So what makes sidekicking such a boys' club, even when there are female adult heroes around who could take on junior partners and female teenaged heroes who might benefit from being the junior partner of a more experienced hero?
I read something once about Jane Austen novels. It was like, "You may have noticed that in Jane Austen novels, there are scenes with women interacting with other women, and there are scenes with men and women interacting, but there are no scenes that are just two men talking to each other. Why is that? Because Jane Austen lived in a really gender-segregated society and she had no first-hand experience with how men talk to other men when they're alone, and she didn't want to just make stuff up."
I have a feeling it's the same thing with most oldschool comic book writers, 99% of whom were men, of course. That's why Superman and Batman and all the other heroes are all about the Daddy Issues and the Male Bonding issues and the Women as (scary, frightening) Other issues. They're writing what they know, and what they *don't* know is how to write convincing quasi-sisterly (say, Kory/Raven or Kory/Donna) or mom/daughter relationships (say, Jesse Quick and Liberty Belle) that feel as real as the quasi-brotherly or father/son relationships of which it seems the entire DCU is made up of.
Not to mention the "Funny Guy, Smart Guy, Strong Guy, Rebel Guy and The Chick" syndrome. It's hard for a female character to have a sidekick if she's really basically just a semi-sidekick of a male hero, or the Ladies' Auxiliary of the male superhero team. (Of course this is improving with the *two* main female characters of JL and Toon Titans, and the more evenly mixed teams like current Titans and Outsiders, yay!)
I'm trying to think of female DC characters who've had their own books... Besides Wonder Woman, all the titles that I'm coming up with have characters who are basically defined by their relationships to men. Batgirl and Supergirl are always going to be oriented towards their male "father figures," Harley Quinn and Catwoman are always going to be oriented towards their male "love interests." It doesn't leave a lot of room for them to have the kind of complex and intimate relationships that we think of when we think of typical sidekick/mentor relationships, like Bruce/Dick or Ollie/Roy.
Even Birds of Prey, which was specifically supposed to be about "Chicks! Being Independent! On their own!" -- they still fall into that trap, like how Barbara and Helena don't interact with each other as people; they kind of triangulate at each other through their mutual Dick issues. *shrug* Eh.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2004-08-05 08:59 pm (UTC)So what makes sidekicking such a boys' club, even when there are female adult heroes around who could take on junior partners and female teenaged heroes who might benefit from being the junior partner of a more experienced hero?
I read something once about Jane Austen novels. It was like, "You may have noticed that in Jane Austen novels, there are scenes with women interacting with other women, and there are scenes with men and women interacting, but there are no scenes that are just two men talking to each other. Why is that? Because Jane Austen lived in a really gender-segregated society and she had no first-hand experience with how men talk to other men when they're alone, and she didn't want to just make stuff up."
I have a feeling it's the same thing with most oldschool comic book writers, 99% of whom were men, of course. That's why Superman and Batman and all the other heroes are all about the Daddy Issues and the Male Bonding issues and the Women as (scary, frightening) Other issues. They're writing what they know, and what they *don't* know is how to write convincing quasi-sisterly (say, Kory/Raven or Kory/Donna) or mom/daughter relationships (say, Jesse Quick and Liberty Belle) that feel as real as the quasi-brotherly or father/son relationships of which it seems the entire DCU is made up of.
Not to mention the "Funny Guy, Smart Guy, Strong Guy, Rebel Guy and The Chick" syndrome. It's hard for a female character to have a sidekick if she's really basically just a semi-sidekick of a male hero, or the Ladies' Auxiliary of the male superhero team. (Of course this is improving with the *two* main female characters of JL and Toon Titans, and the more evenly mixed teams like current Titans and Outsiders, yay!)
I'm trying to think of female DC characters who've had their own books... Besides Wonder Woman, all the titles that I'm coming up with have characters who are basically defined by their relationships to men. Batgirl and Supergirl are always going to be oriented towards their male "father figures," Harley Quinn and Catwoman are always going to be oriented towards their male "love interests." It doesn't leave a lot of room for them to have the kind of complex and intimate relationships that we think of when we think of typical sidekick/mentor relationships, like Bruce/Dick or Ollie/Roy.
Even Birds of Prey, which was specifically supposed to be about "Chicks! Being Independent! On their own!" -- they still fall into that trap, like how Barbara and Helena don't interact with each other as people; they kind of triangulate at each other through their mutual Dick issues. *shrug* Eh.