Crap. I just tried googling up images of Mystique kicking ass from the comics, for some contrast, and I was reminded of something.
Comic book imagery, in general, is sexist as fuck. It’s like a giant strip club.
I forgot about all that. Maybe I shouldn’t pick this particular hill to die on. I suspect that Rose McGowan just had a “OK, that does it, I’ve had it up to here” moment, and finally snapped. I don’t think I blame her.
I don’t think anyone is objecting to the billboard because they mistook it for a real-life photo of a man actually choking a woman.
Such as?
Wonder Woman, coming from the same era as other classic heroes, almost certainly had her costume designed in the model of a trapeze artist or circus equestrian performer just as Superman’s goofy-ass “underwear on the outside” look came from circus strongmen and really the whole tights thing in general stemmed from circus performers.
Wonder woman has a fascinating history as a character, designed by a feminist Jungian psychiatrist with free love and bondage impulses. There’s an historian, Jill Lepore, who did some work on this incredibly weird dude recently. It’s worth reading, if you’re anywhere near the history nerd that you are a comics nerd.
Because we aren’t discussing the film. We’re discussing the poster, which exists separately from the film. Because the whole point is to try and understand things from a different point of view from your own. Because the idea is to remove your own biases that would keep you from seeing things objectively.
The only way we can ever get along as a species is if we actually try to understand the other argument instead of vilifying each other. Just like McGowan is being an ass by not being able to understand why people would not see a problem with it, we also need to try and understand.
I’ll also point out that being a comic book movie has no real bearing on this. I know plenty of comic book movies where they did sexist “damsel in distress” shit.
All that matters is that the damsel in distress trope is a longstanding sexist trope. It’s not a good idea to make it look like you are invoking it if you don’t want to be called sexist.
It ultimately doesn’t matter if it really is sexist or not. If enough people think it is, that’s not a good thing.
Is protectiveness getting more problematic than it used to be?
Here’s Wolverine and Rogue in the first X-men movie.
Is that image less kosher than it was? I don’t think it bothered anyone then. Maybe it doesn’t now either. BTW, what would happen if you gender-swapped that image? Wait, they kind of did.
I know, I’m cherrypicking those images something awful. Rogue has a character arc, which is the same as for any X-(wo)man: She learns to become a badass. Plus, she seems to be still dabbling in distress, too.
Just wondering, though. Is protectivess being grouped in more with rapeyness now?
No, because the image of a white man punching a black man does not carry the same baggage as a white man whipping a black man. That’s the point of the billboard discussion: an image of a man choking a woman carries baggage.
I have no problem with it in a movie as part of the story, and comparing it to stills from other movies showing similar or reversed situations is irrelevant. This is not just a movie still; it’s one they chose to use for the advertising campaign. My concern is not with that scene. It’s with the decision to make a billboard out of it.
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C’mon, man. If you’re going to lay down innuendo, at least have the balls to back it up.
It exists as part of the film. This isn’t a drawing on a scrap of bark we’re all gathered around and trying to understand. It says what it is right on the billboard: an advertisement for an X-Men movie. Treating it outside of that context takes an intentional degree of obliviousness.
Not worth it. If you can’t figure it out on your own, I can’t help you.
Fox has apologized thinking women can handle the same men do in the comic book world, and has released a hopefully less offensive version.
Gloria Steinem would strongly disagree with that. I did not find a copy of her essay that was not behind a paywall, but Steinem is a big fan of Wonder Woman. Costume and all.
Give us some highlights?
What are you talking about? You even read comics?
What? This isn’t one mutant vs one mook. This is Apocalypse vs one mutant. Of course she’s getting choked.
Again, though, there’s some gender thing to it. Miller showed a bunch of comic book covers spanning a period of several decades in which Wolverine was getting the snot kicked out of him–but when he was, he was claws out and hollerin.
Would this billboard have been made with some other mutant being choked? Professor X? Cyclops? Some mutant who was clearly not in a position to fight back?
Maybe; I dunno. I’m not a huge expert in comic covers and ads, my geekery cred lies elsewhere. But from the bit I’ve seen, the depiction of female superheroes as helpless (that is, not fighting, at the mercy of the villains) seems more common than the similar depiction of male superheroes.
The poster shows Apocalypse easily defeating the X-Men. Who is going to represent the X-Men here? Mystique is easily the most recognizable and probably popular character besides besides Magneto, Storm, and Xavier. Magneto and Storm were on Apocalypse’s side. Chocking Xavier, the guy in the wheelchair, would be kind of lame. Who else? The other X-Men are kinda boring and the audience doesn’t know them. Beast? Cyclops? Jean? None of those would have the same impact. Who is the one X-Men character the audience knows and likes? Mystique.
C’mon. Everyone knows Mystique and pretty much everybody thinks she’s cool and knows she kicks ass. Apocalypse easily defeats her. Oh no! I need to see what happens!
Wolverine has his claws out in those images but he’s not roaring or fighting back. And lying with his arms hanging down limp is hardly empowering, claws or no. In images #1 & #3, he has his mouth limply open (or not at all) and in #2, #4 & #5 he’s crying out in pain. You think those are the eyes of someone in a berserker rage?
But claws are what Wolverine has so, if he’s beaten in battle, then his claws were probably out. Mystique has the ability to look like different people which is a lot harder to leverage when being choked by a giant grey alien dude.
