Recently Gail Simone tweeted “Oh, Kevin Sorbo. Why do you
exist?”
Considering Kevin is one of my greatest personal inspiration
and heroes this irked me. Most of the time I ignore Gail’s incessant rambling,
but this was posed as a question and one I think deserves an answer.
Ms. Simone, Kevin exists for a wide variety of reason. There
is of course the shallow reasons…he’s beautiful and excellent eye candy…although
given your distaste for women being eye candy I can only assume you feel the
same about men…wouldn’t want a double standard right? So we’ll move on. Kevin
has been through so much in his life and still kept going. During the time he
was playing Hercules, a powerful demi-god, he was suffering intense medical
issue and no one knew. He put on his best work for the fans and pushed through
it. He has been a constant source of inspiration to me personally as I was diagnosed
with liver disease last year and his victory in living a fit life has inspired
me to take on my illness and live a healthier, fitter life as well. And that
isn’t even to speak of the fact he’s a conservative in Hollywood of all places!
Some of his opinions could get him blacklisted in that liberal town and he
speaks his mind anyway. He’s intelligent and well thought…it’s refreshing to
see a celebrity that hasn’t been brainwashed by the liberal media. Sure, sometimes
I do disagree with him, not often but it happens…but that’s ok. He still has
the courage to speak his mind. I admire that. Not to mention all the good he's done by sponsoring programs for kids to get fit and other causes. So there you go Ms. Simone. That
is why Kevin exists…to inspire us through inner strength and courage. And if by some small chance Kevin is reading this, thank you. You will always be Hercules to me as you are truly a picture of heroism and strength.
Since we’re asking questions, I have one for you. Why do you
insist on setting back the fight females are fighting to be taken seriously in
comics? I try to have respect for what you do as at the core we have the same
goal…our methods of getting there are different, but the end game is the same.
Or so I thought. It is starting to seem you’re actually just setting my goal
back. My goal is for woman to be heroic and still be themselves…their sexy,
beautiful, powerful selves. You (and a great many of your supporters) nitpick
every little thing you feel might even suggest a hint of misogyny to the point
it makes all females a joke. A great and recent example is the latest Spider
Woman cover that has caused such a stir. It’s a spider pose…she is Spider
Woman. Duh. As for the sexual pose or whatever…it’s the perspective of the ‘shot’
and there is nothing wrong with it. It’s OK for a heroine to appear sexy if it’s
within her character. Power Girl for example, you expect to see her using her
sexuality as power. She may dress sexier than say, Barbara Gordon, who always
relied on her brain power more. Both are realistic types of women and to
suggest that any woman sexualized in comic is wrong is sending a very bad
message.
Beyond that we are dealing with serious issues with feminism
in comics, especially from DC Comics. If we, as women comic fans, fixate on
every little thing the end result will be that none of our concerns will be
taken seriously. We need to pick our battles and learn to let stuff go. Would
you say that showing a shirtless male character was sexist? Unlikely. Then
showing a female dressed in a sexy outfit or pose is not necessarily sexist
either.
That said we have some clear issues with how women are
portrayed in comics. The first that comes to mind is Starfire. She was
sexualized beyond what her character ever was…her entire character did a 180
for the sake of sexualizing her. That is an issue. Certainly. Power Girl having
a sexy costume, not so much. It’s well within character for her. There is
nothing wrong with a beautiful women knowing she’s beautiful and using that to
her advantage…that’s not sexist. That’s empowered.
I would also like to express that in my opinion the new 52
incarnation of Barbara Gordon is by far the weakest incarnation of her we’ve
seen to date. Everything that made her a strong, self assure woman is gone. She
is a shell of her former self and in no way the character I looked up to as a
kid.
Personally, I like the Spider Woman comic. It’s sexy without
being slutty…and that is empowering. I like Dinah Lance’s Black Canary costume.
Again, sexy but powerful. I think we need to be sending the message that sexy
can be confidence which can be power. And there is nothing wrong with that. We’re
women. We’re prettier than men and but we can kick ass too. Embrace that. Don’t
fight it. And not every negative thing done to a woman in comics is because she’s
a woman. Sometimes she’s just the right character for the story.
In other words, if we want woman in comics to be treated
equal, we have to treat them equal too. This is not happening and as long as
women insist on calling a man out every time he draws a sexy character or tries
to write a woman character that doesn’t fit some fictional ideal that we
ourselves can’t obtain, nor would want to, we will never be taken seriously.
In closing, having Kyle find Alex in a refrigerator was essential
to the story and gave Kyle the fire he needed to fight. It wasn’t misogynist,
it was story telling.
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