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Sparkle (1)
I both love and fear watching my 11-year-old daughter Isobel embrace everything science fiction, fantasy, and comics. Love it because because I share her enthusiasm -- As Stephanie S says, "I do believe that there is educational value in all forms of media, including television about teenage vampire slayers." Fear it because Iz is both smart and beautiful -- and female characters with those traits often get treated badly in fantastic realms. Especially in fantastic comics or graphic novel realms.
If it is irritating raising a girl in a culture obsessed with living blow-up dolls, it is even even more so when my daughter falls in love with intelligent, capable characters like Marvel's Emma Frost or Misty Knight, then sees those women's bodies drawn like living blow-up dolls. Though Iz currently seems less concerned with the comic artists' objectification of women and more perturbed by comic writers' proofreading errors ("Mommy, Cyclops misspelled 'anarchist'!"), I worry that those images, those attitudes will warp the way she sees herself and how she judges other women.
Gratuitous boobs and and porn star poses have always been the primary reason Iz's comic requests get vetoed. (I'm less concerned about violence -- as long as it's superhero-cartoonish and not From Hell- or Sandman-nasty.) So I will admit to stereotypical first child overparenting in monitoring which comics Iz reads and how much we talk about them afterwards. I started her as a wee thing with Baby Mouse and Spider-Man Family (featuring FrogThor!), then Courtney Crumrin, then Re-Gifters, and now Runaways and Astonishing X-Men. All recommended. All very curated.
But she will soon be reading whatever the hell she wants, the same way I'd plow through any trashy novel I could find when I was her age. I don't want to keep her away from the stories she wants to read. Instead, I want her prepared to critically evaluate female characters so she doesn't internalize the absurd way they look and the infuriating way they get treated.
This kind of guidance is often best received when it comes from a non-parental figure. So I recruited three comics-loving feminist mentors to give Iz their perspectives on the female characters who populate the fantastic:
What draws you to comics, science fiction, and fantasy?
Solveig Zarubin
I am always lured in by the promise of visiting another world -- whether it's really another world in the case of sci fi, or this world from another person's viewpoint. This started early with The Chronicles of Narnia, Star Wars, The Wind in the Willows, and others. When I was really little, someone gave me an art book for kids that I think also paved the way for comics and graphics novels later. It included Castle in the Pyrenees by Magritte, which was super fascinating to me because it looked like a photograph but obviously could not be.
Skye Kilaen
I've been a science fiction fan since my mother got me into Star Trek re-runs when I was a kid. I don't know how to explain it, but science fiction as a genre clicked for me in a way that nothing else has. People with amazing powers and gadgets, robots, spaceships, strange alien species ... I'm sure I should say something deeper, but the truth is I like the flashy whizz-bang stuff. And that's okay.
Lea Hernandez
Conflict and triumph in a setting that is fantastic or fantastic things in an ordinary setting gives this play in contrast that is attractive to me, whether the unreal aspects unfold over a long narrative or I/we are thrown right into them. I'm attracted to films/TV/comics that give me pretty pictures and good acting (yes, comics have acting!), with prose, words that build those pictures in my head. I especially like sci fi/fantasy that makes me laugh. I've been watching all of a series called FRINGE in about one week. It's a great soap opera sci fi show with humor that is snarky but sometimes pretty earthy.
If you could advise your 11-year-old self about female characters in comics and how they are represented, what would you say?
Lea Hernandez
Comics can be and are about so much more than boobies and crotches. Quit readings books where the creators can't seem to draw women without having them bend over. Just because a woman draws or writes a demeaning book doesn't make it okay. You'll probably have to make the comics you want to read yourself.
Solveig Zarubin
When I was 11, I don't think comics (female characters or not)
