Fanservice and Frustrations (Yeah, I know how that sounds.)

By Ed Benes, who pretty much has the
market covered on official fanservice at DC.

Fanservice has been around for centuries in some way shape or form, going back to Tiziano Vecellio’s ‘poesie’ series and probably before. Some people call it “art” and some people refer to it as ‘masturbatory fantasies”. (Even with his stuff. Titian’s art was often considered the first pornographic artwork.) The problem is all too often, the portrayal of an attractive woman can be quickly slandered by some to fall into that latter category, no matter how she’s dressed or displayed. The determination of what consists as fanservice is somewhat frustrating. And in the world of web, it doesn’t help matters much that the internet is not exactly known for it’s level headed methods of debate. The common argument people make against it is “Why don’t you look at real boobs?” I’m sorry, but in today’s age of photoshopping and digital airbrushing, prosthetic-like make-up, not to mention body modification, and recent advancements in the uncanny valley with CGI in films like Avatar… What would you define as “real boobs”? At least cartoons are honest in their portrayal. You know it’s just a drawing. It’s not lying to you, trying to pretend that it’s photo cover spread is what that actress really looks like, because our public perception of beauty has gotten to a level where it’s now impossible for a human to attain it. (And people wonder why we have a messed up society.)

It was this cover or the Frank Cho one.
I figured I'd save the 'Monkey-Boy'
picture for later.

Do I draw fanservice? Yeeeeah, it’s pretty obvious by now I do and I don’t apologize for it. But there is a time and place for it. If you’re going to produce fanservice, you need to be honest about it. as fanservice doesn’t really have too much of a place in the midst of giant robots beating the crap out of each other. But it’s kind of expected if you’re doing a barbarian fantasy story, since you know... It's generally there’s a lot of skin, boobs and butts in stories where pants are still considered new technology. (Also, porn generally has a lot of fanservice as well. But porn is also rather silly. At least the good porn is. You get to that pornography that takes itself way too seriously, and you end up into some creepy ass territories.) Why do people draw fanservice? Well, I’m sure there are people who would love to psychoanalyze the reasons to infinity and beyond, but I’m just going be blunt and explain it as best I can. Women are just more fun to draw. That’s really it. Now I don’t deny there are some people who are probably subletting their fantasies a bit too much through the pencils… But for a lot of artists, it’s really just that simple. Girls are more fun to draw. (Hey, I like drawing robots too, but it doesn’t mean I wanna go make out with Asimo.)

You see, the grand problem is there is an indeterminate line between what is considered acceptable and what is considered exploitative and some people really have no idea that they’re being exploitive. (And some don’t care.) Which often brings up feminism. Now the notion of feminism honestly confuses the hell out of a lot of people, and it’s one of the reasons Wonder Woman had been such a horribly written character for so long. Let me take you on a little history lesson here.

In the 1960s Wonder Woman was, well… What Wonder Woman was. She was basically the female version of Superman. Her stories were boring and not that entertaining. Sorry, but it’s true. If it makes you feel any better though, Superman was suffering the same problems as well. Wonder Woman’s book sales were so low, that it was going to be cancelled. So they did something radical, and revamped her. She no longer had powers, and was more of a super-spy. (It made more sense than it sounds.) Now to be honest, these stories were actually decent, and she was a really well-written strong female character. The problem started with Gloria Steinem, who had a serious problem with the fact that they depowered what was essentially the most powerful woman in fiction. I like Gloria, but I think she made a bigger problem than she solved. Like I mentioned, the sales were plummeting, and they needed to try something new. The biggest hurdle that they had was the fact that she was so powerful, she was hard to write. That’s the problem when you have a character who’s TOO powerful. You end up having troubles writing that character in any situation that wouldn’t be a real danger to them. (Especially since this is comic books. There’s generally action involved, and it’s hard to write action and suspense if you know your heroine can get out of any scrap.)

But Steinem still had a point. They DID completely depowered her, and it’s not like there was an alternative to it. Even though the result of this shifting of power did result in a stronger character that actually appealed to more readers, DC was forced into returning her back to status norm. Now this is where the whole problems comes from. Wonder Woman was reverted back to normal, and her sales started to slump again, because the stories quickly started back to the same problems they had before. And if it wasn’t for the Wonder Woman TV show, she probably would have been cancelled. (Okay, not quite that. But I have a point I'm trying to get at here.) This was the beginning of a serious problem that a lot of comic book creators had and still have to this day. Even now, there’s a silly controversy constantly going on with her over whether she should wear pants or if she should wear her trademark star-spangled trunks and it’s been going on for DECADES. (Personally, I think THIS is the best costume to use. but that's my opinion.)

In short, a lot of people want more strong female characters in comics, and it’s a notion I truly and empathically agree with. (And hopefully I have done it in the past and will continue to do in the future.) But you have to remember in other genres, when you ask for ‘strong female characters’, you get characters like Ellen Ripley from Aliens, Sarah Jane from Doctor Who, or even Major Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell… Female characters who are defined by their actions and personalities. They’re characters who makes mistakes, are flawed and not some idealized individuals, but are three-dimensional people in their own rights. However, with comic books, the definition of ‘strong’ has a totally different connotation, and you end up with a strong female character, as opposed to a strong character who’s female. You’ll get a woman who can throw a tank… But that doesn’t mean you’ll get the other stuff too.

Sheepish half-naked teenager
is apparently acceptable.

This is one of the problems people have with the enforcement of this form of ’comic book feminism’. (And I understand how I sound by saying that, but please bear with me.) In theory, it’s wonderful. But in practice, it’s a bunch of mixed signals defined often by favortism. Creator A does something, and he’s labeled empowering, but Creator B does the same thing and he’s called sexist. I could start giving examples here, but as I’m a comic creator… So let’s use video games. Final Fantasy’s Rikku’s outfit is very revealing really. Which is a touch disturbing, since she’s supposed to be 15. She’s essentially wearing a stripper’s costume. But I’ve seen many people who don’t even think anything about it, much less when people cosplay as her. They do not even bat an eye. Her characterization is that of a vapid moron, even though we’re told she’s supposed to be smart and quick thinking, nothing in the games are shown to represent this. (Spoony recently called the games out on this, but it took eight years for someone to finally do so.) Yet the video game character Bayonetta is considered the epitome of negative fanservice even though she’s wearing a full body suit, is half a century old, and has the appearance of being roughly in her 30s. She’s very powerful and is in full control and confidence of her actions. One is usually considered acceptable, and I’m pretty creeped out when it’s the half-naked 15 year old.

Some people say “it’s all in context of the story. If that’s how the character is supposed to act, then nudity and sexuality is okay.” Some people even claim it’s just because of the country of origin’s attitudes toward sexuality… Which is fine, but that’s not what happens, and we all know it.

Confident asskicking grown woman
is apparently unacceptable.

Essentially the problem is that what one person finds harmless, another person might find in questionable taste, and yet another person might find utterly offensive. And that line is usually defined by how well we like the specific creator who‘s portraying the characters. I used Rikku and Bayonetta for my examples, because I wanted to step outside of comic books. I could name a dozen other sweet and innocent fictional (and some not-so-fictional) girls who are dressed in questionable outfits like that all the time. It can be forgiven if it’s a case of that fictional character’s culture, like for example, Teen Titans’ Starfire, where they’ve pretty much said that Tamaran has a pretty liberal attitude toward their bodies. (Their men too.) Or even the Twi’leks from Star Wars. But you can usually tell when that’s a case of the ‘universal norm’ pretty easily, without too much controversy. And it’s not even just Japan that’s guilty of this. Europe, United States, South America… Hell, the only continent that probably not guilty of this is Antarctica, and who can really tell with those penguins? (I hear they totally get their spheniscidae freak on when you get one or two Long Island Ice Teas in them.)

With someone like Bayonetta, there’s no hiding the fanservice aspect of her… Hell, the fact that the game can be played with “one hand/one button” is ironic and probably intentional. It’s honest and open about it, and not delusional. The character knows how she dresses and even uses it to her tactical advantage. For a fictional character, there is something admirably empowering about that. And while I have never claimed to be a feminist, I do respect the honesty of it. If someone wishes to think that her kind of fanservice is beneath them, that’s not a problem. I can respect that too. But when that same person condemns Bayonetta, Catwoman, Power Girl or even Cowboy Bebop’s Faye Valentine as sad and pathetic fanservice for basement dwellers, but in the next breath, goes and praises a crying heroine getting porked, pleading for validation, after being tied up…

*sigh*

Yeah. I'm not joking with that last one. I could list the example, but then I'd be getting petty and calling specific people out. Needless to say, it can be frustrating.

Is it fair? Well, no. But we have to remember that the notion of female empowerment and equality is still a relatively new concept in the manner of global sociology. People are going to screw up unintentionally on both sides. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m going to be embarking on a new comic project here shortly, where I’m the writer of it as well as the artist, and I’m certain I’m going to occasionally screw up and draw one gratuitous butt-shot too many. Hopefully I'll be given a bit of forgiveness when that happens. After all, not every creator who draws fanservice is a leering misogynist pig, who only thinks about sex. And not every reader who demands strong female characters is a man-hating feminist, who only wants to read about super-powerful Mary-Sues.

Usually.

Like politics, most people fall in the middle, with occasional leanings toward one or the other side. We just need to be a little understanding and patient, and it should work out alright.