Home › Blogs › figleaf's blog

The No-Sex Class: New Monster is a Female With "Weaponized Horniness" and... Vagina Dentata!

Mon, 2009-12-07 01:08 — figleaf

Abhay of The Savage Critics discovers a near-terminal case of the “no-sex” class paradigm in a semi-standalone X-Men title from Marvel Comics

The comic opens with the Green Goblin angry that Namor has quit the Masters of Evil, and has instead joined the X-Men. As retaliation, the Green Goblin has decided to weaponize the horniness of Namor’s ex-wife.

Here is the dialogue explaining his weaponize-the-horniness plan: “She’s part human and part Plodex— the Plodex are some kind of alien race apparently— and when you mix’em up you get this. We’ve modified her to keep her perpetually in estrus which explains her rotten attitude… but the result is a genetic W.M.D.”

...

In the monster genre, the origin of the monster frequently contains a warning to the reader. The Frankenstein Monster is a folly of science. Godzilla is awoken by the atom bomb. The Host is created by pollution the United States forces Korea to inflict upon itself. The origin of a monster is the part that speaks to the audience’s true fears.

...

The obvious conclusion to draw from DARK REIGN: THE LIST— X-MEN #1 is that at the close of 2009, a woman with an appetite for sex is apparently the very definition of fear and horror for Marvel comic creators and their audience.

Read the quotes in context here.

Nicely put. Rule #1 of the paradigm’s bogus Two Rules of Desire, remember, is “it is simultaneously inconceivable and intolerable for a woman to have sexual desire.” In the case of the monster ex-wife the intolerable part that’s in play.

Men don’t have to live like this. But for some reason we think we do.

Via a blog roundup by John Brownlee of SciFi Scanner who adds

I think this is more a result of the fact that mainstream comics enthusiasts tend to have… well… tentative connections with the opposite sex.

He said it here.

It’s stuff like this that insures it’ll remain tentative. And another generation of boys who are going to grow up wondering… or, worse, dreaming up bad answers for… why women who want to date them are so scarce.

Mon, 2009-12-07 02:05 — nekobawt (not verified) #permalink

i am reminded of the following strip of the webcomic “shortpacked”: http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20091113.html

i’d say why, but it’s 2am and 3 hours past my thyroid meds’ wearing off, so the coherency just isn’t there….

Mon, 2009-12-07 04:12 — Amorous Rocker (not verified) #permalink

This is a good post. You have got my mind going. =)

Mon, 2009-12-07 12:04 — Rebecca (not verified) #permalink

I am sure it is a dumb comic but I worry about making generalizations about comic book audiences and how much they have had sex/talk to women*. Sci-fi genres in general have gotten more popular and mainstream even if not all sci-fi books/comic books are well written and many still are full of sexism/racism etc. but then that is true of any genre out there.

Perhaps more importantly the whole insulting people by suggesting they haven’t had sex/ aren’t social enough with people of the opposite gender – something which people legitimately complain about when directed at feminists – is problematic on a lot of levels. For one thing it suggests sex/dating is something people (especially young people) should hurry up and get more of so we will take them seriously. For another these sorts of gross generalizations make it hard for the group you are talking about to take any critique one offers seriously after what is basically a childish personal attack.

*also this argument seems to suggest there no women comic book readers

[Dang it all, I keep doing this! There’s a difference between who an audience is and what a publisher or producer’s image of who their audience is. You see it in everything from porn to Kleenex. And sometimes I jump on marketing decisions and it spreads over into who’s being marketed to. Which isn’t necessarily the end of the world — media doesn’t turn us into robot but it does shape and/or reinforce world views. Especially in the absence of a lot of express cultural cues (which are lacking when it comes to things like sex and relationships.) And it can color the worldview regardless of gender. So I think of it more as the low spot in the floor where spills tend to naturally pool. With marketers often not even noticing that’s where they’re pouring their own messages. Anyway, sorry for thinking I wasn’t falling into it but, it looks like, falling into it anyway. Thanks, Rebecca. —fl]

Tue, 2009-12-08 00:20 — Reader (not verified) #permalink

More than a fair point, Rebecca and I agree with you. :)

Anecdotally speaking though, I frequented three comic shops in central London for a number of years and in all the time I went there, the only women I’d see were those dragged in by boyfriends/ sons or those buying manga. I seemed to be the only one buying comic books for herself. Weird.

[Oh dear. If that means they do know their market well it’s double shameful. Thanks, Reader. —fl]

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.