And before he Kwannon connection became history, she was essentially had non-consexual sex/r was aped in the first Uncanny issue being under mind control.

And whats worse is the errors in the first issue . You’d think a complete moron wouldn’t know the difference between the People’s Liberation Army of China and Japanese Self Defense Force. Its amazing that someone like Chris Yost could write such a horrible book to begin with. The author of Red Robin and the initial 6 issues of X-Force to boot!

Still….all this over Psylocke #1 and the cover to #2….

By the way, I’m not a woman. I’m a gay male.

And I usually hate romantic comedies and chick flicks. They’re boring, trite, and predictable. Though not as boring as action movies.

That said though, like I said above I will agree that there are far fewer good examples for females to look to than males in fiction, and that is where a true harmful disparity lies. Guys can happily ignore female wish-fulfillment to find an example of a male character for them to enjoy and the grand majority of fiction is still open, while the same cannot be said the other way around.

In a nutshell, men get to be heroes in boy’s fiction, and in girl’s fiction the central males also have certain heroic attributes. So it seems like male protagonists always get to be somewhat heroic, no matter what the audience.

And yeah, lots of bad stereotyping of males you have mentioned, dumb jock, skeevy geek, angry badboy. But those are almost always the supporting characters, and there are always “good” males in the story in more central roles. While the harmful stereotypes of females usually are the central female role in the story.

He is this sardonic, cynical guy that is sometimes likeable, sometimes a jerk. Except for the final two episodes, he doesn’t bend over backwards to make Carrie see he is the one. He has major trouble with commitment and can be as neurotic as Carrie.

I’ve seen about two episodes, and in those one’s she was the jerk.

But to aspire to be more like Prince Charming (handsome, witty, courageous, capable, determined yet sensitive, etc.) doesn’t sound particularly demeaning to me. Actually, these traits sound like good stuff, no matter what your gender is.

Yes, but it’s what ‘women want’ in a man, not a realistic portrayal of one – and it could be argued that there’s nothing wrong with looking sexy in a bikini and being there for the man who just saved the world!

A more grevious issue is how comparatively few good paragon females have been out there compared to male, not how much more terrible bad female characters are than bad male characters.

So females have Damsel; males have Dumb Jock (who by extension includes the primitive brute I described earlier), Skeevy Geek, Angry Badboy. There’s the guy who burps after every drink of beer after every play of football which he inevitably ignores his long-suffering wonderful female partner to watch. And all of those stereotypes are VERY pervasive in fiction.

Also…if Prince Charming is “everything a girl could want”, and you’re calling the male fantasy counterpart the Damsel in Distress, that’s insulting and demeaning in and of itself. All guys want is the Damsel in Distress? All we wish for is vacuous and needy, but in a pretty package? What are you trying to say, exactly?

The real counterpart of Damsel is the guy who needs the girl to fix him, whether its giving Dumb Jock depth, or Skeevy Geek “cool”, or taming Angry Badboy, or getting beer-drinker off the couch and to the flower shop buying roses for long-suffering wonderful female partner.

Now, the traits associated with Damsels-in-Distress? Not so good. Except for the physical part, do you want to be helpless, dumb, submissive, and unable to fend for yourself? I don’t think it’s unreasonable or demeaning to desire an ideal partner with stunning good looks, but it is demeaning when looks and looks alone are all you’re after. A similar situation isn’t women who want a Prince Charming, but those women who want their man pretty, muscled, and dumb.

Now, the male being stereotyped as brutish and primitive, etc. Yeah, it’s bad. But I don’t see this stereotype as a pervasive one in fiction. Take comic books for instance, most male protagonists in Marvel and DC aren’t like this. Except for the Hulk.

But the girls in Conan the Barbarian usually aren’t competent, well-rounded characters, are they?

Actually, more often than not, the ladies do pretty well in the original Conan stories. Belit. Valeria. The Devi Yasmina. Queen Taramis. Nafertari. All are tough, smart, brave, and generally exhibit traits far beyond just being hot babes who are often under-dressed. (Though in faIrness they usually are that too.) I’d call them reasonably rounded characters for thirties pulp fiction. Even the slave girl Muriela in Jewels of Gwahlur, who at first glance seems to exist solely to scream, tremble, and yell for help, proves herself to be “quite a little actress.”

And in the comics, Red Sonja did pretty well despite her impractical bikini armor and her incredibly skeevy origin. And Roy Thomas really redeemed his efforts there by his subsequent characterizations of Belit and Queen Zenobia.

James Bond in the Fleming novels is far less defensible, to be honest, and let’s not even talk about the first dozen Bond movies. There’s definitely a case to be made for misogyny there.

The impossible contortions and distortions of personality neccesary to be a movie Prince Charming sets standards just as impossible and are just as dismissive of other aspects of the male. Also, things stereotyped as male are depicted as rude, crude, bruttish, and primitive, and things stereotyped as rude, crude, bruttish, and primitive are depicted as male. That’s not demeaning? That doesn’t set up the same “be this or be ashamed of what you are” situation that women bemoan?

Despite its poor reputation among straight men, “Sex and the City” is miles ahead of “chick flicks.”

Mister Big isn’t in any way Mr. Perfect, seriously.

He is this sardonic, cynical guy that is sometimes likeable, sometimes a jerk. Except for the final two episodes, he doesn’t bend over backwards to make Carrie see he is the one. He has major trouble with commitment and can be as neurotic as Carrie.

As for the usual depiction of males in chick flicks that you mention, being depicted as an overlooked Mr. Perfect that is chased by a crazy loon, is that so demeaning? You have to agree that it’s a lot less demeaning than being a helpless girl with huge boobs and no brain and skimpy clothes, such as in Conan (not sure about Bond, Bond girls are more femme fatales than damsels-in-distress, I suppose).

In any case, I hate most chick flicks at least as much as I hate action movies.

This is inconceivable!

I think the depiction of males in “chick flicks” are seldom demeaning to men.

Man, that’s sexist!

Nearly every romantic comedy has the girl running around like a crazy loon ‘not knowing what she wants’ whilst the guy is a one dimensional ‘mr. perfect’ who has to bend over backwards to make her see that he’s the one.
Be it Mr. Big, or Tom Hanks not running from the crazy lady in Sleepless in Seattle.

Pretty much zero difference between that and a Bond girl really.
(If you want to see really sexist, watch ‘Man With The Golden Gun’ – Britt Eckland chases Moore and hard, whilst he keeps rejecting her advances… to the point he hides her in a bedroom closet whilst spending time with another woman on the bed, and she’s still super in love with him at the end).

Odyssey leaves a faithful, chaste wife behind while he has sex with lots of hot women on his adventures or something?

Typical woman’s view of it!