"Sexualised" Comic Art and Covers UPDATE

 
It's Milo Manara -were you expecting Little Orphan Annie??  Also, "Anatomical errors"???  WHERE??? Manara has a HUGE photo reference file so I doubt after more than 40 years he's become a crap artist. Manara does what Manara does and there are no anatomical errors except in the eyes of critics (sorry, bile builds up when I think of "them") who cannot draw but want to be bitchy.

WHY has Disney employed Manara? Because he draws sexy women.

WAKE UP YOU MORONS!

And Manara is quite right, there are more important things going on in the world -why scream if you see a woman on the cover YOU think is sexy....

A few people have voiced concerns over this Spider-Woman image. Yep, obviously drawn naked with the costume painted on.  Now just hold on a minute. Do a Google search for "Spider-Woman" and look at the images. THIS is tame.

What I do not -cannot- understand is that people are mentioning this now??????

Hey -THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR YEARS!!

Check out DC and Marvel (and Independent companies) and their female characters with heaving cleavage, panties up their "Khyber Pass" and the MANY poses that years ago you would have only seen in soft core porn.  But this is "empowering"...I've even heard female fans say so.

The Black Widow in the movies.  Is her cleavage bursting from an overly tight, near opened to the navel suit? Nope. In comics....suuuure.

And let me say something else.  THIS pose I have seen You Tube videos of -female cos-players in "private photo areas" (WTF???) at various cons.  Dressed as Wonder Woman, Spider-Woman, Cat Woman...held at gun-point? No.  Then again, where are the cheese-cake photos of male cos-players?

Comics, even those published by family companies like Disney (I ain't saying Marvel anymore) are aimed at immature males who spend a great deal of time with their hands studying these images.

Let's get this straight.  Women -and men- of all body-shapes cosplay.  Why not? I love all that stuff. There are the female cos-players, however, who, interviewed (just check You Tube you'll find them there) and want to draw attention to their "boobs" and/or "butts" -their words.  There are some slimy interviewers who  love this and do not object -if you are male and do then, obviously, "yer a gay!"

There is nothing wrong with admiring a costume that has taken weeks or months to put together.  There is nothing wrong with admiring a great body whether you are male or female.  That is perfectly normal and if the cos-players -male or female - say they never considered someone might think they looked "hot" in an outfit then they need a carer.

I'm sure male cos-players get eyed up by gay conventioneers a lot.  I know two who admit to having been chatted up by gay men -hell: they considered that meant they were good!!!  It's normal sexuality.

BUT where things go wrong are the immature geeks who spend all their time gaming or reading comics in their rooms and have no idea how to behave.  Okay, a few years back my bottom was pinched by an attractive female cos-player who was quite flirty.  Someone said "report her -that's sexual assault!"  I'm an adult and believe me I had no reason to complain!  But never ever would I have done that to a female whether cos-playing or not.  Absolutely NEVER.

It comes down to being brought up properly -and in a mainly female household/workplace -and if you are male and the only one working with 40 women of all ages you soon learn about sexual harassment!!!. These comic geeks, however, may go to a convention and its their big event of the year.  They've seen all the comic art and covers and to then see that in the flesh....they have NO SOCIAL REFERENCE ON BEHAVIOUR.  Do they deserve to be beaten up?

Here's an example.  A good few years back a young man who thought he was gods gift to women, put his hand up the short skirt of a co-worker.  She slapped him.  'Obviously' she was a lesbian.  A few days later a group of ten women from the workplace grabbed the idiot, stripped him naked, covered him in scent and pushed him out a door into the street after groping him.  He never misbehaved again. He was very respectful.

Better to just grab someone who sexually assaults a female cos-player, take his photo and plaster over the internet AFTER you have called in the police (and you really should call in the police)? I think yes but after that there is the humiliation that goes on.

Who am I to judge?

Anyway, just remember that female cos-players -even ones you might say like to "flaunt it" are NOT consenting to be sexually assaulted.  They want to dress up, meet friends and have a good time not be groped.

But, in 2014 it is far, far, far too late to shout out "have you seen how sexualised this image is?"  I was writing and talking about this in the mid-1990s.  It's nothing new. Disney do not care.  DC do not care. Indie companies for the most part do not care.

 To put it in the words of a former comic editor I knew: "Tits and ass make 'em by the books!"  He also said: "If it gives me a boner it'll sell!"  Thankfully I've not heard from him in years.

We're talking comics and the money men do not care.  If it offends you DO NOT buy it. Seriously.