The Myth That Wouldn't Die!!!

Over in Stuff Geeks Love, we are told that one of the things geeks love is Strong Female Characters Who Actually Aren’t. The post is filled with half-truths, myths, and poorly thought out theories to yet again bash straight guys for being straight guys. Here is an example:

Which is not to say that geeks don’t embrace strong female characters. They still love Buffy the Vampire Slayer who, it must be admitted, really did embody many feminist character traits. However, it should be noted that in the Buffy universe, it’s dangerous if female empowerment extends to sexuality. Buffy loses her virginity to Angel, who then becomes evil. Faith, the alternative slayer, is sexually aggressive and also, eventually, evil. The parallel universe Willow is also sexually aggressive (and evil) and also a lesbian, which the real Willow also becomes after losing her virginity to one of the male characters. If there’s one important lesson to be learned from Buffy, it’s that it’s probably best to leave sexual power to the men, as the women just can’t seem to be trusted with it.

There are a couple of things wrong with this theory. Let’s note first how the blogger flip-flops on what makes someone a person who can be trusted with sexual power. Notice how the blogger says that when Faith and Willow showed sexual power they became evil as examples of women not being able to handle sexual power. But when Angel became evil because of his sexual power, that shows that Buffy could not be trusted with sexual power. Huh? Isn’t that Angel’s problem with sexual power, not Buffy’s? Was there a theme running through the entire Angel series that he couldn’t be trusted to have sex? In fact, most of the guys in Joss’s universe seemed to have trouble with sex. Spike was screwing a robot, which was built and used by another geek. Riley Finn couldn’t handle Buffy’s power and became a willing vampire picnic. And didn’t Wesley kind of go evil and then become more sexually powerful?

Cordelia - Sexual Power and a Crossbow

Secondly, this little theory leaves out the most obviously sexually powerful character in the Buffy and Angel series, Cordelia, who didn’t go evil but rather became essentially a good goddess.

Anyway, then the blogger goes after the comic geeks and you know how I hate that!

In the comic book world, if there’s an alleged strong female character, you can count on one thing: she was raped. Rape seems to be the hands-down favorite motivator for turning an ordinary schlubette into an empowerment role-model. Famed comics writer Chris Claremont was a champ at rocketing women from the doomed planet of Rape-ton to emerge as Superwomen. That is, when he wasn’t creating imaginary girlfriends for geeks.

In my old blog, I with the help of my readers came up with this list of female heroes who one might argue had a rape in their background that might have caused to them to become heroes or empowered role-models. Many of these are questionable, however.

1. Black Canary? (was the target of what was read as a rape – although the writer said it was not rape -- , and could at least be considered sexualized violence, and that attack was part of the relaunch of the character as a co-star in the post-Crisis Green Arrow series.)
2. Black Cat
3. Catwoman
4. Dazzler? (whose first use of her power was during an attempted rape but it wasn’t her motivation for becoming heroic)
5. new Hawkeye
6. Karma? (This was the only character of the bunch who I could think of who kind of fit deiseach’s rant about mothers being raped. Karma and her mother were raped during the time as refugees. I’m not convinced this is what caused Karma to become a hero. I could argue it was her first recorded adventure … where she killed her brother.)
7. Oracle? (Barbara was a hero before the Joker shot her, which some people say was rape or at least sexualized, but we can say that the event motivated her to improve her computer skills and become Oracle. Of course, she was already a hero before that happened.)
8. Psylock? (but my readers suggested that the attempted rape “was never a prime motivating factor” in her becoming a heroic figure.)
9. Red Sonja
10. Starfire? (I’m not convinced the rape was what caused her to be a hero, but it does appear to play into her origin story, so that might be close enough to add her to the list.)
11. Storm? (was attacked, and it's heavily implied, raped as a child, but again this was not portrayed as a motivation for her becoming a hero)

So that’s 11 out of hundreds (thousands?) of female characters who might be considered empowered role-models and I’m not sure that Chris Claremont has populated the planet Rape-ton. I’m not convinced he’s even populated the hamlet of Rapeville.

Below is a list complied by Ragnell and kalinara, with the help of some friendly folks at When Fangirls Attack and a few additions by me, of 67 female characters who were sexually assaulted. (Actually, it's less than 67 because some of the things they listed are most definitely not sexual assault, and I've noted those instances when I spotted them.) The list was an attempt to document how often rapes occur in comics. Apparently, they’ve be working on it for about 7 years now.

1. Abby (Ref Needed)
2. Alicia (Fantastic Four #255) Implied
3. Arella (Raven’s mother)* Even though we might consider Trigon disguising himself as a real man false pretense, Arella did seem to be aware that she was “marrying” an extradimensional being/demon, so that gets a little iffy as rape.
4. Arisia (Warrior #42) Implied
5. Atlanna (Incest, Atlantis Chronicles)
6. Aurora* (Supposedly raped by Sabertooth in Weapon X)
7. Barbara Gordon (The Killing Joke) Implied
8. Big Barda (Action Comics #592-593)
9. Book, Mallory* (She-Hulk, seduced by Andy’s Starfox powers, false pretence)
10. Boom Boom* (suggested on the boards that she was raped by Kilgore)
11. Calliope (Sandman)
12. Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel (Avengers#200)
13. Cassie Sandsmark/Wonder Girl (Statutory, TT Annual #1 -- Age?) This was not rape. When both people are underage, it isn’t rape.
14. Catwoman (Her Sister's Keeper)
15. Cobweb (TS#1) Implied
16. Cora (Atlantis Chronicles) I haven’t read the book, but my research suggests this was actually consensual incest.
17. Crazy Jane (DP)
18. Dazzler (False pretenses, Longshot's luck power, ref needed)
19. Debbie Darnell/Star Sapphire (JLA #115) Implied
20. Diana/Wonder Woman (WW#10& 51)
21. Dinah Lance/Black Canary II (GA: The Longbow Hunters) Implied This is disputed by Mike Grell who wrote and drew the scene.
22. Dream Girl (Universo Project) Implied
23. Elektra (Daredevil #181 Implied, Elektra: Assassin #1)
24. Emma Frost (Ref Needed)
25. Engineer/Angela Spica (The Authority #21, 27)
26. Felicia Hardy/Black Cat (SM/BC mini)
27. Grace Choi (Outsiders #17)
28. Hawkgirl (Hawkman, ish # needed)
29. Helen Bertinelli/Huntress (Huntress miniseries ??)
30. Inertia* (Supreme Power #4)
31. Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk (SH#7)
32. Jenny Hayden/Jade (GL#109)
33. Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman (Ref Needed -- Perpetrator was the Purple Man) I believe this is an error. I think she is being confused with Jessica Jones, who was not raped by the Purple Man but was forced to watch rapes, which might be considered close enough to count.
34. Karma* (I believe it is mentioned in Marvel Team-Up #100)
35. Kate Bishop (YA Special #1)
36. Katherine Anne Summers (Uncanny X-Men 156-157)
37. Kinkaid, Unity* (Sandman)
38. Kitty Pryde (Forced marriage, Uncanny X-men 179)
39. Lara of Krypton (false pretenses, forced marriage; World of Krypton trade)
40. Lian Harper (Outsiders #19) Implied
41. Lionheart* (a.k.a. Captain Britain, Avengers v. 3, #77)
42. Marrow (Weapon X: The Draft)
43. Mia Dearden/Speedy II (GA #42)
44. Mirage (NTT -- Need ish #)
45. MacTaggart, Moira *
46. Mockingbird* (Drugged and raped by the Phantom Rider in The Avengers.)
47. Phantom Lady (IC#1)
48. Queen Hippolyta (WW#1)
49. Red Sonja (Kull and the Barbarians #3)
50. Rogue (Ref Needed) I’m not sure how this was even possible.
51. Salamandra (Fantastic Four #515) Implied
52. Sally Sonic (Statuatory, Bulleteer #4)
53. Satana* (An attempted rape in her first appearance in Vampire Tales #2)
54. Saturn Girl (false pretense, forced marriage, ref needed)
55. Scandal* I’m going to count Vadal Savage trying to force her to have a child.
56. Secret (YJ#7)
57. Shining Knight (SK#4)
58. Skids* (suggested on the boards that she was raped by Kilgore)
59. Spider-Woman III* Implied It sure seemed to me that there was some rape going while she was drugged out of her mind, so there wouldn’t be consent.
60. Spoiler (Robin #111)
61. Starfire (Ref needed) Implied I disagree with this one but others don’t, so …
62. Storm (forced marriage, X-treme X-men 11-16)
63. Sue Dibny (IDC #3)
64. Supergirl/Kara Zor-El (Incest, SupergirlV5#5) Implied Incest isn’t rape.
65. Swift/Shen-Li Min (The Authority #27)
66. Terra (Statutory, New Teen Titans v1, issue 39, page 11)
67. Wingate, Victoria (mother of the Satana and the Son of Satan)* False pretenses as the poor dear didn’t realize she was married to Satan.

An asterisks (*) indicates that I added the character to the list of Ragnell and kalinara. Some of them were suggested by other people, but I added 9 of the characters to this list that I came up with myself, which a hefty percent of them, so please don’t accuse me of trying to skew this to may advantage. Pleeeeeease!

“Implied” following an entry means that on the original list, it was marked not as an actual rape that one could be sure of but only as an implied or subtextual rape. As we can see from the Black Canary entry, this can be disputed.

Below is a list of 335 female characters who have not been raped, or at the very least, have not been added to the list above. Please note that I made this list on August 2, 2007, so some of these women may have been raped since then, but I skimmed the list and didn’t notice any. Let me head off a few comments here. First, yes, I agree some of these characters are fairly obscure. I’m sure there are people who don’t know who Courtney Duran and Puck II are. However, I also suspect that people don’t know who Cora (Aquaman’s grandmother who had 1 or 2 appearances in a miniseries almost 2 decades ago) and Calliope (Greek muse of epic poetry who had a single appearance in The Sandman many years ago) are. If we are going to get an idea of the percentage of female characters who are raped in comics, we can’t count all raped women but only count the not raped women if they are prominent and appeared recently. I will also point out that the list below is not exhaustive and omits many, many female characters who had more appearances and more recent appearances than Calliope.

Second, if you are going to say, “But that character …” and then say she died or was turned into an animal or was mind controlled or whatever other thing you want to say that isn’t rape, I’ll agree with you that it happened, but it wasn’t rape, and this post is only about rape. While being turned into an animal or being mind controlled is like rape in that it is a loss of control of self, it isn’t rape, and at one time all the male characters on the DC earth were turned into animals by Circe and at another, the entire population of earth (except Wonder Man who had ealier been mind controlled by the Black Talon) was mind controlled by Dr. Doom, so counting events like those isn’t really helpful unless you want to point out that all male characters have had rape-like experiences too.

1. American Dream (MC2)
2. Amethyst
3. Amphibian (Supreme Power)
4. Andromeda (LHS)
5. Andromeda (Marvel’s Atlantean)
6. Aquagirl
7. Aquagirl II
8. Arachne (akaSpider-WomanII)
9. Arcanna (Squadron Supreme)
10. Arcanna (Supreme Power)
11. Argent
12. Armor
13. Arrowette
14. Artemis
15. AtomGirl/ShrinkingViolet
16. Banner, Betty
17. Batgirl (Cassandra Cain)
18. Batwoman (the new one)
19. Batwoman (the old one)
20. Beautiful Dreamer
21. Big Bertha
22. Black Alice
23. Black Betty
24. Black Cat (Ultimate)
25. Black Orchid
26. Black Widow I
27. Black Widow II
28. Blacklight
29. Blindfold
30. Blink
31. Bloodstone, Elsa
32. Bluestreak
33. Bordeaux, Sasha (Black Queen)
34. Bryant, Betty
35. Bulleteer
36. Cairea
37. Callisto
38. Candy, Etta
39. Captain UK
40. Carter, Sharon
41. Celeste/Neon (LHS)
42. Celsius
43. Cerise
44. Chase, Cameron
45. Cheney, Lila
46. Clea
47. Cloud
48. Cloud 9
49. Contessa Valentina DeFontaine
50. Cooper, Valerie
51. Copycat
52. Crimson Avenger III
53. Crimson Curse
54. Crimson Fox (I, II, &III)
55. Cripps, Ethel
56. Crystal
57. Cyclone
58. Darkstar
59. Dawnstar
60. Dazzler (Ultimate)
61. Dead Girl
62. Dean, Karolina
63. Debrii
64. Deep Blue
65. Diamond Lil
66. Diamondback
67. Dolphin
68. Domino
69. Donovan, Milla
70. Dove III
71. Dr. Light II
72. Duran, Courtney
73. Dusk
74. Dust
75. Echo (aka Ronin)
76. Elasti-Girl
77. Empress
78. Enchantress
79. Energizer
80. Fahrenheit
81. Fairchild, Caitlin
82. Fallen Angel
83. Feral
84. Fever
85. Fire (Black King’s Knight)
86. Firebird
87. Firebrand II
88. Firehawk
89. Firestar
90. Flamebird
91. Foxglove
92. Free Spirit
93. Fury I
94. Fury II
95. Gamora
96. Gloss
97. Goblyn
98. Godiva
99. Gorgeous
100. Gosamyr
101. Gypsy
102. Halo
103. Harbringer
104. Harkness, Agatha
105. Hawk II
106. Hawk III
107. Hellcat
108. Hepzibah
109. Hill, Maria
110. Hub
111. Hudson, Heather (neither the Alpha Flight or Exiles versions)
112. Huntara
113. Husk
114. Ice
115. Icemaiden
116. Infectious Lass
117. Invisible Woman
118. Invisible Woman (Ultimate)
119. Irons, Natasha
120. Jenny Quantum
121. Jet
122. Jolt
123. Joystick
124. Jubilee
125. Judomaster
126. Kale, Jennifer
127. Kapatelis Julia
128. Katana
129. Kent, Martha
130. Kid Quantum II
131. Kinetix
132. Knight, Misty
133. Knockout
134. Komodo
135. Lacuna
136. Lady Blackhawk
137. Lady Lark
138. Lady Mastermind
139. Lady Shiva
140. Ladyhawk
141. Lane, Lois
142. Lane, Lucy
143. Lang, Lana
144. Lemaris, Lori
145. Liberty Belle
146. Liberty Belle II
147. Lifeguard
148. Light Lass
149. Light Speed
150. Lilandra
151. Loa
152. Looker
153. Luna
154. Lyja
155. M
156. Ma Hunkle
157. Madame Web
158. Madame Xanadu
159. Magdalene
160. Magik
161. Magma
162. Manhunter
163. Manitou Dawn
164. Marrina
165. Marvel Girl (Ultimate)
166. Mary Marvel
167. Maxima
168. Maya
169. McGee, Dr. Tina
170. McNamara, Hazel
171. Medusa
172. Meggan
173. Menagerie
174. Mera
175. Mercury
176. Midnight, Jessica (Black Queen’s Bishop)
177. Miller, Layla
178. Minoru, Nico
179. Mirage (Dani Moonstar)
180. Miss America (Freedom Fightes)
181. Miss America (Liberty Legion)
182. Miss Martian
183. Monstress
184. Moondragon
185. Moonstone
186. Morgan, Jennifer
187. Moy, Alyssa
188. Ms. Marvel/She-Thing
189. Murmur
190. Mystique
191. Namora (Agents of Atlas)
192. Namorita
193. Negative Woman
194. Nemesis (Alpha Flight)
195. Neramani, Lilandra
196. Night Girl
197. Night Nurse
198. Nightmask
199. Nightshade
200. Nikki
201. Nocture
202. Noleski, Connie
203. Nova (Frankie Raye)
204. Nuala
205. Omega Sentinel
206. Onyx
207. Owlwoman
208. Pantha
209. Parker, Aunt May
210. Parker, May (Ultimate)
211. Pathway
212. Perez, Valerie
213. Persuasion (a.k.a. Purple Girl)
214. Phantom Girl
215. Phantom Lady III
216. Phyla-Vell (Quasar II)
217. Pixie
218. Platinum
219. Polaris
220. Power Princess
221. Power, Kate (MC2)
222. Princess Projectra/Sensor Girl
223. Prysm
224. Psylocke
225. Psylocke (Ultimate)
226. Puck II
227. Pulsar (aka Capt Marvel, Photon)
228. Push (MC2)
229. Question (the new one)
230. Rainmaker, Sarah
231. Rampage
232. Raptor (Brenda Drago)
233. Ravager
234. Raven
235. Red Bee
236. Red Wing
237. Replica
238. Reyes, Cecillia
239. Risque
240. Rogue (Ultimate)
241. Sabra
242. Sage
243. Sandsmark, Helena
244. Saphire
245. Sawyer, Maggie
246. Scarlet Witch
247. Scarlet Witch (Ultimate)
248. Scorpion
249. Sefton, Amanda
250. Sepulchre/Shadow Woman
251. Sersi (the Eternal)
252. Shadow Lass
253. Shadowcat (Ultimate)
254. Shakira
255. Shanna, the She Devil
256. Shard
257. Shikari
258. Sif
259. Silver Sable
260. Silverclaw
261. Siryn
262. Skyrocket
263. Snowbird
264. Songbird
265. Spaulding, Roxy (Freefall)
266. Spider Girl/Wave (LHS)
267. Spider Woman (Ultimate)
268. Spider Woman I
269. Spider Woman II
270. Spider-Girl
271. Spitfire
272. Squirrel Girl
273. Star Girl
274. Starhawk (Aleta Ogord)
275. Stature
276. Stepford Cockoos (do they count as 3 or 4?)
277. Stinger
278. Storm (Ultimate)
279. Stunner
280. Summers, Rachel (Marvel Girl)
281. Supergirl
282. Surge
283. Talisman
284. Tara
285. Tarantula (Heroes for Hire)
286. Tautin, Josephine (“Mademoiselle Marie, ”Black Queen’s Knight)
287. Tekka
288. Thena (MC2)
289. Thessaly
290. Thompkins, Leslie
291. Thor Girl
292. Thornn
293. Thunder (in the Outsiders)
294. Thunder (LHS)
295. Thundra
296. Tigra
297. Timeslip
298. Topaz
299. Traci
300. Triplicate Girl
301. Troia
302. Tsunami
303. Turbo
304. U-Go Girl
305. Valda
306. Valkyrie
307. Venus (Agents o f Atlas)
308. Venus Dee Milo
309. Vigilante
310. Vision (the Ultimate one)
311. Vixen
312. Wagner, Jakita
313. Walker, Rose
314. Waller, Amanda (White Queen)
315. Wasp
316. Wasp (Ultimate)
317. Watson, Mary Jane (Ultimate)
318. Watson-Parker, Mary Jane
319. Werewolf By Night (the new one)
320. Wheldon, Evangeline
321. White Witch
322. WhiteTiger (from the old Heroes for Hire)
323. WhiteTiger (the newest one)
324. Wicked
325. Wild Thing (MC2)
326. Wind Dancer
327. Windfall
328. Witchfire
329. Wolfsbane
330. Wonder Girl
331. X-23
332. XS
333. Yorkes, Gertrude
334. Zatanna
335. Zolomon, Ashley

So that gives us about 5 times as many not raped female characters as raped female characters, meaning about 20% are raped. Actually, given how very, very many females I didn’t count, the percentage is much less than 20%. For instance, I didn’t count characters who were strictly villains, but Ragnell and kalinara did. If we are to take Stuff Geeks Like at face value, we’d have to say that the blogger thinks that none of the women on the non-raped list are empowered role-models or that none are strong women. I just don’t buy that. In fact, I think it is very difficult to find women in comics who aren’t strong women. I think it would be virtually impossible to find many weak women in

Zombies explain so much

comics who are popular. Hell, it would be very difficult to find any weak women in comics. And what gets me is that bloggers like this seem to think that comic geeks are obsessed with rape while it is the blogger who seems to see rapes that don't even exist.

One of the things that the Stuff Geeks Like blogger suggests that geeks like is zombies. That might explain why the blogger is animating this corpse of a myth to attack geeks ... and why the blogger’s brain seems to have been eaten.