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It’s not just that it’s unrealistic, it’s how they’re portrayed.
Unrealistic Comic men are buffed to look strong, put in power poses.
Unrealistic women are not put in power poses. They’re drawn that way to be sexualized.
They’re both meant to appeal to male readers (Thread)
Unrealistic Comic men are buffed to look strong, put in power poses.
Unrealistic women are not put in power poses. They’re drawn that way to be sexualized.
They’re both meant to appeal to male readers (Thread)
Both are a problem. It ruins suspension of disbelief & more importantly, is inherently sexist because it takes female characters & undercuts all the seriousness & strength of their character with the intent to give male readers instant gratification. Art sells if story doesn’t
It also insinuates that Males are the only ones allowed to look strong, and fortunately this has gotten a lot better over the years and whether done consciously or not that’s the vibe it gives off
It says a lot that I didn’t have a lot of favorite female comic characters when I first started, because up to probably about 7-8 years ago, most females in comics were still actively getting treated like this ^^^
Their character didn’t matter nearly as much as their bra size.
Their character didn’t matter nearly as much as their bra size.
I still remember how awestruck I was the first time I saw a Captain Marvel poster because it was one of the first times I saw a female character NOT drawn in a hyper-sexualized way. I thought it was powerful, I thought it was inspiring, I couldn’t take my eyes off of it
And compare that to her previous costume and you can see, even in the body language, how these two different versions of the same character were meant to sell to different audiences
You don’t see Captain America lifting his leg on a cover like some vogue model
You don’t see Captain America lifting his leg on a cover like some vogue model
And Don’t get me wrong, there’s a place for sexy, beautiful people in comics. My favorite romance comic is explicitly about BDSM and is from a male creator focusing on a lesbian couple, yet, surprisingly, it’s done in a way that has NEVER drawn issue—
—because it focuses on character first, and uses erotic images in service of the story and said characters rather than in service of the reader. It doesn’t degrade the characters and it doesn’t insult the reader by assuming the story won’t be enough.
And women can 100% be drawn to be both beautiful and sexy AND powerful, you just draw them the same way you draw strong, sexy male characters. You don’t embellish, you don’t over exaggerate, you just draw people doing powerful things in cool costumes. If you’re good that’s enough
To this day I still won’t understand how you aren’t immediately drawn out of a comic when you see things that are so insanely over-the-top like this, obviously meant to be sexy. Subtly was thrown out the window, hit the flagpole on the way down and got run over by a dump truck 
I’m not writing this to put anyone down or start any arguing, frankly I don’t want it, I’m just trying to explain why the “Men are also unrealistic in comics” excuse is perhaps the worst one you could possibly pick to defend oversexualization in comics.
That’s it
That’s it
