The Virgin Read: Spider Breasts

Each week, the non-comics reading Nina Stone picks out one random comic book based off her own made up criteria, reads it, and then writes about that experience. While she's been doing these columns for awhile, she's only successfully managed to remember and keep up with one series. This week, she picked Spider-Woman # 1.

Spider-Woman # 1

Written by Brian Michael Bendis

Art by Alex Maleev

Published by Marvel Comics

Tits. I mean, really, that's the first thing anyone sees on this cover. Center on the page, in full light (unlike her head and shoulders which are in the shadows) are 2 large red breasts. Spider-Woman's costume seems to be made out of latex. Are breasts the only thing that make Spider-Woman different from Spider-man? I know I'm about to delve into some heavy generalities to raise a few questions - so please forgive me. But I couldn't help thinking about the differences between men and women and how they might write a superhero differently. 

In this comic, we have Spider-Woman, and she is suffering from a lot of emotional baggage. Her parents were terrorists (thank you so much, Bendis, for the mid-story recap. I thought that was well-done and gave me all the info that I was beginning to wonder about), who were than murdered in front of her. She was then seduced into working for that very organization, finally broke free and fought for the Avengers, and then was fully taken advantage of by the Skrulls and lost everything as a result - her friends, her reputation, her life. Yeah, I'd be pissed, too.

But I have to say, as a woman picking a comic because it had a female lead--and maybe a little bit because the name "Bendis" is one that has stuck with me, as I've enjoyed some of his comic books before for these columns, I was disappointed to find it going down the same dark, gritty road that most of these super-hero comics go. And although I realize that this is all sorts of unpolitical correctness to say, I found this to be very much a boy's story. For boys, by boys. And while it might not be a completely exclusive way, it's not what I want to see out of a female superhero.

I went to good ol' wikipedia to find some basic info for me to work off of. I looked up "femininity" and it says a few things I'd like to pull from: "femininity principally refers to secondary sex characteristics and other behaviors and features generally regarded as being more prevalent and better suited to women, whether inborn or socialized. In traditional Western culture, such features include gentleness, patience, and kindness." And that feminine attributes "are often perceived as being associated with personality traits such as nurturing, life-giving qualities, creativity, and an openness, or yielding, to other people."

In looking up masculinity, the whole entry was written in a different manner.  The subheadings in the Femininity entry look like this:

The entry for masculinity, on the other hand, looks like this:

Just interesting to note. (And by interesting, I mean the depressing kind of "interesting".)  I bring this up because the femininity entry is all about attributes and qualities. And so, one would think that when making a female super-hero, one might emphasize those qualities in a woman, aside from her physical characteristics, and make them the thing that make her super. Rather than her being beautiful with large breasts but with masculine attributes. In wikipedia are explained as such: "Cicero wrote that "a man's chief quality is courage." But that's it. There's no more mention of what masculine traits are other than physical ones. Although there is this: "Ancient literature goes back to about 3000 BC. It includes both explicit statements of what was expected of men in laws, and implicit suggestions about masculinity in myths involving gods and heroes."

Let's be clear about something: I know that going to wikipedia and picking out random quotes and using that as the basis for criticizing a comic book isn't really research or anything. But I'm not about to take a college class in feminine/masculine attributes to better strengthen my take on a super-hero comic that I didn't think much of beyond "it's kind of entertaining". As far as I'm concerned, my amateur reaction to this is built on amateur research, but that doesn't make it any less honest. I don't think that going to wikipedia and finding something different would have made me like Spider-Woman # 1 more, and it certainly isn't about to change my general feeling about the comic. I'm just looking for better language with which to describe that general feeling.

I'm writing all of this to say that when I reach for a comic about a super-hero woman, I actually want her to be the epitome of femininity with her feminine qualities being her strengths - not another man who happens to have female body parts.

How would I write that? I'm not entirely sure. But maybe she has the power of healing and of so much nurturing that that in her presence, villains weep and confess or just want to be near her rather than fight her. I don't know. That sounds pretty terrible. But I'm not a writer! I'm a girl. I'm a girl who when seeking out girly things will watch The Notebook, twice, and not just because Ryan Gosling is omigodwowryangosling. I'll do something like that, silly, stereotype-y, and I'll love every minute of it. And I'll choose that over a war movie every day of the week. I'm not saying I'm every girl. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with war movies. I'm just saying that I lean toward movies that highlight the aforementioned feminine qualities more than the masculine one(s). I'm not going to apologize when my behavior--my feelings, my desires--happen to match up with the sort of stereotypical woman that some men--and other women--want to make fun of. Preferring something touchy-feely over something violent doesn't make me weak, it doesn't make me any less of a feminist. It makes me, me.

All this being said, though, I ended up enjoying a lot of this comic. At first I felt out of the loop, but am happy that I got to get a full recap of the backstory. I'm definitely intrigued as to whether or not that really was Spider-man or if she just beat an alien to near death. I think my only problem is with the art. Not so much the art, which is really realistic, but the coloring. I'm not sure what the yellow color running through her arms is supposed to be - you know, that part in the beginning when she's getting angry and tensing her arms and shaking her fists. And at the end, is that green that I see around Spider-man's mouth?  I'm guessing it's supposed to be green skin popping through the mask, since that answers the alien question. But it wasn't clear, it seemed like it was straddling the line of skin and vomit. Am I being left in suspense or do I have my answer? Kind of weird.

-Nina Stone, 2009

(Due to the holiday, Sunday's Comics of the Weak was switched with the Virgin Read so as not to violate the rules of the Jewish God.)

Comments

[Rebekah Isaacs]

I have to respectfully disagree. As a long-time female superhero comics reader, the more masculine qualities of the female leads are what always appealed to me. I grew up very tomboyish and assertive, and gradually became and more and more bored with books, movies, and tv shows (and a few comics) that were geared towards "typical" women. I had always assumed that this was generally why all female mainstream comics readers were attracted to the genre. There are plenty of other mediums (and plenty of genres of comics besides mainstream superhero stuff; manga comes to mind immediately) that contain female leads who emphasize traditional femininity. Personally, I hope that superhero writers continue to create strong, aggressive, heroines who solve problems with their fists rather than their hearts; there are plenty of women like me who love it just as much as the guys!

*On the subject of boobage, there's a reason guys (and plenty of girls, too) like looking at boobs... they're aesthetically pleasing. Yes, they're sexualized in Western culture, and comics is no exception. But they're hot! And is there really anything wrong with being hot AND kicking ass? Not that being hot necessitates having double-Ds!

[Matthew J. Brady]

Is this Nina's first exposure to the concept of boob-socks? Ah, to be so innocent! That is a pretty ridiculous costume though. Even latex would be less revealing; it's got to be body paint. Why else would the belly button show through?

This is a very interesting discussion though, both of the way femininity is depicted (or, more often, ignored) in superhero comics, and also in the rest of the world. Of course, I think you answered your own question: it's by boys, for boys, so it only traffics in emotions that boys understand. Anger and revenge all the way, baby. That's probably why the women are always going to be minimalized in superhero comics, since they're all about physical conflict. Maybe some women writers have tried to mess with the formula a bit; I know Gail Simone is pretty well respected. She's written both Wonder Woman and Birds of Prey, giving her a chance to write a variety of women superheroes. I dunno, maybe they're not that good though; I haven't read them.

Actually, you know what might be the best superheroine comic I've read? The last two volumes of Love and Rockets. Jaime Hernandez did a story about a bunch of super-chicks, and he really seemed to grasp that difference between the way men and women approach things. It's really good stuff. Yeah, there's a Virgin Read request: the Jaime stories from L&R. Don't worry if they seem complicated; it's all new, even for long-time readers, and the history and everything gets explained near the end, if you really care. But the best part of it is seeing fully-realized characters interact realistically, even while they're fighting robots and flying in space and shit. It's awesome.

[Kenny Cather]

YES to Matt's request for the Jaimie stories from Love & Rockets!!! Jamie is one of the incredibly few male writers to write women as women. It's wonderful to read his work!

As for this quote, "But maybe she has the power of healing and of so much nurturing that that in her presence, villains weep and confess or just want to be near her rather than fight her." I have another idea. How about she nags so much the villain just gives up a life of crime so they'll never have to hear her nag again? ^_^

(Yes, that joke is horribly sexist, but I couldn't resist!)

[John K(UK)]

I recently read Love and Rockets New Stories 1 and 2 and couldn't agree more that the Jaime Hernandez story that runs through both volumes sound exactly like the feminine super heroics you hanker for.
As a bonus you also get the mind warping genius of Gilbert Hernandez.
These volumes were my first exposure to Love And Rockets and I just loved them to pieces.
I honestly think you would too.

[Tim O'Neil]

Have you seen Noah Berlatsky's long-running series on Wonder Woman over at the Hooded Utilitarian?

http://hoodedutilitarian.blogspot.com/search/label/Wonder%20Woman

It's pretty well-written and it goes after exactly this question, of how to write a super-hero from a legitimately feminine perspective. The focus is the Golden Age Wonder Woman stories, which were batshit crazy and really weird, but in their weirdness also highlighted a number of reasons why the tights genre doesn't translate so easily across metaphorical gender barriers. Interesting if you've got a few minutes.

[Chris Mautner]

Put me down for a VR request to read that recent Xaime L&R story as well.

[Lugh]

I find it funny that an actual woman has said that she doesn't give a shit that Spider-Woman isn't breastfeeding babies or pressing flowers (Of course I would say that! That's what a nerd thinks women do!) and you all seem to ignore it.

I would very much like to see the unique feminine voices of Women of Action preserved, but... they're action heroes. They're still going to be "badass".

Incidentally, while I dig Love and Rockets, my wife seems to hate the series. I don't know why, but she calls it "Chubby Chaser Comics". Feel free to call her a bad person, whatever.

Also, on the subject of things I have opinions about, I find it interesting that Stone celebrates Yom Kippur. I mean, I fucking ate food yesterday. Do I get partial credit because those hot dogs were Hebrew National?

[NoahB]

If you're looking for femme super-hero stories, you're probably going to want to try manga. Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, etc. are frilly, girly super-heroes in a way that very few female super-heroes are. The early Wonder Woman stories are maybe an exception, but most American female super-heroes work the butch thing. (There's always Marvel Divas, I guess, which is in the female soap-opera genre; it's not very good, but it is femme.)

[Sharif]

Nina,

Bendis is really in love with writing 'fucked up' women. He's one of those people who (mistakenly) believe that neurotic characters are inherently interesting.

[John K(UK)]

I wasn't ignoring Rebekah Isaacs' comments - she seems happy with the comics she reads; so that's good. But there are plenty of comics like those. Nina Stone, however, appeared to be wondering about the existence of alternative approaches to the subject of super-heroines. Also I just want to recommend the holy heck out of Love And Rockets and maybe jumped the gun a bit.
Oh yeah, Promethea is a good and atypical approach to the feminine in comics.

[k brungardt]

rebekah isaacs draws superhero comics for marvel too, so it's not like she's completely objective on the subject

but this column doesn't make a lot of sense anyway so who cares

[Kenny Cather]

I was just talking with my buddy last night about Los Bros Hernandez and how he thought they get no love. My point was what's there to say? Everyone agrees they're the best, so what else can we talk about? Unlike Alan Moore, they don't say controversial stuff in interviews, they just work a lot.

[Rebekah Isaacs]

Haha, well, if we're gonna get technical about it, I'm actually with DC at the moment, but yes, your point is valid, K. :-) What I'm trying to say here is that the idea of a singular "feminine voice" is inherently sexist, though I'm positive Nina doesn't actually believe that all women think/feel/value the same thing. But it's tough to shake that knee-jerk prejudice, even for (maybe even especially for) women! I'm guilty of it myself quite a lot. We need to focus on ways to make the genre more accessible for anyone with good taste. Otherwise we're only reinforcing our own narrow gender roles.