Um, hello...

MJ isn't my favourite character by far.

It would've been equally demeaning if it had been:

Lois Lane washing the Superman suit
Storm washing the Black Panther suit
Jean washing the Cyclops suit
Rogue washing the Gambit or Magneto suit
Stephanie, had she lived, washing the Robin suit
Starfire washing the Nightwing suit


I don't read enough Stargirl to know what's going on with her. But I will tell you I hated Wonder Girl going from the tomboy outfit to the Donna Troy outfit.

And I think it's all symptomatic of the same problem.

Nobody in the comics industry who isn't already a woman knows how to write them except as two dimensional stereotypes.

So do stop with the "my favourite character gets blown off and nobody cares" thing. Because it isn't about whose favourite character it is.

And believe me, if someone did a Courtney statue like the Supergirl one, people would be up in arms about that, too.

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And having read that page, now, I don't think it was "new clothes". Stargirl didn't take her shopping.

She got her a costume. To me that seems more like a "you will feel powerful and maybe less scared if you dress like a real super."

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Two points:

1. It wasn't shopping, it was sewing. Now, admitedly Courtney can sew (she altered the original Star-spangled Kid's costume), but how is "let's go sewing" better than "let's go shopping?"

2. Stargirl could have shown Maxine around the Justice Society museum like Atam Smasher did for her in the first issue of JSA. The entire scene is setup for Stargirl to get Maxine a new costume, right down to the "I threw up on my first day" -- something that never happened.

Read the scene however you want; I seem to be the only one who thinks (the real) Stargirl would have slapped Maxine and told her to suck it up because she's a hero now, kind of like she did to Jakeem back when he was disrespecting Mister Teriffic.

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I don't know the character as well as you do, so I can't speak to how IC or not it is.

As for the sewing -- some people find that de-stressing, even though it is a stereotypical girl thing.

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If the writers ever bothered to give Stargirl hobbies (outside of being dumped by Captain Marvel and waiting for Atom Smasher to get out of jail) like sewing, the scene might not have bothered me.

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Because it isn't about whose favourite character it is.

Yes, Indigo, it is. I say Stargirl's being turned into a girly-girl, people tell me "Geoff Johns knows what he's doing!" The, uh, same Geoff Johns who wanted to make sure Isis died. I say that Oracle's being dumbed down and being badly handled, people tell me that just because the diaglog makes her sound like an idiot she's still a smart character. If I said (and I'm not!), "Just because that statue makes Barda look subservient, we all know it's not true," I'd get reamed left and right.

I'm not saying there isn't a huge problem in the comic industry, because there is a very huge problem, a problem that extends past sexism and extends into racism and homophobia. Monoculture has comics by the throat, and the lack of oxygen is causing brain damage. I'm not going to deny that at all.

But it bugs the fire out of me that every time I say "That writer just hamstrung one my favorite heroines," people tell me I'm crazy.

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There are guys who are saying the MJ statue is disgusting. There are guys and girls who are saying "I don't even like MJ but that is really too much."


Oracle is being dumbed down. They didn't want her to be a god in a box as Batman's instant info. So now Alfred is.

Not to mention Batgirl still can't read.

I'm with you, but it's still not about favourite characters. All the females are getting screwed over one way or another.

Storm's been turned into Mrs. Black Panther. They came up with a backstory that gave her a family in Wakanda so she'd have ties there besides him, but the backstory is insulting. "We were afraid of your scary uncle killing us, that's why we never contacted you."

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Not to mention Batgirl still can't read.

Don't even get me started on how fucked up that is. Cass's best friend (Barbara) has a teacher (Huntress) working for her for almost a year, and the dumb ass writers at DC end up with Cass being called stupid by Barbara. And that doesn't even touch on the half-dozen ways you could help Cass learn to read in a comic book universe: Prometheus's helmet overlays engrams to help her read, Oracle's video camera lenses connected up to OCR-to-Speech software reading into her comunicator, J'onn J'onzz uploading the knowlegde to her, etc. I've quite literally spent over a year planning various was how she could learn to read.

Which is why I say this goes beyond feminism. Cass not learning to read isn't only bad because she's a woman, it's descrimination against someone with a learning disorder. Batman and his ilk not using their resources to teach Cass to read is tantamount to taking away Oracle's wheelchair.

I'm with you, but it's still not about favourite characters.

Let me take a step back for a second and say this: the entirity of the problem isn't about favourite characters, you're right. My post, however, is, because I have been told (in so many words) that my examples aren't good enough. There seems to be some imaginary threshold between "offensive" and "cute", and my irritations seem to keep falling short of that threshold.

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Stephanie, had she lived, washing the Robin suit

You know, given that Steph was Robin, that might actually be an appropriate statue. Remember that episode of Lois & Clark where he was asking his mother what would get a blast stain out of spandex, it it wasn't Steph in her wear, but rather her in jeans and a sweatshirt leaning up against a washer, that might be kind of cute. That said, it would only be cute, imo, because you could switch Steph for Tim or Dick there.

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If it was her own Robin suit, yes. But if it was Tim's? Uncool.

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As they say on scans_daily, "Motto."

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I tend to avoid Scans daily due to preferring to avoid head asplode. Que significa "motto"?

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"Motto" directly refers to the unwritten motto of SD, "You're not the only one who thinks that."

I just mean it would only be cute if it was her suit.

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Abgreed with the both of you on that.

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Well... this statue basically confirms that misongynst crap is alive and well....

I guess my point? You won't be seeing Bruce Wayne in thong undies washing WonderWoman's bra. Because Batman is a man and above that shit. And women are good for nothing but looking pretty and washing a man's clothes and spreading their legs.

You know I am not a huge Spiderman fan, SP, but let me tell ya, if this is standard treatment for the females sidekicks - then there's yet another reason I think comics aren't art.

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I assure you, this is pretty standard treatment for female characters these days, which is why comics aren't much for entertainment either.

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Mary Jane isn't Spider-Man's sidekick. She's his wife. Whether that makes it better or worse is left as an exercise for the reader. ;)

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She looks like a teenage whore with big tits. She's spiderman's chattel. woo. that's hardly empowering.

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He doesn't treat her that way, though, canonically. The statue does.

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Yeah but let me be honest. I'm not into Spiderman or comics. All I know about Mary Jane is that she's Spidey's girlfriend, she apparently died from radioactive cum (and I only know that because on line pals are fans) and this statue? Says she's a thong wrapped whore fit to wash Spidey's clothes.

As a woman, I don't like comics where the chicks pretty much are thong wrapped big titted whores fit to wash the hero's clothes and die from luving his cum.

But then I should shut my little bitch mouth as woman should be washing not having opinions.

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Um, I'm a woman too. So no need to be snarking at the choir.

And the reason the MJ statue offends me is because making her a maid/whore-archetype goes against the canonical characterization of Mary Jane.

And see, I am into Spider-Man [with a hyphen, because I am into comics], so I'm clarifying with the knowledge this atrocity is something they made for the drooling fanboys. She is better treated canonically, is all I was trying to say.

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Well... since we're basically in agreement that this statue is offensive, we cool.

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"And the reason the MJ statue offends me is because making her a maid/whore-archetype goes against the canonical characterization of Mary Jane"

Yeah, cuz her being a sexpot is SOOOOOO Outofcharacter for someone who was once the party chick/go-go dancer/super model/soap actress/b-movie girl.

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Okay, wow, crass generalization, much?

There's a good bit of space, characterwise, between supermodel sexy and pandering porn star.

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Okay, wow, crass generalization, much?


There's a good bit of space, characterwise, between pandering porn star and flirtatious young wife.

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The book Spider-Man Loves Mary-Jane is good. It's set back when everybody's still in high school, and MJ is the main character. It's considerably more fun than anything in the mainstream Marvel universe.

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You won't be seeing Bruce Wayne in thong undies washing WonderWoman's bra.

Well no. He has a butler to do that for him.

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I do NOT want to see Alfred in a thong, thankyouverymuch.

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"You won't be seeing Bruce Wayne in thong undies washing Wonder Woman's bra."

Perhaps a better analogy would be Steve Trevor washing WW's costume.

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Steve Trevor is married to another woman. I don't know if they've ever shown who does the laundry in that family.

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Or maybe it's because Batman isn't married to Wonder Woman.
(And no one's gonna buy a $100 statue of Alfred in a thong washing Batman's costume).

Mary Jane isn't a "female sidekick". She's his wife. I'm told that housewives (which would be Mary Jane, as I don't believe she currently has a job) do laundry sometimes.

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For the record, GEOFF JOHNS CREATED STARGIRL!

It's why I'm very tempted to kill her off and bring her back one day. Just for revenge sake.

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And you would be?

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You know, sometimes a statue is just a statue...

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