Mary Jane Watson-Parker, Burn Your Bra.
Mary Jane Watson-Parker, Burn Your Bra.
May 18Oh, sigh.
I’m trying to speak sense to the senseless, and frankly, it’s exhausting.
There is no context, nor situation or scenario, in which this statue of Mary Jane from the Spider-Man comics is anything but sexist and demeaning to women.
Don’t try to rationalize it. Sorry, doesn’t work. I don’t care what the target audience is; I don’t care that women “don’t have to buy it” or “don’t HAVE to look at it.” I don’t care that there are women who actually do laundry for their husbands, or women who look like that, or even women who look like that and pose like that when they do laundry.
It’s patently offensive to me that a major American entertainment corporation chooses to depict women in this way. It’s an archaic view of a woman’s place in the culture, it’s demeaning to the entire gender, and it’s just the latest example.
This example is particularly egregious, because it is so outlandish as to almost be a parody of sexism. Hell, maybe it is. I dunno.
I know that every time I see a Michael Turner cover with breasts bigger than basketballs, it pisses me off. Every time I open an issue of Superman and see Carlos Pacheco’s cheesecake obsession getting in the way of a darn good superhero yarn, it pisses me off. Every time I read an Ex Machina trade and a random main female character is depicted as sitting at home alone in a transparent negligee, like a character in a Friday After Dark movie on Skinemax, it pisses me off.
When I saw this statue, it REALLY PISSED ME OFF, and something snapped.
I just can’t resign myself to it anymore. The debasement of women in modern superhero comics, much like the graphic violence in the same, is something I have come to tolerate if I like a story well enough. There is no way I can justify it, and it consistently bothers me that I somehow support and silently issue my approval by spending money on it. Yet it doesn’t ruin things for me often.
This statue? It ruins things. It makes me want to torch my entire collection and disassociate myself completely with a fanbase and a hobby that I love. It makes me embarassed to even read comics. It’s pathetic.
I wish more people could try to understand how this is a problem, instead of working so hard to weakly rationalize it.
As I said in the Sisyphean comment thread on Newsarama (yeah, I’m gonna quote myself, fuck you):
If you think this statue is okay, I ask you to do me one simple favor.
Imagine any woman you care about in that same pose. Your mother, your sister, your girlfriend, your wife, your daughter, your friend.
Just give it a second.
Then tell me how it’s okay for this industry to put these images consistently out into the public space, EVEN in limited editions, and EVEN for a targeted, tiny, sad market.
Oh, Matthew. Your outrage is so… gallant. But you’ve failed to mention Brother Dollar and Sister Cent, Mary Jane’s true sculptors. The fault, dear friend, is not in Marvel Comics or any entertainment corporation that women are exploited…. When nerds stop salivating for this and acquire enlightened convictions, Marvel will find a way to take their money that way. And then we’ll all be happy.
When Marvel learns to take my money via my enlightened convictions, I’ll give them the password to my fucking bank account.
Matt, you’ve gotta be kidding me, right? LOL
Comic’s have portrayed a hot and sexy MJ since before McFarlaine even did his Amazing run starting with issue #298. It’s modern fashon, nothing more and the comics/sculptures are simply reflecting that.
Your ire should be with fashon designers, not with people simply putting out artwork that reflects current trends.
That was really well-articulated, Matt. I think you nailed it when you said that it’s so extreme it’s almost like a parody of sexism.
And all the rationalizing is particularly lame this time around. I don’t need you to explain cheesecake art or the history of Spider-Man comics to me, guy. The statue is still gross and stupid.
Buuut, how do nerds get enlightened convictions when they’re still being sold unenlightened crap? Three pages of Vicki Vale talking to Bruce Wayne, posing like she’s in a lingerie catalog (which is likely where the artist pulled his reference material from) sold like hotcakes, and I’m betting most of it was to those young men that haven’t had to think about how they’re going to get along with the other 50% of the human race yet.
And those are the guys that grow up to argue in favour of a thong-th-thongthongthong MJ, opening with “It’s painfully obvious you’ve never read Spider-man.”
Matt, I want to be the baby-face next time, and you can be the heel.
Chris–Of course you can be the baby-face. I’m a jobber at best.
You make a fair point–it’s a classic chicken or egg syndrome. It just bothers me that neither the chicken nor the egg seems interested in even taking a second look at this stuff anymore. No one’s even trying.
Craig–hey man! Mary Jane as sexpot has always been a problem for me. Again I say–why can’t she be a strong, beautiful woman who just doesn’t walk around dressed and posing like a porn star? Why can’t any woman in comics?
I don’t know who are you, but thank you good sir!
Hi Matt! 😀
Great post 🙂
And I rly like what you said at the bottom 🙂 It’s kinda like that Simpsons episode (season 1) where Homer gives that speech about objectifying women and that women are daughters and mothers and sisters. 🙂
A lot of ppl forget that. :\ That’s what objectifying is, when they forget that women are ppl too, and they just think that women are things, to look at, for their pleasure. 🙁 But if they caught their mom being smexual, you know they’ll go AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. >.>
Tho there ARE ppl who want a hot mom to fantasize about.. so.. I dunno XDDDDD
Let’s not go there 😀
Neways, *hugs* great post! 😀 You are teh awesome 🙂
Matt:
You have a lot of valid beefs. I hate that statue, too. If they wanted to make a Mary Jane comicquette, they should have gone with the classic Romita Sr. “you just hit the jackpot” pose. I hated that Turner Power Girl cover and having 4 pages of “All-Star Vicki Vale and Her Ass” in lieu of actual story advancement.
But you’re coming off sounding like THIS GUY:
http://kalinara.blogspot.com/2007/05/all-star-senator-fish-foodmy-tribute-to.html
And just to avoid misunderstanding, I don’t mean to question your sincerity here (I think it’s 100% legit), just your choice of arguing style.
Well, I gotta be me. I\’ve been angry about this, and justifiably so, and I don\’t see any point in trying to regulate my expression or opinions just to fit in better with…whatever, I guess.
I\’ve tried to be cogent and precise, and to not get carried away. In most cases, those who think I\’ve gone to extremes seem to think so because of their own limited, and in my opinion incorrect, view of the situation–it IS just like racism, it IS a symbol of prejudice and degradation against women, and to me that is NOT an \”extreme\” opinion. It\’s there, in the statue. I\’m just typing it.
Never thought I would see an ultra-fem fanboy.
Alas I am not going to blather on about how you are wrong, or about how you are “the voice of all women who have terrorized by the evil corporate sexist system”
No fun in that.
I would like to comment about your statement here:
“If you think this statue is okay, I ask you to do me one simple favor.
Imagine any woman you care about in that same pose. Your mother, your sister, your girlfriend, your wife, your daughter, your friend.
Just give it a second”
You know, to hell with imagining my wife in that pose! Bloody hell if I am not going to ask her to take the pose and allow me to take pics!
Thanks for the idea!
my wife would let me take pics of her in that pose. it just sucks for you if yours dont
man u nerds need to get a life im not trying to be mean but its just not healthy to sit around all day playing on the computer
Thad… gangsta… whatever you want to be called…
Thanks for coming to the party… a year late. Yo.
Was this really a year ago?! Damn.