Use of Gender in Watchmen
This graphic novel showcases a variety of characters, both male and female. While the artwork style is consistent throughout the whole novel, there are irregularities when it comes to gender. The women’s costumes are depicted as far more revealing and scandalous than that of the men’s. In fact, when Laurie is rescuing tenants from the fire one takes time out to comment that she looks as though she just got out of bed. Laurie previously indicated to Dan that she thought the costume she wore enhanced her sexuality, and her mother Sally wore a costume that inspired others to write porn. None of these traits are present when it comes to the men’s costumes.
There are many gender stereotypical gender roles found throughout
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Despite the fact that many of the costumed heroes were female, I found much of the novel to be sexist. As I investigated further, I began to realize that not one of the female characters exists independently of a male. Laurie breaks off her relationship with Dr. Manhattan only to seduce Dan merely weeks later. Her mother Sally was nearly raped, and then later relives her glory days by pouring over old fan made porn. Rorschach’s mother can’t just be a women who came from hard times, she is also a prostitute. When a side story tells us of a shipwreck with a lone survivor, that survivor is male. Silhouette gets kicked out of minutemen because she openly proclaims she is gay. The artist who works on comics has an affair on the boat ride back to land before being blown up. Even small implicit details cause me to believe this novel is sexist towards women- when Adrian plans his own assassination attempt, his female secretary is shot instead of him. These are just a few examples of the way women are depicted in a demeaning way and are treated with violence. I believe that the author made an attempt to include female roles in this novel, but that he failed miserably at breaking any stereotypical gender roles for either male or