I swear this isn’t just to get more “When Fangirls Attack” hits

Most of this is somewhat old news in the rapid world of the internet, but there’s so many different versions of this same issue popping up in the past few weeks, I think it’s worth collecting just to see how publishers are repeating themselves.

I normally skip everything I ever see regarding statues of comic characters. I cannot imagine a scenario in which I would spend money on one of those things. However, a recent statue of Mary Jane bending over and doing laundry has gotten a lot of attention, even in the New York Post, to the point where it was virtually impossible to not read something having to do with at least this statue. And again, while I care not-at-all about these things, this particular one has brought up some intelligent discussion about the role of sexuality in the marketing of comics (see I Think, Therefore I Man: Pretending to be Offended at Paperghost.com). I Against Comics has a lengthy, but worth-reading reaction to Adam Hughes’ response to the controversy. Gotta love when the predator acts like the victim.

Designated Sidekick has a breakdown of the sexism in the recently released Heroes for Hire #13 cover, while Lea Hernandez addresses the tentacle rape and pearl necklace in her Open Letter to Joe Quesada. Roar of Comics addresses it all in Why the Cover for Heroes for Hire #13 is Wrong.

And this is definitely the oldest of the batch, but Paper Ghost is worth a few more reads regarding the mess with Michael Turner’s ridiculous depiction of Power Girl. First we have DCs Diversity and Equality Vs Tits McGee, and in I Invade Brad Meltzer’s Blog and Everybody Dies, the ghost takes us to Brad Meltzer’s myspace blog where he posts

What’s the point of making claims for sophistication, intelligence and all the other stuff that gets wheeled out for something like Identity Crisis, only to let your cover artist come up with something so amazingly insulting that it almost defies description?

On the one hand, you have people writing DC Nation columns wondering where all the women readers are.

On the other, you have garbage like this sitting on the cover of your all-grown-up-now comic. I’d love to know how many women working at DC have rolled their eyes at this one.

and the Meltzer / Turner groupies try their best not to get tangled up in their own ridiculous “logic.”

Obviously reasonable people can disagree with some aspects of these issues, but one cannot escape the irony in comics publishers bemoaning the tiny number of female readers while continuing to produce material that is clearly targeting self-pleasuring males through the ridiculous objectification of women.

Related link: Manstream Comics Awards