https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-45331730
In
recent years popular culture has shifted some focus from traditional comic book
characters – male, hyper-masculine, white - to characters with more diverse
identities. Black Panther broke the
box office and was welcomed with critical acclaim (Coogler, 2018). In the
excitement for the new Captain Marvel
movie, writers have called the female character “the most powerful hero the MCU
has ever seen” (Gilyadov, 2018). Marvel has also introduced a Muslim-American
female superhero, Ms. Marvel, who is the first Muslim character to headline her
own continuing solo series (Berlatsky, 2014). These examples of diversity in
comic books is important. People tend to identify with characters who are most
like themselves (Bandura, 2001; Hoffner, 1996) and it is important, especially
for young people to experience this process of identification through media. We
also know that exposure to diverse media can change people’s rigid and
stereotypical attitudes (Browne Graves, 1999). It is essential, then, to create
media and popular culture that is reflective of the diverse populations who
read and consume comic culture.
Despite
some of these impressive strides, some individuals and comic creators have
found the representation of people with intersecting identities from
marginalized communities to be stereotypical or lacking entirely. Some have
noticed this and taken control. These creators are working to reclaim
characters and stories in the industry that represent people from their own
communities
When
they can’t see themselves in the comic industry, some comic creators are
writing their own stories when. Priya Dali is one such example. Dali explores
themes of gender roles as a queer Indian woman. Her recent work explores these
gender roles in childhood through “ghar ghar”, or playing house (Chaudhuri,
2018). There are others who do this work. Dozens of transgender writers are
working to change representation and have largely been able to do so because of
the increasing presence of online comics (Mey, 2014).
Other
comic critiques and creators are reimagining mainstream comic book characters. Lifelong
comic lover, Sara Alfageeh, became critical of the way Dust, a Marvel X-Men
character, was being portrayed (Pierpoint, 2018). Dust is a mutant from
Afghanistan and is written as a character with a strong cultural and
traditional background, who wears a niqab. However, Alfageeh has leveed
critique against Marvel’s choices for depicting a traditional Muslim character.
Marvel’s portrayal has Dust in a form-fitting revealing niqab that sexualizes a
character who is supposed to be wearing a full body niqab. Alfageeh has created
her own illustrations to demonstrate ways in which Marvel could have created
modern and interesting clothing for Dust to wear that are more representative
of the ways this character could dress.
These illustrations have been getting a lot of fan support online and even
attracted the interest of Zac Thompson, an X-Men writer (Pierpoint, 2018).
These
creators, and others, are actively working against the historically
stereotypical representations of marginalized groups and working to include
identities that are often left out of comics, graphic novels, and popular
culture entirely. If we have a goal as a society to create a more diverse and
inclusive world, one way to accomplish this is by creating diverse and
inclusive media. The more diverse voices are, the more stories get to be told.
References
Bandura, A.
(2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review of
Psychology, 52, 1–26. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.1
Berlatzky, N.
(2014, March 20). What makes the Muslim
Ms. Marvel awesome: She’s just like everyone else. Retrieved from: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/03/what-makes-the-muslim-em-ms-marvel-em-awesome-shes-just-like-everyone/284517/
Browne Graves, S.
(1999). Television and prejudice reduction: When does television as a vicarious
experience make a difference? Journal of Social Issues, 55,
707–727. doi: 10.1111/0022-4537.00143
Chaudhuri, Z. R.
(2018, August 31). A queer Indian artist
is exploring her sexual identity through a comic book. Retrieved from: https://scroll.in/magazine/890464/a-queer-indian-artist-is-exploring-her-sexual-identity-through-a-comic-book
Coogler, R. (2018,
February 14). Black Panther – the most
radical superhero yet? Discuss with spoilers. Retrieved from:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/14/black-panther-superhero-film-discuss-with-spoilers-ryan-coogler
No comments:
Post a Comment