POSTFEMINISM IN FEMALE TEAM SUPERHERO COMIC BOOKS by Elliott Alexander Sawyer A thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Department of Communication The University of Utah August 2014 Copyright © Elliott Alexander Sawyer 2014 All Rights Reserved The University of Utah Graduate School STATEMENT OF THESIS APPROVAL The following faculty members served as the supervisory committee chair and members for the thesis of________Elliott Alexander Sawyer__________. Dates at right indicate the members’ approval of the thesis. __________Robin E. Jensen_________________, Chair ____5/5/2014____ Date Approved _________Sarah Projansky__________________, Member ____5/5/2014____ Date Approved _________Marouf Hasian, Jr.________________, Member ____5/5/2014____ Date Approved The thesis has also been approved by_____Kent A. Ono_______________________ Chair of the Department/School/College of_____Communication _______ and by David B. Kieda, Dean of The Graduate School. ABSTRACT Comic books are beginning to be recognized for their impact on society because they inform, channel, and critique cultural norms. This thesis investigates how comic books interact and forward postfeminism. Specifically, this thesis explores the ways postfeminism interjects itself into female superhero team comic books. These comics, with their rosters of only women, provide unique perspectives on how women are represented in comic books. Additionally, the comics give insight into how women bond with one another in a popular culture text. The comics critiqued herein focus on transferring postfeminist ideals in a team format to readers, where the possibilities for representing powerful connections between women are lost. Postfeminist characteristics of consumption, sexual freedom, and sexual objectification are forwarded in the comic books, while also promoting aspects of racism. Through utilizing the methodologies of close textual and close visual analysis to study the team comics, the moments and arguments of postfeminism in the comic books come to light. Furthermore, close textual analysis is utilized to understand the critical response to the comic books, and how that response often overlooks aspects of postfeminism. The comic book companies argue that women are receiving fairer representation because they are shown in teams, but the team format provides a greater platform to further objectify women. Overall, the comic books argue the further marginalizing of women in popular culture through the ideals of postfeminism. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………... iii Chapters 1. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………...…….. 1 Rhetoric in Comics……………….……………………………………………. 2 Postfeminism…...………………………………………………………............ 7 Race in Postfeminism………..………………………………………….……. 13 Methods………………………………………………………………............. 15 Close Textual Analysis………………………………………………............. 16 Close Visual Analysis………..…………………………………………...….. 19 Comic Books and the Need for Critical Attention………………………..….. 22 Superhero Comics’ History and Current Identity…...………………………. 25 Women in Capes, Tights, and Little Else………………………………..…… 29 Femforce………..…………………………………………………………….. 34 The Chapters to Come ……………………………………………………….. 40 2. THE FERAL BLACK WOMAN, DISABILITY, AND OBJECTIFICATION IN BIRDS OF PREY……………………………………............................................. 42 Introduction…………………………………………………………………... 42 Plot………………………………………………………….………………... 44 Popular Reviews…………………………………………………………...…. 46 Analysis……….…………………………………………………………...…. 50 Moments of Postfeminism in the Writing…………………………………..... 63 Sexual Exploitation and Objectification in the Artwork…….……………..... 65 Conclusion……………………………………………..………….……...….. 68 3. BEING A POSTFEMINIST DIVA IN MARVEL DIVAS………………...……... 70 Introduction……………………………………………………….………...... 70 Sex and the City…………………………………………………………...….. 71 Critical Reception………………………………………………………...….. 74 Marvel Divas……………………………………………………………...….. 80 Consumption…………………………………………………………………. 82 Independent Women………………………………………………................. 84 Conclusion………….…………………………………………………...…… 91 4. FEMME FATALES, EROTICA, AND SEXUAL EXPLOITATION IN GOTHAM CITY SIRENS…………………………….………………...……… 94 Introduction….……………………………………………………….….….... 94 Plot………..….……………………………………………………….…….... 96 Cheesecake…...……………………………………………………….…….... 97 Critical Reception……………………………………………………………. 99 Villainy……………………………………………………………….…...... 104 The Femme Fatale………………………………………………………….. 107 Analysis……………………………………………………………...……… 108 Harley Quinn as a Postfeminist Figure……………………………………... 114 Conclusion…………………………...……………………………………... 117 5. CONCLUSION…………………………….………………...…………………. 119 6. REFERENCES………………………………………………………………….. 126 v 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Comics are a unique popular-culture art form with the potential to inform, persuade, and model attitudes and behaviors. As Groensteen (2009) illuminated, comic books are a “story-related pleasure,” an “art-related pleasure,” and a “medium-related pleasure,” a combination that cannot be found in any other medium whether it be film, television, photography, or novels (p. 10). At the most basic level, comics are normally a combination of word and text, most often organized in a narrative and presented in a sequential order. The term includes: comic books, graphic novels, newspaper cartoons, and other similar forms, and, in this respect, it encompasses a large selection of art. For instance, a piece with art in a sequential order but without any words, like in an airplane safety manual, would constitute a comic. The wide assortment of what is considered comics provides an opportunity for scholarly study. Although they are often overlooked by communication scholars, comics provide powerful and reflective messages about our culture. As Duncan and Smith (2009) explained, “at their best, comic books can accommodate content as profound, moving, and enduring as that found in any of the more celebrated vehicles for human expression” (p. 2). However, there are two sides to the understanding of comics. The first is that they serve as powerful vehicles that provide “a rich tapestry of…attitudes and philosophies 2 that reflect varying approaches to issues that continue to haunt, confound, and rile the American public” (Palmer-Mehta & Hay, 2005, p. 390). In this respect, the possibility exists for comics to challenge the status quo, create change, and develop profound meaning. However, the second side, as Duncan and Smith claimed, emerges when the potential to challenge cultural norms in comics is warped. Although comics can “function as catalysts for the raising of social consciousness among their readers, the industry that produces them has a less consistent record for taking more direct action to change existing disparities in power relations” (p. 265). In my forthcoming analysis, I plan to focus on the postfeminist portrayals of female superhero teams in American comic books. I argue that many comics focusing mostly or solely on women embody postfeminism in that there is an emphasis on sexual freedom, consumption, self- empowerment, and sexual objectification. Rhetoric in Comics An increase in studies of comics as rhetorical texts has unfolded in recent years (Duncan & Smith, 2009). Particularly, scholars as of late have been drawn to analyze representations of race and gender in comics, while some authors, like Rifas (2012), focus on ideology. In this review, I will first speak to the plight of the comics scholar and the representation of ideology within comics before reviewing studies of women and female superheroes in comics. Ultimately, scholarship on ideology and representations of race and propaganda informs my study by showcasing different approaches to critiquing comics and by providing an excellent starting point to guide my analysis of all- female teams in superhero comics. 3 Popular-culture scholars often face critique because of their choice of study both from within and outside of the academy. This is increasingly true when the scholars analyze a text that is cherished by many. Rifas (2012) explained the problem that cultural scholars often face when he stated, “If you persist in trying to do something about an offensive comic, then you are guilty of trying to interfere with an artist’s right to free expression” (p. 224. Emphasis in original). Cultural scholars face difficulty in critiquing a comic that is offensive because, as a result of their critique, they are often labeled as stubborn by the readers. Without critical intervention, however, problematic portrayals or other issues in comics may go unexamined. In due course, the ideologies portrayed in comics can negatively affect a multitude of avenues from the dominant culture to the reader’s own sense of self. Indeed, ideology plays an important role in how comics are interpreted. Rifas (2012) claimed that, “Ideologies rarely appear in comics as explicitly stated principles, but rather in words and pictures from which readers, consciously and unconsciously, pick up hints for building mental methods of how the world works” (p. 226). In order to convey ideologies, comics function as “imagetexts” that utilize both textual and visual communication (Mitchell, 1994). The represented ideology may convince readers to ascribe to certain beliefs because of their reading of a comic. Comics do not solely cause readers to assign to a particular ideology, but they may be one part in the whole of reinforcing an ideology across the larger culture.