Women in Comics

Astaereth

From 538:

Comic books — much like the film industry they now fuel — vastly under-represent women. The people who write comic books, particularly for major publishers, are overwhelmingly men. The artists who draw them are, too. The characters within them are also disproportionately men, as are the new characters introduced each year.

The article goes on to point out that women make up only 10% of creators at DC and 10% at Marvel. (cite)

Here, have some graphs on female characters in comics (also from the 538 article):







Bonus graph woo:


I know we've gone around and around lately on how women are visually represented in comics. I don't think there's anything productive left to say on that subject.

What I am interested in discussing are how real women fit into this system, as creators and as consumers. It seems to me that there is a bad cycle here that the industry can't seem to break: comics are mostly made by men, feature mostly male characters, and then are sold in male-dominated venues (comic book and specialty shops). Obviously, getting shut out of the distribution end makes it hard for women to support female-centric comics and female characters, which in turn means that male-centric comics are a safer bet on the part of the publisher; and I have no doubt that, as hard as it must be for women to get jobs in comics, it must be even harder to stay in those jobs when you're discouraged from making stories that are representative of your experience.

So the question I'm really interested in is, how do we break this cycle?

Athenor

Support stuff like Ms. Marvel?

No really, that is the first comic book I've bought in non-TPB form since I was a kid. I would give anything to see Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel introduced to the MCU.

I think it is really important to portray everyone as a fully fleshed out character. And with comics, sadly, there isn't exactly time to do that. But really, the only way I know of to make major multi-national conglomerates change their practices is to support the positive products, so they see it as less of a risk to make the product in the first place.

Gnizmo

I don't know if there is much of a way for the consumer to directly influence the companies here. Their hiring practices are hard to directly influence. Buying comics for no reason other than the writer is female seems less than ideal, and hard to communicate that it is why you are buying them. Following certain female writers seems good, but likely something that has occurred naturally already on a wide spread basis. Other than bitching about it and organized protests of everything it seems like it is just something that has to be dealt with internally.

Hacksaw

If it sells, expect to see more stuff like it.

Go out and support your favorite super heroines. With $$$.