gryphonsegg

A strange and wondrous thing is happening in response to recent discussions among comics fans. Take heart, o feminists, for the newest, hottest trend among DC readers is straight dudes being really, really concerned about slut-shaming, especially the slut-shaming of female fictional characters by prudish real-life female comics fans! Does any woman dare to suggest that there's something wrong with rebooting a once warm, vibrant, and expressive female character into someone who strikes stereotyped "sexy" poses and asks other characters "Do want to have sex with me?" while wearing the most listless, dead-eyed expression? Well, that's slut-shaming, and this new breed of sex-positive fanboys won't have that! Starfire's taking charge of owning her empowered sexuality with freedom and liberation and agency, and these guys won't let any sex-negative feminist shame her for that. 'Cause Starfire was such a sexually repressed character before the reboot-- she used to go around having feelings like a weak, shameful, unliberated, unempowerful girly-girl. She even had a long-term partner for a while, which is so prudish! They're also concerned about the slut-shaming of Catwoman by her longtime fans just because she is now empowered and agency-tastic enough to be introduced in the opening pages of her own comic with close-ups of her tits and ass but no image of her face. If I were a fictional lady who wanted to look sexy in a comic, I would feel just awful about all that slut-shaming. Luckily, we have valiant fanboys to call out all that slut-shaming and defend the right of fictional characters to shove their most commonly fetishized body parts right in front of where the artist is looking and exercise their empowered sexual agency by offering to have sex they're obviously not looking forward to. Oh, and Starfire is acting that way because she was enslaved and raped, and that's just how rape victims cope with trauma, so criticizing her depiction is slut-shaming rape victims too-- thank goodness for the sudden upsurge in concern about this topic!

Stupid Suicide Squad travesty in the stupid "New 52" mess! THEY MADE AMANDA WALLER THIN. They also de-aged her so much that her original backstory can't possibly fit in the timeline. They lightened her skin and straightened her hair too. They put her in a tight, low-cut top and heavy make-up, and they have her introducing herself to her new team of convicted murderers with a sultry, flirty expression. If we needed more evidence that DC's ostensible commitment to promoting diversity only applies to diversity among MALE characters, we have it. Diverse characters*, reflecting the diverse audience** DC is trying to attract!



*No fat chicks
**No girls allowed

It's once again time to discuss my complicated relationship with the Percy Jackson books! I have such mixed feelings about this series . . .

( Spoilers below )