Comic books always had the difficulty in maintaining the characterization of women. Women portrayal in comic books has always been a topic of controversy, since its inception. Both Marvel and DC comics are trying to promote women characters, with an attempt of de-sexualizing them. Marvel tried to showcase some super talents but the attempts are mostly unsuccessful. Critics have argued that women roles as supporting or lead characters are more subjected to the gender stereotypes; often they are objectified in a sexualized manner. Apart from super girls, women were primarily depicted in secondary characters, for example; career girls, sexy teenagers or romantic heroines.

Previously, the female comic creators have always been a minority in the comic industry. They have made notable impact in the beginning. However, female comic writers don’t achieve much recognition as that of the male comic artists. Women comic creators have been working in every genre, beginning from superheroes to romance, horror to crime, war to westerns and more. Some famous women comic writers are; Becky Cloonan, Gail Simone, Kate Leth and others. Therefore, differences still exists in this modern society and women are portrayed in stereotypical manner. At times, some of the characters’ sex appeal is used to launch the comic series (Bongco).   

While male superheroes are portrayed as some serious figure, women’s sexuality is being used enormously. A few months ago, the movie ‘Wonder Woman’ adapted from the famous DC Comics character, released and received mixed reviews. Many argued that the representation of the female character was too mainstream. Some said the character is much of a feminist icon, others felt it was just another movie with a female superhero. However, the sexualization of female characters in comic world is a major concern. Even Marvel comics depict women in a blatant manner, treating them unequally as compared to their male counterparts. Therefore, comics make women seem week, less aggressive, less dangerous and not on an equal track with the male characters (Wolf).

References

Bongco, Mila. Reading comics: Language, culture, and the concept of the superhero in comic books. Routledge, 2014.

Wolf, Naomi. The beauty myth: How images of beauty are used against women. Random House, 2013.