This cover has been the “Outrage of the Week” for three nonconsecutive weeks in the Comics Fan Feminist Blogosphere, and its making its way towards a fourth with this post. Alpha Girl backs up the arguments laid out by Greg Burgas earlier this week, points out that the entire argument is pointless, states her appreciation for the character and makes a noble defense of large-breasted women at the hands of wicked extremist Feminists.
There’s one big problem with her post. The argument was a strawman. The complaints about the cover are not the wicked extremist Feminist arguments described. Neither Burgas nor Alpha seems to have read the actual complaints about the cover, and both bring up several arguments (Comics are a guy’s fantasy anyway. Its just as bad in TV and movies. Women have better self-esteem. Men are more realistic than you think. Why don’t we focus our energy towards something more important?) that are thoroughly, skillfully and convincingly refuted elsewhere.
We won’t be discussing those.
Instead, we’ll be addressing the expressed idea that artwork has less of a bearing on characterization than writing and of course, Power Girl’s breasts.
With pictures!
In all seriousness, we will be discussing more than Power Girl’s breasts (the promised pictures are here, however), because there is far more to Power Girl than just her breasts and I believe that it takes a supremely dense reader not to realize this. Most Power Girl fans realize that there is a world of character behind the massive chest, and tend to be outraged when a writer or artist (yes, artist) does not realize that.
Those of you that think that characterization is job of the writer alone are sorely mistaken. Comic books are a visual medium. There are a thousand tiny little clues in each issue to give the impression of the character’s personality, things the writer can’t convey through dialogue alone. Turner has managed to completely disregard all of the little clues about Power Girl’s personality in a single picture. Anything more than a blank thought balloon over her head would fall flat at this point!
Don’t believe me? Then let’s first look at some artists who do know how to convey Power Girl’s personality.
This is a close-up of the Alex Ross cover for Justice Society of America #1. Power Girl barely takes up an eighth of the cover, but he still managed to convey her attitude. The impression I get is readiness. She’s in front of the table and staring at the viewer. She’s standing with her hands on her hips and her weight shifted onto the leg closer to the viewer. She’s poised to react to any unexpected threat, easily able to pivot on that closer leg and throw a punch. The expression on her face makes it very clear that she is ready to do this. Her sturdy build and muscular arms make it very clear that punch would hurt. Power Girl’s steady character traits include a willingness to deal out massive amounts of violence in battle quickly and efficiently. In her first appearance, she stomped her foot once and knocked a squad of soldiers off of their feet, ending the battle. Alex Ross’ Power Girl is the sort of person who could do that, you can tell from a single cover.
Of course Ross, while a legend to many eyes, is not to everyone’s taste. Some people do prefer a soft, cartoonish style that offers a taste of cheesecake but still delivers the kind of energy needed to propel 90s comics through their hormone-fueled adolescence. For those people, here is Jim Lee’s cover to Infinite Crisis #2.
I’m not by nature a fan of Lee’s, but I have to admit this is a beautiful cover. Again, she distributes her weight on her right leg and stands with her shoulders back, hands on her hips. This time isn’t readiness, though. She’s not looking to kick anyone’s ass, she’s just feeling powerful and sure of herself. Her head is held high, not looking at the viewer but instead looking towards an unseen future. Her mouth is slightly twitched upward in a smile, and her eyes are focuses on that undefined future. She’s basking. This is an optimistic woman, but the overall message of the pose is power and certainty.
Body image in our society is complex and devastating for most women, and white spandex forgives absolutely nothing. If you want insight into how self-assured she has to be to wear that uniform, go to a dancewear store, try on a basic white leotard, look in the mirror and contemplate walking out of the dressing room like that. Any woman who poses like that, in public, in white spandex with a hole over her chest is twelve feet tall and bulletproof when it comes to her self-esteem. Power Girl flies around fighting people wearing that, which makes her ten times the superbly confident woman who just poses at the convention with you. We should all cultivate such an attitude towards our bodies.
I believe Mr. Lee has sufficiently captured such a mindset in this cover.
Not enough? Then we have the Amanda Conner cover for JSA Classified #1. She’s shifting her weight from hip to hip as she rolls up her sleeves. Its a leisurely, exaggerated, threatening motion. She’s still solidly planted, but she’s leaning over much further than a person normally would and getting as much flex as she can out of each arm position. That’s a wicked smile accented by her eyes and eyebrows, the little dimple just adds to it. She’s not even cautiously sizing up her opponent. Instead, she’s giving a theatrical prelude that tells us she plans to kick ass and savor the experience. The messy hair, the dangling cape and the slightly spilling cleavage give the overall impression of ruggedness. She knows she won’t get hurt. She knows she can hurt us. We all know what’s about to happen.
One of the most beloved traits of this character is that ruggedness. Its an enjoyable determination. We know she’s resolute, we know she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty, we know she’s capable and she knows all of this, but on top of that she enjoys herself when she can. She revels in that ability to wade into the fray with the heavyweights of the DC Universe and potentially come out with the title belt. She’s not out of control, but she enjoys a good workout. Conner’s cover combines the traits of the previous two covers with a sense of humor.
Please note, if you will, that two of those pictures showed Power Girl’s breasts in the center of the page, drawn to the point of spilling out of her uniform. The third displayed them prominently. I’m of the school of thought that Power Girl’s breasts are part of her characterization. It goes beyond her confidence and sexuality. Power Girl is a very large person, in the sense of her personality as well as her physical form. Her physical form reinforces her personality. The personality of someone who calls herself Power Girl and is worthy of such a name. The toughness, the roughness, the confidence, and the impulsive fun are in every muscle, every bone in her large body and every curve of fat from the cheeks on her face to the convex belly that some artists like to throw in to give her a proper hourglass figure. The large breasts are just part of the overall largeness of the character.
However, if you look at the above pictures, the large breasts are not the only thing used to convey that largeness.
Compare Turner’s cover to the above.
Look at her passive stance. The placid shape of her eyes and that confused tilt to her head. Her arms are limp at her sides, and her body is positioned as if its just an outgrowth of those round orbs attached to her chest. They are spherical, perky, and seem to float in the air. By comparison the rest of Power Girl, from her hair to her belt, seems to hang. I wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised if the final cover showed a puppeteer at the top and strings attached to her head and breasts. She’s like a doll. A robot. The vacant look even implies she’s been turned off for the night. This is not Power Girl. The only thing Turner managed to draw correctly was the breasts.
And that is why most of the Power Girl fans are pissed off. Because he took a vibrant, vital, impressive character — possibly the most lifelike woman in the DC Universe — stripped her of every character trait that made a difference, and reduced her to a pair of breasts.
That’s insulting to male and female readers.
Related: On my personal blog, this post from about a year ago, which debunks the legend about Wally Wood increasing her breast size. (Because I know one of you is going to bring that up.)
May 4th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Great column. Though I’d suggest that Turner doesn’t even draw the breasts correctly, given his failure to position them on Peej’s body in a way that actually has any relevance to anatomy. If breasts are going to stick out horizontally, they’re going to start higher up the chest than that. Seriously.
May 4th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Nice work. You do a great job of showing the distinction between harmless/enjoyable cheesecake and eyeroll-worthy objectification. It isn’t always a clear distinction, but Turner’s cover is pretty obviously in the latter category.
I don’t know Power Girl well (my issue with Turner’s rendition was more about the incorrect anatomy and vacant expression than OOCness), but your descriptions of her character consistently intrigue me.
May 4th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Dunno if you’ve seen the panels, but somewhere there’s a “fan fixed” version of Turner’s drawing – putting her spine back where it belongs, moving her breasts to a more natural “hanging” point, giving her the necessary rib cage (and returning her missing ribs) to support it all, giving her actual hips and a waist.
And it looks a heck of a lot better.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t do anything for the vapid expression….
May 4th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I don’t know why companies still give him covers to do.
May 4th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I’m finding a lot of things on the internets that are attributed to me that I didn’t write. I’m also suspected of having motives that I did not imply. This is leading me to seriously question the ability of the public school system to adequately teach reading comprehension and inference skills.
“Alpha Girl backs up the arguments laid out by Greg Burgas earlier this week, points out that the entire argument is pointless, states her appreciation for the character and makes a noble defense of large-breasted women at the hands of wicked extremist Feminists.”
Really? I did all of that? Let’s review, shall we?
“Backs up Greg Burgas” – Although I didn’t specifically refer to his post, I do support his view. I also saw no advantage to him labeling his view as “lame” other than as an attempt to pander to the “wicked extremist Feminists” (your words, not mine).
“Points out that the entire argument is pointless” – Well, yeah. I did that. I think it’s silly.
“States her appreciation for the character” – Ummm, I don’t believe so. I don’t even follow the exploits of Power Girl, so it’s more accurate to say that I’m fairly ambivalent toward her as a character. But, we’ve never spoken, so it’s understandable that you wouldn’t know that about me.
“Makes a noble defense of large-breasted women at the hands of wicked extremist Feminists” – Not really. In a comment response I references various negative experiences I’ve had with women involving the size of my own boobs. I would hardly classify those women I had that contact with as “wicked extremist feminists”, when, in fact, they were merely rude and insecure.
May 4th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Mike should either stay with “Danger Girl” or stand in the corner with Liefeld.
May 4th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Lisa Fary — You linked to him, and then argued that Power Girl’s boobs were okay, that there was oversexualization in every form of media, it doesn’t cause Fanboys to have an unrealistic standard of women. All of those are arguments made by Mr. Burgas in his post. Basically, you backed him up.
My apologies for thinking you stated your appreciation of the character. There was a comment (4th one down) in there pointing out that you too had big breasts and din’t appreciate the assumptions of the character based on boobs alone, which is usually used as an argument of appreciation for the character. My mistake. It was an argument about women making assumptions on your breast size, tied back to the imaginary women you were discussing, which is why I said you were nobly defending large-breasted women at the hands of wicked extremist feminists. I was actually giving you the benefit of the doubt here.
You did argue, using one of Karen’s jokes, that fan feminists are overreacting and perpetuating the idea that one “can’t joke with a comic chick.” I was politely ignoring the irony that you used a joke to illustrate that. (You seem to have missed why those arguments are on the Bingo card, because they are cliched, overused, and have already been refuted multiple times. Personally, I think a central linkpost or FAQ would be more productive than a Bingo card, but it was an exasperated joke.)
I’m inclined to think that its you that is humor-impaired, because you don’t seem to understand exaggeration for the purpose of humor. (Again, it was an egregious error to believe you were a Power Girl fan.) Overall, a sense of humor seems to be a trait both Greg and Karen have that you don’t.
You really shouldn’t call on other people for flawed reading comprehension after you’ve used a person’s joke to claim that people can’t take a joke.
However, since I have you here, I should set you straight on why you’re getting a rude response. You were arguing here, there and on Karen’s message board that you’re being singled out because you presented a different viewpoint.
I can tell you as someone who has disagreed with the majority of Girl-wonder.org regularly in public that this is not the case. I am on record as clamoring for Jade and Spoiler’s death before they happened.
Most recently I dared to enjoy Amazons Attack. I got a few commenters disagreeing, they didn’t change my mind, I didn’t change theirs, we went on with our lives and little whining about it. There was no persecution. Melissa has publically expressed doubts about Stephanie Brown as a feminist crusade, she didn’t make anyone angry.
Why? Because its possible to disagree on sexism without reinforcing the stereotypes used to silence Feminists. You didn’t. You disagreed and presented a foolish parody of an argument as your jumping off point, then you went on to tell everyone that what they are angry about doesn’t matter. Any points you had towards the actual arguments (and there are some issues that can be hashed out in a much more respectable manner) are drowned out by you picking up the strawfeminist and running with it.
Like Greg, you weren’t addressing the actual complaints about the cover, which is irritating enough. Using a platform to reinforce antifeminist arguments, while claiming “More Feminist than Thou” in the comments because politics is a more worthwhile use of time is rage-inducing.
Since you don’t seem to understand that, I find it very hard to believe its your detractors who have the communication problem.
May 4th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Power Girl is my favorite superhero, and this has to be the best column on her ever! Thank-you! You get it, to a T.
May 4th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
And that is what is called PWNAGE!
Thank you Ragnell.
Although you will never get me to admit that Amazons Attack is NOT sexist garbage.
May 4th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
This article defines the essence of Powergirl to anyone who has ever wondered why she has so many fans.
May 4th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
I’m always amazed by the number of people on the internet who don’t realize that if so many people are “misreading” what they say, then the problem is usually in the expression of the words rather than the comprehension of the audience.
After all, there’s only one common factor here: the original post. That makes it pretty clear where the “fault” lies.
—
Great Power Girl post, Ragnell!
May 4th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Thank you for an excellent article. You have done a great job of making an intelligent, well-supported (oops!) argument that I hope will be widely read.
May 5th, 2007 at 12:48 am
This… this was really something. After reading it i jumped up, dragged my girlfriend into the room and read it aloud to her.
we were quite, quite impressed with what you had to say.
And i totally agree, i loves me some cheesecake, but that turner cover is ridiculous and insulting to a character that i like because she’s such a strong female character (which, let’s face it, is much much hotter than a waspy waist and gargantuan bazoombas!).
Power Girl wears the boobs, the boobs… do not wear Power Girl. er… so to speak
May 5th, 2007 at 3:31 am
“The toughness, the roughness, the confidence, and the impulsive fun are in every muscle, every bone in her large body and every curve of fat…”
Indeed, Power Girl done well comes across just like the original Superman from Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s days or the Fleisher cartoons – more so than Superman does these days.
May 5th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I think Turner can only draw two facial expressions – scowly for men and pouty for women.
May 5th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Turner’s cover just seems weirder and weirder every time I look at it.
May 5th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
I’m not sure where the confusion over Lisa’s use of the Bingo card comes from. If you read the paragraph just before the introduction of the card, Lisa says”
“I came across an Anti-Comics-Feminist Bingo card based on a general Anti-Feminist Bingo card. The idea is that your opponent in an argument about women in comics will have used three or more of the expressions on the card. I guess this is supposed to make me feel some kind of solidarity with my comic-reading sisters as we share a knowing snicker and eye-roll, but all it’s really doing is irritating me and perpetuating the idea that you can’t joke with a comic chick.”
To me that reads that Lisa saw the card, got that it was meant to be a joke, and rather than finding it funny, found it annoying. If you read the paragraph all the way through, I don’t see how any conclusion can be drawn that Lisa doesn’t get that the card was a joke. “Snicker and an eye-roll,” doesn’t indicate seriousness. A joke is only a joke if everybody laughs, and Lisa, apparently, didn’t find the Bingo card funny.
Ragnell – you’ve already proven, through your own posting that you will attribute motives and words when they’re not there, you will overlook what it clearly stated, and you will flat out distort and misrepresent what was originally posted to make your point. When called on these things, you resort to being rude and abusive. The only lesson I take away from this is to not get into any discussion with you and expect any sort of fair discourse.
May 5th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Thank you for this post – it’s awesome and makes me want to find out more about her.
BTW, my mother walked in while I was reading the post and saw the Jim Lee cover. She complained that PG looked bad (she said that this was “worse than Barbie” – I don’t agree, btw). So I scrolled to Exhibit A. It’s been quite some time since I made her speechless, but this did it. *g*
May 5th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
John — I appreciate you supporting my point about the skill of the artist with this post, even though I am well aware that is not what you intended, that is the effect of using that McCloud quote.
Anyway, she outright said in that paragraph that you quoted that it is “perpetuating the idea that you can’t joke with a comic chick.” Both of you need your ironiometers checked if you can’t see the humor in using a feminist joke to complain that someone is spreading the humorless feminist stereotype, which is one reason I suspect your friend is lacking in a sense of humor. The other reason is because she didn’t understand the intentional exaggeration of the conflict in my article and tried to argue that I was wrong because I exaggerated.
As for misreading motives, her post is based on misreading the complaints about that cover. I strongly suspect from your accusations and my observations that you and your blogging partner are projecting your collective character flaws onto the rest of us. You may want to look into that.
May 5th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Hey, Ragnell, you rate “rude and abusive” now! You owe me a coke!
John, while I sympathize with your and Ms. Fary’s situation, I can’t help but think that if reasonably civil discourse like this falls under your idea of “abusive” interaction, you may want to steer clear of the rest of the internet.
May 6th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Melissa – Ragnell herself said that her response was rude. I totally agree with her assessment. As for sympathizing with our plight: the only plight we have is people twisting Lisa’s words and attributing motive in order to make a point. If someone can’t enjoy a simple comic book without being all wrapped up in their ideology, well, that’s a plight.
Ragnell – Humor is one of the most subjective and divisive forms of communication around. What you may find funny, I may not. Lisa said specifically that she found the bingo card, said specifically that it was meant to be humorous, and rather than finding it humorous, found it annoying. What’s so difficult to comprehend about that?
As far as the “irony” of using an intended joke to make a sarcastic point goes: Unless you’re subscribing to the “black fly in the chardonnay” definition of irony, I don’t see how Lisa’s statment is ironic. Perhaps, if she didn’t first state that she found the original joke unfunny, and then went on to make her sarcastic response, it could be ironic. Perhaps if Lisa wrote the opposite of what she meant to say rather than say what she meant, it could be ironic. Or are you saying that it’s ironic to you, and therefore it must be ironic to all. To quote George Wendt, “I was being sarcastic, what’s ironic is that you don’t know the difference.”
May 6th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
“I strongly suspect from your accusations and my observations that you and your blogging partner are projecting your collective character flaws onto the rest of us. You may want to look into that.”
If you didn’t pepper your responses with personal attacks (as well written as they may be), I think I would actually enjoy having a discussion with you. You strike me as an intelligent, well-read person and there aren’t enough of those on the internet.
However, I get the impression that your goal is not discourse, but demagoguery. Any valid points or arguments you have are completely flushed away by your reliance of personal attack to assert your dominance. It seems your approach is on par with what passes for political punditry today, only with a more sophisticated vocabulary.
May 6th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
John, Ms. Fray… please, continue to tap dance. I’m waiting to see the ice break.
May 6th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
D. Edward – What do you even mean?
May 6th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
John and Fary — I’d seem more into discourse if you didn’t insist on taking every point I made as a personal attack and just repeating yourselves with different wording in answer to everything.
I already tried to explain to you why such offense was stirred up by your post, and why the assumptions behind the post were faulty. There’s nothing I can say to you that I haven’t said already, and both of our writing is there for any neutral person to read for themselves if you’re arguing for the third party.
May 8th, 2007 at 1:14 am
Someone is making a mountain out of a molehill
May 8th, 2007 at 1:42 am
ORAC — By that do you mean me, one of the commenters, or Mike Turner?
(What? I get to make a boob joke every now and then!)
May 9th, 2007 at 12:46 am
ORAC – Making mountains out of molehills is the job of the blogging community in general.
I’ll take my PowerGirl by Mr. Ross, and, I’ll take the Comic Book Feminist Bingo Card as the set of responses you hear over and over again from different people who think they’re being original, and are totally missing the point…
The point that, even though the cheesecake is defendable, rational and even explainable, we should attempt to fly (even if we’re wearing skirts), rather than crawl in the dirt with those who don’t know any better, but defend their subconcious idiocy as the way things should be.
I’d rather be more, thank you. And I’d rather insist that my artists and writers are more, as well.
May 13th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
I do like this article.
I’m female, and a comic book artist, I’m not a feminist in any way, but that Turner cover does bother me. (Firely because I personally don’t like Turner’s work, but that’s another issue all together!) X3
I like your well thought out arguments, and your other images to back your statements up. Well done!
May 13th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
I meant to main ‘mainly’ in my last post. Geez.. where the hell is my brain today??
June 5th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Well this a big issue and I agree with your post. (Yes, I along with most level headed males think that JSA cover is horrible to the extreme) I’m a PGfan and it’s NOT because of the boobs, its her personality and confidence. With that said we’ll never see a regular PG series. Also feminist thinking is just a opinated state of thinking for women and some arguments are vaild. I’m a writer/artist, and I personally check femenist sites, regular sites, misogenist sites avoiding sterotypes from those kind of people. While cheesecake has its time and place, it doesnt make me the indivisual buy the book. Its very insulting to women but its actually more insulting to men because, it screams “THIS CHICK HAS BIG BOOBS/FAT ASS/SWEARS/HAS GUNS/IS SMOKING HOT IN LITTLE CLOTHING, YOUR A GUY BUY IT!” which basically says men are mindless thinking with only the body part god gave them. I do like Ross’ and Conner’s art of the character and it fits her very well. Your argument in all your PG posts makes me happy and well she’s just cooler than Supergirl any day
April 11th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Why are all the females in comic books DD cups? How about a female super hero that is a B cup? Never been done before. Comment please.
October 5th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
anyone seen the Superman/Batman Public enemies movie and how they portray PowerGirl, she is like half smart and half dumb, i cant really put my finger on it, but at times they make her look like a the deer Bambie with too much naive looking to her. the boobs are about normal though.
June 26th, 2010 at 9:28 am
I’m inclined to think that its you that is humor-impaired, because you don’t seem to understand exaggeration for the purpose of humor. (Again, it was an egregious error to believe you were a Power Girl fan.) Overall, a sense of humor seems to be a trait both Greg and Karen have that you don’t.
February 6th, 2011 at 7:13 am
“;- that seems to be a great topic, i really love it :*.
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April 6th, 2012 at 7:09 pm
If breasts are going to stick out horizontally, they’re going to start higher up the chest than that. Seriously.
July 5th, 2012 at 12:03 am
you resort to being rude and abusive. The only lesson I take away from this is to not get into any discussion with you and expect any sort of fair discourse.