Holy Body Image Batman!

While comic books may have seen a decrease in popularity in recent years, their messages continue to leave a substantial mark on society. Superheroes inspire people to strive for the extraordinary and to leave the world a better place than they found it. However, those noble messages can get lost or altered if the characters and subjects are not relatable. One of the largest critiques comic books receive is their portrayal of body image, specifically that of women. Broke-back girls is a perfect example of these idealistic and sexualized depictions of women. The term “broke-back girls” emerged as a reference to the commonly used “back-contorting” positions female comic book characters are depicted in to pronounce their womanly assets.

Unrealistic portrayals of the human body have always plagued comic books, but this has recently led a push for more realistic body images. Numerous scholars and groups of online activists have addressed this issue and pressed for action. A problem exists in comic books that needs to be fixed. By looking at how women and men are both regarded in comic books, one can then understand what has been and should be done to fix this problem.

While body image movements have made considerable progress in recent years, comic books still seem to be strides behind societal expectations. This is because there is an undeniable dilemma concerning the physical fitness of superheroes. The idea is that a person must have an above average level of fitness to effectively fight crime. A hero is nothing if every villain can outrun them. Phillips and Strobl illustrate this theme with the example of Steve Rogers (Captain America) who was portrayed as a weakling before receiving a super-soldier serum that magically also gave him an eight pack. “Without the serum, Rogers was not only unsuitable as a superhero; he was also unfit to serve his country” (Phillips and Strobl, 152). While comic books still have progress to make in the area of body image, their struggle is somewhat understandable. It is difficult to realistically create an effective crime-fighter that may look unhealthy. Comic books creators must find a balance between being relatable to their readers and displaying the incredible feats of extraordinary humans.

This struggle, however, does not pardon every sin. Female comic book characters have a long history of being hypersexualized and given unrealistic bodies. The irony of this is that female heroines were originally created to empower women. Heroines like Wonder Woman and Jean Grey (Phoenix) are characterized by their ability to think for themselves, fight equally with men, and avoid succumbing to romantic urges toward their male counterparts. Unfortunately, this has warped into most illustrations becoming hypersexualized. Not only are most heroines characterized by beach-ball sized breasts, but their poses and stature suggest heavily sexual themes. Even the comics that seek to empower women have had their sexual themes backfire on them. In Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle, Gerard Jones noticed that Wonder Woman’s themes of empowerment became exaggerated into incorporating a male-guided view of sexual empowerment. “What you find is a strange fetish-y quality in the early Wonder Woman’s. You see a lot of characters in chains and manacled to the wall, with leashes, collars” Jones says. The sexual themes in Wonder Woman became so prevalent that in 1941 the comic was banned by the Catholic Church’s National Organization for Decent Literature (Superheroes). The themes of empowerment seemed to walk the lines of sexual empowerment and titillation too closely to sell more stories.

Female superheroes themselves are not the problem; instead, as Amy Shackelford has argued, the problem is that a majority of men have written the female-centric story lines. “Because screenwriters have such a hard time writing female characters, it seems that the only way they know to give female characters in superhero films power is to hypersexualize them” Shackelford says. The unfortunate fact is that men will never truly understand the singular struggle of a woman in a patriarchal society. Yet these men have been most writers and creators of female-centric stories. What may have started out as an attempt to empower the female audience went overboard and became an industry known for sexualizing and devaluing females. Authors and artists seem to have forgotten that there are other, more important forms, of female empowerment besides sexual empowerment. Additionally, if exaggerated to a certain limit, the theme of sexual empowerment can backfire and set the movement back. Not to mention that it could be very likely that these male writers fell for the cheap trick that sex sells, even in comic books.

The continued prevalence of sexism portrayed in comic books raises the question: What is being done to change the depictions of these women? In 2000, comic books only made $265 million in domestic sales. It wasn’t until 2013 that their numbers jumped to $870 million (Lubin). Since comic books have only been recently regaining popularity in their physical form, publishing companies rely on die-hard and reliable fans to continue to read the books. Since publishers are dependent on these readers they have a considerable influence on how comics are written and their content. The most organized backlash against comic book sexism is an online movement known as The Hawkeye Initiative. First appearing on Tumblr in 2011, The Hawkeye Initiative encourages artistically talented fans to recreate sexist comic book panels. The objectified woman is replaced with Marvel’s Hawkeye (or any other male hero) in the same pose.

Comic book fans have shown their disapproval of the sexism in comics through Tumblr and other social media. Writer for the Daily Dot, Aja Romano says, “With the ongoing critique of female superheroes now firmly embedded in Tumblr’s cultural conscious, it was inevitable that a cover like this one would be subverted” (referencing a sexualized depiction of Marvel’s Black Widow). With more than 500 parodies, the online movement has proved that it has an influential voice that demands to be heard.

Publishers have gravely underestimated the power of online activism and the predicament of the comic book industry. Physical comic books sales are declining with the increase of digital comics. Nicco Mele noticed that many entertainment industries started failing when people began file sharing. “Today anyone can create just about any media, and anyone else can copy or share that media at zero cost” (Mele 97). The file sharing of comic books is extremely prevalent and has forced publishers to be virtually at the mercy of their readers. There are fans that sympathize with the plight of failing comic book shops and don’t want to see them go out of business. However, fans may feel less called to support an industry that promotes sexism and negative body image, if it shows no indication of changing. On top of that, with online activism flourishing, publishers are walking a dangerous line by not shifting with the cultural tide. “Digital technology and radical connectivity grant enormous powers to individuals, almost completely without restraint” (Mele 184). Movements like The Hawkeye Initiative are a source for readers to directly contact and voice their concerns to publishers. Because of connectivity afforded by the digital age, these movements are extremely loud and powerful. Further blindness to the sexist portrayals of men and women could potentially be the downfall for comic book publishers.

Another presentation of negative body image in comic books came from Bulimia.com, a site that educates people on combatting eating disorders, produced an article that recreated superheroes with realistic bodies. The article “reverse-photoshopped” covers that featured heroines like Wonder Woman, Poison Ivey, and Black Widow. However, the most shocking transformation was a recreation of Jean Grey (known as The Phoenix at that time). The photoshopped version of Phoenix looked completely normal and would not stand out as a cover with an untraditionally overweight heroine. It was the original cover that was more eye catching and shocking. Phoenix looked as if she had anorexia, which is disturbing seeing as she is a respected and admired character.

The article suggests that “If these characters had a figure more like that of the average person, perhaps more people could look up to their favorite superhero without feeling the need to emulate an impossible physique” (Bulimia.com). People of all ages have idolized superheroes as role models to emulate. With that comes a responsibility for these characters to be relatable and promote moral values. By continuing their unrealistic depictions of body images, comic books can influence people to have unrealistic expectations for their body and have the potential to prompt eating disorders. Studies have found that “70% of college women say they feel worse about their own looks after reading women’s magazines” (Brown.edu). If comic books are encouraging a more unattainable body type than women’s magazines, one can only imagine the devastating effects these illustrations have on their readers.

It must be noted that women are not the sole gender given unrealistic body types in comic books. Men are subject to being drawn with a ridiculous amount of bulging muscles sprouting from every inch of their bodies. Countless comics use the hypermasculine figure to make their images more dramatic. An issue of Cable: #34 focuses on a showdown between Cable and the Hulk. The cover illustration effectively uses unrealistically large muscles to make the scene intense and dramatic (Loeb 1).

The Hulk’s large green muscles take up almost the entire top half of the page, displaying muscles that are anatomically unattainable. While Cable is intended to be a fairly average-sized human, this illustration makes his legs and arms appear to be nearly double the size of his head. This over exaggerated sense of masculinity is not a new concept to the comic book world.

The term hegemonic masculinity has been used to describe the depiction of men in comic books as well as in other media. Hegemonic masculinity are the qualities that make a heterosexual man a man, specifically in relation to the qualities that their subordinates (women, homosexuals, etc.) lack. Comic books seem to display an excess of this form of masculinity. R.W. Connell states “[T]he physical sense of maleness…involves size and shape, habits of posture and movement, particular skills and the lack of others, the image of one’s own body, the way it is presented to other people and the ways they respond to it” (Phillip and Strobl 148). Nearly all of these aspects are physical traits. That means that in a majority of comic books, a man’s worth is defined by his physical characteristics.

Delving deeper into the concept of hegemonic masculinity, we can see that men (both writers and characters) will avoid anything that has the possibility of decreasing their masculinity. “To fight crime, male heroes are expected to look heroic, to maintain a hypermasculine physique, and to ‘do crime fighting’ in a gendered way that privileges heterosexuality” (Phillip and Strobl 152).

The logic of comic book authors is, by devaluing one gender, the other gender increases their value. It can seem like a necessary evil to devalue women because in the long run, the more valuable male will save them. But by having male characters defined only by their physical feats, it can reinforce a gender role that men are all brawn and no brain.

With the surplus of negative body imagery shown in comic books, one could assume that eating disorders, low self-esteem and even depression would be common among comic book readers. However, the issue is not entirely black and white. According to a study by the University at Buffalo, male body image has been shown to improve in confidence and physical strength under certain circumstances. A sample of men were split into groups and either shown images of heroes they felt personally connected to, or images of a hero they did not feel connected to. Arianna Young found that the men who viewed a hero they were not connected to felt worse about their bodies. “However, men exposed to a muscular superhero with whom they did have a parasocial bond not only experienced no harmful effects to their body satisfaction, but also displayed greater physical strength” Young said (Donovan). This means that if a person finds a hero relatable beyond physical attributes, they feel more empowered than just being shown a hero with strong physical attributes. However, since not every person can identify with every physically exaggerated character, that leaves a large opportunity for many people to be discouraged about their bodies.

Others have found that criticism of unhealthy lifestyles can be helpful if done reasonably and with caution. In her book, The Makeover, Katherine Sender discusses a difference between shame and humiliation. Sender argues that shame can be constructive because it motivates us to abide by social norms. The participants in her experiment agree with her ideology and go even further to oppose the concept of humiliation. “Shame was seen as socially useful by most of our regular viewers; humiliation, however, was seen as exploitative and evoked sympathy in many of the people with whom we talked” (Sender 91). Concepts of humiliation and shame can be found in comic books today. Muscular but, reasonably proportioned heroes can inspire people to improve their physical health. However, when characters have an unnatural amount of muscles or hypersexualized body parts, it supports unrealistic ideals. These themes of body image and sexuality can end up creating a sense of humiliation for readers. Sender noticed this relationship between weight and sexuality in other forms of media. “The Biggest Loser also represents being overweight as a crisis in sexuality…Losing weight restores masculine virility for men and feminine desirability for women” (Sender 33). By normalizing overt sexual themes and unrealistic body images, comic books shame those who do not share the same qualities as the characters they feature. Which ultimately alienates many of their readers.

Once the problematic portrayal of body-image in comic books is recognized and analyzed, a solution must be found to remedy this dilemma. More popular solutions push to have stronger female characters, and to have their stories written and illustrated by women. An article by Gadfy Online says that many old, traditional comic book artists have discriminated against specific works of art when they learn that women created the pieces. Debbie Ginsberg is a member of a group that is trying to increase the number of women creating comic books and has noticed that mainstream publishers find ways to discredit women’s works. “Female artists often use different drawing and writing styles than mainstream comics favor, Ginsberg says, and when they approach mainstream comics publishers, they are told they ‘draw like a girl’” (Franklin). Publishers need to be held accountable and must diversify their staff, for women to have equal representation. Females make up 46.67% of comic book readers (Schenker), unfortunately female characters make up less than 30% of DC and Marvel comics. On top of that, male comic book creators outnumber women nine to one (Hickey). With more female characters and creators, not only will more comic book fans feel connected to the characters they read about, but these female-centric stories will not be told through the eyes of male creators.

Others have argued that publishers must go even further than just diversifying their writing staff with more women. Publishers should not hire these women the sole purpose of appeasing their critics. Women should be able to write stories that is authentic to their own unique perspectives and struggles. To make a female character or heroine as genuine as possible, understandably women should write their stories. Furthermore, the value of women creators and writers is not just for female audiences. Lisa Wood, a co-founder of the UK’s largest ComiCon-like event, believes this way of thinking spans the breadth of all gender and races. “We are suddenly hearing women’s views and experiences on politics, religion, sexual ideas and parenthood. But most importantly these are not exclusive to women, they are stories for everyone,” Wood said (Quinn). Stories about men are read by both genders, but stories about women have a stigma that they will only be read by women. People must recognize that these stories hold value for both genders and are not attempting to take away anyone’s masculinity. With the recent success of 2017’s female-directed Wonder Woman film, audiences recognize that intriguing and exciting stories are not and should not be limited to men. Additionally, similar trends are taking place for Marvel characters as well. After a large public demand for a Black Widow film, Marvel Studios eventually agreed and promised fans the first female centered Marvel film in recent history.

Society has made important strides when it comes to furthering women’s equality. However, when it comes to comic books, women and how their bodies are portrayed are still subject to the desires of men. Overly-sexualized depictions of women and hypermasculine portrayals of men reinforce negative body images that can be damaging to readers living in an already body self-conscious society. If this form of degrading artwork continues, then it has every potential to keep getting worse. Readers and social activists are calling to the comic book industry for change. Women illustrated and written by women can be a powerful tool to empower female readers and reinforce positive body image. Artwork of men must also become more realistic and take caution when portraying masculinity. Creators must find a realistic balance of portraying strength while not going overboard by drawing bus-sized biceps.

In an episode of Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman, our heroine delivers an empowering quote before landing a knock-out punch on a Nazi pilot. “You obviously have little regard for womanhood. You must learn respect!” (Superheroes). Perhaps in the future, mainstream publishers can illustrate this punch without her unnatural, 60-pound chest getting in the way.

Works Cited

"Body Image." Brown University Health Promotion. Brown University, Web. 10 May 2015.

"Comic Book Heroes with Average Body Types." Visualizing Superheroes with Realistic Body Types. Bulimia.com, Web. 08 May 2015.

Donovan, Patricia. "Batman Saves the Day -- and Men's Body Image!" University at Buffalo. 14 Sept. 2012. Web. 07 May 2015.

Franklin, Casey. "No Girls Allowed." Gadfly Online. Web. 08 May 2015.

"The Hawkeye Initiative." The Hawkeye Initiative. Web. 08 May 2015.

Hickey, Walt. "Comic Books Are Still Made By Men, For Men And About Men." FiveThirtyEight. 13 Oct. 2014. Web. 10 May 2015.

Loeb, Jeph. "Cable." Vol. 1. New York: Marvel Comics, 1996. Print. Ser. 34.

Lubin, Gus. "The Comic Book Industry Is On Fire, And It's About More Than Just The Movies." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 26 Aug. 2014. Web. 10 May 2015.

Mele, Nicco. The End of Big: How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath. 2014 ed. New York: Picador, 2013. Print.

Phillips, Nickie D., and Staci Strobl. Comic Book Crime: Truth, Justice, and the American Way. New York: New York UP, 2013. Print.

Quinn, Ben. "Ker-pow! Women Kick Back against Comic-book Sexism." The Guardian. 28 Dec. 2011. Web. 5 May 2015.

Romano, Aja. "Strong Female Superhero Pose Meme Gets a Hawkeye Reboot." The Daily Dot. 3 Dec. 2012. Web. 08 May 2015.

Schenker, Brett. "Market Research Says 46.67% of Comic Fans Are Female." The Beat. 05 Feb. 2014. Web. 10 May 2015.

Sender, Katherine. The Makeover: Reality Television and Reflexive Audiences. New York: New York UP, 2012. Print.

Shakelford, Amy. "The Grim Reality of Female Characters in Superhero Films." Everyday Feminism. 30 Nov. 2013. Web. 08 May 2015.

Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle. Dir. Michael Kantor. Perf. Liev Schreiber. PBS Distribution, 2013. Netflix Documentary.