I have a friend who’s really into the Marvel movies, like the Avengers, and also into trying to mend gender inequalities. This led to her finding The Hawkeye Initiative, which aims to highlight how objectifying and sexualised the female super hero costumes and poses are in comic books, even in good quality, up-and-coming graphic novels.
As the site says, “Created on December 2nd 2012, The Hawkeye Initiative uses Hawkeye and other male comic characters to illustrate how deformed, hyper-sexualized, and impossibly contorted women are commonly illustrated in comics, books, and video games.”
The way they’ve decided to raise awareness is by creating The Hawkeye Test, which is a bit like the Bechdel Test for movies: “If your female character can be replaced by Hawkeye in the same pose without looking silly or stupid, then it’s acceptable and probably non sexist. If you can’t, then just forget about it.” People do this by finding a pose and redrawing it with Hawkeye (Clint Barton, The Amazing Marksman) instead of the female superhero, then posting it on the tumblr.
Here are some results:
to see lots and lots more, or submit your own, check out http://thehawkeyeinitiative.com,
The official tumblr of The Hawkeye Initiative
