Comics must be inherently sexist. Despite the influx of female readers, there are just more male readers of comics. I don't want to stereotype, but comics fans generally have problems with women, and therefore, comics objectify women to play off of male reader's fantasies. Lets look at a few female characters in comics: Bat-Girl, Bat-Woman, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman. After Frederick Wortham suggested that Batman and Robin were possibly homosexual, creators introduced Bat-Girl as a romantic love interest to Batman. Bat-Woman was also created as a love interest to Batman, but she was created more as a copy of Batman, but with lipstick and other female products on her utility belt. This suggests that even a female copy of a male character is unable to escape issues of gender. Bat-Woman was depicted this way for much of her life, but new creators in 2006 brought Batwoman back as Kate Kane. Not only was she no longer Batman's love interest, she was a lesbian! Big shocker there. But it represents one of the few female characters escaping from the stereotype as just a romantic love interest for a male character. Supergirl, is contradictory to this portrayal because not only was she Superman's cousin, but she had all the same powers and weaknesses as Superman. The only difference, she was weaker, but Superman is more powerful than all other entities, so why not? That leaves Wonder Woman. She is unique. But she falls prey to redesign. In her redesign, they strip away her powers and make her inferior to all superheroes. She is no longer included in DC's all male cast of superheroes. She is more like Batman, but not...
I'd really like to say comics are not inherently sexist, but that is a lie. Comics have always and will always be sexist. From the overly pronounced curves of their female characters to the death/depowering of female characters to their role as a romantic love interest to men, female characters, sadly, are underwritten and under appreciated so as to fulfill society's expectations that a woman can be neither strong nor independent. This, however, is changing, so maybe there will be a shift and re-emergence of females in comics as equals or superiors to the men.
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