The ways that women have been portrayed in comics during the past 75 years has led to criticism by fans, scholars, and creators in the industry. At one extreme, there are unrealistic superwomen who are shown being able to juggle both their career and their household, while still finding time to use their superpowers to save the world time and again. At the other extreme are women characters who are victimized, brutalized, and/or sexualized to a greater extent than their male counterparts. Although Jewish women characters are a minority in the comix genre, dozens of examples of such characters may be found. This session highlights several examples of such characters from various comix genres (e.g. Bibllical, superhero, biographical, war, graphic fiction, travelogues) and illustrate what types of values these characters embody.
NOTE: At the end of this recording, speaker Steven Bergson mentions the following speaker, Barry Deutsch, author of
Hereville, whose presentation may be found
here.
For the visuals from this presentation, please visit
http://jewishwomenincomix.blogspot.com.
Presented by Steven Bergson at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.
27 min 51 sec