With very varied and different opinions on my work, I decided to look at some of the critiques in further detail. Here are the comments:
- I think the aren't sexist as you haven't overly sexualised them. however, Wonder Woman is super hench and to me looks odd.
- I don't think they are sexist, I totally agree with the above comment Wonder Woman is extremely butch.
- Is Wonder Woman on steroids? Making her bulky doesn't help. She doesn't look like Wonder Woman anymore. Poison Ivy is a bit like a female Groot now, lost her signature red hair. Would say SuperGirl is still a bit sexist. Don't think its comfy fighting in spandex.
- No they aren't sexist, they are really nice designs, especially SuperGirl, reminds me of the Edge of Tomorrow character.
- I don't think they are sexist. You seemed to concentrate on showing their strength. eg a lot of women are sporty and very muscular. The armour isn't revealing or too tight either. Love the Poison Ivy.
- Amazing designs and nice use of presenting textures through photoshop. Look forward to future work!
- I like the contrast between big boobs to big monster, feel free to go into more grotesque humanoid shapes, you don't have to make the form completely androgynous.
- They are not overly sexualised, the idea is very interesting. Try exaggerate ideas and opposite. Really good anyway.
- Cool designs, love all of them. Read comments on Wonder Woman being too butch, but I think women do look different and not all the same, some women are body builders and the genre should represent different body types. I think its just shocking to an audience to see such an iconic character like Wonder Woman, completley re-designed, and that's hard to accept. But that's the point isn't it?
The main criticism here is the argument that Wonder Woman looks too masculine. And I have to consider that she is. But to make her more feminine is the opposite of the point in this work. I agree with the last comments counter argument about how comics should show different body types and the point is to re-design something that isn't designed to have a male gaze upon it. What here springs to mind is this quote by Yvonne Tasker in her book 'Spectacular bodies' which I read when researching information for my dissertation.
"The critical suggestion that the action heroine is “really a man”, a suggestion that is addressed further below, stems from this assumption and represents an attempt to secure the logic of a gendered binary in which the terms ‘male and ‘masculine’, and ‘female’ and ‘feminine’, are locked together.....A more specific phenomenon associated associated with recent cinema is the appearance of a muscular action heroine, a figure who is discussed below in relation to bodybuilding as a sport and what this means for the development of shifting, ‘masculine’,
This I found an interesting point as I had directly seen this assumption that a females should be feminine and only a man can by masculine. Personally I think both females and males can be either feminine or masculine without judgement or the argument either gender should be connected to only one of those words. So while it seems big-headed and even lazy to say what I am about to, I will anyway. I chose to ignore this critique and not re-design my work reflecting on it, in light that is goes against the point in this work and my dissertation.
The only other critique is that SuperGirl is a bit sexist for being in spandex. I must assume this person however does not have much experience with the superhero genre as nearly every single comic book superhero has or does wear spandex or tight clothing. It is not a female only thing to show of their bodies. Male characters also wear spandex. I have attempted in my work to challenge the genre and change characters whom are sexist, but Supergirl here is just as if not more covered up than Superman. The reason these characters wear spandex is due to that athletes wear spandex when running, weight lifting, gymnastics and even in wrestling. It is streamline and functional for intense sport. This comment is like saying women should be more covered up and have to wear looser clothes when performing in the Olympics because either wise its sexist despite it being less functional but men can still wear spandex. Possibly, what this person was meant to say is no character should be in spandex as it exploits their bodies. However, this seems to stand on the line of political correctness gone mad when athletes should not longer wear spandex because its sexist.
The idea that Poison Ivy has lost her signature red hair I can understand, though the roses were intended to signify and represent that, I will work to make this more obvious.
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