Sexism & Misogyny in Comics

Detective Comics volume 1, Issue 371 was release in January, 1968 in the United States. This particular comic was extremely sexist and misogynistic. Throughout the entire comic, Gardner Fox writes in a way completely and obviously demeaning to women. The message portrayed by this comic is that Batgirl is a girl, and only cares about her looks and will mess things up because she isn’t a man. Some quotes including sexism are “By the time Batgirl pretties herself up for this brawl, it’ll be over.”, “It wasn’t my personal vanity that made me adjust my headgear — it was an instinctive female reaction!”, and “You see batgirl, that was one time where you turned a feminine trait to your advantage!”. The target audience is definitely young boys and teenagers. This text privileges men specifically, with the message that only men do things right and are strong. This comic was made in the 1960s, which is very relevant because the social views and issues were completely different. This type of sexism and misogyny was extremely common and men were seen as the worker of the house, the one that makes the living and provides for the family while the mother is a house-wife. Times have most definitely changed for the better, and I believe my remix displays a clear, and positive message. My remix communicates equality and teamwork, where gender is not something Batman and Robin point out. Instead of calling out Batgirl for doing everything wrong just because she’s a girl, they supportively tell her that it’s just because she’s not as experienced as them, that they’ve been doing it for years, and they see her potential and are willing to work with her as a trio. My audience is anyone. I think any person reading my version of the comic could benefit from it, it shows that teamwork and acceptance is the key to success and instead of being cynical and blaming people for things they cannot change, tells a story of friendly acceptance and understanding. Society will improve greatly once everyone can do the things that the trio has done in this comic. The ideal world is where everyone accepts the way others are and can work together towards a common goal. In order for me to portray this message, I did not need to switch around frames. I was able to change many of the text bubbles and keep the same scenes through textual manipulation. I was excited to be able to make my own narrative which is much more progressive, while keeping the same action sequence. It was very interesting to do something like this, and also reminded me of how society was in America in the 1960s, and how far we have come since then. It’s really amazing to be able to look back on how things were and appreciate improvement. When we read “Rethinking Convergence Culture” by Hay and Couldry and “Editorial: Convergence Culture” by Deuze and Jenkins, we talked about convergence culture and remixing, which essentially is remixing something into a way accepted by the current society.. Our discussion got me thinking about how so many things are relative to convergence culture. Back in the 1960s, this type of comic was accepted, and the way of thinking did not conflict with the writing and motives behind it. Now, in 2017, we understand why this comic is so wrong and a detriment to the improvement of society. My remix is really important because we can still enjoy the comic, just with a converged message which is much more powerful and progressive towards the benefit of society.

Original Comic: http://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Detective-Comics-1937/Issue-371?id=5613&readType=1