What is the Future for Women in Comic Books?
The comic book industry is by far a male dominated industry. Just go to a comic book convention where fans are “treated to the sight of several scantily clad professional models dressed in the costumes of popular comic book babes. These models are hired by the comics companies to promote the publisher’s wares. For a small fee, any fan can immortalize the fantasy by having his picture taken with one of the role-playing women” (Lavin, 1998). This is not to say that there are no female comic book readers — there certainly are — but one may argue that as sexualization of women continues, the rate of female readers will decrease significantly. According to Trina Robbins, a female comic book artist, “Women just don’t go into comic-book stores… A woman gets as far as the door, and after the cardboard life-size cut-out of a babe with giant breasts in a little thong bikini and spike-heel boots, the next thing that hits her is the smell. It smells like unwashed teenage boys, and it has this real
