By now many of you have heard about the depiction of the DC comics super hero Starfire in "Redhood and the Outlaws" by Scott Lobdell. The hot button issue is that she is "anti-feminist" and doesn't properly display a strong woman who knows what she wants, and is just eye candy. Let me start with saying, I don't disagree, but I think this hype is not good. So let's go thru the arguments!
1) She just has sex for no reason, with guys she has no feelings for.
Yeah ok, I'll agree that this isn't good and completely true about this issue, but women demanded diverse females in comics that display all types. There are real woman who have sex with men and don't give a crap about who they are and are constantly displaying themselves. No, it's not what women should aspire for, but they are out there.
2) Starfire was never like that.
Not to that extreme, no, but Starfire has always been scantily glad and loves sex. This is just a more extreme version.
3) She's not a good role model like the original.
Uh...this comic involves shooting people's heads off and blowing up tanks and follows a super villain...are you seriously letting your kids read this? This shouldn't be "role modeling" for anyone.
4) Scott Lobdell just wants to sexually attract men.
First of all, he's the writer, not the artist. He does have some control, but it's not absolute. Secondly, this may be true, but this is only issue one. Six pages of the first issue display Starfire, the rest of the comic is about Redhood. She hasn't been explained besides "powerful alien" so how about we wait till issue three, where we know all three characters have to face their younger selves, and Starfire was a sex slave. Maybe this will help explain why she's like this or help her grow to be not like this.
Furthermore, Scott wrote Generation X, the new Teen Titans and Superboy, which all have very different types of females who aren't sluts, so let's not attack him for one comic.
5) DC is messing up their females all around, like Voodoo and Catwoman.
Agreed, but the comics aren't connected. Don't judge all three extra for each individual comics failure, just judge DC for not fixing it. Also, it was shown in interviews that woman of DC explained to Lobdell that he should emphasis the "sexual slave" part to help explain Starfires sexuality. DC is aware of the issue and may need time to fix it or has it out.
(Side note: I didn't read those other two comics, so don't know how bad they were.)
6) This works against everything feminists fight for.
This argument bugs me because no one ever explains it. When men are depicted this way, it's either not commented on or just written off as flat character. When women are displayed this way it's a crime against all women. If you're going to argue this, at least explain why, and I want to thank all the reviewers and bloggers who did explain it.
So all and all, I support displaying women in proper ways to help show they aren't just hot bodies but people. I just wish people would give these things time before going all out. You can ask anyone I discussed Redhood with, the Starfire scenes intrigued me by how drastically she was changed, but were very off putting and were a brick wall mid comic. Pin up pages don't further the story so I don't need them. But I love Redhood as a character and how Scott wrote him, so I'll give it a few more issues to see where it evolves. If there are more brick walls like that, then I'll stop, but for now patience and understanding will hold me over.
Oh, and if you don't like it, don't buy it and they'll stop making it. DC has said that a million times. If it keeps going, someone is still buying it.
