Gail Simone's Blog, page 930
September 7, 2012
APE IN A CAPE: An Interesting Question
This came up on Twitter and I must admit, I am of two minds about it.
A poster posted a photo link showing a pink Batgirl outfit for very little girls (or boys, if they are so inclined!).
My first reaction wasn’t, “Oh, man, here we go again, enforcing gender roles on children, everything has to…
my grandmother would always try buy me race-appropriate toys and if she couldn’t, she would make the toys she could blackface. I would have a fit because I couldn’t care less about if the doll looked like me. I just wanted the toy. I liked the character, regardless what she loooked like.
that’s how I feel looking at this costume. it’s a door. if a little girl wants to be pink Batgirl, I’d focus more on the Batgirl aspect than the color.
That is a very powerful post for a lot of reasons. Thank you.
I get why it would bother people, the pink outfit. But if there’s a choice, and no pressure, let the little girl pick the Batgirl she wants to be, I feel.
An Interesting Question
This came up on Twitter and I must admit, I am of two minds about it.
A poster posted a photo link showing a pink Batgirl outfit for very little girls (or boys, if they are so inclined!).
My first reaction wasn’t, “Oh, man, here we go again, enforcing gender roles on children, everything has to be pink for girls, so typical!”
My first reaction was along the lines of, “Oh, that is adorable.”
But was I right, or were the people who said the first thing right?
It’s very interesting…some people immediately objected to the idea of a pink Batgirl outfit. They felt it was forcing girls to be pink and princess-y and all the stereotype stuff.
I see their point and it’s clearly true that that happens a lot.
But I also have a niece who loves superheroes and is simply DRAWN to pink and always has been. If there were a thousand Batgirl costumes and one pink one, there is absolutely no question which one she would choose.
I also have to say, I go to cons all year long, and see adorable kids in Batgirl uniforms, many of which are purchased, not home-made. I have to say I see dozens and dozens in the more traditional colors for every one I see that is pink.
But maybe cons are different. Maybe there are stores where pink is the only choice, and if a little girl wants to be Batgirl, she HAS to be pink. That would bug me.
But I do have a problem seeing the harm, when a little girl has a choice, of letting her make up her own mind. I don’t find the costume problematic in itself.
Am I wrong? Am I missing something? What do you guys think. I admit, I haven’t given it much thought yet so I’m curious to know.
wheredidgirlpowergo:
gailsimone:
wordsandloveandloveandwords:
...
To quote Motley Crue, “She’s got the looks that KILL!”
Hahaha!
I am going to say this with ALL DUE RESPECT, but it’s amazing that her fierce look was so impressive I didn’t even notice the OTHER clearly impressive attributes at first! ;)
Gorgeous, fun cosplay, great drama, great costume, great pose, great photography, great PEEJ!
I still think it’s an entirely ludicrous costume, but she’s selling the character with her ferocity. Go her!
Okay, here’s the thing on that.
I get why people hate Peej’s classic costume. I think their hearts are totally in the right place, and let’s face it, on some level, it IS exploitative and tacky, even. I will grant you all of that.
But I think, for Peej, it works. For me, the statement from her as has always been not, “Look at my boobs,” but, “I don’t give a shit what you think.”
The idea that a sexy costume is empowering is, okay, sometimes just used as an excuse to dress a character in a way that she can be leered at. And a lot of the bad girl craze was just that, violent women dressed in almost nothing, with no personalities, just a collection of things to drool over.
If Peej was ever that way, I think her character outgrew it quickly. I think it’s hard to look at Power Girl’s stories and think of her that way. You can think she’s hot, sexy, cute, adorable, whatever.
But of all the heroines out there, Power Girl is the one who always has that message…she can STILL KICK YOUR ASS TO THE MOON if she wants to.
I don’t always buy ‘this sexy outfit is empowering’ thing, not coming from male creators about characters who are cliche (cosplayers are different and get to decide for themselves what they find empowering).
But PG’s boob window and Black Canary’s fishnets, I buy it with them. It’s not how they look, it’s how they are worn. It’s who wears them. They like it, so I like it.
I know this is purely subjective and not everyone will agree, but I have such fondness for Power Girl and I know that part of it is because she simply doesn’t care what you or anyone else thinks about how she dresses.
Just my opinion. Everyone is welcome to disagree. But when Amanda Conner draws Power Girl, there is no question that she is happy with who she is and what she wears and that’s all that matters. For her, it makes sense.
My thoughts, anyway!
Also, to add to that, as someone who has a large chest, I’ve always looked up to this costume. Most times when you have a big chest, the response is usually either hide it because you look like a slut or show it off and get boys to like you. It is an asset. I think Power Girl’s costume is taking control of that. Its almost like saying, “I’ve got big boobs. Don’t like it? TOO BAD.” I can see why it has other messages but, as a bug busted woman, I dig her costume and attitude.
I didn’t bring that up, but yeah, that totally makes sense too. I developed earlier than any other girl at my school and the way PEEJ deals with her chest, I believe it. It makes sense to me.
Putting this same outfit on almost any other female heroine, I don’t think I would buy it.
wordsandloveandloveandwords:
gailsimone:
wordsandloveandloveand...
To quote Motley Crue, “She’s got the looks that KILL!”
Hahaha!
I am going to say this with ALL DUE RESPECT, but it’s amazing that her fierce look was so impressive I didn’t even notice the OTHER clearly impressive attributes at first! ;)
Gorgeous, fun cosplay, great drama, great costume, great pose, great photography, great PEEJ!
I still think it’s an entirely ludicrous costume, but she’s selling the character with her ferocity. Go her!
Okay, here’s the thing on that.
I get why people hate Peej’s classic costume. I think their hearts are totally in the right place, and let’s face it, on some level, it IS exploitative and tacky, even. I will grant you all of that.
But I think, for Peej, it works. For me, the statement from her as has always been not, “Look at my boobs,” but, “I don’t give a shit what you think.”
The idea that a sexy costume is empowering is, okay, sometimes just used as an excuse to dress a character in a way that she can be leered at. And a lot of the bad girl craze was just that, violent women dressed in almost nothing, with no personalities, just a collection of things to drool over.
If Peej was ever that way, I think her character outgrew it quickly. I think it’s hard to look at Power Girl’s stories and think of her that way. You can think she’s hot, sexy, cute, adorable, whatever.
But of all the heroines out there, Power Girl is the one who always has that message…she can STILL KICK YOUR ASS TO THE MOON if she wants to.
I don’t always buy ‘this sexy outfit is empowering’ thing, not coming from male creators about characters who are cliche (cosplayers are different and get to decide for themselves what they find empowering).
But PG’s boob window and Black Canary’s fishnets, I buy it with them. It’s not how they look, it’s how they are worn. It’s who wears them. They like it, so I like it.
I know this is purely subjective and not everyone will agree, but I have such fondness for Power Girl and I know that part of it is because she simply doesn’t care what you or anyone else thinks about how she dresses.
Just my opinion. Everyone is welcome to disagree. But when Amanda Conner draws Power Girl, there is no question that she is happy with who she is and what she wears and that’s all that matters. For her, it makes sense.
My thoughts, anyway!
Fair enough (and I’m always quite happy to read your thoughts in any context!), and I’m definitely on board with you regarding BC. I guess I’ve just seen way too many artists’ interpretations of PG where they were obviously focused more on titillating the readers than anything else.
ALSO fair point. It does happen. But those guys got it wrong, they missed Peej’s character, and that can happen with any character at all. You’d think Wonder Woman, of all superheroines, would be beyond that, but then you get some talented but misguided artist who draws her in a Penthouse pose and it’s just depressing.
So I will amend my comments to say, when artists DRAW HER IN CHARACTER, she’s sexy, sure, but she’s also got the personality that, like this photo, draws your attention FIRST.
Hope that makes sense!
September 6, 2012
feministbatgirl:
Batgirl and Nightwing by ~ardian-syaf
In case...
Batgirl and Nightwing by ~ardian-syaf
In case anyone needed something to brighten the day! Ardian Syaf drawing these two is always a win.
That is really beautiful. Ardian, you are wonderful.
Ain’t it the truth, holy CRAP. I mean, even my Republican...
Ain’t it the truth, holy CRAP. I mean, even my Republican friends were like, “Uh, oh.”
ajacquelineofalltrades:
Dragon*Con 2012
Myself as Manhunter...
Dragon*Con 2012
Myself as Manhunter (Kate Spencer) for the Birds of Prey photoshoot.
Unfortunately, the neck armor did not work out, but I’m going to re-do this costume for next year, now that I know what I’m doing.
Great cosplay! Great costume!
Gail, your Gen13 run was GOLD. It brought them back to a really fun place, and more personally, it got one of my best friends into comics. He was always kind of interested, and I got him to pick up your run when it started, and that started a chain reactio
That’s wonderful to hear, thank you!
Gen13 is a weird one for me. I had no real attachment to the characters, and they had fallen a bit into disrepair. They’d been retconned and revamped and weird stuff, and it didn’t seem to take.
When Wildstorm was going through a big relaunch, they asked me to write Gen13, and the thing was, I had a pitch I really wanted to do, Welcome to Tranquility. So there was some quid pro quo there.
But the weird thing is, I fell in love hard with the Gen13 cast. And we did good, really good. We were the number one selling ongoing WSU title, a fact which didn’t get a lot of mention because most of the higher profile relaunches were either not coming out due to lateness or not faring as well with readers.
So it was a hit, and I think it’s probably the most underrated run I have ever worked on. The art was gorgeous, and I am extremely proud of the writing. It’s got a lot of experimental storytelling for a superhero team book.
I think WS thought it was going to be more of a romp, and there’s definitely funny stuff in it, but it’s also got a pretty grim vision of how society treats marginalized teenagers. It has some really dark moments.
But I love the cast. I often regret leaving the book. I think we had something quite special.
WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR: maxistentialist: tpmmedia: Republicans debuted a new ad Thursday in...
Republicans debuted a new ad Thursday in which a frustrated former Obama supporter expresses her disappointment with the president. The only problem: The woman in the video is actually an RNC staffer.
The new ad features Republican National Committee…
Good lord.
snikthwip:
callmekitto:
bombasticgentleman:
He’s talking...
He’s talking about his husband ;D
apollo’s face here though
like ugh really mid really we’re gonna do this now okay sigh my husband’s literally the deadliest dork in the universe
oh babies
i’m so sorry about the new 52
it’s okay. everything’s fine. let’s not think about the costumes or the shitty writing or the art oh god or angie or jenny or…
I only got to write the Authority a couple times, and this scene was just a blast. I loved having Roxy tell Midnighter that he was being a dick.
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