Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci is one of DC’s Minx line geared toward a generally female audience. Recently the issue of the portrayal of minority characters in the comic has been the subject of some discussion.
In her interview with Girl-Wonder.Org’s Karen Healey, Cecil Castellucci talks a little bit about the minority portrayal in her comic.
KH: You’ve mentioned that it was important to you that the Janes have different body types. The dramatic Jane is distinctly solid, and sports lover Polly Jane is tall and thin, for example. However, though there are several characters of colour in the crowd scenes, the main characters all seem to read as white. Was this intentional?
CC: Well, Polly Jane is Latina and Theater Jane is Asian.
KH: Wow, I totally didn’t read that at all.
CC: Yep. That’s why PJ has the Frida Kahlo look. And Theater Jane, totally Asian.
In book two, Janes in Love there is a lot more diversity. (It is something that is equally important to me as body types)
Willow from Seeking Avalon challenges some of Ms. Castellucci’s statements:
And as for “And Theater Jane, totally Asian”
Just which Asian culture does this Jane call her own? Is she Japanese, Korean, Taiwainse, Chinese, Chinese – Mongolian, or from the Philippines? Do you even know?
Do you even know why it might matter that in a book where the town calls for a curfew on teenagers and start to restrict their freedoms why in the first book there should have been parents of one of those minority students feeling uneasy about that?
Do you even know why that might matter if Theater Jane was Japanese? Or Taiwanese or Chinese-Mongolian?
While, on Girl-Wonder.org’s comment thread, Karen Ellis considers the issues with portraying ethnic types in comics.
Portraying different ethnic types without going too stereotypical is something I’ve been struggling with in my own comics. With any stylised form you are working with visual shorthand, and you have to include cues that the reader will understand without having to think about it. When people generally assume that a character is white unless they are told otherwise, it can mean that racial aspects need to be played up, at least initially, to clue the reader in. Of course with comics this can be done through other things than just how they look, but it helps if there is some element present that will subconsciously remind the reader whenever they look at the character.
So what do you think?
February 16th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
I think that subtlety beats sledgehammer every time.
Me old china bejaysis och aye boy bach.
//\Oo/\\
February 17th, 2008 at 6:07 am
I read Willow’s full blog entry. It reads like she’s absolutely determined to be upset. Just because everything isn’t spelled out for her doesn’t mean anything was done wrong. I’ve known many Asian people who never mentioned what their heritage was. For that matter, almost none of the white people I’ve met in my life have ever told me whether their heritage was German, Irish, or whatever. So they’re exact lineage isn’t mentioned in the book. Big deal.
February 18th, 2008 at 6:52 am
What you’re saying is totally obscenely racist. Like everything everyone says, and every story in every medium.
You rock Willow! Preach it girl!
February 18th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Actually, no. What I said is not racist in the slightest. The idea that all Japanese-American girls talk the same and all Chinese-American girls talk the same is pretty darn racist in a subtle way, however.
I’ve had friends whose heritage was from Japan, China, Singapore, and other places. They talked like Americans. Yeah, their grandparents probably talked differently from each other, but my friend from Phoenix talked exactly like his white friend from Phoenix who he grew up with. So if Willow wants to get upset that several girls talk similarly, most of whom grew up in the same town, then she’s doing more to promote racism than to hinder it.
February 18th, 2008 at 9:14 am
James, you may want to reread Paul’s post with your sarcasm detector on.
February 18th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Joe, I’m guessing you mean me.
The reason I didn’t detect any sarcasm is because Paul’s comments were extremely similar to the serious responses that Willow got to her blog. So I thought he was serious. If he was being sarcastic, then I apologize for misreading.
February 18th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Look, I’m half-Japanese, spent a big portion of my life in extremely multicultural Hawaii, and I love Plain Janes. I totally got that Theatrical Jane is Asian (somehow I think of her as Chinese, but that’s just me). And yes, we’re all different. People of Asian descent (be it Japanese, Chinese, whatever) who grow up on the Mainland DO speak much differently from people of the same ethnic groups who grow up in Hawaii. My Hawaii-born Japanese American husband and I have both observed this; we attended college with lots of Mainland-born and raised Asian Americans who seemed worlds apart from us. In fact, during WWII, when Hawaii-born Japanese were teamed up with Mainland-born Japanese in the 100th Battalion, there were lots of fights between the “Buddha-heads” and “kotonks” because they were so different. And most books about the Japanese American experience tend to ignore Hawaii – I know, because I’ve read and reviewed more than a dozen of them in the past decade and a half.
Anyway, how come I could see the differences in all the Janes without being hit over the head with visual or verbal clues? Could it be because I’m mixed race and have learned to “see” it? I don’t know. None of the stuff being discussed now even dawned on me as a problem when I read Plain Janes.
February 18th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
“The reason I didn’t detect any sarcasm is because Paul’s comments were extremely similar to the serious responses that Willow got to her blog.”
Sorry dude. I guess I underestimated Team Willow.
February 18th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Don’t sweat it. I usually miss sarcasm on the internet.
February 18th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Sorry to call you James, Jason. I have a brother named James and a cousin named Jason. With all the “J” names I get them confused a lot.