So if you've followed any of the comic book media outlets, you may have seen this comic book cover for Batgirl #41. As you can see above the image depicts Joker holding Batgirl hostage. Now much of the industry has accused this cover being sexual violent and depicting views of rape. While I can say that this is a vast departure from the very cheery looking Batgirl covers from the previous issues, in my personal opinion I think that people are very over exaggerating. This cover has fallen victim to the war between depictions of the female gender depicted in comics.
The cover is actually an homage to original series "The Killing Joke". In the events of "The Killing Joke" Barbra Gordon is a victim of an attack from the Joker paralyzing her. Over course this was all rewritten a few years ago when DC Comics rebooted all of their main series comic books into what they call "The New 52". The implications of the cover are to remind you and also scare you into thinking that in this cover, the Joker may attack and hurt Batgirl again. People have pointed out that the gun joker holds in his hand is pointing downward, which they would consider symbolism for rape. While the placement of the gun could simply be a coincidence, it could also again be a implications of the past incident of the paralyzation of her legs.
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Now, what I next what to mention is the idea of Batgirl being victimized. Superhero stories both heroes and heroines are constantly being depicted as victims of villains. It's just what occurs in superhero story. These moments are usually to elicit an emotional response from you. Now unfortunately being for female characters one of the most known ideas of being a victim is from rape. Let pose this question for you, if we as society associate females being portrayed in peril or being a hostage or as victim associate this as rape, should we completely remove them from ever being in these situations? That would certainly leave the female super hero genre a bit bland.
To sum up my point, I think people look to much into it, and that the superhero genre is always about heroes doing heroic things, and heroes being in peril, and that's things depicted on covers. There are dozens of covers where characters are in peril, that if we negated gender could have implications of rape as easily as this cover. Now I do want to add that I think the tear in the cover may be what triggered a people into this whole controversy, but I counter that but artist using to add to the terror of the situation and the artists attempts to make the situation more genuine. Granted you never see heroes depicted with tear filled terror in their eyes, but these are things that maybe future artist will depict. As we've grown in a society not only have we proven that equality goes both ways. That women can be shown as dominant and empowering, and men can be shown as emotional and compassionate.
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