Marvel's Female Superheroes Are Gradually Becoming More Super

New submitter RhubarbPye writes: A new study shows an increasing trend in the power and significance of female superhero characters in the Marvel comic book universe. Several criteria were used to examine the trend, including cover art, dialog, and the actual superpowers. Over 200 individual comic books from Marvel's 50+ year history were compared for the study. What's of particular interest is the study's author is a 17-year-old high school student from Ohio.

Comments

Everyone grab your popcorn

[Anonymous Coward]

This should be entertaining to watch.

Re:Last sentence

[Reason58]

The summary makes no mention of the author's gender.

Re:Last sentence

[vux984]

Seems a bit condescending, why wouldn't a girl be able to do this?

What are you talking about? A girl did do this.

Re:Last sentence

[HappyHead]

Seems a bit condescending, why wouldn't a girl be able to do this?

Er... the last sentence was "What's of particular interest is the study's author is a 17-year-old high school student from Ohio." - the "interesting" part is that they're a highschool student and 17 years old, with a published scientific paper to their name. The summary doesn't even mention that they're a girl, you'd have to go and read the article to find that out.

Reading the article... what kind of first post-er are you?

Eww Yuck!

[1_brown_mouse]

Super cooties!

Re:Last sentence

[Anonymous Coward]

Shows how sexist you are. The summary doesn't mention the gender of the student.

"What's of particular interest is the study's author is a 17-year-old high school student from Ohio."

Seems a little condescending to 17-year-old high school students from Ohio.

Filtering

[Anonymous Coward]

Does slashdot have an option to filter stories by tag? I can't seem to find a functional one, as the exclusions tab doesn't seem to be implemented properly.

*sigh*

[mOzone]

isn't majority of comic buyers male? would make sense to make male chars super duper = $$$

People know comics arent real? right?

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me mansplain this to ya darlin'. The article is seeking to link the feminist movement in the US to more powerful comic book characters, and marketing to the female gender. Now run along honey, the men have some important stuff to discuss.

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

well, I'm male and I'm interested in superhero females than other. So it is irrelevant to say that majority of comic buyers are interested in male that would of the super duper hero males.

Re:*sigh*

[nedlohs]

So your thesis is that males would prefer to look at drawings of men in skin tight costumes over women in skin tight costumes?

Re:*sigh*

[mOzone]

no women in tight outfits are cool ..but hero is male ..there always a big boobed female someplace in a comic in a skin tight outfit keepin readers happy

Re:*sigh*

[meza]

Sure, but why the sigh? The aim of the study was to see if portrayal of women in the comics had changed over time. It was found that this was the case and indeed it was hypothesized from the investigator that the reason was change in reader demographics as well as writer demographics. Sounds like a nice little study (especially as they hint to a somewhat randomized process in selecting the comic books), would have loved to actually see the data though rather than just the summary.

Re:*sigh*

[mOzone]

The *sigh* is comics arent real ..this has been goin on for years are women equal in comics ?!?!?!
just do a google..*sigh*
first thing that pops up
There is also the matter of how women in comics are treated when compared to their male counterparts. There is, for example, the contrast between Batman and Batgirl. Batman, despite the fact that he is just as mortal as his female counterpart, is able to withstand intense beatings and dangerous falls. Batgirl, on the other hand, was paralyzed after the Joker shot her in the spine. This difference is reflective of the obsession that society in the 1990s had with male strength

tons of justice warriors harped on comics i think they all moved to video games tho

its a dead horse but now and ten someone worrys if a non-real toon is better or worse then another unreal toon --waste of time--

Re:*sigh*

[countSudoku()]

SHE HAS A NAME, and it's Lara Croft, you insensitive clod! And she IS my heroine, same thing

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't prefer male superheroes in skin-tight costumes. However, it's a little hard to kick ass in a suit and tie. It would probably look kind of funny too.

Try to think of the skin-tight costumes on males as practical and athletic rather than sexual, if you can.

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

However, it's a little hard to kick ass in a suit and tie.

Psh, tell that to Colin Firth...

Re:*sigh*

[SuricouRaven]

To give some small sliver to credit to comics, their stock-sexyness isn't just a female thing. While it is true that their female superpowered characters generally wear accessorised bikinis, have breasts bigger than their heads and spines made our of rubber, the men fare no better. Just about every male superpowered character gets the torso of a bodybuilder and a face angled like a brick.

Blame the readers. The publishers just make what they know will sell.

Re:*sigh*

[Aristos Mazer]

It's a chicken/egg question. Do boys buy most comic books because girls have no interest in such things? Or do boys buy most comic books because the existing books are all marketed to boys? Historically, the answer has been believed to be the first option, but society generally has discovered over the last 50 years that with comic books as with many other things, the answer is the latter option... people make assumptions about what boys and girls want and thus drive the market thereby leaving out many consumers who don't fit the stereotypes.

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

In japan, where comic books/novels are more accepted form of reading you see that the demographic of readers are across gender, age and class groups.

Re:*sigh*

[Maxo-Texas]

I think most the readers don't care until they are older and have been reading comics for a while. The boobs, porn faces, and porn poses are a result of the artists. Powergirl specifically has big boobs as a prank by the artist.

Once the readers are a bit older (14+), then yea some would like to buy a sexy version of the superheroine they've read about rather than a sexy poster of some random victoria's secret or sports illustrated model. Either way, the 16 year old boy is going to have a sexy poster of a girl of some kind. And there are sexy boy posters for the girls at that age too tho most are teen bands.

Re:*sigh*

[Sarius64]

You forgot the part where she calls it "science".

Re:*sigh*

[rubycodez]

you are confused, males want fanservice type females in their comics

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me mansplain this to ya darlin'.

That is sexual harassment and I will have no part of it.

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

> Sure, but why the sigh?

Because it yet another unfair attack on MRAs.
That's Mutant Rights Activists in case you didn't know.

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but there has been such a rise in feminism over the past 10 years that it seems every facet of society - no matter how trivial - is viewed through the prism of how it affects females.

If school boys were exposed to as many "news" articles covering the topics in which males are screwed - e.g. in the areas of health, education, criminal law, family law, etc - then you would also see school boys motivated to research and publish articles focused on males. Unfortunately, the popular media only ever publishes articles on "male privilege", rarely (if ever) on "male disadvantage". Conversely, we often see a lot of "news" articles that highlight "female disadvantage", and rarely (if ever) "female privilege".

Women and girls encounter notable disadvantages in every day life. The goal of the Mens Rights Movement (MRM) is to raise awareness of the disadvantages that men and boys also encounter in every day life. Unfortunately, some people see this as a zero sum issue; any government funds diverted to assist boys represent funds taken away from girls. So sadly, we end up with a number of people who try to silence Mens Rights Activists whenever such issues are raised in a public forum.

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

isn't majority of comic buyers male?

Yes, which means that women - 50% or so of the population - aren't a large portion of comic buyers.

would make sense to make male chars super duper = $$$

Not if you understand math and market segmentation. You can pander to the people who *already* buy your product, in the hope that you'll get them to buy one or two extra comic books a month, or you can get aim at the group of people who have never bought a comic book in their lives, and hope to convert some percentage of them to lifelong customers. Men have PLENTY of "super duper strong" male comic book heroes to choose from. While that may be of interest to some females, it's human nature to enjoy reading stories about people to whom you can relate somehow.

People know comics aren't real? right?

Unfortunately for your point, sales and marketing *is* a real thing, and that explains 100% of the drive to capture more of a female market in comic books.

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

And Bruce was paralyzed when Bane broke his back. And really? Comparing a 220 pound man and a 140 pound twentager and calling them physically equal?

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

so since the majority of comic buyers are male, most porn should focus on dudes too, right?

Re:*sigh*

[mjm1231]

Your explanation makes less sense to me than the question.

Heterosexual male here. I prefer stories where the femaile characters are strong and independent. I dislike stories (and real life) that makes assumptions about peoples capabilities which are based on stereotypes.

Just maybe, this is a result of changing cultural norms rather than catering to a female audience. Don't be fooled by how loud the knuckle dragging frat boy voice is on Slashdot.

Re:*sigh*

[AmiMoJo]

>Blame the readers. The publishers just make what they know will sell.

The authors still have a responsibility here. "Money" is not a universal justification for any morally dubious act. People want cheap electronics, doesn't justify building them in a sweetshop and then dumping the waste in the local river though.

Re:*sigh*

[ravenshrike]

You'd also have to break it down by how much control the CCA had over the industry and how they exercised that control and then by art style. Also you'd want to look into current CEO's and see if there's any trend there. Merely ascribing it to time or some feminist hook seems to be immensely shortsighted. Of course, she is in high school, so that might be why the science portion of her science project was so shitty.

Re:*sigh*

[lister king of smeg]

it's a little hard to kick ass in a suit and tie. It would probably look kind of funny too.

I think John Constantine would dispute that

Re:*sigh*

[Whiteox]

Maybe I WANT to be sexually harassed. I also want more oxidizers in margarine as well as permeate in my milk. And for good measure, I'll add my own woosh.

WOOSH!

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

isn't majority of comic buyers male? would make sense to make male chars super duper = $$$

The American comics genres are quite different from the genres in other parts of the world. In America, it's something like (numbers generated using the reliable Stetson-Harrison statistical method) 95% superheroes and all the rest genres are smashed into the remaining 5%. While I can't say anything definitive from most parts of the world or even Europe, around here superheroes are perhaps 10% and there's a wide variety of other genres available.

I used to read Marvel stories back when I was a teenager. While I still read (and buy) a lot of comics, I don't follow superhero stuff anymore. I lost the interest. I didn't lose it because of the way that women are portrayed in them, but nowadays it's one of the reasons I don't get back to them (but not the only one). Snakewomen in boobs-and-butt poses are not the kind of aesthetic that I prefer. I don't have anything against sexy women in comics, but I like women who look like women and not snakes or half-centaurs with balloons glued to their chests. For example, Oglaf has sexy women done right. It also has sexy and even sexualized men in it for those who want that. (Seriously, people who claim that men in ordinary superhero comics are sexualized should go look Oglaf to see what sexualized men actually look like. But for god's sake, don't do that at work unless you are really sure that your company has a relaxed attitude towards graphic sex).

There is no reason why comics buyers should be predominantly male. My girlfriend reads more comics than I do. She doesn't read superhero comics at all. I haven't asked why. My three nieces all read more comics than I do. They don't read superhero comics at all. I haven't asked why. I have heard a few women say that they were turned away from superhero comics because of the way that women were represented in them, but I don't know how universal that is.

The mainstream American comics industry uses almost all of its resources to produce something that's very much a niche product in other parts of the world. The result is a dwindling customer base. Diversifying the output a bit could potentially double or triple the customer base. But it's not a done deal because the companies would need also to adjust their marketing. Just making new titles and selling them through existing comics stores won't work, because those who don't buy comics now don't go there.

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting anon to be able to at least throw a mod point in your direction. However, I do want to offer, maybe not a different viewpoint, but a supplemental one.

You said: "Unfortunately, some people see this as a zero sum issue; any government funds diverted to assist boys represent funds taken away from girls."

The reality is, this IS the case. It's why I have as many problems with the MRM as I do with feminism, but I acknowledge the rights of both to exist.

Here's how that works: You have activism group X that targets problem P. Let's go with a fanciful problem such as wild snipes running through town and biting off people's right leg (because that's what a wild snipe does).

X chooses to help only people with blue eyes. We know for sure that green-eyed people are also affected by P, and depending upon what statistics you cite, what filters you use, and what studies you follow, you can justify that blue-eyed people are somehow worse off, and get media traction using a few talking points that seem solid on the surface.

Most normal people who have a million other things to do in a day can't disagree with (or have even given much critical thought or research to) this assertion, so they internalize it and then they give money and time (therefore visibility) to the cause. It becomes a shared belief that blue-eyed people are worse off, because otherwise, why would anyone put more energy into helping more blue-eyed people than green-eyed people? Especially if one of the talking points is that blue is historically more worse off than green, so green can just suck it up and deal with it?

Except people tend to miss the following critical point: P is STILL affecting greens. Snipes are a wild beast that have a thing for cutting off people's right leg, and really don't pay much attention to whether or not you're blue-eyed or green-eyed while they're doing it, so people have made a segregating line as part of the problem instead of attacking the problem at its core. But because there's a perception that one group has it "worse" than the other, there's now a group-ism that suggests one group that is affected with a malady that's just as bad as anyone's can be left out in the cold because the other group is supposedly hobbled more by P and is perpetuated by its own inertia.

It, like many people who follow the issue along with it, misses the point that individuals in a group experience the same amount of hurt, but those numbers of individuals aren't 50/50, and that's not due to the fact that the issue actively "chooses" that group more, but rather because the group may be subject to a factor that makes them more susceptible, even though the end result is the same: everyone affected doesn't have a right leg anymore. Why people choose to arbitrarily choose which details to focus on (such as which group suffers more) as opposed to the root problem (why the hell are snipes running around anyway?) is anyone's guess.

My long-winded point here is that if you have any issue of any significance that isn't naturally gendered (such as ovarian or testicular cancer which ARE naturally gendered) and you have people assigning a gender to it (such as poverty, education or abuse), then the issue of support BY DEFINITION becomes a zero-sum game. If you support boys, you take away from girls. If you support girls, you take away from boys.

I'm not sure that's what you were getting at, but it's ultimately how the zero-sum mentality originates.

But hey, let's get some 3D printers to help out people with blue eyes. Green-eyed people can fend for themselves.

-LaurenC

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to go with a change in how comic books are viewed by society. I doubt that the average person of two decades ago would give 'because no powerful women' as their reasoning for not being interested in comics; more likely 'because only losers who need to grow up read picturebooks about men in tights.'

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

...it seems every facet of society - no matter how trivial - is viewed through the prism of how it affects females.

As opposed to in past decades when every facet of society - no matter how trivial - was almost *solely* viewed through the prism of how it affected *males*. Now we've got a minority subset of society which is pointing out how those facets affect *females*, while society at large sees how it affects *males*, but that's somehow a 'problem'?

The Mens' Rights folks have the same issue that Feminists have. Certain loud, obnoxious, abrasive, *stupid* individuals have adopted the title, and scream from the rooftops that *they* are the ultimate example of what it means to be part of their chosen group. Because they're loud, they get heard the most. Because they're obnoxious, abrasive, and *stupid*, they are viewed as annoying nuisances *at best*, and the rational, quieter *majorities* of those groups get lumped in with them.

'MRA' folks who insist that women need to remain 2nd class people are no better (or worse) than 'Feminist' folks who insist that men need to *become* 2nd class people. They harm their respective movements, and provide nothing *useful or helpful* to the discussion while drowning out the folks who *are* being useful and helpful.

Basically, both groups need to throw out their respective trash.

Re:*sigh*

[russotto]

it's a little hard to kick ass in a suit and tie. It would probably look kind of funny too.

I think John Constantine would dispute that

Or the Men In Black.

Re:Last sentence

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering the state of highschool science education in the USA, it actually is pretty impressive. Ohio hasn't fallen as far as some of the other states though, so hopefully this will inspire their legislators to take some pride in their state's education, instead of just being angry and stripping funding from it.

Bottom Rising

[Anonymous Coward]

This is more a result of low powered secondary characters gaining power, the main female characters have always been over powered compared to the male characters on the Marvel side.

If you look at mutants, they all get exactly 1 power, healing factor, or eye beams or telepathy or teleportation... unless they're women in which case they often get several. Jean Grey has a couple, Pixie has several, Wanda has several, Emma Frost has a couple, Rogue only has one but it gives her more

Even for non-mutants if you look at the fantastic 4, they all get 1 power... except Susan Richards. Arguably Reed Richards has two as he is also a super scientist, but that wasn't a result of the accident.

Re:Bottom Rising

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing to see here people, this poster's in depth knowledge of the subject clearly demonstrates he has no idea what he's talking about and / or is some sort of cis-het misogylord.

Please return to reading and discussing the merits of your ideologically approved literature in the slashdot safe-space.

Re:Bottom Rising

[Cro Magnon]

Ororo only has one power, but when that one power is weather control, who needs more? I can't think of any male mutants with that level of power, except Magneto.

Re:Bottom Rising

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, after the accident, one presumes he's a better scientist because he knows one more thing NOT to do.

Re:Bottom Rising

[Zumbs]

healing factor

That guy also came with an adamantium skeleton and claws and exceptional hearing and smell, so that would be one guy with 4-5 superpowers. Also, did you ever hear of Franklin Richards? How about Nathan Summers/Cable/X-Man? Proteus?

Re:Bottom Rising

[Anonymous Coward]

Ororo only has one power, but when that one power is weather control, who needs more?

True, it's technically only one power, but it has multiple uses - flight, lightning bolts, freezing people and things, putting out fires with rain, using wind to knock people around, etc. It's more accurate to say that she has multiple powers that are derived from a single power source.

And yeah, male mutants with that level of power are super rare (Magneto, possibly Prof.X, and uh, ... ) while female ones are a bit more common, such as Jean Grey, Rachel Summers, Scarlet Witch (before they de-mutanted her to spite Sony Pictures), and (depending on the writer) Squirrel Girl, who is sometimes a reality warper.

Re:Bottom Rising

[Zumbs]

Most of those heroines were created and/or developed in the 70s and 80s by Chris Claremont, partially as a response to the extreme dominance of very powerful male heroes and villains. Hell, we still see that today at the movies, where the male superheroes dominate the silver screen. Just look at the first Avengers movie. The main cast are Iron man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America and the Black Widow, four of which had their own movie prior to the Avengers movie. Even in the X-Men universe, the stories are concentrated around Wolverine, Professor X and Magneto.

Re:Bottom Rising

[hey!]

Originally Susan Richards' powers were turning invisible and creating a force shield around herself. This wasn't for doing cool things, it was for staying safely out of the way while the boys did the fighting. By the mid 70s when I was buying comic books her purely defensive powers were upgraded to being able to produce a shower of spherical force bubbles, which on the offensive force scale was about one step up the awesomeness scale from telekinetically throwing couch pillows.

I don't think the reason for this change was to throw a sop to feminists, or because fans were demanding strong female characters. In either case she'd have got a more impressive upgrade. I think it was simply upgraded storytelling. A character that can basically hide and shield herself is not as versatile as a character than can do useful things. So this kind of incremental upgrading naturally gave her more of a swiss-army knife skillset.

As for modern superheroines having multiple, I have not much to add, other than an observation. This multiple super-power thing kind of mirrors what we expect women to be like today. We expect them to be able to multitask, to juggle several very different roles on our teams. Versatility has become a cultural expectation for women, so it might not be coincidental that female superheroes get more of toolkit rather than one very big hammer.

Re:Bottom Rising

[Anonymous Coward]

if you look at the fantastic 4, they all get 1 power... except Susan Richards.

Johnny Storm has at least three. He can light himself on fire, he can throw fire, and he can fly (when on fire).

And if you're going to argue that that's is really just one power with multiple sub-powers or something, we can just as easily define Susan Storm's powers in the same way.

Re:Bottom Rising

[Culture20]

Even in the X-Men universe, the stories are concentrated around Wolverine, Professor X and Magneto.

I know we all have blocked out XMen 3, but that movie was 100% about Jean Grey (and we knew it would be from the end of X2).

Re:Bottom Rising

[Zumbs]

It was about Jean Gray walking around and looking menacing. Magneto was the villain with an actual agency.

Re:Bottom Rising

[Lotana]

(Magneto, possibly Prof.X, and uh, ... )

You forgot Apocalypse. His level of power is unsurpassed (as far as I know) and has many powers.

Re:Bottom Rising

[T.E.D.]

TFA is talking about power in the story itself (as in the Bechdel test), not the badassness of their superpowers.

Katherine focused on seven different criteria, and ranked each on a scale from one to five. Was a woman on the cover? How did the female characters look? Did women in the comic book talk to each other about important issues? Was the storyline about a woman? Were women in positions of power? Did they make their own decisions? Did they have jobs?

Not that what you are talking about wouldn't be a legitimate and interesting study topic as well. It just isn't what was being studied here.

Suppose it's accurate, but not exactly precise

[Anonymous Coward]

FTFS:
>Over 200 individual comic books from Marvel's 50+ year history were compared for the study

FTFA:
>After reading 788 comics from 68 different Marvel titles

So, yeah, it's over 200.

Super hero relative power co-efficients

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that in Supermans per second or Dr manhattans per minute or metric spider men per cubic meter.

Re:Super hero relative power co-efficients

[magarity]

WTF Supermans per second? It specifies Marvell right there in the title.

Re:Super hero relative power co-efficients

[nedlohs]

Marvel you fool!

Re:Super hero relative power co-efficients

[Anonymous Coward]

Flashes per parsec.

Re:Super hero relative power co-efficients

[Coren22]

Than it must be Spidermen per cubic meter...right?

Re:Super hero relative power co-efficients

[Maxo-Texas]

It's a special crossover measurement.

It converts most easily to hulks per meter.

Re:Super hero relative power co-efficients

[Talderas]

I thought the best measurement was Multiple Men per second.

They masterbate with them?

[antiperimetaparalogo]

I am an old fashioned guy and my only reason to read something like that would be to masterbate with those female "super-heroine" - sorry, i am an awful person, i know, but...

Re:They masterbate with them?

[antiperimetaparalogo]

You're not an awful person for doing it but you're clearly of an adolescent mindset for posting about it. It's 'TMI' in this forum, you want to share that with you're 'like minded buddies' in private or if you're a comedian & use it as a joke then knock yourself out...but seriously what good could come from telling the world.

Thanks for not judging me - but :

a) i am too old to masterbate realy (if there is such a thing as "too old to masterbate" anyway...)

b) there is no such thing as "super-heroines" (my point actually)

As an old fashioned guy i can't believe that there is a place for "super-heroines", since i think that these things are for guys (i don't remember any girl reading such things when i was a boy... looong ago, when i was mastebating enough!). And to be honest, i am not a comedian: i am an old fashioned guy that used to masterbate with such kind of material, long before our current SJW made it TMI for this forum - so, don't take it as a (bad) joke, take it seriously.

Re:They masterbate with them?

[Anonymous Coward]

I know that feel bro.

I'd say female characters have been given more powers in an attempt to incite interest beyond the titillation. Doesn't really work though, since the whole idea of having powers has no edge whatsoever. Everybody and their dog has 'em.

Now, a new scantily clad variation of an already scantily clad character's costume on the other hand... Why do you think there are so many instances of PC artists toning them down these days. They might as well just scrawl OMG STOP OGLING THE WOMEN AND START APPRECIATING THEM FOR THEIR PERSONALITIES AND ABILITIES GODDAMN IT! Q_Q

Maybe they just need to give them the right powers. Super blowjobs or immunity to objectification or something.

Re:They masterbate with them?

[Anonymous Coward]

First of all, it's masturbate.
Second, your old-fashioned line reminds me of a great poster.
    Tradition: just because we've always done it this way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid.
We're moving forward whether you like it or not.

Re:They masterbate with them?

[antiperimetaparalogo]

First of all, it's masturbate.

Thanks - i struggle with my English, so i (as most non-native speakers i think) appreciate grammar NaZi's!

Second, your old-fashioned line reminds me of a great poster. Tradition: just because we've always done it this way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid. We're moving forward whether you like it or not.

I liked the poster's message - BUT:

a) what does that mean for "super-heroines"? You think people like me (even the next generation of awful people like me) will stop masturbate with them just because some SJW will get angry?

b) who is "WE" (i.e, "YOU") "moving forward"? I had a great reply from an anonymous commenter here

Re:They masterbate with them?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think he's APK pretending to be Greek, myself.

Re:They masterbate with them?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't believe I'm having this conversation:

a) You're never too old...welll I haven't found the age yet
b) THIS is where you fall off the 'clue train'....along with 'real' SJW's as opposed to what you probably see as an SJW.

I'm 52 so I guess I can claim being 'old-fashoioned' too...when I was heavy in to comics (teen years through well in to my 20's...I still think their cool but moved on & can't catch back up) I saw nothing wrong & still see nothing wrong with viewing a hot super-herione as a strong super-herioine AND 'holy crap is she hot' (Starfire from the New Teen Titans). That's what I mean about 'your adolescent mindset' as you seem to think these two thoughts are entirely incompatible (they aren't)...and if you were REALLY 'old fashioned' you'd know something about decorum & politeness & wouldn't spew every random thought out of your head on the 'internet' that you wouldn't say in public...and trust me I've read/heard it all (so I'm not shocked by anything) I was on newsgroups long before the rest of the world discovered the 'internet'.

The SJW's didn't make it 'TMI" for this forum it's ALWAYS been 'TMI' for this forum, there are forums where that's not TMI, go find them (this isn't alt.sex.masturbation).

Re:They masterbate with them?

[antiperimetaparalogo]

I can't believe I'm having this conversation:

Well, you have it, so you better believe it.

a) You're never too old...welll I haven't found the age yet

For What? "Never too old" for WHAT?

b) THIS is where you fall off the 'clue train'....along with 'real' SJW's as opposed to what you probably see as an SJW.

I'm 52 so I guess I can claim being 'old-fashoioned' too...when I was heavy in to comics (teen years through well in to my 20's...I still think their cool but moved on & can't catch back up) I saw nothing wrong & still see nothing wrong with viewing a hot super-herione as a strong super-herioine AND 'holy crap is she hot' (Starfire from the New Teen Titans). That's what I mean about 'your adolescent mindset' as you seem to think these two thoughts are entirely incompatible (they aren't)...

I respect that but i was speaking for myself - i am a sexist old Greek, and i wrote "sorry, i am an awful person, i know, but..."

and if you were REALLY 'old fashioned' you'd know something about decorum & politeness & wouldn't spew every random thought out of your head on the 'internet' that you wouldn't say in public...and trust me I've read/heard it all (so I'm not shocked by anything) I was on newsgroups long before the rest of the world discovered the 'internet'.

The SJW's didn't make it 'TMI" for this forum it's ALWAYS been 'TMI' for this forum, there are forums where that's not TMI, go find them (this isn't alt.sex.masturbation).

That's where our cultural backgrounds conflict. I am Greek: saying in public (even in front of ladies) "i will masturbate to a super-heroine" is an "Aristophanic" way to make my (sexist) point. I am new to THIS forum (a month old account), but i have the feeling that you are right: too "UN-Aristophanic"... but i am not sure if it always was this way, or it is because of the current SJW insurgency. Anyway, i know "this isn't alt.sex.masturbation" but you should watch/read some Aristophane - he wrote his work for grown ups like you and me, not teenagers who can't handle a fact of life!

There's more.

[Minwee]

Not only are they becoming more super, their super power seems to be "invisibility"

Re:There's more.

[ckatko]

The big question on everyone's mind:

Could She-Hulk lift a glass ceiling?

Re:There's more.

[countSudoku()]

Yes! Nice one, Centurion!

Also, Susan Storm agrees with this thread. She's a Fantastic gal, I mean person with super powers of any gender

Re:Enough with this SJW nonsense

[Anonymous Coward]

I get it, I'm an evil being for being born with a penis.

Strawman arguments are lies.

Re:Last sentence

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering his level of obsession with female superheroes, I assumed he was a 17-year-old boy, with sore wrists.

Super interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Secretly, we all know a male SJW wrote this.

Re:Super interesting

[nedlohs]

Well only those of you who didn't bother with reading the opening paragraph of the linked article.

Re:Super interesting

[ArhcAngel]

Well only those of you who didn't bother with reading the opening paragraph of the linked article.

So...everyone.

Re:Super interesting

[Coren22]

BY BETHANY BROOKSHIRE 7:00AM, MAY 19, 2015

Yeah...I guess so, but RhubarbPye isn't quite as clearly female.

Re:Super interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it was a secret identity joke. As in, the secret identity of "Katherine Murphy" is that of a male SJW.

But sure. Take everything at face value. Listen and Believe

Re:Super interesting

[Tanuki64]

Listen and Believe

?? Oh, yes... 'Hear and Obey' was already taken. Though I still think 'Listen and Believe' is in this context a lame plagiarism.

Re:Super interesting

[nedlohs]

I guess if you don't know what the headline, byline, and article text are then other simple concepts might be an issue too.

Re:Super interesting

[Coren22]

I will quote what you replied to so that maybe you can read and understand it a little better:

Secretly, we all know a male SJW wrote this.

You then go on to tell AC that the researcher was female. The word "this" could refer to TFS, TFA, or TFRP, not just TFRP. I was pointing out that the person who wrote TFA, was indeed female, but the person who wrote TFS wasn't as clearcut. Your lack of understanding of the GGFP does not mean I failed to understand what you typed.

Re:Last sentence

[magarity]

The summary makes no mention of the author's gender.

RTFA: "Katherine Murphy, 17"

Re:Super-Cook? Super-Housekeeper?

[x0ra]

super baby producer... 12 in 12 !

Re:Super-Cook? Super-Housekeeper?

[Anonymous Coward]

Super sammich damn it!

Captcha: cheerily

Re:Last sentence

[Reason58]

The person I was replying to was clearly referencing the summary.

Increase in acceptance of women leads to more?

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop the presses, this is front page news! The idea that as acceptance of leading ladies grows they'd be more accepted? Holy crap that is unbelievable.

50 years ago women were always the damsels in distress now we have entire film series based around strong female characters. OF COURSE comic books will feature more and more women as it becomes more mainstream to have them as worthwhile characters and not simply used as something to be captured by the baddies and saved by the goodies.

Marvel wouldn't have been going for 50+ years without adapting to the current trends. Why has there been this sudden spate of research which is telling us exactly what we already knew?

Re:Increase in acceptance of women leads to more?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because a lot of insecure people need every opportunity to point at something and shout SEEEE SEEEEEEEEEEE?!

Re:Increase in acceptance of women leads to more?

[Anonymous Coward]

Give it another decade and "women's liberation" will be the freedom to be feminine without having to fill the "strong and independent" trope, they'll be fighting to show weakness and be damsels... The men will still be just being men, no one gives a fuck about them.

Re:Increase in acceptance of women leads to more?

[Anonymous Coward]

Haven't read the study, but I imagine it ignores the idea of cultural effects on the mindsets of the people telling the story.

The original Star Wars and Star Trek both reflected a lot of things from their time, from hairstyles and outfits to soapboxing about issues of the day.

Once you take that into account, it becomes less of a progressive issue than it is "art reflecting life".

Race to godhood

[Oligonicella]

It has always been the case that comic superheros have escalated in power. From the first superman to now, their powers have increased in the manner of schoolboys yapping about who's better.

Re:Race to godhood

[countSudoku()]

Yes, but with great power comes great responsibility. But you knew this already.

Seriously, that's the best part of comix; their super powers are helpful, but do not always save the day. Sometimes the powers get in the way of having a normal life or doing things without getting a giant stone boner. This is the bane of the Incredible Thing Guy.

Re:Race to godhood

[Anonymous Coward]

On the plus side, it's better than the ADD MORE DIGITS mentality some developers have for hit points shown in games.

Re:Race to godhood

[Anonymous Coward]

Without orders of magnitude, progression leashing becomes diluted.

That is, the noob's 40dmg wooden stick is perfectly fine for almost the whole game. You ignore the 42 damage club, the 45 damage spear, the 46 damage flail, and that whole chain of sidequests leading to the 50(!) damage magicfiresword is a waste of time. This is partly because the 60hp rats only lead up to 65hp gargoyles and 70hp superdemons.

So all that time developing extra weapons, sidequests, spells, etc is wasted because GodMeteor doesn't even have one order of magnitude over Magic Missile. Nobody leaves Noob Forest because why wait for the Ice Zone's load screens - the monsters there only have 2% more XP. "It's all the same shit" will happen after dilution, basically.

On the flip side, you can strategically pace gear/spell acquisitions that peg capabilities and progression. New, XP-rich monsters will push players up to the intended level span of that zone, while newer, huger (LOL ZEROES) XP demands will keep them there. Blame math or whatever.

OT: Fem superheroes, great, cool. I hope we're not flag waving too much about eye candy though, male heroes have spent the whole history unable to see their penis because they can't tilt their neck forward past 90. Yes, it's unrealistic, so is telekinesis.

Re:Race to godhood

[coinreturn]

On the plus side, it's better than the ADD MORE DIGITS mentality some developers have for hit points shown in games.

That started with pinball machines. Now get off my lawn.

Re:Super-Cook? Super-Housekeeper?

[ClickOnThis]

Already done.

Re:Last sentence

[jgtg32a]

WTF I swear to God it said high school girl

Eh, a 17-year-old?

[fustakrakich]

I suppose that's interesting, but considering the subject matter maybe not so much. Now, if it had been a 60 year old, I would have found it disturbing. Anyway, the kid found a very good excuse to read lots of comics.

Re:Eh, a 17-year-old?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would a 60 year old having read 700-some comics be disturbing? Should 60 year olds only be into old people books?

Re:Eh, a 17-year-old?

[Coren22]

I find it more interesting that it was a 17 year old girl. I have never known a woman that was into comics, and Big Bang Theory even makes jokes about it, so I guess I'm not the only one. Do all the guys in the comic book store stare when she goes to buy her comics?

Re:Eh, a 17-year-old?

[sconeu]

Back in '83-'84, when I was at UCSC, we had a geek crowd that was into comics. We had two women in our group.

Re:Eh, a 17-year-old?

[Anonymous Coward]

Everybody knows that "real adults" only read stuff with no pictures in it, just like anything animated is only for little kids and like, 5-year-olds and stuff. Especially stuff like Hellsing and Fritz The Cat (which is why I once found both of those in the "children's video" section at the local Best Buy... ugh...)

Re:Eh, a 17-year-old?

[CrimsonAvenger]

I have never known a woman that was into comics

**points at wife and daughter** I know two....

Re:Eh, a 17-year-old?

[Hognoxious]

Comics? Don't you mean serialized graphic novels?

Re:Eh, a 17-year-old?

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm what? Why would you think a 60 year old reading comics is disturbing or doing a 'study' on them? Hmm...there are more adolescent mindsets around this topic than I would have thought.

Re:Eh, a 17-year-old?

[xvan]

2 years ago I told my nephew that I'd enlighten him about good old stuff (not that shitty Ben10 that he was watching), and streamed the fist Hellsing chapter from youtube only to remember that the first scene is a fellatio...

Re:Enough with this SJW nonsense

[Scottingham]

wow, your chromosomes are XY? Damn you must be ugly.

Personally I have an X and a Y. I can't imagine the poor sod with XY XY

Re:Last sentence

[fche]

... because that is Very Important.

More super?

[Chas]

Okay, the most powerful super in the setting is one SQUIRREL GIRL!

She's the living embodiment of "Chuck Norris Facts" for the Marvel Universe, and is basically on par with the Living Tribunal (a fundamental entity of the universe and essentially a godlike manifestation).

How, pray tell, does one get "more super" than that?

ASIDE from grating on about the feminist implications of "Name+GIRL" vs "Name+WOMAN" or "Name".

Re:More super?

[medv4380]

Franklin Richards? He's beyond an Omega Level Classification according to Celestial. Given he can Create Galactius out of a thought, or a whole new universe, he'd give Squirrel Girl a run for her money, but any of the Omega Levels would because pissing any of them off is an instant reboot switch Marvel has built in. Squirrel Girl has yet to exhibit any Universe rewriting abilities.

Re:More super?

[serviscope_minor]

Okay, the most powerful super in the setting is one SQUIRREL GIRL!

I don't know the background and I don't know if you're being sarcastic, but on the off chance you're not, "Squirrel girl" is about the least bad-ass name since Pillow Man.

  http://smbc-comics.com/index.p...

Re:More super?

[Anonymous Coward]

squirrel girl is about silliness and joy in comic books ....plus she is way powerful in her own very weird way.

Good grief, this is dumb

[Anonymous Coward]

So, her big conclusion was that, " female readers want to see women represented equally, so comics publishers have been delivering that." If a 17-year-old boy had made the same conclusion -- a conclusion that any 11-year-old with a lemonade stand would come to -- this article would never have been written.
     

Re:Good grief, this is dumb

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, "17-year old highschool student gets research paper published and presented at conference" is article-worthy regardless of gender, and the 11-year-old with a lemonade stand would likely not have done actual documented research to present the data that backs up that "obvious" conclusion.

Re:Good grief, this is dumb

[Anonymous Coward]

Eh, not really. It depends on the content.

If the paper is some extraordinary breakthrough in science, then sure.

If the paper is some calculated attempt to prop up the narrative that "feminism GOOD; must sell to more WOMEN", then not so much.

Are we not men? We are devo.

[swell]

I have a vague memory of a time when children read comics and adults read books and newspapers. It seems now that children are busy with Twitter while adults are living in a fantasy world. Where will the de-evolution of humanity end?

Re:Are we not men? We are devo.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a vague memory of a time when children read comics and adults read books and newspapers.

Those children grew into (surprise surprise) adults who like comic books. It turns out that people like stories delivered by a familiar medium. I think you'll find that the adults who read books also read them as children.

Re:Are we not men? We are devo.

[SuricouRaven]

Many have commented on this shift. It appears - at least to casual observation - that the social conventions regarding age-appropriate media and activities are becoming less important. Things that would once have been regarded as shamefully childish for anyone past their teenage years are now a lot more acceptable for all ages.

The reaction to this seems to fall along political lines. I've seen a number of columns from conservative authors warning about the infantalisation of society and suggesting it will weaken western civilisation as people lose the emotional maturity to make rational decisions - but there are also those of a more liberal bent that celebrate how the artificially imposed notions of age-appropriate are falling, allowing people to enjoy what they like without shame and allowing media that was once constrained by a socially-mandated target age to develop in new directions.

Re:Are we not men? We are devo.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence." - C.S. Lewis

Re:Are we not men? We are devo.

[asdfman2000]

The reaction to this seems to fall along political lines. I've seen a number of columns from conservative authors...

I'm not sure if you read slashdot, because there was an article posted last week from a left-leaning writer / psychologist basically saying these kinds of hobbies are bad:
http://games.slashdot.org/stor...

In fact, the "men are failing to grow up" is a common theme in many feminist circles, which are largely characterized as "liberal". Example: http://time.com/179/men-are-ob...

Re:Are we not men? We are devo.

[Anonymous Coward]

When we are not men....

Re:Are we not men? We are devo.

[slew]

Why do liberals tend hate comic books?

It's because it suggests to people that government is at best impotent and more often then not evil. However, some rich dude can be a hero (e.g., ironman, batman) can come in an save the day (generally against yet another rich evil dude, not an ideologue). This generally isn't the narrative they want to hear. Of course comic writers throw the liberals a bone once in a while (e.g., a gay character like iceman)...

However, most comic books are simply apolitically anti-establishment, not catering to any ideology other than angst and self-reliance of socially isolated individualism. This caters to the aspirations of their target reading audience, which is generally not aligned with liberal/conservative politics, but weakly aligned to a libertarian/progressive slant. The most common morality plays in comics appear to revolve around fate, fear, revenge, jealousy, penance, and sometime just spite which generally don't fall along political party lines (or maybe they do), but tend to move the plot along...

Re:Are we not men? We are devo.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/celebritynews/11613302/Simon-Pegg-comic-book-films-are-dumbing-us-down.html

Let me know

[msobkow]

Let me know when they stop drawing them with FF tits and thighs and asses you could crack walnuts on.

Re:Let me know

[countSudoku()]

NO! Just stop this, right this minute! No one ever solved a problem by making boobs smaller, unless that problem is a bad back caused by excessively large breasts.

Re:Let me know

[rubycodez]

I'd like to test Rule 34 involving walnut cracking via female comic heroines using various parts of their anatomy, but I'm at work

Re:Let me know

[Mashiki]

Okay, but only when they stop drawing men with packages so large they look like they're wearing a codpiece and muscle structure that makes them look like they're popping steroids.

Re:Let me know

[AmiMoJo]

The guys too... It makes sense for some, but most of them are basically ordinary guys in good physical condition, but get drawn like steroid pumping bodybuilders.

Re:Let me know

[Carewolf]

They will get to that right after they stop drawing male heroes in ripped and in skintight clothes or shirtless.

You won't like this... Maybe...

[Anonymous Coward]

I would love Super Hero Woman movies... But you can't apply men Super Hero logic to it...

Whatever happen, a men in general will be stronger than a woman physically... Sure there is exception, but we talking about Super Hero against villain. And in general the villain is strong too...

So anything that have to do with physical fight wont make much sense as a Super Hero... Don't get me wrong, there is more to strength in a fight, but there is always a moment when one of them get in a 'hard position', though men on men would give the possibility that one is a little bit stronger than the other, it won't compute for an audience of the reverse.

But there is some Super Hero movies that could work... Like Superwoman... She an alien, so we can't be sure than men and woman on their planet have difference in strength (though, there is some indices of this). But even if she is stronger, people would associate them with the normal Human Men vs Woman role so it not going to work very well.

This all rely on Men vs Woman physical fight... If for example a SuperWoman doesn't really have to be physically stronger opponent... But something the Super strength is used to save peoples and that is fine... She might be super smart and beat the enemy complex and evil plan...

So there is place for Woman to be a Super Hero, but they have to be tailored for woman and that is fine !

But the biggest problem is finding woman to play those role...

The role as men as a super hero and the type have been well defined, and most men have though them self as one of the Super Hero... But not the woman super hero, making the job even harder... Because every super hero movies you make that people doesn't like, make it even harder to make people believe into a woman super hero movies.

Anyway, that my slashdot comment take on this. :)

Re:You won't like this... Maybe...

[Coren22]

Off the top of my head...

Aeon Flux
Ultraviolet
Black Widow*
Jean Grey
Rouge
Storm
The Invisible Woman (Fantastic Four)

Can't think of any more, but I am sure there have been other female super hero movies.

*though I wouldn't exactly call Black Widow a super hero, she still holds her own in the Avengers movies, even against the Hulk

Re:You won't like this... Maybe...

[SuricouRaven]

I read that as a list of characters who appeared in bad movies.

Black Widow appeared in good movies, but as a fairly minor character. I've not seen Age of Ultron yet, I hear she gets her own sub-plot in that.

Re:You won't like this... Maybe...

[Maxo-Texas]

Woman vs. man in a bare-knuckle, no-rules fight? It happened, and the story is a wild one

http://mmajunkie.com/2014/10/w...

âoeI have total respect for him, for taking that fight,â Pereira said. âoe ⦠Iâ(TM)ve been asked if I was crazy to set up that fight. Thatâ(TM)s true. I was crazy. I was crazy to have her fight against one man only. To make it fair, she should have fought two men.â

I'm 6'5" and I'm sure Ediane Gomes could kick my ass six ways from sunday in a fist fight. It would be entirely credible.

---

The only reason that a female superhero wouldn't be credible is acting, direction, and writing.

Re:Enough with this SJW nonsense

[Anonymous Coward]

Not until you cut it off and get negroplasty.

captcha: racial

Re:Enough with this SJW nonsense

[Anonymous Coward]

Geez. Are you overly sensitive. There wasn't any mention in the article of 'see these results prove women are still oppressed', or calling for 'more female represenation'. In fact the results from the study would suggest that 'see women are represented rather well in Marvel comic books' (or at least 'better than they used to be') but it makes no such conclusions one way or the other. As a good study should it simply states the results without interpretation of 'what they mean for society'. Though the article does indicate that the 'cause' may be because there are more female comic book readers & artists/writers....surprise surprise...someone catering to 1/2 the population with disposible income using people who might understand more about the demographic than the other 1/2....

Look there is SJW 'bullshit' all over the place that can & should be called out, but if every story about women leads you to believe its an 'SJW conspiracy' you need to grow up, pick your battles wisely.

Re:Enough with this SJW nonsense

[Coren22]

You only have one X and one Y? How do you survive!?

Does not follow

[Anonymous Coward]

"it was hypothesized from the investigator that the reason was change in reader demographics as well as writer demographics"

The data shows a change, but at least from the summary it is definitively not shown it is due to demographic (younger population - controlled for the same effect in previous generations, or change in gender which read comics) change. it could simply be a cultural change. A cultural change could simply be the same writer the same demographic (age population rading the comics and gender split) BUT as a society women tend culturally to be seen as more equal. Unfortunately the summary does not show how this was taken into account as a confounding factor compared to demographic change.

Study is flawed and so is its thesis

[Anonymous Coward]

Metrics used were SJW nonsense. Women in cover, did they talk to each other, have a job with power etc.

No power rankings, saw Wolverine level vs. Captain Marvel or Nova.

Women are not an important customer base of comics which lose miney but are published to retain corp ownership of copyright vs creators. Rather it s sales to Hollywood movie studios that makes miney and generates SJW comics ... Scott Pilgrim, Kickass etc.

Dirty secret? Comics make money off movies taking work done decades ago to appeal to boys.

Are they now?

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me know when they don't have GGGG tits, 5 inch heel boots, and no pockets.

Re:Last sentence

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear God, you moron. Can you read the fucking OP and see why it is relevant? It isn't that hard.

Power Creep Unless Proven Otherwise

[medv4380]

I could do the exact same analysis on Superman and find the exact same result that over time his powers have inflated. Power Creep is a well known issue in comics. The score of 12.2 in the 60's to 22.5 for female characters today is absolutely meaningless without the corresponding male character scores.

Re:Power Creep Unless Proven Otherwise

[PopeRatzo]

Power Creep is a well known issue in comics.

Power Creep is my favorite superhero.

Re:Power Creep Unless Proven Otherwise

[crimson tsunami]

He's my favorite villain.

Re:Power Creep Unless Proven Otherwise

[T.E.D.]

No you couldn't, because that is not the kind of "power" they are talking about. They are talking about power over the story itself.

Katherine focused on seven different criteria, and ranked each on a scale from one to five. Was a woman on the cover? How did the female characters look? Did women in the comic book talk to each other about important issues? Was the storyline about a woman? Were women in positions of power? Did they make their own decisions? Did they have jobs?

If you did the exact same study with Superman, you'd certainly not find his "story power" has been increasing. In the early comics he was the sole hero, so he'd be getting perfect scores for all those.

Re:Power Creep Unless Proven Otherwise

[Culture20]

Power over the story itself? Blonde Phantom, She-Hulk, and Squirrel Girl. All three have comic awareness and can use that to their advantage (She-Hulk usually just threatens the writer or penciler, whereas Squirrel Girl defeats Bi Beast, Dr Doom, Deadpool, Galactus, MODOK, Thanos, and Wolverine). Their only male counterpart with this ability is Deadpool.

Re:Power Creep Unless Proven Otherwise

[T.E.D.]

Not RTFA is one thing, but not reading my quotation of it in my post is a whole new level of Slashdot. I am truly impressed.

Re:Power Creep Unless Proven Otherwise

[medv4380]

If you did the exact same study with Superman, you'd certainly not find his "story power" has been increasing. In the early comics he was the sole hero, so he'd be getting perfect scores for all those.

Perfect score? You really think Superman was the only Golden Age Hero too?

Lets assume you're correct and Superman would have got the Perfect Score of 35 because he was the only hero. This assumes that all the characters were put on a scale, and ranked from best to worst. This would imply that 18 would be the median score meaning that the modern day score of 22.5 implys ether a favoritism towards women, or that it's reached equilibrium, but since the measurement error wasn't given in the article that makes it fairly difficult to ascertain.

However if you had bothered to read the article you'd know that's not what she did, and would still need the male score in order to extract any meaning at all. As for Superman and talking about the abstract "important issues" there is clear power creep between Silver Age stories with Fat Superman to the more serious Modern Area with Infinite Crisis. It's the problem with the Slapstick 60's and the slow methodical March to the age of Miller.

Re:Power Creep Unless Proven Otherwise

[Culture20]

not reading my quotation of it in my post is a whole new level of Slashdot. I am truly impressed.

*cue dramatic music undertone*
It is my power. It is my curse. It is my responsibility.
*crescendo*
*fade to black*

They're of almost no cultural relevance

[Karmashock]

There is very little development in the existing super hero universe.

Re:Last sentence

[Anonymous Coward]

What!? I'd swear I saw it saying high-school girl too!

I think we found a bug in the human brain.

the world needs an effective defense

[Anonymous Coward]

the world needs an effective defense against social justice whiners.

They always WERE more super

[WillAffleckUW]

But the press didn't show that.

Just like they did after WW II, pretending that all the superheroes who were women went "home".

Adapt. Because change is coming regardless.

Just stop

[Anonymous Coward]

Can we knock it off a little? one week, one fucking week without SJW or gender nonsense. Please, just stop for a bit.

Re:Just stop

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. Since obviously, in your tiny mind, "SJW or gender nonsense" == "any story that includes any mention of women", then no, it is not going to stop, not even for a bit. Sorry, baby boy, but more than half of humanity isn't about to disappear just to protect your 'preshus widdle fee-fees'.

So what you're saying is...

[Anonymous Coward]

...it wouldn't be an interesting study if it wasn't a 17 year old girl doing it?

Score another point for equality folks, the solution is obviously to lift one gender over the other.

Re:Last sentence

[Anonymous Coward]

That poor little boy Kathy, I'll bet he got beat up a lot.

Re:Enough with this SJW nonsense

[SuricouRaven]

Given that half their characters are either aliens, engineered or highly unusual mutants, their genetics might not even be xx/xy.

Re:Enough with this SJW nonsense

[Anonymous Coward]

Aren't we touchy?!
Equality makes boys feel inferior. Men can live with it.
So, shut up, you big baby!

Re:Last sentence

[The Grim Reefer]

That poor little boy Kathy, I'll bet he got beat up a lot

I guess you never heard the Johnny Cash song, "A Boy Named Sue"

Re:Last sentence

[Anonymous Coward]

I was actually just listening to it. This kid seems a little bit too smart to be tough though.

Re:Last sentence

[Anonymous Coward]

For the last time, it's "I swear she told me she was 18". If you mess it one more time you'll have to find another lawyer.

And yet

[MouseTheLuckyDog]

the greatest Superheroine of all time was "the new Wonder Woman" of the 79's. A Diana Prince who lost her powers

WW the comic was dying, and this version revived her.
She was killed off by the 70s version of SJW.

Re:Last sentence

[tomhath]

the "interesting" part is that they're a highschool student and 17 years old, with a published scientific paper to their name

I'm pretty sure all the authors of papers presented as the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair are high school students.

Nah.

[tomhath]

Powder Puff Girls kicked her butt.

Re:Nah.

[MouseTheLuckyDog]

Not if I Ching is with her!

Re:Last sentence

[Hognoxious]

Considering the state of highschool science education in the USA, it actually is pretty impressive.

If reading comics counts as science, no wonder it's in a state.

Among the uniquely feminine super powers...

[kyubre]

Among the uniquely feminine super powers is the ability to transport ping pong balls while keeping their hands free.

Indeed O'Neal...

[stink_eye]

Female character powers have gone up, along with boob dimensions, whilst waistlines, hemlines and clothing coverage have dis-proportionaly shrank! God Bless comic books, if it wasn't for them I wouldn't have developed the keen interest in realistic female body types that I posess today! I truly appreciate powerful, statuesque, scantilly clad women!

Re: In other Cinema vs MRAs news...

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't crow too much yet, your SJW brethren were also calling for a boycott due to "harmful female tropes" or some such bullshit. If I'm not mistaken, LW1 went on quite the Twitter tirade about it today.

Re: In other Cinema vs MRAs news...

[PopeRatzo]

I wouldn't crow too much yet, your SJW brethren were also calling for a boycott due to "harmful female tropes" or some such bullshit. If I'm not mistaken, LW1 went on quite the Twitter tirade about it today.

Can anyone translate that?

Not Just Marvel

[sonicmerlin]

Honestly this is a trend in all of TV, and to a certain extent it's really silly.

Show writers desperately want to put women in positions of power and control, essentially switching the male and female roles. Take "The 100", where literally every military (and thus population) leader of the Grounders is a female. Except... that doesn't even make sense. In what universe have women ever aspired to be military leaders? You have some native american tribes for example, where the female "healer" or "shaman" might be a clan's spiritual leader, but they put women in positions that are so diametrically opposed to how women behave in real life, it becomes a laughably unrealistic scenario.

I mentioned this in another thread, but other shows like "The Flash" depicts every single fracking woman as a supersmart, unmatched computer or mechanical engineer, programmer, physics whiz, etc. What universe does this show even take place? When was the last time you saw more than a tiny fraction of women showing interest or excelling in something like engineering or computer programming? Heck in "The 100" the best mechanic to grace the Sky People in 52 years is a young woman named Raven. Really??? My university had something like 95% male engineers, 5% female. And the brightest were always guys. It's almost laugh out loud funny how out of place these actors seem in their roles. Well it might just be the bad acting, but that's also magnified by bad casting.

Re:Not Just Marvel

[Anonymous Coward]

Some day you'll realize that nearly all media is filled to the brim with propaganda messaging. That day might be today, or you might just think me a "conspiracy theorist", but I'm not. I know how social engineering really works.

Once you've identified the memes that the socio-political spheres are pushing, you'll note them appearing as themes in nearly everything produced today. It's been a long time since marketing mastered the art of passive psychological influence. It's no big secret that everyone else is using that technology to further their ends too.

Re:Not Just Marvel

[Anonymous Coward]

You are obviously not bery observant.

There are many female engineers, computer people, scientists, techy type persons:

Marie Curie
Lisa Meitner
Dorothy Hodgkin
Edith Clark
Grace Hopper

Heck my wife's grandmother did rocket calculations in world war 2 as PhD Engineer.

Computer science and to some degree engineering may still be a bit behind, but there are tons of women in the sciences. Especially biology and chemistry from my anecdotal observations. I do not find it all difficult to believe that they could just as easily be physics, computer, or mechanical engineering wizards and have an entire group of them.

Maybe the reason you haven't seen many is your backwater home hasn't given them opportunities. I've known several who who moved countries to escape families and cultural expectations of settling down and having 3-4 kids to have a chance to study the sciences. I find it sad that they had to, and sad that there are probably a small minority that would want to.

Re:Not Just Marvel

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting to edit... sorry

*small minority that would be able to.

Re:Not Just Marvel

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's just your reading comprehension that suffers here. The OP didn't say there are no women engineers, just that the ratio of female/male in real life is so small that it is unrealistic for all the engineers and leaders to be female as depicted in the movie.

Re:Not Just Marvel

[serviscope_minor]

When was the last time you saw more than a tiny fraction of women showing interest or excelling in something like engineering or computer programming?

Out of interest who is the only person to have won two science Nobel prizes in different disciplines?

My university had something like 95% male engineers, 5% female. And the brightest were always guys.

Mine was about 85% guys and the smartest in my year was female. Not only got the top exam mark she was excellent at the practical side too.

Just because they might be rare doesn't mean truly astoundingly bright female scientists and engineers don't exist.

I mentioned this in another thread, but other shows like "The Flash" depicts every single fracking woman as a supersmart, unmatched computer or mechanical engineer, programmer, physics whiz, etc. What universe does this show even take place?

A truly realistic universe where a guy can run at 1000 miles per hour?

Re:Not Just Marvel

[JimFive]

I mentioned this in another thread, but other shows like "The Flash" depicts every single fracking woman as a supersmart,[...]

Well, no. The Flash TV show has 2 women. Dr. Caitlin Snow, yes super smart but no more able than Cisco, and Iris West, normal woman reporter, not a supergenius whatsoever. The only other genius woman I recall was the bee robot girl. The female villains do not seem more powerful than the male villains.

In "The Arrow" the only supergenius woman is Felicity and she is also the only person in the world who is not a killing machine. So, your perception of those shows seems a bit off.
--
JimFive

ZZzz

[siphonophore]

zzZZzz

Women are actually human

[Livius]

If you think every story that mentions women is saying the same thing, then 1) you didn't read any of them very carefully, and 2) you're one of the worst examples of sexism in existence.

And both genders are relentlessly de-aging

[Maxo-Texas]

When I was 13, I was reading stories about competent 30 year old war and super heroes. Reed Richards had a decade of experience.

Today, everyone seems to be 19 to 22 yet they are somehow completely experienced and more competent than anyone older than they are. (re: the recent Star Trek films). Rogue especially has deaged tremendously from about 30 to about 20.

For some reason, when i was a kid, you didn't need children to attract an audience but these days you do.

It's so unrealistic that it is really jarring to me. These young children lack the experience and gravitas to be in the parts they are playing.

Wolverine at least still has an appearance of being in his mid 30's but he's basically immortal so it doesn't really apply to him except... it seems like a lot of "tricks" he would have seen a dozen times by now.

Re:And both genders are relentlessly de-aging

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sad I can't mod this up to 6

Sue Storm has always been powerful

[Culture20]

Invisible Woman has almost always been one of the most powerful and versatile superheroes in Marvel. She can knock out the Hulk. She can kill Wolverine. She can redirect a gamma bomb blast, saving the lives of all the other superheroes who have gathered (in that canon issue, her husband was already dead).

Re:Sue Storm has always been powerful

[k6mfw]

I remember when she was referred to the Invisible Girl. One issue in 1960s is where Sue and Reed were looking for a house in the suburbs (landlord of Baxter Bldg was kind of upset about all the damage after a big fight with Dr. Doom, "why do you reside here in middle of city subjecting downtown to constant attacks?"). A group of teenage boys, "Hey look it's the Invisible Girl, yeah everyone knows what the Invisible Girl looks like! Can you show us how you turn invisible?"

Re:Sue Storm has always been powerful

[Anonymous Coward]

Another that gets forgotten is the Scarlet Witch, magneto's daughter.

In one arc her powers run amok and completely change the whole of reality for nearly everyone, including most mutants. I mean, wolverine may be able to beat the shit out of people but he never completely alters the entirety of the universe by accident.

Re:Sue Storm has always been powerful

[Culture20]

Another that gets forgotten is the Scarlet Witch, magneto's daughter.

In one arc her powers run amok and completely change the whole of reality for nearly everyone, including most mutants.

*Begin Spoiler*


* Spoiler: It's not 100% her fault. A retcon in Children's Crusade revealed that she meddled with forces beyond her control to try and recreate her children. Those forces caused her to attack the Avengers in the Disassembled arc and eventually House of M.


*End Spoiler*

Totally not a paid study to astroturf Marvel.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not even wearing my tinfoil, this just makes business sense. This study portrays a specific company too positively to not be a part of some social engineering ploy. See: Employees fired for offensive tweets and the decidedly feminist slant of last Superbowl's ads. There's a huge incentive for traditionally male-dominated fields of entertainment (video games, football, comics) to say, "Look! We're progressive too!"

Note that I'm not criticizing the social trend of gender-equality. However, when a profit-first publishing monolith like Marvel tries to manipulate public perception by using some faux moral high ground as a marketing point, it makes me nauseous. That is what is happening here, it could not be more transparent.

Re:Last sentence

[Anonymous Coward]

If you think being smart and being tough are mutually exclusive, then you are neither.

Re:Last sentence

[russotto]

If reading comics counts as science, no wonder it's in a state.

I imagine it comes under "sociology", which is counted as a science. This study probably has better research practices than 90% of the sociology papers out there,

Re:Enough with this SJW nonsense

[russotto]

Simply being male doesn't make you evil in the eyes of a SJW. Being a *white*, *heterosexual*, *male* makes you evil (and responsible for all bad stuff in the world).

Any one makes you suspicious and any two seals the deal. I say embrace it. Be the evil they claim. There's even prizes: if you commit 1 million documented microaggressions you'll get a free puppy (to kick) from the Patriarchy.

This was not a "study!"

[Anonymous Coward]

    Okay, what this kid did is fun and interesting, but it is completely misleading to call it a "study." The original article stated she was part of a group which presented their "science fair projects."

Re:In other Cinema vs MRAs news...

[Anonymous Coward]

You seem awfully upset at MRAs. What exactly makes you so angry about such irrelevant issues? If you actually leave your house you'll find that nobody gives a shit about SJWs or MRAs.

Powergirl Expansion a Myth

[glennrrr]

Unfortunately, and I wish it were true, but the story about Powergirl being expanded that way was pretty easily debunked by looking at the issues in question. Some stories are just too good to check.

Re:Powergirl Expansion a Myth

[Maxo-Texas]

I found the article you were referring to.

http://ragnell.blogspot.com/20...

It was written after the principles were dead and after several of them had confirmed the story.

Sure- they may have been lying. But also, looking at the older issues, her breasts do not seem like the double G whoppers they became later.

They do complement Woody in the article on at least drawing her with realistic anatomy.

soft vs hard powers

[k6mfw]

Some essay on the web discussed how male superheros had hard powers (massive strength, power beams, etc.) where female superheros had soft powers (invisible force fields, hex waves, etc.) illustrating psychological perceptions.

Where is the Link

[Anonymous Coward]

If she conducted real research and science where is the link to her paper and the data used as the basis for her conclusions. Reproducible research or it never happened.

Re:In other Cinema vs MRAs news...

[PopeRatzo]

You seem awfully upset at MRAs.

They are embarrassing all men. You should be upset too.

Also realize that I never bring them up until they start to appear in the comments, like maggots on a corpse.

I had to do this once before when a small group of neo-nazis started hanging out at Slashdot. It takes a while, but eventually they run off when they realize that someone will call them out on their bullshit. It's not that hard. You just hold a mirror up before them, and they shrink away.

Obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one welcome our Marvel Super-Powered Over-Ladies. - Deadpool

Re: Last sentence

[chromeronin799]

Or the man they call Jayne.

Re:In other Cinema vs MRAs news...

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I guess this goes up beside the 'feminists' screaming about the sexism in the Avengers. Tit for tat is fair play (e.g. there are stupid people on both 'sides' of this). Seriously anyone who would watch the new Avengers movie & scream about how its sexist is equivalent to this asshead claiming the new Mad Max is a feminist takoever.

Re:In other Cinema vs MRAs news...

[Anonymous Coward]

How are they embarrassing all men? Are female MRAs embarrassing all women?

They are embarrassing themselves. It has nothing to do with me or any other non-MRA man.

Considering /.'s level of obsession with gender...

[Anonymous Coward]

...I assumed most readers are 17-year-old boys with sore wrists too.

Or unable to think for themselves.

Or both.

Re:Last sentence

[wonkey_monkey]

That's his point. The "What's of particular interest..." suggests it's an unusual and unexpected occurence (although the summary doesn't even say it's a girl, the OP seems to have thought it did).

Seems a bit condescending, why wouldn't a girl be able to do this?

Re:Enough with this SJW nonsense

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm the same AC as above & I did read the stories about Mad Max...and yeah clear 'Asshats' at work & if you do a search you see the majority (other than themselves) making fun of them mercilessly....here's the thing though, the movie IS portrayed as a 'feminist movie', it's heralded as such...I haven't seen it yet but I trust the 'message' doesn't override the action in the movie (and at least 1 review supports my hope)...you see I have no problem with a 'strong female protagonist' (Riply in Alien/Aliens anyone?)

I also decided to finallly read up on what all the 'sexism' controversy was with the new Avengers movie (having just seen it)...and as far as I can tell its MORE 'asshattery'...though not as clearly so as the 'revenge of the misogynists' referenced above. As far as I can tell the 'femists' complaining about the Avengers apparently wouldn't have been happy unless it was Black Widow with the 'secret family, a house husband & 2 kids' and Hawkeye & Bruce Banner/The Hulk were in a gay relationship (no nobody said that but the pickiness with respect to throwing around the label of 'sexism' certainly implies so). I'd give an example but if you don't know what I mean its likely we're not on the same page on this one.

So as far as I can tell in the span of a month we have examples of Asshatery from both sides...if only the hammer Mjolnar really existed & we could all try our hand at lifting it & prove that 'nobody is worthy' so that maybe we can stop picking apart every supposed slight someone feels they have a right to & focus on the good & supportive things most people do.

First... the male powers are also increasing

[Tanuki64]

Second... I stopped reading Marvel at all. Let them make Thor a cunt and Captain America a nigger. But let them do it without my money.

Re:Last sentence

[vux984]

Yep, I read it the other way.

The fact that the gender wasn't mentioned in the summary at all let alone the sentence he singled out; led me to initially assume he'd just assumed it was a boy. So I read it as:

I read it as:

  "A boy did this, so what?... why wouldn't a girl be able to?"

I realized as the thread developed that he meant:

  "A girl did this; why would we think she couldn't?"

And he originally replied to the thread himself essentially confirming this and also WTFing the fact that the gender he thought was in the summary wasn't actually present. /shrug. one of those cases where I wish I could at least edit posts or add an update to them after the fact...

Re:Last sentence

[Hognoxious]

I imagine it comes under "sociology", which is counted as a science.

Well it does have the same ending as Astrology, so I suppose it must be.

Re:Enough with this SJW nonsense

[samwichse]

A certain species of whiner that brings up SJWs at every opportunity is actually an irritating SJW itself.

Ironic.

Re:Last sentence

[Anonymous Coward]

"Particular interest" still doesn't imply that she would be incapable as you've interpreted, so you're still a flamebaiting asshole...

Re:Last sentence

[Anonymous Coward]

No, we really just praise boys for the same stuff we always have. Being tough, fast, good at sports, strong, etc. In *theory*, we praised them for being smart, too, but that never really happened until they had long since stopped being thought of as 'boys'.

Girls, on the other hand, were largely praised for being pretty, or nice. Girls who were tough, fast, good at sports, strong, etc. were mostly ignored in regard to those qualities, especially if they weren't also pretty. That didn't change much as they became women.

What's changed is that girls are, more and more, being *recognized* (and subsequently praised) for their abilities *beyond* being pretty or 'nice'.

Re:Enough with this SJW nonsense

[Imazalil]

I think at this point SJW is about as useless a term as hipster is. It's got no meaning other than "those other people, not me though".

(can't say it ever really had any meaning, just like hipster)

jual crystalx asi nasa

[Anonymous Coward]

dari segi kwalitas crystal x sudah tidak diragukan lagi . karena berbahan alami dan di kemas dalam bentuk modern.. seperti itulah cara jual crystal x asli

ciri ciri crystal x asli

[Anonymous Coward]

semuanya yang berbentuk crystal itu sangat keras, beda dengan crystal x, sangat lunak dan haluss.. seperti itulahciri ciri crystal x asli nasa

Re:In other Cinema vs MRAs news...

[Anonymous Coward]

Please, calm down. We need you to keep up recruiting for MRAs with your insane vitriol, we'd need ten people just to replace you if your heart exploded due to all that rage.

No matter ....

[wartizmukul]

Character makes the difference no matter who you are.... Marvels make the all character like super hero and heroine.