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Straw man.

Oh god, this is the same bullshit that willfully blind sexists like bleating about over and over again.
The problem with sexism in our nerdy community is that we think that we're above it, so we spend a lot of time trying to justify the unjustifiable, or pin the blame back on women somehow, or claim that 'both sides got it'. It's not true, and you're too smart to claim ignorance.

The Hulk or Superman aren't FEMALE sex fantasies, they're MALE power fantasies. The reason why men look the way they do in media--including Han Solo, incidentally--is because that's what sells TO MEN. For a long time, Men were effectively the only people spending large amounts of money, and they were the only demographic that mattered. (And, in a terrible twist of irony, when women claim to like comics or video games despite the shitty way they're generally portrayed, they get called 'fake nerds' or 'attention whores'.)

You think Tomb Raider was somehow NOT marketed to men? You think the overt sexualisation of Cortana over the progression of Halo wasn't for the hetero men? Why the fuck does an AI need tits like that anyway?

This is a classic example of a false equivalence. You're claiming a molehill is a mountain. Here's a comic strip for you that boils it down much faster than I can: http://www.shortpacked.com/2011/comic/book-13/05-the-death-of-snkrs/falseequivalence/

The fact that there are now emerging some shows and movies that women can go to and get a bit of a sexy fix isn't a justification for the last 30 years of sexist video games. Anita Sarkeesian (who received death and rape threats for starting a kickstarter so she could make a video series about this sort of thing) just released her first video. Go watch it.
http://tropesversuswomen.tumblr.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X6p5AZp7r_Q

Sex sells, yes. Sex and gender are deeply ingrained in our culture, yes. It doesn't mean that a bad or stilted view of sexuality is embedded in our culture. It doesn't mean we shouldn't change it.

Man, I'm probably wasting my breath, but I'm 100% sick of this BS. I'm a dude. I'm hetero and white and I have all the privileges afforded to me simply by being those things and I'm really irritated that I still have to see stuff like this that makes no sense and seems only to exist so you don't have to feel bad about your part in how shitty things still are for women, even just in the media (before we get to all the other feminist issues surrounding equality of pay, access to health services, work, etc., etc.)

For instance, Batman can breath in space

Spacebatman? "I'm Batman. And I can breathe in space." http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20050131.html

Spacebatman, now that would be news!

He's Batman.

http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20050318.html

Story tagged "whores"

http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20060207.html

Reagan is still alive and working at a toy store.

I don't follow the comics that well but isn't Iron Man just a big right-wing straw-man lately anyway? Maybe we're meant to like this "villain".

Damn you! I was just looking for somewhere to post this and be witty.

It's pretty amazing that a little woman in India can win the Nobel Peace Prize for working with the homeless and destitute, but a white American male is vilified while doing the same thing. There was absolutely no hate in anything Jerry Falwell had to say. He didn't agree with the homosexual lifestyle. but I am pretty sure that he cared for these individuals as lost sheep just as he did anyone who he felt were not walking according to Scripture. As I'm writing this, I just thought of a strip of Shortpacked I read the other day.http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20070502.html that talks about opinions. Just because you think it's right doesn't mean it is.

Ya know, this seems appropriate.

(Seriously. You're welcome to your opinions, but economics is a science).

*cough cough* Shortpacked did something like that *cough cough* Linky -> http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20051026.html, read back 1 comic and forward I think 2 comics to get the full story...quite funny. PS: Shortpacked is a webcomic, it's about a toy store...a very odd toy store.

didn't you know? Bush stole all our air

Holy crap, a comic character has come to life on Slashdot!

http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20060710.html

Photo-referencing is really common in comics nowadays. Any illustrator could photo-reference, but it seems like now they just surf porn sites (well Greg Land does anyways) and then use Photoshop to create their panels.
This can be good, such as Alex Maleev's work on Daredevil, or not so good, such as Greg Land's work on Ultimate Fantastic Four.

Greg Land gets some hate in a few places:
http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20060215.html
http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/11917 44.html

And while there are more comics out there now that go for the photo-referencing, the vast majority still don't. Comic shelves seem to have room for lots of different styles, and this is just one more.

Groups like this are all over the place.

Just in terms of webcomics, fleen was one of the earlier "networks"... and there's also dayfree press. The bit of Major News, as it were, is that it's a bunch of comics that were previously keenspace "titles" peeling off- ugly hill is the only newcomer to the batch. Keen isn't the Mount Awesome some people have made it out to be - if anything, it is to webcomics what livejournal is to drama... and these guys have all apparently realized it's time to move on.

Personally, it's nice to see shortpacked free of keenspace advertising feces- bullshit reduction is something I can always get behind. Joining a network looks like it's a good thing for all parties concerned, if it's something you're comfortable doing.

My own comic is going into its third year without being a member of a network, without having run a single ad. I might get shit for traffic but I know exactly what I'm displaying on my site- display and control of presentation is a huge concern of mine, at least for the time being. I'm sure one of these days I'll get sick of obscurity and spend more effort on increasing project awareness than I currently am on project production. Maybe eventually, like these guys, I'll find some like-minded media creators who want to conjoin into some sort of co-prosperity sphere.