Femme Fatale: A Comic Problem

I have to confess something here: I have not spent my entire life loving comics. I actually didn't pick up my first comic until my junior year of high school, thinking for a long time that there was just no place for me in that world.

While that judgement was a rash assumption, it's not hard to see where I got the idea from. It's hard to find a place as a girl in a very male-centic universe such as comics.

How many famous female comic book writers do you know? How many famous female comic book characters do you know that aren't just sexy villains or sexy sidekicks or just plain sexy balls of sexy-ness? Okay the last one may be exaggeration but you get the picture.

Have you heard the phrase "femme fatale"? It's a stock character really. Someone seductive and cunning who uses their charms to lead their lovers into dangerous situations.

Now I'm all for girl-power, you should all know that by now, but did anyone get a negative feeling from that description? Being seductive isn't bad. Being cunning or charming isn't bad. Can't the problem be that the men are too lustful and get themselves into bad situations all by their own doing? Why can't comics be more sex positive?

The problem I have here is that through luck and wit and maybe some charm, I have found myself in the world of comics. Don't get me wrong, that is so not a problem to me. I think comics are great and for the most part, I think the comic world is very inviting but how do I find my place as a woman?

I'm lucky enough to have a lot of support behind me and I've been given the opportunity to draft up an idea for a sic-fi short story in comic form to be looked at. I feel like this is an important place to start the conversation. There will be no damsel in distress or any other over-worked female tropes. I want to write strong characters where sex is just a fact not a factor.

You know how people say you can't save the environment all on your own but you can start by recycling or riding your bike and go from there?

I can't make the comic universe 100% female friendly overnight but I can try to start writing in a positive environment and go from there. I hope that you agree.

Edit: It wouldn't be right to make this post without including some of the great things that are happening  in the comic world for girls.

Look here for information on Lumberjanes, written by Noelle Stevenson and Grace Ellis, and drawn by Brooke Allen. It's about a girls camp and it's super rad. 


Canadian comic goddess Kate Beaton is a personal hero of mine. In Hark! A Vagrant she 

explores history, literature, kick ass ladies and everything in between. 


Scott Snyder's American Vampire was my introduction into the world of comics and it features a sweet 

1920's movie star lead named Pearl Jones that I may have went as for halloween one year, complete 

with hand drawn sunflower tattoo.