INDIAN ARTIST REDRAWS COMIC COVERS TO CALL OUT SEXISM

NEW DELHI: Fancy seeing SpiderMan in a thong? Or Superman in a skimpy leotard? These images were part of a set of revamped comic book covers that aimed to highlight the “sexist” depiction of superheroines, the artist behind the project says.

Shreya Arora, a 21-year-old graphic design student, made six drawings and juxtaposed them with the covers of comic book giants Marvel and DC Comics that show scantily-dressed women in sexually suggestive poses.

“I have been reading comic books for a while, but increasingly I noticed that while the stories inside had become a lot more inclusive and empowering to women, the covers did not necessarily follow,” she said.

“I decided to take the covers with really demeaning or sexist portrayals of superheroines and recreate them as superheroes.”

Critics have long accused the male-dominated comic book industry of representing women as hypersexualised objects of desire, given secondary roles and less dialogue than men.

Observers hailed last year’s blockbuster hit Wonder Woman the first superhero movie to star a woman since 2005 and the first to be directed by a woman – as a sign of changing times.

Only 27% of all Marvel and DC Comics characters are women and 12% of mainstream superhero comics have female protagonists, according to a study by the digital platform, The Pudding. – Reuters/African News Agency (ANA)