While I was reading through my Facebook feed, I found this article that I thought pertained to this class pretty well. It's about some sexist-sounding jokes that two male actors (Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans) made about the Black Widow character in the film series. It's worth a read if you have a minute.
http://nerdist.com/yes-jeremy-renner-and-chris-evans-black-widow-comments-are-problematic/
I find it interesting how this article, while it admits that their comments were sexist and most definitely problematic, it keeps emphasizing the fact that the damage dealt was unintentional. And while I think perhaps these two actors should have thought about it before they said something, I kind of agree. If you look at Black Widow and other female comic book characters, they are grossly oversexualized. For that matter, so are the men. Authors and artists draw them this way because our market has told them that this kind of oversexualized art is what sells, it is what consumers want to see. So who's the real enemy here, the artists that produce this work or the consumers that encourage them by eating it up? And for that matter, who's the real victims? Women are not alone in the sexualization of comic books.
ReplyDeleteI saw this related article on my Facebook also. There have been problems with the Black Widow not being featured on Avengers merchandise while all the male characters are on them. In the article it says that the Disney toy-makers don't think that boys will be interested in female heroes.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/04/black-widow-avengers-sexist
I read a BuzzFeed article about this same thing which showed different tweets representing the various reactions to Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans calling the Black Widow a slut and whore. The actors apologized but fans were split between being mad at the actors and defending their sarcastic answer. I just think it's strange that people get upset about a fictional character, but people use that language to describe real people everyday and it's okay.
ReplyDelete