Growing up I was really close with my older brother, making me more of a tom boy then a little girl who loved playing with dolls. Instead I tended to watch his cartoons on TV, swim in my pond in my backyard, climb trees, play with legos, and of course read comic books. What I never realized before was that the views of "average" hero's and villains in the comics I grew up reading are actually so far from average people and so far from being the right way to view different kinds of people. The "beauty seen in comic books are so far from the beauty of the real world it is actually kind of sad.
the Blob, the Kingpin.
Every women in the comic world are skinny and beautiful, and if they are not skinny and beautiful, or way to sexual then they are the evil villains, just like the femme fatals of the movie world. Some examples would be The Black Widow, Catwoman, Mystique, Poison Ivy, and so many more.
The same goes for the men side too. Every hero that is a man is handsome, sexy, and perfectly riped. If they are even a little on the heavier side then they are the evil villain, for fat, ugly, evil villains see The Kingpin, The Blob, Bizarro, and Lex Luthor (who is bald).
So I wonder how any young kid can mold his/her own standard of beauty when even in his comic books he is getting bombarded with the images of perfect bodies from his/her heroes who he/she wants so badly to strive to be, and not so perfect, sexual, maybe even fat images of the villains who he/she does not want to be like.
the Blob, the Kingpin.
Nice critique of the images of men/women in comics. Feedback for next time: I'd like to see a little more development of the ideas here – yes, the images set impossible standards for both men and women, and any flaw is equated with evil. What does this mean for readers, for society? You link it with the femme fatale image and this is a nice connection with the class. I'd like to see you analyze that connection a bit more deeply.
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I like how you said how your close relation to your older brother has made you a tomboy when little. I grew up with two brothers myself and it had a great impact on how I behave. I noticed at school when I was little that I was not as "girly" as some other girls. And sometimes I even talked in a "boy's" way by saying "come on dude." I also think the standard of beauty is just sad and impossible for women to achieve. As discussed in class, the ideal body type and shape for women are not even realistic (for example, the ideal body image for women is to have a skinny body but a large breasts, but that is not common or "usual" physically. Women with skinny bodies tend to have smaller breasts). Many young girls have suffered trying to meet this standard of beauty. I think it is important for the people and society to get rid of this type of standard, and teach the young girls that a healty and happy person is the most beautiful girl.
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