had the same superheroes just like Thor, Iron Man and Spider Man. I asked a lot of my friend whether the movie was great or not, a lot of the guys said it was and the girls said they haven’t watched it yet or they won’t watch it because it’s not interesting enough.

When browsing through my social media sites I stumbled upon an article on Time magazine’s site, where it is titled “Where Are All the(Good) Female Superhero Movies?” written by Jeff Alexander. He’s a married man that also like superheroes and looked up to them; of course he would watch movies about his favourite superheroes. He shared his experience on how his wife declines to watch a movie, and he watched it by himself at the theatres. After he told his wife what about how the movie was, he also told his wife about Scarlett Johanssen (The Black Widow) in the movie The Avengers. Her wife became interested in the movie and wanted to watch the movie now, why is that? In his article he cited examples of heroines that attract women to these types of movies. When a women’s characteristic is strong they get the attention of women to watch the movie. He also cited different articles where and why there were fewer heroines in the spot light, why do you keep watching the movie over and over, and why Brave the movie was a flop. I also read that in movies you always see a man in tights and there weren’t any strong women that could match up to the hero. He also explained that makers should make more female heroine in their movies just like The Black Widow.

“Still, superheroine sexism can be overcome, as long as there are those who want to do it, and do it right.” said Jeff. Sexism is one of the main problems of people today, maybe it’s because of the stereotype that has been going around.

I have also read in another article “The changing role ofwomen in comic books” written by Jennie Whitwood. In her article she said that there were a lot of comic books that were seen in 2011, she also said that there are controversies by the uneven gender portrayals. She was talking about how female characters in comics are hard to maintain in its situation. Comics couldn’t get female readers as much as romance comics did; comic book makers struggled to make female readers read their action comics. Women in comics are not treated well as the superhero in it, women in comics showed a lot of skin and had less clothing, they also made women look sexier in their comics. In her article she explain how comic books could get the attention of female readers, she also cited some examples of women who are strong. I took notice a lot of women who are strong are usually villains who are still devoted to their masters like Quinns devotion to joker. But still there are women like The Black Widow to look up to.

“For now, it seems that integrating the female voice into superhero comics is still as challenging as ever, but there are signs of positive change.” said Jennie. It’s not easy to make people change the way they see women in comics but at least they are improving.

Going back, I did do a bit of stereotyping in the movies I didn’t want to watch because of what I presumed that there will only be heroes and no heroine. I didn’t appreciate how women are treated in comic books either but im glad to see that they are working hard to make more female readers read their comics and become more interesting. As to that it became more psychological that women don’t usually read or watch movies that have the same men and the same heroes in it, because women have their gender issues.

Blogpost 2:Idolization

When I was a child I have always liked superheroes that were strong and independent, they were always considered a great big idol to children. Children look up to superheroes because they are fast and all they do is save the world and they don’t have to do house chores.  I notice that these kids are more aggressive to some children’s I have seen.

Last July of 2014 I stumbled upon an article about super heroes damaging gender roles to children, and the article was titled “DoSuperheroes Model Damaging Gender Roles to Kids?”. Stephanie Pappas who is one of the Live Science contributors, wrote the article she noticed that in her research that children are more exposed to aggression. She cited some of the movies that where superheroes are masculine, bold, strong and aggressive. She had an investigation where she let these children be exposed to some of the bold movies like “The Dark Knight” and had a talk with the parents; she interviewed them a year later. She found out that girls are more likely to have watched these kinds of movies once or never, but on the other hand boys watch more of these superheroes.

“Boys who watched more superhero media had higher rates of playing with pretend weapons, as well as higher rates of playing in stereo typically male ways” said Stephanie. It didn't affect the girls much but it did make them boyish and made them play with toy weapons

On the other hand I have also read another article on “Superheroes, Superpowers, and Sexuality” written by Rebecca A. Demarest. Where she had a survey on a University why these high school students liked these types of heroes, she found out about how they are suited up and how they are shown to the public. One of the things she cited on was about their physical appearance, where men are masculine so that would make them see that men are strong and have six packs.  While women’s’ clothing are built to promote their sexuality. She also cited in her article the importance of appearance of the superheroes, because the audience would be the first to decide what is appealing to them or not. Of course it also needs the right voice amount so they will distinguish what they are.

“Superheroes have a strong influence in our society, and as such we should look at the messages that they represent” said Rebecca. Before we idolize them we should also think through their characteristics, because sometimes the viewers rely on who they are idolizing

Looking back to when I was still in grade school I didn’t take notice that these kinds of things were important, I think I am also one of those girl who acts boyishly because of these kinds of superheroes I admire back then. It also influenced me to what their actions were I like to help out others but I don’t usually help myself to what I need. I also took concern on what Rebecca wrote in her 3 page article,  on how I dress and on how I idolize men today.

Blogpost 1: Heroines Revealed

Being one of the students in Multimedia arts, we appreciate different kinds or forms of arts. Comics are one of mediums of an artist; they juxtapose panels of images that are drawn, they also perceived stories in their comics. I was reading a comic about our common heroes, and I got curious about why are super heroes always get to be a guy. I also asked some of my colleagues that are there any women super heroes; they asked me “why would a hero be a girl? It would be weak”. Browsing through the internet I stumbled upon an article that tells about what comic books teach us about gender attitudes.

                        Speaking of comics I just read about an article that Christina Blanch wrote about titled “What Do Comic Books Teach Us about Gender Attitudes”. Christina Blanch taught students at a State University about gender through comics, she said that when the topic was opened the class seemed to be engaged. Students shared their experiences on reading comics, and she stated some of heroes in her article on what she saw on the students.  One example that Christina gave was the Man of Steal known as Superman, he exhibits the strong type of guy that is impermeable to harm. Blanch also added Lois Lane who is a gusty, beautiful character that was a headline-hunting reporter. By then when Superman was released they portrayed women as office and factory workers while the men were fighting in the war.  But when the war had ended her role as a smart and hard working woman took a toll. She seem helpless to the eyes of man, she was always abducted by villains and always been rescued. 

“My hope is that future comic book narratives reflect a society that continues to make strides in understanding gender.” Said Christina Blanch, as society develops we are in the process of developing our world. There are still a lot more comics to make and she hope it will make us understand more, so we could understand each other more.

                       

                        Besides Christina Blanch’s article I have also stumbled upon the “7 Female Superheroes to Look Up To” in allwomenstalk.com, it was stated there that female heroes doesn’t get enough spotlight as to their counterparts. So the author presented different female superheroes that the ladies can also look up to with out male counterparts. There were 7 female superheroes; one of them was Wonder woman, many have said that wonder woman was the counterpart of superman, but she isn’t. Unlike superman, Wonder woman was truly a figure of a powerful lady where she is beautiful, hard working and brave. She is a great example of a heroine because she fights for gender equality, so that men and woman have equal rights. Second heroine icon we can look up to is The Manhunter, as to what she is named because it was said that she’s tired of men getting away with all the murder and crime, so she is in search for justice. Great thing about her is that she has no special powers to do her job, she only had her brain and gadgets to fulfill her duties. These are truly amazing heroine characters to look up to, and there were still others.

"There are so many more female superheroes to look up to out there; these are merely my personal favorites. I love the diversity that the comic book world is continuing to introduce." from allwomenstalk.com it's not bad having to look up to men superheroes, although there are also heroines that we women can look up to.

                        In the article of Christina Blanch she presented other examples of superheroes that had an opposing effect on how women are viewed. Others have counter parts and portrayed as a support for the leading character, it was always like that but through time more and more comics are made and portrayed women differently. Little by little some are portrayed as strong willed like the female heroes that had no counterparts. I like comics but I never thought that other people’s views on women were different; I didn’t expect that the characters that were portrayed gave the ideas on the viewers such negative effect on women being in a lead role. I too also hope for gender equality on both sides like Wonder woman, whether you want to be different or to stand out, we should appreciate everybody around us. We are unique and remarkable individuals, we should use our talents to portray and understand each other. We are still making mistakes and trying to learn from them.