The World in the Wardrobe

mganns:

and that’s how i contributed to the fandom at 3AM

The Women of Young Justice: The Team

—Batman #590

(Source: fyeahdickandbabs)

fuckyeahbatmanuniverse:

19th Century Batgirls | Michelle Sciuto

Don’t lie: these costumes are awesome and badass and BABS I LOVE YOUR COSTUME!

Also Steph and Cass, got it going on!

luanna255:

the-natbat:

Starfire in all her feminist glory. 

That’s right, I said it. Feminist. 

I’m going to have a mini rant now. Brace yourself. 

Starfire was never my favorite character, but I have recently become obsessed with her. Before the reboot, I always considered her that wall between Dick and Barbara officially getting together. I thought she nothing more than a slutty piece of ass with a winy existence. 

Then the reboot happened and she was given a spotlight. I was finally able to get into her mind and her past and really consider her. I won’t lie: I’m not a fan of her loss of memory and absent emotions (though, to be honest, when you read closely, her feelings ARE there, she does very much remember Dick, I think she’s in denial though, but that’s just me). 

BUT

there is something regarding her that is pissing me off to no end. 

The fans. 

The fans who are calling her “Slutty” or just a playboy esk porn image. Recently, I came across a comment that read “Every time I pick up Red hood and the Outlaws, I feel like I am punching feminism in the face.” I’ve read multiple comments of the like about how fans feel Starfire’s revealing outfit and sexual escapades makes her a bad role model and insult to women. 

AH HELL NO. 

First off: Women should never be ashamed of their bodies. Ever. Female bodies are the absolute most beautiful things in the universe, men and women alike will always agree with this. They have the power to be soft, strong, curvy, firm, inspiring, provocative, comforting, and a million of other awesome things at the same time. To be blunt, they’re awesome to look at, straight or gay alike I think can attest to that (Hell, I’m a straight girl, but I could stare at a naked women for hours easily). 

And they have more purpose than simply sex. 

How dare you say that a woman revealing her body is nothing but a sexual act. 

Contrary to popular belief, boobs were not made for sex. Hips are not made for sex. Both those are made for our children—have a legit biological purpose that we should never be made ashamed of. We grow, birth, and feed our children with these bodies. We give LIFE with these bodies. Boobs/hips/vaginas/ect are not truly meant for sex alone so to say revealing them is “sexy” is a gross insult and misconception. (Hell, if anything, men should be made to cover themselves because their bodies are literally meant for nothing but sex. They do not carry children and their boobs don’t even work. All that underneath is meant for sex, just saying…)

To say Starfire is nothing but a sexual image meant to get male readers hard simply because she wears little clothing is, to me, the same as the horrible old argument “She deserved to be raped because she was dressed slutty. She obviously wanted it.” To say Starfire’s revealed body is for sexual thoughts is saying that the female body is meant for nothing but sex and that is simply wrong. 

If Home-Girl Korand’r wants to show off her perfectly tanned bobbies, then by God, she should. Why the hell not? Girl’s got a nice body. Girl’s not ashamed of this nice body. Sweetie don’t need armor, she’s got superpowered alien skin to protect her. I doubt she would care if it offended anyone. 

She has no reason to cover her body.

Second, why can’t she sleep around? 

Yeah, I miss her love for Dick. I feel like it’s a very important part of who she is and where her character is coming from. I admit, DC needs to fix that one, give Kori some real emotions. 

But let’s be honest: Dick is not in the picture any more. He and Kori, whatever that relation was in the reboot, are over. Kori is single. She’s a hot, single chick who wants to have some sex. 

You go, Kori Anders (is that still a name? No…)

Why the hell not? Men are allowed to do it all the time. We see Dick with his namesake in a new woman in what feels like every single issue, Bruce with a new woman—EVERY super hero man seems to sleep around. And the fans never have complained as much about this as they have when Starfire did it. 

News flash. Women have sex. Women like sex. Women do not think we need to fall helplessly in love and be forever devoted to a lover to have sex. Women have sex just to have sex as much as any man does. 

And hell, though I’m not really as frisky as all that, if a women is single, why the hell not? Why can’t Starfire have all the freaky inter species sex she wants? 

besides, we as readers have only really seen her have sex with three people. 

Dick Grayson: Girl was in love with and engaged to him. Nothing wrong with that. This would be considered a perfectly good reason to have sex. 

Jason Todd: She’s still dedicated to him with being his best friend. Not like she just fucked and ran. Friends have sex all the time in real life. It’s not that big a deal. (Okay, He’s Dick’s brother, that’s odd, but that’s beside the point right now.) Whatever she may claim, I think it’s pretty obvious she has real feelings for him, cares for him very deeply. That’s hardly a one-night-stand relationship. 

Roy Harper: She’s still with him in a sense. No, they’re not official, but she hasn’t slept with anyone else since, they date, they sleep in the same bed, they spend all their time together, they’re willing to die for each other. If I were to be so bold, they’re basically an official unofficial couple. 

Sooo, what’s so risque again? Because, I’m sorry, all these look like legit, real relationships. No one night stands, no REAL sex-for-sexs-sake with it comes down to it. Sure, the latter may have been the intent with Roy, but again, it’s clearly blossomed into something more. 

That’s probably more than a lot of readers can say about their own sexual adventures. Yeah, I went there. 

I personally love the image of a woman who is strong and unashamed. A woman who is proud to be a woman. 

I adore and look up to the image a super heroine who is not afraid to reveal her body—like Starfire, or Wonder Woman, or Supergirl—a woman who boldly tells the world with her body “I am a Woman and proud.” And then, to see these women have the power to kick the shit out a any man—to lift cars over their heads or catch falling planes or kicking the crap out of men, super and nor powered alike. Powerful women. I love the idea of a woman who is not afraid of her sexuality, who thinks there is nothing wrong with sex, and who refuses to be ashamed of sex—a thing that is literally the absolute most natural thing in the world and that one should never be embarrassed about. 

I’m really disappointed that now DC is covering Starfire’s body up just because some readers found looking at a pair of breast offensive, just because some readers think women need to be modest and “lady-like.” Personally, they could have just tweeked her emotion issues and we would have had an almost ideal woman role model. 

Starfire was my absolute least favorite comic book character a few months ago. I fell in love with her in “Red Hood and the Outlaws” and in her found a new favorite super hero woman. Women need heroes like her, I feel. A hero to teach us not to be afraid, not be ashamed, not to be held back of the fact that we are women. We are attractive, we are beautiful, we are sexual, and we are strong. 

I hate that now DC is covering that. I want Starfire’s body. I want it revealed and in my face, daring me to find issue with it. 

So, summed up, hence the drawing of a fully naked Starfire, because girl’s got no reason to hide that body. It’s my own little way of rebelling and trying to tell girl’s they’re awesome the way they were born under all that clothes. Don’t hide. 

Starfire is—was—feminism. 

Okay, but here’s the deal: Kory’s body-positivity and sex-positivity were important aspects of her character long, long before the reboot ever came along. This is not something new and awesome about Kory that the reboot created. Really. This is what Kory looked like when she was first introduced in New Teen Titans:

She’s hardly some kind of habit-wearing nun here. Never has been, never will be. Then, as now, Kory had no problem showing off her body. She was proud of it and she saw no reason to hide it, and you’re right, that IS something positive and feminist about her character. I don’t like putting heroines in skimpy costumes just for its own sake, since there’s an EXTREME double-standard there (how many male superheroes do you know with revealing costumes?), but in Kory’s case it’s always been character-driven and I would never want it to be changed. She’s a character who sends a powerful message about sexuality, and she always has been.

She’s from another culture, and she’s never seen any reason to - in her own words - “inhibit herself with silly taboos”:

And yes, nudity was one of those ‘silly taboos’:

(By the way, you mentioned naked Kory? Here is pre-reboot Kory drawn completely naked in a way which emphasizes her beauty but is not demeaning to her character:

She’s naked in these scenes, and completely offhand about it, but it’s handled completely casually and at no point is she posed for the reader. I think this commentary is pretty on-point in the difference between these scenes and the way she’s drawn in (parts of) RHatO. I’ve written at more length about sexy Kory vs. sexualized Kory here, and someone added some great commentary about the difference between that and RHatO here.)

It’s not about how many clothes Kory is or is not wearing. It’s about the way in which her nudity is treated. It’s a thin line to walk, I’ll admit it myself, but I think it’s an important distinction to keep in mind. I’ve written more at length about the difference between “sexual” and “sexualized” in general here and here.

In fact, in case you don’t feel like clicking all those links, I’m going to quote some of my thoughts from that second post here, because I feel they’re on-point.

“It’s all about treatment. If a character is written well, as someone who is clearly sexual but not solely (or even primarily) defined by their sexuality, and is sexual in a way that is handled thoughtfully as an aspect of their character as opposed to treating them as walking fan service - there is no problem. And that comes down to an issue of both writing and art, and it’s a thin, thin line to walk.”

“Sexy characters can and should be front and center.  The problem isn’t with being sexy. The problem is with drawing the line between a sexy character and a sex object. They are not the same thing, and knowing where to draw that line makes all the difference, IMO.”

I wrote this primarily about Selina Kyle (citing both the way Selina was portrayed during Ed Brubaker’s Catwoman run and the way Kory was portrayed in New Teen Titans as positive examples of sexual heroines in the spotlight), but I think it applies equally to Kory. Kory has, indeed, always been a sexual character. Like I say above, she’s never had any problem with nudity or skimpy clothing, and her straightforward attitude about it has always been an essential part of her character. And she absolutely had unconventional attitudes about love and sex from the very beginning, too:

But look at what she says here - “always emotionally, sometimes physically”. That’s a strikingly different attitude from Red Hood and the Outlaws where she declares that “love has nothing to do with it”. It’s not even about considering one attitude better than the other - it’s that one of them is characteristic of who Kory was as a person before the reboot, and one of them is not. Pre-reboot, Kory’s incredible warmth and passion and loving nature were one of the most essential parts of who she was, and the reboot took that away. They left her sexuality and her warrior nature (which were both well-established from the very inception of Kory’s character, and nothing new at all), but they took away a major part of who she was. And the question is: Why?

Here’s the essence of who Kory was, pre-reboot: Passion. She was equally passionate in love and war. Sex and friendship. Kory was, primarily, a creature of emotion - she felt things incredibly strongly, whether the emotion was positive or negative. Every defining trait of who Kory was, both her greatest strengths and her deepest flaws, could be traced back to her passionate nature. And that aspect, which was really the essence of who she was, is exactly what the reboot chose to take away.

Like I said: It’s all about creating a well-developed character. And prior to the reboot, Kory’s fierceness and sexuality were absolutely essential aspects of her character. But so was her deep warmth, her love and compassion for her friends:

Pre-reboot Kory loved people. She loved humanity in general, and she loved her friends most of all. RhatO Kori claims that all humans look alike to her, that she can’t remember any of the people who meant the world to her pre-reboot self, and she is in fact bored by the subject:

(And by the way? That pose? Perfect example of sexy vs. sexualized. Kory isn’t standing naturally there - she’s in a ridiculously contorted pose which serves no purpose but to turn her into a sex object. That’s not empowered sexuality. That’s sexualization. Compare that with the examples I provided above, where she’s actually completely nude, and you’ll see that the distinction isn’t just about how much she is or isn’t wearing.)

If you think this is just about a bunch of bitter Dick/Kory shippers being upset that she doesn’t remember him, then wow, you are missing the real point here. Of course, there are shippers who are upset about that. As well they should be. It’s fine for Dick and Kory to not be together, but it’s possible to let them move on with other people without completely disrespecting their history, and this is just the latest escalation of something DC’s been doing for years. Yes, I’m aware that Dick and Kory’s history hasn’t been completely erased. But making her forget what he used to mean to her, with no hint that this will ever be resolved, and refusing to so much as let Dick mention what Kory used to mean to him, is a huge disrespect to their history together.

But frankly? That’s not the main point here. I’m not a Dick/Kory shipper, myself. I’d like their history to be respected, because I think it’s important and it’s an essential part of understanding both characters, but I have no desire to see them ever get back together. Personally? I’m a Dick/Babs shipper, all the way. So this is in no way about shipping agendas for me, and I suspect that’s true of most of the people who are upset at what’s been done to Kory.

The problem here is that Kory’s relationships with all of the people who used to be important to her have been erased, and her identity as a deeply loving, devoted friend and lover has been erased along with them. I mean, at least her relationship with Dick still exists in some form! But what of her relationship with Donna? With Gar? With Vic? We’ll never know, because the subject bores her, apparently.

And before you object: I do realize that, from what I’ve seen, Lobdell seems to be developing Kori as less cold than she initially appeared in Red Hood and the Outlaws #1. I’m aware that he’s been showing that she cares about Jason and Roy more than she seemed to. But this is an aspect of herself which she’s portrayed as repressing, which she needs to learn to acknowledge and develop. That is antithetical to who pre-reboot Kory was. Pre-reboot Kory believed that “We all have so much to give to each other… it’s wrong to withhold your feelings.” (see above) Expressing love and emotion was not something pre-reboot Kory would ever, ever have needed to learn about. It was something she taught others about. It was the core of who she was.

That aspect of Kory was beautiful, and it was deeply essential to who she was as a person. Now it’s gone, and I’m not alone in saying that Kori is by far a weaker character because of it.

It seems to me that the real issue here is not that reboot!Kori is in any way better, more interesting, more empowered, or more feminist than pre-reboot Kory. The issue is that you never gave pre-reboot Kory a chance. You considered her a “slutty piece of ass with a winy existence” (it’s spelled whiny, by the way) who was standing between Dick and Barbara getting together.

Why did you feel that way? I’m not really sure. It certainly bears no relation to the truth. We’ll start with “whiny”. Let’s look at this scene, shall we?

As lusilly very eloquently points out in describing what an amazing moment this is:

“Kory refers to all of this as ‘unpleasantness.’ They’ve been lost in space. They’ve been hunted several times, and one of their number has been killed. She’s pretty much dying. They are pretty much going to die. And she calls it ‘unpleasantness.’ Kory. Kory. I love you.”

Unpleasantness. Yeah, that’s about as far from “a whiny existence” as you can get. And it’s hardly an isolated incident. Kory’s way, in general, has never been to whine or dwell on the negative. This is a woman who was sold out by her own family as a slave, brutalized and tortured for years, and yet still found a way to always see the goodness and beauty in the world.

“Whiny existence”? Better take that accusation somewhere else, because Princess Koriand’r of Tamaran is about as far as you can get.

“That wall between Dick and Barbara officially getting together”? Bears no relation to the actual canon. Dick and Barbara officially became a couple in the late 1990’s. They had to work through some issues to get to that point (mainly relating to how Barbara’s life had changed since her paralysis), but Kory simply wasn’t one of them. After that they broke up twice. Kory had nothing to do with it either time. Kory was never a wall standing between Dick and Barbara as a couple. Period. (If anything, DC has an unfortunate tendency to overplay Barbara’s importance in Dick’s life at Kory’s expense. See scenes like this one, where Dick dismisses his relationship with Kory as “answering a need I had at that time for affection”, or issues like Nightwing: Year One or Nightwing Annual #2 where Babs is retroactively inserted into Dick’s history with Kory, to the detriment of pretty much every character involved.)

But even if Kory had been a legitimate obstacle between Dick and Barbara? Hating her for that reason is still vastly unfair and problematic. It defines her worth and likableness solely on her romantic life and her relation to your OTP, and that’s an incredibly flawed way of judging characters. Fandom has an unfortunate tendency to do this with both Kory and Babs in relation to shipping them with Dick, and it’s a pretty darn huge disservice to both characters. I’ve talked about it more thoroughly in this post, and my ‘it’s not a competition’ tag in general. Thinking this way is just undermining two wonderful ladies who are incredibly nuanced, complex characters and deserve a HECK of a lot better than that.

As for “a slutty piece of ass”? Frankly, I feel no need to even touch that. Those words are meaningless, they do nothing but shame women for being sexy (something you claim to be against), and if you’d describe a woman that way based on nonexistent justifications, you have pretty much no right to lecture anybody else about feminism. End of story.

In short? The issue here is not that the reboot made Kory awesome. The issue is that before the reboot you judged Kory for offensive, problematic, and incredibly anti-feminist reasons, and now that you’ve actually given her a chance, you’ve discovered things about her which were awesome all along, and think you’ve made some sort of groundbreaking discovery here. But in truth, the things you love her for have been there all along, but you are simply blind to the incredibly important, beautiful aspects of her character (which have absolutely nothing to do with Dick) that she has been robbed of.

Starfire was a feminist character long before the reboot ever came along. The fact that you didn’t appreciate that doesn’t mean it wasn’t so. And the people who criticize her portrayal in Red Hood and the Outlaws have very legitimate complaints, which might make a bit more sense to you if you’d actually understood what was lovable about this character before the reboot came along.

THIS

heckyeahbatfam:

That’s the most suggestive “clik” I’ve ever seen.