The Bane of My Existance:

Today, I intend to rant about something that annoys me greatly.

The Midriff

Now before I misrepresent myself, I'd like to state clearly that I don't hate the torso. In fact, I have one myself. I just keep it covered. Which is, I believe, how torsos are intended to be unless you're at the beach or something. And even that's pushing it.

Seriously though, if it was just one female character that had an exposed midriff it wouldn't bother me. I've got nothing against T&A in comics. I mean considering how often I leer at Dick Grayson or Kyle Rayner in their skin tight costumes, that would be vastly hypocritical of me. And hey, I enjoy Power Girl's rack as much as anyone could.

But honestly, there is no look that I think most embodies current fashion than the exposed midriff. I swear the midriff is becoming the new 'history of sexual trauma' among young female heroes in the DCU. Almost every girl has one.

And I'm sick of it.

Look, artists. Yes, the human body is attractive, but an exposed midriff is this generation's bell-bottoms and afro. It dates the material. In ten or twenty years, we're all going to cringe seeing those outfits...it'll be like reading those issues of Teen Titans where they're all dressed like hippies.

And honestly, does it have to be *all* of them. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two teenage girl characters who don't have exposed midriffs, (Batgirl and Speedy). And that's annoying as all hell. I mean if it were just Courtney or Cassie Sandsmark, I could deal. But it's *ALL* of them.

Even some not-teenagers have exposed midriffs. What the hell is *Helena Bertinelli*, a strong and independent woman in her late twenties (a teacher even), doing with her midriff exposed like that?! And hadn't she been *shot* in the abdomen before?! Egads.

And what the hell is the appeal of that part of the female body? I mean, breasts? Rear end? Legs? Those I understand. But the middle torso? The only possible appeal to the abdomen I can see is that it helps picture these girls naked...these *fifteen* and *sixteen* year old girls.

I don't care if real teenagers are wearing it. They look ridiculous. And real teenagers wore bell-bottoms too. It's no less stupid.

Here, let me show you something...this is Stargirl's costume in JSA:



And here's the one the imps made her in JSA 79, when Thunderbolt's dimension was too damn cold.



It's a shame it's probably not going to last. Because, damn, I know which one *I* think looks hotter. Courtney finally looks like a grown-up woman here, and *what* a woman. And ten-to-one it'll be a lot less dated in two decades time.

Edited to add: It occured to me that I'm not very clear on articulating *why* it bothers me, so I've clarified it in my next entry here.