I can see how this can be read wrong, easily, but Mary Jane doing Laundry? Out of Character.

I’m a white male who reads his fair share of comics (mostly DC titles) and am often disappointed by the images of women in the medium. More often than not the writing of female characters is fine – there are plenty of strong, independent, real women characters to be found, but the visual side tends to get a bit out of control (it would be nice to see a female character who DIDN’T have enormous boobs and no waist).

But then I think – wait a minute. Aren’t the majority of guys in the medium chiselled jaw muscle men who pretty much ALL have six-packs of abs?

The medium is not typically known for it’s subtlety, it’s true. BUT, all that being said, I still have a problem with this image of Mary Jane. When you see Spiderman’s image, he’s generally seen in a pose of action. Why? Because it symbolises who he is. To have Mary Jane bending over with her boobs out, g-string showing and happily washing her man’s clothing (whether it means to or not) marginalises who she is.

I will come out and say right now that I am not a major feminist. I respect women they way I respect men, and am not typically an alarmist who calls anything even marginally inappropriate ‘sexist’… but this image is poorly conceived, and yes… sexist.

There’s a difference between showing someone as sexy, and marginalising who they are. I’m not certain that this was the intention, but come on… the people who made this really don’t appear to have thought it through.