Friday, June 20, 2008

Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum


Am I late to notice this too? All of the male super heroes in this exhibit are virile men: muscular but not necessarily sexy. Just the regular bunch of guys we all know and love.
What you notice first with the superhero women is their sexualization: pointed breasts, nipped waist, pert derrieries. They are Barbie dolls in spandex. Is there any exception to this? Why doesn't someone create a super hero for girls --someone who's about strength, grace, but not sex.
No more museum exhibits. I promise.

4 comments:

Todd Mason said...

Wasp-waisted women and men, rather homo-erotic the latter, perhaps.

Cormac Brown said...

The next time that you are in a Borders or walking by a comic book store, grab any graphic novel and note the variations in sketched anatomy...versus the actual.

We're not only talking about women whose breasts defy logic, gravity and augmentation, but eight-packs abound. By that, I mean that not only does everyone have six-pack abdominals, but extra sets of muscles just below and right around the rib cage. Modern comics would've sent DaVinci back to the drawing board.

Linda McLaughlin said...

Cormac makes a good point, I think, about the exagerration of the muscles in comics. The sexualization of the women may have more to do with the intended audience for comics which is primarily young and male. Or am I stereotyping here?

Linda who really doesn't know much about comics

pattinase (abbott) said...

Are they of an age where sexuality is important? I wonder what the average age of a Superman comic buyer is? I know nothing about it either. Certainly Cormac is right. Not a single superhero has anywhere near normal musculature.