Week Twelve: Women's Comics

I read a few comics this week, starting with My Friend Irma. Irma is a innocent character that seems oblivious to what is being said and how she is understanding it. They use the stereotypical dumb-blonde humor that made this character popular. It's actually quite interesting because Irma never really faces any consequences to her being a scatterbrain. Women would represent women in this time different then how we would represent women today. Irma is a good example of how even women used to write women as being their stereotypes. Early comics representing women are not really the reality of how women are, or how they would write themselves. Irma is a cartoony character of a stereotype of a woman that men embodied in the comic. This may be why the myth that if you are blonde you may be stupid probably originated from. I think it could be compared to Archie in the sense of how ridiculous it is and how it objectifies and uses the idea that girls are dumb to play into the wants for the readers.

Diary of a Dominatrix is written by a woman and it can be seen in the style and artwork of this comic. This work is not only from the perspective of a woman but a one that mainly dominates men and that's her career. The concept of a dominatrix is already considered taboo and I think giving the character realistic proportions and not this fictional body adds more to the work. This comic is powerful, and I think it's powerful because of the author and her own control that she has. The author changes the idea that the fetishization of women and objectification are only for men but also women can embody this and take control of how they are seen or even a part of their own identity.

Women are not given credit to their work throughout history of comics and lots of art forms. They are seen to not have contributions to the work and are believed that they should stay unemployed, and at home. This is obviously faded with time as in recent years, women have been more popular and now majority of comic readers.