Welcome to Gaia! ::

I think it's safe to assume that many of us are comic book and manga readers. Unfortunately comic books have not offered a very possitive representation of girls and women. As a fan and an advid reader I feel betrayed, but there is hope yet! I recently read an article on feminism and comic books in b***h! The article is titled The Cold Shoulder: Saving Superheroines from Comic-Book Violence and it had many resources for the feminst reader which I wanted to share with all of you:
www.girl-wonder.org
www.unheardtaunts.com

I came across another great site for fans looking for a more positive female roles: http://www.mangapunk.com/aboutus
They also have a great article on sexism in American and Japanese comic books: http://www.mangapunk.com/articles/women_and_sexism_in_american_and_japanese_comics

It would be great to add to the list of feminist freindly comics! If anyone knows of any other resources please do share.

That is very true. The article in b***h went further to examine they ways in which super heroins are killed, which is quite often highly sexualized. In the article comparing manga to US comics it points out that girls and women are portrayed as slightly more realistic, yet their hopes and dreams usually revolve around finding a boyfriend.

Spider-Man wants a girlfriend as well XD
Anyway, I feel like recently, the amount of sexism in comics is a lot less than in the past, but it's still annoying. Sometimes I'm ashamed of humanity's past...

I thought the most recent Catwomen was pretty realistic. confused

Whether American or Japanese comics are worse is up for debate. There is a link to a good article on that very issue in my first post. I agree with what is pointed out in the article; that while manga does have a larger representation of female characters, this does not necessarily mean manga is less sexist. The girls and women in manga are often dependent on men. In many of the stories the goals of the girls and women will be to find a husband. We all know of the lovely "harem" genre animes.

Wow, I was just just about to write a essay about this exact thing, well mostly. So this is lovely, and I must say the fact that we also read b***h, is nice as well. *Looks over lovingly at Bitchfest, sitting on her desk.*

Anyway, this topic is very interesting, it is clear that in american comic books women aren't protrayed very well, Super Women was great, as well as Barb Wire, and Super Girl, but a lot of Super Villians are woman too. Maybe we should lot into that as well.

As for manga, I'm a fan of it, really my book shelves are littered, but looking back at how often girl's are protrayed as only 'wanting a boyfriend' surprises me.

Anyway *Goes to look at the links in first post*, thanks for posting this topic.

I've found one of the worst manga genres is the one that's made for girls. Shoujo manga is all about girls who want/have boyfriends and live girly lives, doing girly things and only dreaming of having a husband and maybe doing a career on the side.

I've been in love with Sailor Moon since I was eight, but now I see the anime for what it is. The manga is WAY better than the anime, and while the outfits aren't the most feminist thing out there, almost all of the girls had some sort of career in mind for their future instead of just a husband and family, and they were the ones saving the world, not a bunch of muscle-bound manly men (I'm looking at you, Dragonball Z).

My only real American comic book experience is with X-Men, and in that EVERYONE is wearing tight-fitting silly-looking spandex-like outfits. Unfortunately there are only two or three female heroes, and the only female villain I can think of it Mystique.

I don't really read manga at all, so I don't have an opinion on that confused

However, as far as US-based comics go, I've found the most luck going online. My favorite list of online-comics that are what I term "women-friendly":

Girls with Slingshots
Jane's World
Girl Genius
A Girl and Her Fed
Chester 5000 XYV* (NSFW)
Eve's Apple
The Princess
DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary* (NSFW)
Octopus Pie
Queen of Wands
Venus Envy

All of these are written and/or drawn by women, and have very strong female characters. Print comics I've unfortunately only found a few. Probably my favorites that I can think of right now are:

Ariel Schrag
Alison Bechdel
Cecil Castellucci
Gail Simone
Jennifer Daydreamer
Liz Prince

I've definitely had to do away with most Marvel/DC comics. I still really like Wonder Woman, and there are a few Batman TPB's that I really enjoy, but other than that, I would say the bulk of "superhero-style" comics are drenched in racism, sexism and classism. I prefer to stick to alt-comics, though those can be problematic as well. ::sigh::