I interpreted your original post more along the lines of “well, comics women are given uncommon height-weight-bra size statistics, but men look unrealistic too, ergo claims of sexism are overstated” because that is (distressingly) a common response to any attempt to critique sexism in comics, and because the comments regarding men came after a preliminary statement wherein critiques of unrealistic female images were given only “some validity,” and presented as having no awareness of the existence of unrealistic male images.

Most feminist critique on comics acknowledges it exists- the answer to “but men are unrealistic too” on the bingo card discusses that, as well provides evidence for why complaints that female comic book characters are sexualized in a way that the male characters aren’t, isn’t just talk coming from out of our asses. (Unless we’re Vicki Vale- thanks Frank Miller! :P) Perhaps because so much feminist critique of comics is generated in response to misogyny on the part of other fans and pros, there is not much discussion of how sexism in comics negatively impacts men. Unrealistic images of men in comics and their impact on male readers (or het/bi female ones, for that matter) is still a matter ripe for discussion. In that light, I’m sorry this post did not generate comments on that topic.

The post asks us to consider whether or not we ought to critique comics for presenting unrealistic images of women’s bodies. It answers by pointing out that comics are also unrealistic about men, and that often the lack of realism is done intentionally. This line of reasoning is sound, except the critique under examination does not exist.

Because it is obvious that few men have as chiseled physiques as the average superhero, no intelligent, rational person would complain solely on the grounds that few women have the physique of a superheroine. Since we know the critique of women’s depiction in comics gained traction among people with working brains, we also know it focused on something else. That something may be sexism (as described by other commentators), or the proliferation of unrealistic body images in general, or the decision to draw impossibly beautiful women instead of impossibly athletic women.

With that in mind, please understand why a post treating the strawcritique as if it were real is so frustrating.

Did you read what I said? The whole these bodies are IMPOSSIBLE (not stylized) thing? If I squee, you will know it.

There is a reason Domino is my favorite. And I never doubted the girls could kick ass.

I am not asking you to LOVE MY post. It’s one woman who reads comic books perspective. Not a gospel.

As for helping parents with children disappointed because they don’t resemble a Liefeld drawing… I’m not sure what to say. The kids young enough to have trouble distinguishing impossible cartoons from reality are probably at more risk from Looney Tunes than X-Men (which is for teens&up, not kids). I can also say that when read comics as a kid, “comics are stylized, not realistic” wouldn’t have assuaged my uncomfortable feelings. I didn’t look at comics and feel bad about myself because I didn’t have boobs like that. I looked at comics and felt bad because the endless, pointless promenade of cheesecake shots* told me that other people thought the most important thing about me would always be my T&A- not my ability to kick ass, not my wit, not my desires, but my desirability to others. I reacted with anger, not breast implants- but I also stopped reading comics for a while because it made me feel bad and just flat-out unwelcome in comics fandom.

*Many of which interfered with the ability to take the heroine seriously as a fighter. (Skirts, high heels, & latex wedgie-producing thongs are not good crime fighting gear. Nor do I particularly want the camera positioned so I can see outline of the heroine’s pad when she kicks the badguy, kthxs.) Almost none of the beefcake-y shots interfered with the hero’s credibility as an ass-kicker.

Maybe this didn’t bother you, but it bothered me and many other women. If you want to squee, that’s great. It would just be a lot easier for other comics-loving feminists to squee along with you without having to rebut arguments from the Anti-Comics-Feminist Bingo card. ( http://girl-wonder.org/girlsreadcomics/?p=66 ).

Also, given the circumstances I’m amazed no one’s mentioned Power Girl. Having someone like that on a page actually made me embarrassed to read comics in front of other people.

However, all I could think about when I read the bits about unrealistic body images was that “but men are objectifed/unrealistically drawn too” is a space on the freakin’ Sexism in Comics Bingo Card. It’dve been nice if other women who like comics could’ve been given some credit for having common sense and legitimate complaints, instead of suggesting that we never noticed that real live men do not have muscles like Cable.

No, I think that’s (generally) the intent of the production team–the folks actually doing the figure distorting–who (again, generally) couldn’t give two fucks what female readers do with the images and storylines.

What any given female reader takes away from an artist’s work is largely her own deal and is going to vary pretty wildly based on how she identifies with or interprets the image and context.