Women, Comics, Biases and Ramblings:

This had started as a reply to an interesting entry at Shelly's Comic Book Shelf called Anti-Women Bias in Comics? but it ended up too long and largely tangential (focusing more on one particular paragraph than the real topic of the piece), but I'm going to post it here regardless.

" And I would prefer more attention be paid to the weakening of Roe vs. Wade and other issues that affect the lives of women than their depiction in comics. And yes, while you can argue that comics can foster attitudes that lead to those real world issues, the same was said about violence and TV and I don't really see that, either, not if kids are given a well-rounded environment and if not, well, TV or comics won't be the real problem, neglect and other issues will be. "

On one level, I see what she's saying here, and I agree. Real world matters *should* take precedence.

But the thing is, these problems aren't unconnected. The way women are seen in popular culture and media reflect the way women are perceived in the real world.

And I'm going to make that very argument mentioned above: comics, like tv and movies, are particularly important because of kids and young adults who are still impressionable, still forming their opinions of men, of women, of personal values and respect, they're absorbing what they read. They're incorporated into the growing world view of these young people, men *and* women.

How can we expect these young people to understand the ramifications of Roe v. Wade when everywhere they go, they see these images of women portrayed as significantly weaker/less substantial/Other than men, worth more for their ability to attract men than for their own selves...

I've heard young women my age express horrifically misogynistic attitudes toward female characters and by extension women that remind them of said characters. These weak portrayals replace empathy with the illusion of knowledge, and that faux-knowledge is negative and harmful.

These young women *my age* come from relatively happy families, kind and understanding parents, liberal backgrounds. But that doesn't actually change anything.

A good friend in high school automatically hated any female character *because she was female*. She actually claimed to hate women (she and I, she said, were special. Meant to be men. It'd started as a joke, but she *believed* it. She genuinely believed that there was something weaker about being women.) And she'd cite things like tv shows, movies, anime as *examples*.

Maybe she was stupid. Maybe not. But it was certainly a bother that sometimes, it was really hard to counter her negative examples. And any personal, positive example essentially becomes an "exception that proves the rule".

And even more shamefully, even more ridiculously, we'd first became friends because on one level I had *agreed* with her.

It's ridiculous, but I think, sometimes, my generation *is* innately ridiculous. And I think if we're going to fix things, we have to start with the small ridiculous things that my generation seems to pick up on first and foremost.

Besides, if we can't fix something small and simple like a damn *comic*, how can we change anything else?