The online controversy over Sideshow Collectibles’ new Mary Jane statue was picked up yesterday by Boing Boing before this morning making the leap to print with a short article in the New York Post.
The story, headlined “Mary Jane Is Spidey ‘Sensuous’,” is just a sampling of negative online reaction, quoting bloggers and LiveJournal writers anonymously or by user names. In one case, reporter Neil Graves describes a fan as “an irate Canadian lass.” Oh, yeah, he also uses the term “catcalls.”
The Post doesn’t contact Marvel or Sideshow for response.
But all of that aside, it’s interesting that a mainstream newspaper would take notice of fan reaction to the statue — no doubt thanks to Boing Boing and the box-office presence of Spider-Man 3.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Tame compare to other statues out there.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Yeah, some of those anime statures are ridiculous. I thought this was dumb, but I didn’t find it offensive. The one thing I like about it is that it has an old pin up style.
May 16th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Don’t like it, don’t buy it! Still want a MJ statue, petition Marvel!
I mean, c’mon, really. Is this a threat to the political status of women everywhere. Really? REALLY?
May 16th, 2007 at 11:37 am
While there are DEFINITELY worse statues out there, they do not have the ’star power’ that Spider-Man as a property does.
This is NOT a good thing for the comics industry as it will only solidify what many people think…That comics are only for horned up nerds. I mean, you can clearly tell MJ is wearing a thong.
And let’s face it, kids LOVE Spidey and a mom reading this article may be less inclined to bring a kid to a comic shop.
Just a bad thing IMO to come out right now…Just when comics are getting some mainstream respectability…
May 16th, 2007 at 11:41 am
I don’t see what the problem is, unless it’s that you’ve got a chick with a hot body and pink panties running around doing laundry with a face that got hit by a truck.
Because that’s what you’ve got there.
May 16th, 2007 at 11:58 am
MJ has been drawn as a hot model in the comics for years, because that’s what she is.
Or is it the image of a subservient sex slave doing the laundry feminist thing?
May 16th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Eh, nothin’ special.
I mean, it’s just a statue. I don’t see what’s the big deal about it when there’s FAR more risque ones out there.
May 16th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
I don’t get it. Isn’t it better to wash the Spidey outfit by hand? Washing it in a machine might cause it to bleed on the other outfits. I don’t see the problem.
May 16th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
I like it
May 16th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
“”Devildoll” wrote on the site LiveJournal…”
“On Blogspot.com…”
Am I the only one getting the feeling that someone at the NY Post is a few years behind in understanding the internets?
May 16th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Can’t beat the Bowen design.
http://wizarduniverse.stores.yahoo.net/apr063988.html
May 16th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
My only problem with the statue is that it doesn’t look like it was designed by Hughes.
Wonder how the people complaining would react to some of the statues anime and manga have generated.
May 16th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
c’mon people. this is a no-brainer here… you seriously don’t get it? i’m a guy and i freakin’ GET IT!
1. doing Pete’s laundry (i’m sorry was pregnant and cooking too subtle?)…
2. boobs about to leap free (this isn’t itself a bad thing, but in context of the whole image… it’s just one more log on the fire)
3. bent over like that makes her seem like she’s sexually available to anyone or anything that comes along… like she expects someone to have their way with her while she works. (”here earl, lemme just hike up mah skirt while i cook yer dinner… you can have yer way before tha game starts on the tee vee”)
4. she’s barefoot… ugh.
5. A pearl necklace? you’ve got to be kidding me… har. har.
This is not Mary Jane. Supermodel or not… the question is not if she’s “hot”, of course MJ is hot. It’s that she’s clearly subservient and submissive and servile. and that… that’s NOT MJ. Am i the only one who read Matt Factions Sensational Annual a couple weeks ago?
A strong and independent and well written character like MJ… reduced and diminished to… this misogynistic crap… and you “don’t get it”? seriously?
how are you NOT insulted by this?
May 16th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I do not mind a little cheesecake (or beefcake for that matter), but this is so phenomenally out of character for MJ as to be ludicrous.
“Gosh, Pete, I’m so glad you let me do your laundry while you’re saving the world.” Barf.
She’s a freaking fashion model, and they couldn’t have come up with a pose or situation that didn’t scream redneck foreplay?
See, women read comics, too. An awful lot of us, and we’re kind of tired of being told to sit down and shut up like good little girls, because “this is just the way it is and has always been” and we should just get used to it.
I don’t hate comics. If I did, I wouldn’t care. It wouldn’t matter one bit to me that a bunch of jerks were making asses of themselves with lame, 2-dimensional depictions of women. But I love comics, and it really bugs me that a form of media I hold so dear apparently holds nothing but contempt for me because I have tits.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Templar’s right. I can handle putting a bag on this MJ statue before I bang it.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
It’s no news flash that there are other images out there that are just as bad or worse - that’s not really the point. This one was so out of character and people are so sick of this stuff that we are finally saying “ENOUGH!”.
What is your criteria for when it’s a good time to protest sexist and condescending crap like this? I’m guessing never…
And I’m saying this as a woman that has a statue of a masturbating Satyr woman at home. I’m a fan of cheesecake and sexiness but not when it belittles a character or women in general.
May 16th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
uhh, my first thought was that she was putting on a show for peter… their relationship has always been loving and flirtatious. i imagined him to be the person she was looking at. if anything it’s slightly voyeuristic… but it’s a comic book character, so who cares? i mean, isn’t it clear that she’s being flirtatious? if she was posed in the same position, with an irritated look on her face, then i’d see the concern.
May 16th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Templar is 100% right.
Well said, sir.
May 17th, 2007 at 2:02 am
> 4. she’s barefoot… ugh.
That’s really reaching. Depictions of shoeless women are sexist now?
I don’t understand people frothing at the mouth about this one particular crappy piece of merchandise.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:09 am
I don’t see the big deal. A woman with a thong hanging out doing laundry. How is that any different from today’s woman. I see more thongs out of pants than not now a days. Apparently that is a style and MJ is a model so may she is staying in style. If she was doing her oen landry would that have been better. Art reflects life, deal with it.
May 17th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
What i find particularily amusing is that everyone is getting so upset over this statue, but the Marvel zombies statue of spidey holding a disembowled corpse of MJ in her wedding dress is getting nalmost no negative attention (at least that i’ve seen)…
imo the zombie statue is the worse of the 2.
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:14 pm
I dont think that it is that big of a deal.
Its not showing anything more than what you would see walkin down the street. I think it is a hott statue and I like that it shows more of a younger, sexier side of mary jane that in all honesty is in every woman wheither thay choose to express it in that way or not. Plus I have seen worse!
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:26 pm
I dont think that it is that big of a deal.
Its not showing anything more than what you would see walkin down the street. I think it is a hott statue and I like that it shows more of a younger, sexier side of mary jane, that in all honesty is in every woman wheither thay choose to express it in that way or not. Plus people need to realize it is a comic creation… SHES NOT REAL… I think it is apporiate for those old enough.. kids, well I dont know other parents response to this but being a mother myself of a daughter.. I see girls walkin around the beach in the summer with alot less on than this. And I dont hear anyone writing stories or articles about that.. And THEY ARE REAL! so if you dont care about that why care about a made up character?
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:28 pm
OOOPS! SRY ABOUT THE REPOST!
May 27th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
I LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!