2 posts tagged “greg rucka”
Take a look at my blog entry here, read the links if you have time, and then answer the entirely unscientific poll to the right.
And please comment! I'd be especially interested in seeing your comments if you are a straight, male comic fan because those seem to be the people that Greg Rucka thinks would be bothered by a Playgirl cover that had a nude superhero on it. Although, all comments are more than welcome.
Thanks for playing!
On a related note, isn't Dean Cain pretty? Click on the picture below to see it full-sized. It is worth it. He is a sight to behold. He's not even my type, but man, is he good looking! If he is ever going to have the Superman costume painted onto him for the cover of Playgirl, not only will I buy the issue, I'd pay a substantial amount to do the painting. In fact if there are any Playgirl editors reading this blog (and how could they not be?), I'd like you to know that I am very experienced with the Superman costume including that tricky "S", and I have extensive finger-painting skills honed by hours of producing kindergarten dinosaur masterpieces.
Over here, Greg Rucka, whose writing I really like, says the following in regard to the Wonder Woman on Playboy’s cover flap:
And as for those who say that Diana is a fetish character, 1) find me a superhero who isn't ("Spandex," says Mark Waid, "is a privilege, not a right.") and 2) how many of those people would burst a vessel, if not a vital organ, if Playgirl ran a similar cover/pictorial with a male, semi-erect model painted up as Batman?
Over here, Ragnell says that she thinks this paragraph refutes the points made by my goddess, Laura Hudson, here.
I might agree with Rucka if I could think of even a single instance of a male superhero being sexualized for a female audience and anyone being bothered by it. I know that a significant amount of straight guys would be bothered by sexual images of men on the covers of magazines that were marketed toward men. There seemed to be a bit of a reaction to the Citizen Steel's uber-crotch on the cover of the JSA, which they felt was marketed to them. That reaction smelled a bit of that "Whatever you do, pleeeeeeeeeeeeease don't think I'm gay just because I'm buying this!!!" homophobia. But would they really be bothered by those images being marketed to women? I don’t think so. I can’t see that a significant number of guys would be bothered by that or if they heard that a male stripper was incorporating Batman or Superman into his routine, which strippers have done.
And can I mention that I doubt many women would be bothered by male superheroes being sexualized? Seriously, can you imagine that if a stripper came out on stage in a Superman outfit that women would leave Chippendales in huff because male superheroes were being degraded ... even if the women were comic fans?
Moreover, I have to wonder if Rucka means that he would burst a vessel, if not a vital organ, if Playgirl ran a similar cover. Is Rucka suggesting that he’d think that Batman would have his power as a male symbol of strength robbed from him if Playgirl did that cover as Ragnell suggested happened to Wonder Woman when Playboy did its cover?
Gay men have tons of sites and such that depict superheroes in the nude and in very sexual situations. So is Mr. Rucka bursting a vessel over that? Does he think Batman would be robbed of his power as a symbol of male strength if gay men created a magazine cover with a naked Batman on it? And if he's not bothered by gay guys doing it, why is he bothered by straight guys doing it?
Or what if the painted on Wonder Woman appeared on the cover of a lesbian erotic magazine? Would Rucka be bothered by that?
If you believe that Mr. Rucka is correct, that male comic fans would get their painted on panties in a bunch if Playgirl did something similar, I suppose you could see his argument as shooting down Laura’s, but not only don’t I think most guys would be bothered, I know factually that most gay men haven’t been bothered in the slightest by the numerous instances of sexualized superheroes that they've seen (and paid for and hung on their walls), and I sincerely doubt that Rucka would be bothered. I can’t help but to notice that he speaks of “those people,” and not himself almost as if he knows that he wouldn't be bothered.
But how many of “those people” really exist? Are you one? Is Rucka? Is anyone? (Take the poll!)
