My reaction, upon seeing the first episode of Justice League (over a decade after it originally aired, MY BAD), was of huge excitement. There were two- TWO- lady characters! Not only was there the classic standard (/token non-white-dude) Wonder Woman, but also the totally hard-hitting badass Hawkgirl? AND John Stewart, the one non-white-dude Green Lantern, too? You're kidding me! Heart won, Justice League.
Only...
Despite the unusual number of minority representations, something was way off. My feminist sense was tingling! (I tried to find a cool picture of Spider-Woman, but it appears her only powers are Being Busty and Posing Sexily :/)
This is not the post I originally intended to write- THAT post was way longer and more laborious and I before I was finished, I got distracted by Very Important Work (Mass Effect). The post that follows is more of a discussion of the wonky, gender-lame visualizations that happen in Justice League Unlimited. I'm focusing mainly on where the show goes wrong, rather than where it goes right, because where it goes right is pretty obvious (and fairly superficial). I mean, not only two female characters who kick butt, but ONE of them gets to wear PANTS?
I also want to note before we jump in that I love JL and JLU, despite its flaws. I just can't watch more than about two episodes of it in a row before I get so frustrated with the gender politics that I have to quit. That's bad, because I'm definitely a binge-viewer, and it's taking me a really long time to get through the show because of... okay, well, because of the things I'm going to talk about! Let... let's just dive in.
