readreact:"The thing that I kept finding out over and over was...

readreact:

"The thing that I kept finding out over and over was that a lot of women were fans of Red Sonja, but didn’t read her comic. I mean, this is true, my mother didn’t bat an eye when I told here I was writing Superman. But when I said I was writing Red Sonja, she freaked right the hell out.

She LOVES Red Sonja. But for whatever reason, the comics were just never a priority for her. And I found this over and over again.

We asked all these amazing female artists to draw covers and they were all huge fans of the character, but very few had read the comics in years, despite top people writing them, I mean really great writers like Mike Oeming and Eric Trautmann and Mike Carey. That made no sense to me.

Here we had one of the THE most beloved female icons, and darn few females were reading it.

When I did BIRDS OF PREY, I was delighted that we found that girls liked the book and talked about it, but boys liked it, too, no one felt alienated or unwelcome.

That’s been my goal with Sonja.”

- Gail Simone, Comicvine

It’s the subconscious fear that they will find her objectified isn’t it? They’ve seen it happen enough time, so when they see she’s written/drawn by male creator, they’re automatically guarded. 

That’s what I feel anyway. Having read Sonja through some old Conan comics, I know she’s badass, but because of the way she’s clothed and drawn sometimes, it’s hard to shake the impression that she’s another male fantasy.

With female creators in charge, that fear is lifted. Although not 100% guarantee, it just feels safer. She’s in the hands of people who knows what women want.

That is a very fair point, thank you.

And you’re right, it’s no guarantee, but there are writers and artists I trust to try to do more than simply do soft core nonsense where it doesn’t fit.