Escher Girls

Escher Girls: Breaking the Fourth Wall with Fanservice

catofmanywhiskers:

soprie:

In my last post about sexuality and the Hawkeye Initiative, I mentioned female character’s sexuality in-context and out-of-context. This out-of-context sexuality is no longer between the character and another character, or even the character and herself. It is between the…

Look in the comments, a lot of people there make a good point, particularly the first comment which states:

And I think it even goes further than her flirting with us: the character is -not- actively flirting with us. She’s looking at that piece of paper and simply standing in the manner of a bored teenager (with added bone breaking for teh sexies, I don’t imagine the character is consciously striking a sexual pose). It’s not her fault her regulation skirt is too short. That makes it even worse because it’s forcing the viewer to -become- that creep who hits on girls at the bus stop.

Yes, this.

In many ways, comics present us with these “damsel in distress” or “I don’t notice that my skirt is too short” or even “Oh, I just see you now, I’m so embarassed that you’re looking up my skirt, stop it!” style fanservice.

The artist makes us, the viewer, into a creep. And if anyone has ever been a victim of creeping, this completely breaks the story for us. It’s one thing to read a story about a character that creeps on another character. (some would argue Edward watching Bella sleep fits this) It’s another thing to describe something, through art or writing that turns us into the creeper in second-person perspective.

Some girls in these fanservice shots have agency. That “Oh, come hither, let me show you my goodies” look. But a lot don’t. They are presented as not knowing they are being creeped upon* or embarassed / scared / angry that you, the viewer are viewing her.

*EVERY FIGHT SCENE EVER counts for this. If a person is fighting, they are not aware that someone is oggling them. When we have panty shots and downblouse shots of schoolgirls with katanas or female superheroes, you can be darn sure that those girls are not aware of the reader and consenting to being viewed as a sexual object while fighting.

I think this is also a really important thing to note as well. :) The viewer is forced to be a voyeur in these shots. As said above, if this happens in a fighting scene it gets even more incongruous because you’re watching a fight happen and then you’re getting angles and panel construction specifically for you to see panty shots, or cameltoe, or etc. Unless you’re into the fight being just a sideshow for voyeurism, it takes you out of what you’re watching/reading, and it can make you uncomfortable, especially if you like the character and you aren’t interested in looking up her skirt or ogling her breasts inside her conveniently destroyed costume.