Ummmm....

Today’s post is a little weird.

First of all, take a look at the picture of this statue, then answer me this. Do you find it offensive?

Now, I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not really a comic book guy. Loved them as a kid, but as an adult, I can think of other things I’d rather spend my money on. However, while blog-surfing I stumbled across that picture and it turns out that a lot of the comic-book community is going batshit crazy over it.

Why?

Because Mary Jane Watson doing Spider-man’s laundry is demeaning and offensive to women.

The only reason I’m posting this is because (at least in my opinion) the people going nuts don’t really understand the ‘context’ of the statue…but mostly because I thought “This is what you choose to get offended about?”

Ok, let me explain the context first.

For me, the main attraction to Spider-man is that he isn’t the stereotypical “Truth, Justice and the American Way” hero. He’s a normal kid with all the same problems, faults and worries as you and me. Sure, he swings around NYC kicking the crap out of badguys, but as Peter Parker, he’s a shy geek who has trouble standing up for himself.

In many ways he’s the opposite of Superman. I can’t remember where I heard it, but someone said that with Superman, Clark Kent is the ‘act’. Kent is the disguise Superman wears to fit in with the general populace. He’s a super-hero who pretends to be normal.

Spider-man is the opposite. He’s a normal kid who pretends to be a Superhero. He wasn’t born with his powers, and if it wasn’t for the hard-learned lesson from Uncle Ben, he probably wouldn’t be Spiderman.

So that’s what I mean about the context of this statue. It’s not relegating Mary Jane to ‘housewife’ duties…It’s more about the fact that even though Spider-man is more than capable of defeating Doc Oc or Mysterio, but as Peter Parker, he needs help with his laundry.

Remember the part in Spiderman 2 where he accidentally dyes his laundry red and blue because he put the spidey suit in with his load? Same idea.

Secondly, though, I was just surprised that this is what people chose to get offended about. Take a look at this pic:

What’s a practical superhero outfit? I know, a chainmail bra and thong!

It seems that rather than a dastardly super-villain, the things female super-heroes have to worry about the most is pneumonia from their total lack of clothes, and lower back problems from their gigantic boobies…and this is pretty much representative of the whole genre

Now this is just comic books, so many people (including myself most of the time) are just “Who cares?”

I just find it really amusing that in a media where women are almost exclusively represented as pre-pubescent wet-dreams and teenage fantasies, a superhero’s girlfriend doing his laundry is what people choose to get bent out of shape about.