Petition to Marvel for more superheroines
Petition to Marvel for more superheroines
E submitted:
I know this is a bit off-topic for your website, but I thought it would appeal to your fanbase. It is a petition to Marvel for more female-based comics, particularly asking for solo stories (preventing the inclusion of women by just giving male MC’s a girlfriend) and non-objectifying storylines. At submission, there were only 300 signatures, and I think there are way more fans out there who would like to see non-sexist superheroines.
I hesitated to publish this link for some time now (there are 4000+ signatures at the moment), because frankly, I don’t endorse this particular petition.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a noble cause, BUT since the topic (women in comics) is not only broad, but particularly delicate and controversial, the petition concerning it should be created with care, thought and meticulous research.
And what I see under this link is just general statements put haphazardly with the dreaded “strong female character” phrase and this fanart that, despite best intentions, conveys status quo of all superheroines sharing the same cartoonishly thin body and similar face.
The petition is poorly worded, full of generalizations and needlessly judgmental statements.
If I personally were to sign a petition for such big, broad feminist cause, I would expect much better execution out of it.
But in the end, I’ll let the readers decide whether or not they should sign it.
~~~
As we’re on the subject of petitioning mainstream comic publishers, I’d encourage readers to take a look at THIS ONE that asks DC to stop their distasteful ‘draw suicidal Harley Quinn’ art contest.
I wouldn’t go as far as to cry ‘sexualization!’ at the script they’re asking to be drawn, but neither did DC have to specifically ask for Harley to be naked in the infamous bathtub panel (many contestants would depict her as such either way), nor did the page need to be about suicide jokes at all.
The script provided is taken out of context, described poorly, doesn’t suit the character and sounds awfully triggering (and unfunny, if you asked me). Not to mention it came out during Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.
It’s not a good material for an open-for-everyone art contest, so let’s make DC know we don’t want it to continue.
Could be a bit less boobplate-y, but pretty cool design nonetheless.
I’d be prepared to give the boobplate a pass here for once, for two reasons:
1) it appears to be lacking the sternum-snapping ridge on the inside. The front of the armour looks fairly flat, and the sculpted breasts appear to be mainly on the side. They wouldn’t be as much of a liability.
2) the depth of the breastplate is such that they probably aren’t form-fitting at all, and they’re simply sculpted on rather than actually containing her breasts, similar to the stylised musculature on the front of Roman officers’ breastplates.
As I said in a previous reply to similar comment, I suspect that the ornamental golden figure may create a weak point anyway (but I’m neither a smith nor a welder, so don’t take my word for it).
Also, if we take a closer look, there’s a hole between her breast boobplate and collar, and that hole just happens to be roughly where her sternum starts.
And you apparently haven’t seen a well–done boob bump on an armor if you’re defending how this looks.
Because however better than such death wish or this absurd, it’s still a pretty standard sphere-based booblate. And even if purely ornamental, it’s a design flaw anyway. Hell, assuming there’s padding unbeneath, such shaped mold may be a bit uncomfortable to put on.
It’s a very awesome character and costume design (badass knight woman of color, squee!) and a huge leap in right direction, but let us acknowledge that it’s not exactly perfect or practical in every way possible, alright?
And the 700th follower is…
nowisthewinterofourkungfu started following you
Yay, thank you guys for rising to such incredible numbers!
On the occasion of hitting 700 followers, let’s have a quick run-down of things that every BABD follower should know:
- Bikini Armor Battle Damage is a blog always open for submissions, check out the guidelines here.
- Because of our specific theme, posting schedule is irregular. If I find some good original/rebloggable/submitted material, I put it in the posting queue.
- As the admin/creator, I do my best to tag all posts accordingly. If you’re looking for something specific, check out tag index or search bar on the left (right under menu).
- Every post and subpage has its own DISQUS comment thread, just please keep your comments in good taste and on-topic to the page you’re on. When in doubt, check What is NOT welcome part of guidelines.
- As for Tumblr-specific forms of contact, askbox and fanmail are always open. Long-time followers can also write comments from their dashboards. I might reply to those and some of the reblogs I’d find particularly interesting.
- If you’re interested in similar sites, look up the ones in related section. BABD favorites and affiliates are linked there.
- I never actually closed mini-contest to find out if someone recognizes an obscure cultural reference hidden in the blog’s name, so feel free to participate!