Woman in the Comic Store
byI am a woman who reads comic books. I am particularly drawn to comics about superheroes and supervillains, especially female ones. I go about every other week to a local comic book shop where the owner knows my name, what comics I read, and engages me in conversations about what I like and what I don't. We had some fun discussions about Serenity when it came out, and he often saves copies of the more popular comics from me since they sell out quickly.
However, I haven't always felt comfortable going into comic shops. I've spent a lot of time and money at my hometown one, but never felt welcomed. Frequently, I went into the shop with my former boyfriend, and I was always the unnamed girlfriend. Sure, the ex would often pay for my comics, but he wasn't the one reading them when we got home. It got a point where I preferred to have him pick them up for me, and I know his comic cred went down with the some of the titles I had him picking up. On more than one occasion, he told me that the comic store owner didn't believe him that the comics were for his girlfriend.
I had the same problem with invisibility when I started shopping for comics near where I go to college. I went nearly every week as the shop was only two or so blocks from my uni. Now, I should mention that amaresu buys all her comics there and they know her, but I had a very different experience. The people who work at this shop are very chatty and there were many times where I had to wait in line as the employee talked with a customer. But when I would check out, the only talking that happened had to do with money being changed hands and I was never once asked if I needed help or wanted to have a special title ordered for me. Occasionally, when I was wearing a skirt or tight shirt, I was gawked at, but never talked to like a human being or treated with the same respect as the male customers.
Part of the problem with comic shops has a lot to do with target audiences. Comics, especially those printed by Marvel or DC, are aimed at young straight white men who they hope to get hooked for life. This is a tiny, tiny audience, and obviously, not the only people who are interested in comics. However, the quick-and-dirty demographics look around at the shops I've been to support that the marketing works just enough to keep the big two companies and a few independent presses around. Tacoma, my uni's town, is a very diverse community racially and ethnically, but this diversity is not present proportionally in the comic shop. When I frequented the comic shop by my uni, I don't recall ever seeing another woman (unless I went with my female friends) or a non-white customer (again, unless I went with my friends). At the shop I frequent now, I do see women and non-white customers, though not in proportions that I should for the community's make up.
The target audience also determines the way that covers, storylines, and art turn out. And while, every superhero or villain wears his/her share of spandex, there's a clear divide in how men and women are depicted. There's gratuitous tits and ass shots of women, while with male characters, they might show off their pecs or arm muscles. If the depictions were equal on the gratuitous side, male characters would be subject of cock and ass shots. Male characters are obviously not portrayed that way, because straight men do not want to think about Batman's ass or Captain America's cock. They can accept that Superman's chest is bigger than their own as long as they don't have to think that his cock might be too or that Storm could beat them up.
When it comes to storylines, straight white male characters are given priority. Female and non-white characters are often the sidekicks, easily foiled villains, or have references to gender or race in their names (see: Batgirl, Supergirl, She Hulk, Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel and Black Panther). So far the only openly gay character (that I'm aware of) in the big two companies is Marvel's Northstar.
When looking at the issue of women in comic books, specifically, many of the characters end up as what's known as Women in Refrigerators where they're either maimed, killed, raped, de-powered, or otherwise cruelly incapacitated to further the boyfriend's or hero's story along. How many thousands of times has Jean Grey died to further an X-Men storyline? Or Spider-Woman been killed, de-powered, or played by both Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D?
Some DC fans have started a campaign to bring light to this and celebrate female superheroes, in reaction to the killing off of Stephanie Brown, aka Spoiler or Robin IV. (DC has a far more active and broad fanbase, at least on lj, than Marvel.) monkeycrackmary is setting up Girl-Wonder.Org and is seeking people want to make their own sites about female comic characters.
I think this is important because the comic companies need to realize that they have a broader audience and to treat all characters equally and not hire the Frank Millers of the world. I know that post-school, I'll probably work on a site or two myself, and I hope once things are setup that there's some Google-bombing.