When looking at comics they are most certainly male oriented. The reason for this could be that the majority of comic book writers when this medium was exploding were men. It was only until wonder woman when women began to actually have a significant influence on the hero role. Even then wonder woman had very sexist ties to her story. The writers included underlying messages with this new hero. There were undertones of bondage and a tribal message. Since wonder woman was from the amazon originally there was a very animalistic influence on her character. In addition wonder woman soon became a make fantasy so one can argue that even after wonder woman's appearance sexism still existed in comic books. Though one can say this is sexism another point of view is that it is better than having no women at all in a hero role. Once wonder woman came onto the scene other women such as cat woman and other counter parts to heros became more common in comics. Without wonder woman, women would not have developed into the role they have today. So, one must decide whether the role of women in comics is better off having certain sexist undertones than no role at all. In my opinion I believe that it is okay the way it is now. This is because since most readers are younger, they do not pick up on the same messages that an adult would notice. I think that a character like wonder woman would be a positive influence on a younger girl or boy because of the values that she instills. As long as the message of good is better than evil, what other core values can a comic hero portray? All in all, there is no denying that there are sexist undertones in comics, but one must realize that they are not strong enough to eliminate the characters all together.
Why blame comics for societal failure? Society blamed comics for the societal failures because it was a fairly new industry, and as things seemed to go “wrong” they figured it must be comic books. When a child grew up during the war, his father was probably killing people and the military and his mother was probably making things in factories to help kill the opposition. The only things kids had to “babysit” them was comic books, and they read many different kinds. So when kids starting acting differently in this new generation the figured it must be the comic books. Society didn’t want to believe it may have been the internal and external scars war causes on the soldiers and their families. Also the fact that young unattended children are reading these comics may not be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When society fails it always needs a scapegoat then it was comic books next it was rock and roll. Society naturally resist change.
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