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No. 210543
>>210522
http://thehawkeyeinitiative.com/
I don't agree with that at all. If you think about what Obie is actually doing with SheZow, it's actually a very intelligent deconstruction of something some don't recognize or talk about in our society, and that's the security and sanctuary afforded to female gender exclusive characteristics, bases of power and legacy. Remember when you were a child, and perhaps your cousin or your little sister wanted to play with your Transformers? "No" you said. In trade, she offered one of her Barbies and a pink convertible. "Hell no!" you said. You didn't want her toys, because they were both boring, girly, and the trade was completely unequal. Boys didn't play with girl things. It didn't feel right, your friends would make fun of you, and your parents would wonder if you might grow up to become Buffalo Bill. Plus, who the fuck trades Grimlock for Barbie anyhow? She trades up, you trade down. Yuck. Maybe if the shit she played with was less "girly" and sappy and made so inaccessible to males with any dignity..
Think. How many protagonists do you know that their male sex plays an important part of their empowerment? Just being male does not count. There could just as easily be a daughter of krypton (quite a few, in fact), a female laboratory victim that becomes a hero, or someone worthy of a legacy, as conventional wisdom holds that your sex does not prevent you from being a hero. And yet, perhaps by oversight, we still do a mental backflip when we say male exclusivity is a myth and make it taboo, while we reserve a spot, lay out the pink tablecloth and sparkle it with glitter for designated female roles. We designate a special place for heroines who aren't just female supers, but super females. We give them their own category and niche, and part of their specialness comes from being dimorphically female, not just heroic. A state that cannot be challenged, because in order to be part of this exclusive club, you must be female. Men are typically denied this exclusivity for their sex, and male exclusivity is seen as a convention to destroy and replace with something egalitarian. Women are given a choice between something practical, or something gender dimorphic. Men have more to lose by trying to make something female into something gender inclusive than women do by wearing pants and saying they're for both sexes.
SheZow as a concept punches this disparity in the face. It's one of the few tangible examples of plucking something from the "exclusively female" pedestal, and if plans for season 2 or 3 are to be believed, wiping off the glitter and making it their own. It shows in society, things that before were considered untouchable on the basis of sex and gender are not untouchable at all just because that sex and gender happen to be female. And to boot, Guy isn't mentally challenged, an innocent or androgynous child beneath the philosophical concept of gender, or swishy and homosexual. He's heteronormative male and stuck in a supposedly female legacy, giving no ability to make this an exception from respectably applying to regular joes. If the conclusion to this is that SheZow's legacy changes to incorporate the male gender into its future, and is allowed to operate without the pretense of femininity, I can think of no better conclusion.
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