It’s not as if women have some sort of mysterious homing pigeon hormones that allow us to swarm the best in lady culture when it’s published even if no one lets us know about it. I’d be genuinely curious to know if Marvel and DC have done substantial advertising campaigns in women’s magazines, or on female-oriented television shows when they’re rolling out new storylines or new artists on comics with female characters? Or if they’ve pitched their comics characters as cover girls or interview subjects a la Marge Simpson’s Playboy spread? Just for fun, I checked the Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire archives for references to She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, the Scarlet Witch, Catwoman, Wonder Woman. Only the last produced any results actually related to comics or related products: in a guide to famous breasts in Marie Claire that misstates Wonder Woman’s history. If any other industry was making a push to get a product to its core audience and was failing that miserably in reaching them, they would fire their PR people and their marketing department. Maybe someone can offer information I don’t have here, and if so, I’d be curious to hear it.

You can’t expect women to go into comic book stores if they have no idea that anything’s there for them. You can’t expect them to swing by comics and graphic novels sections in physical or online bookstores if they have no conception that there are characters they should get excited about. If you really want a female audience, go after it.

“Some girls look that way” is one of the dumbest red herrings in these lines of debate. Of COURSE some girls have large breasts! Hell, Amber does, the girl in this very strip. The problem is ALL girls in comics tend to have large breasts, if not the same physique all around. Yes, guys can find girls with smaller breasts more attractive, but those guys apparently aren’t drawing comics, or feel moved to conform.

For the thirty-billionth time, the physique of women in comics is only one small part of the perceived problem. The rest is presentation. Guys in comics don’t pose with their asses cocked pointing towards the ceiling. The “cameras” aren’t pointed on guys in comics to accentuate their sexual characteristics. Guys are drawn to look powerful, girls are drawn to be eye candy. And this off-kilter balance is SO PERVASIVE in our society that most people don’t even notice. Many folks assume girls actually stand with one hip out to the side all the time, in real life. (Hint: They don’t.)

But that’s an aspect of media that’s hard to argue against, so of course people who feel uncomfortable being told media representations in comic books tend to be inherently sexist flock to the “but some girls have big boobs!” distraction.