What is a comic book? Free Dictionary.com defines it as, “A book of comic’s strips or cartoons, often relating a sustained narrative,” (TheFreeDictionary). These narratives are read by people of all ages, genders and races, in which they consume many different characters within the comics. These comic characters have certain looks, and personalities’ that the reader can digest and enjoy. The representation of women in comic books are very one dimensional, and very far from being realistic. I want to shed light on these stereotypes about how women act in comics, how women look in comics, and the effect it has on readers. Those comic books are unknowingly educating and exposing their readers to false representations of women. In Patricia Hill …show more content…
But in the world of comics it is not just black women treated as such, but all women. They are treated as the “background” to their leading man in their stories. Adam Carlson, Samantha Highfill, and Grady Smith’s Behind Every Superhero, There's a Woman Without Much to Do talks more about these frequent instances in comic book movie adaptations. They state, “Their average screen time is a measly 25 minutes, and the roles all involve playing the damsel in distress,” (CARLSON, ADAM, SAMANTHA HIGHFILL, and GRADY SMITH). For female leading roles the screen time is extremely low, and they are all damsel in distress once again needing saving from the male superheroes. In this case there are hardly enough representations, and when there is they are portrayed as damsels in need of saving even if there perfectly capable of saving …show more content…
That the pressure to be tight is more on woman then men; and Emily A. Perrin would agree. She states that, “The women have a much more narrow line to walk in order to be considered “ideal”,” (Perrin, Emily A). That woman are supposed to have bodies that are pleasing to the eye, Bordo would call it the “aesthetic ideal”. And that realistically these slender bodies are unattainable. But it doesn’t stop the comic book artist from creating these women who could never exist, because no one looks like that but they do look like that in the artist mind. They create what’s pleasing to them, and may be pleasing to male readers. But is discouraging to female readers, because they can never look like that, they don’t have a true representation of women that they can relate