I would say that comics are, in fact, inherently sexist. Since the beginning of the comic book industry, sexism has been apparent. The reason being is that it is a male dominated industry, both behind the scenes and in readership. Although comic books matured as the times progressed, women in comics will always be cast as the inferior role to the male’s superior. While the creation of Wonder Woman proved just the opposite, forms of sexism were still evident—through her characterization. Wonder Woman was the superior in her own comic book, disregarding the most common form of sexism in comic books, but writers didn’t include many males in her storylines beside Steve Trevor. Comic books were sexist and still are but people are still buying these comics and remaining loyal fans. So, should we judge the comic industry for doing what they need to do to reach their target demographic? Or should we judge ourselves for divulging in the media that we call sexist and not do anything about it? There are bigger issues than a characteristic that has been around, changing with the times, to worry about… though it is interesting to analyze.
Ohhh my goodness... When I decided on trying to analyze the mythological origins and references in superhero comics, I had no idea the can of worms I was opening up... On the one hand, it was awesome to see just how many connections there were between superheroes and psychology/mythology/philosophy, but all the information also made it terribly difficult to distinguish what I should be using and how to tie it all together. When I was talking to one of my sorority sisters about it she said, "Oh yeah, well, research essays are kind of like putting together puzzles..." and I think that really sums up what writing this paper was like for me. Fortunately, I was really interested throughout the whole process and I very much enjoyed writing the paper. Being a psychology major, I was especially interested in reading about the Jungian archetypes that had a lot of parallels with major modern comic books superheroes. I was also able to incorporate Joseph Campbell's "hero cycle...
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