Not-so-Wonderful Woman, Part 2

UGH.  So I just found Jim Lee's commentary on the new costume, which wasn't up earlier when I was writing.  He says, in part, he wanted

"A design worthy of the mantle of Wonder Woman but one that didn’t scream classic superhero! So we played down and scaled back the iconic elements—the stars, the eagles, the double WW’s, lightened up the motifs and added armor which could pass as street gear."

 What, exactly, is WRONG with "scream[ing] classic superhero"??  Why is this a problem?  Why do our heroes have to be dark and "edgier"?  UGH!

Not-so-Wonderful Woman

I haven't written about comics yet, and today's the day.  I have written about Wonder Woman's clothes before, at least indirectly.  So no we're going to return to the topic of superhero fashion, but in comics instead of Underoos.

Yes, Wonder Woman has a new costume, "in partial answer to the many female fans over the years who’ve asked, 'how does she fight in that thing without all her parts falling out?'" according to the DC Universe "The Source" blog.  I have no doubt that's true.  As a good fighting outfit, Wonder Woman's strapless bathing suit leaves a lot to be desired.  I suspect that she actually would've had a pretty easy time lassoing bad guys in that outfit - I'm sure at least some of them would've been momentarily stunned when her breasts popped right out of the top.

So I understand they thought they needed a change.  They also thought they needed to make her "be taken seriously as a warrior."  Why, exactly, that requires making her look like a malnourished waif in bad nightclub clothes, I really don't understand.  Nor do I understand why they thought it was important that her new outfit could "be accessorized."  Yes, they really said that - "it can be accessorized."  I like Darren Franich's quote on EW.com's PopWatch: "I wish they had come up with something slightly more colorful: between the long black leggings and the dark blue jacket, this new outfit sort of looks like Joan Jett with a jewelry budget."  According to Yahoo! Buzz, the pants are actually blue, but they sure look black.  Blue is marginally - only marginally - better, but if they don't actually look blue in the art, they might as well be black.  And if they want to give her a jacket to put stuff in, at least make it a useful one, instead of a fashionable shrug with stars on the shoulders.  Speaking of which, "[s]he can close it up to pass unnoticed…open it for the freedom to fight."  What?  Close it up to pass unnoticed?  Nobody's going to notice that jacket after the first fight or two in it?

Furthermore, take a look at the new top in action (scroll to the bottom to see the comic panels).  It won't fall completely off thanks to the double spaghetti straps, but she's still going to pop out the middle.  Has Jim Lee looked at real women's athletic wear?  Racerbacks, tank tops, wide straps, and higher necklines are what actual, real active women tend to wear.  Why?  They provide support and coverage.  They work - and they can look good too.  Or, heaven forbid, she could wear long sleeves and a scoop neck.

Since it seems pretty obvious based on the drawing that they were really trying to make Wonder Woman sexier and more modern, while appeasing the folks who actually want her clothed, maybe we need to remind Jim Lee and the rest of the artists out there that plenty of guys find women in real active wear sexy - and those artists have the ability to use their talents, with some creative shading and highlighting, to make an attractive, modern, and realistic costume for Wonder Woman.  And one that makes her look like a superhero, not like some urban streetfighter (which is the look they say they wanted.  Again, why? Why is that modernizing?  And is it really modernizing in a good way?)

Of course, my opinions on all this aside, there was only one real, valid test I could administer on how good an idea this costume makeover is.  Fortunately, I happen to have one live Wonder Woman fanatic little girl roaming around my house.  So I showed her the new costume.  LG's answer?  "I don't like it.  It's not pretty.  It needs to have more stars on it, and she should be red, WHITE, and blue, not black!"

Out of the mouths of babes, DC.

Kindroid

It's here!  I've got it!  Look back a few posts and you'll know what I'm talking about.  Kindle + Droid = Very Happy GeekToMom!

I still love my Kindle.  I'm not giving it up.  It's much, much nicer reading on the e-ink screen than on the backlit Droid screen, though the Droid app does help with that.  You can choose from white, sepia, or black for the background color and you can adjust the screen brightness.  However, I can read anytime now, even if I'm somewhere I don't want to bring my Kindle, and that makes me very happy!

Girls and Toys

Fair warning: this is going to be a rant, and a long one at that.

LG likes superheroes and trains.  She's not so unusual in that - lots of little girls like superheroes and trains.  The problem is that the marketers see superheroes and trains as "boys' toys" and they market them as such.  At age 3, LG got really upset about her favorite Spider-Man blanket - because "Spider-Man is for boys."  Apparently one of the kids at school told her that.  It took a lot of convincing that it wasn't true.

Fortunately, all of the marketing in the world couldn't convince her that Thomas the Tank Engine was only for boys.  LG loves Thomas.  Potty training was a bit of a problem, though, because she wanted the Thomas underwear she saw hanging at the store as a reward.  She had a Thomas t-shirt, after all.  Have you ever tried explaining to a precocious 2 1/2 year old why girls could wear t-shirts from the boys' department, but couldn't wear boys' underwear that was hanging on a hook next to the princess underwear for girls? Would it really be that hard to make Thomas underwear for girls?  There are female engines and trucks (Emily, Molly, Lady, Rosie, etc.) if it just makes the marketers too queasy.  And it's not as if they wouldn't sell.  Every Thomas event I've been to - and I've been to quite a few - has had a very high percentage of girls in attendance, in many cases a majority.  In fact, one Thomas event at a local Toys R Us was attended exclusively by girls for the first half hour until one boy - and his two sisters - finally showed up.

While LG loves all superheroes and can identify the major characters from both DC and Marvel, and while Spider-Man will always be her first favorite, she's currently really into Wonder Woman.  Daddy showed her selected scenes from the 70's TV show on DVD, and LG has now become the latest in a long line of girls to do the Wonder Woman Costume Change Spin of Doom.  This ended up eventually turning into a conversation about Underoos, because of course the Wonder Woman Underoos were a favorite of girls in the late 70's.  To make a long story short(er), I did a quick search for superhero underwear for girls.  Any guesses what I found? Sexy Wonder Woman lingerie for adults and pink camo Super Girl PJs for girls.  Ick.  Lots and lots of stuff for boys, of course.  I'm sure there are more out there for girls if I really search - it was just a quick search on my Droid.  But the point is, I have to really search - they certainly don't make it easy like they do for boys.

So at this point you're probably thinking that I'm a big fan of all the "pink boys' toys" that the marketers have come up with to make boys' toys interesting for girls.  You know, pink Legos, pink doctor kits, pink airplanes.  No, not really.  In fact, I can't stand them and generally refuse to buy them.  There's no reason on this Earth why a doctor kit should have to be pink for a girl to want it.  Girls will play with anything as long as it's pink and boys will like it because they're boys?  Please spare me.  The real solution is for PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS, and TEACHERS to get the message across that these toys are for all children. It's pretty simple, really - don't force feed princesses to girls and trucks to boys.  Sure, there will be some girls who only want dolls and have no interest in trucks even without the socialization they get from exposure to other girls and women.  So what?  Other girls will decide they like trucks and princesses, and some will decide they don't like princesses at all.  And that's OK.  But toys have to be marketed to girls - and accepted by their parents - not just have their color changed.

Having said all that, the addition of female engines notwithstanding, the wooden train industry marketers have been remarkably resistant.  No girls' clothes, no girls' bedroom decor, nothing.  This does have its advantages from my wallet's standpoint, I'll admit.  I would like to say they're doing what I believe in - saying that anyone can play with these toys just the way they are.  In reality, though, I think what they've really done is given up.  They hear a story about "my daughter had no interest in trains even when I gave them to her" and ignore the fact that the little girl had never before had anything that wasn't pink, purple, or a doll.  No surprise there the girl didn't have any interest. So they market to boys, classify the trains as boys' toys, and show boys playing with them - and they give up on half the preschool population.

So, then, I didn't know whether to cry or applaud when I saw the Imaginarium Around Town Railway at Toys R Us yesterday.  It's a nice little wooden train set with a bridge, lots of track, an engine, some freight cars, a fountain, a house, a store, and some trees and people.  Pretty typical.  Except that the engine, bridge, cars, houses, store, and fountain are pink.  Not obnoxiously pink like some toys, I'll admit - they're a fairly pleasant shade.  They also put in little extras to appeal to girls.  The trees have flowers on them.  The freight cars hold presents wrapped in bows.  The store is an ice cream/soda shop.  The people are women.  The package shows two girls happily playing.  And the track is plain wood - not pink.  It's not what I'd prefer.  It's not the way I think it should have to be done.  But I also think that half the battle is convincing Mom and Dad and the grandparents that it's OK for their little princesses to be playing with trains.  At least Imaginarium is making an effort without going too overboard.  I'm not thrilled about it, but it's not bad.  And yes, LG got one - she loves ice cream shops.  And she saw the package and said, "Look - they don't think trains are just for boys!"  I could hardly refuse to support Imaginarium's effort at that point.

Now if we could just get some Thomas and Friends underwear or pajamas and bring back Wonder Woman Underoos!

Wii + Netflix = Bad for Blogging

Having a Wii has been a lot of fun.  A little exercise, a few games...really, for the most part, we've enjoyed it.

We got the Wii after we cut our cable back from the ultra-super-deluxe-HD & DVR cable package to basic, local-stations-only cable.  We cut our cable bill in half with virtually no noticeable effect on our lives, because we hardly ever watched TV anyway, and when we did it was usually on local stations.

Except for LG - she watched Sprout.  We were now left with no Sprout, which really just meant our collection of Thomas DVDs got used a bit more.  There were a few shows we enjoyed too, ones we liked to watch but rarely had time.  We haven't seen 24 in two or three seasons now (horrifying that we've missed them), we've missed two seasons of House, and I've missed half a season of Bones.  We started hearing from well-meaning friends that we really, really ought to sign up for Netflix so we could watch whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, all streamed conveniently to our Wii.  So, finally, after a few weeks of this, I gave in and signed up for the free two week trial.

So far, so good. We got our Wii disc in one business day, as promised.  Our Wii was already set up for Internet access, so no problems there.  Sure enough, within moments of getting the disc, we were able to watch TV shows and movies magically sent to our TV via our Wii.

And that, in short form, is how we ended up watching Thomas episodes we somehow haven't acquired yet.  And how, instead of blogging last night, I ended up watching the first two episodes of Knight Rider.  Who doesn't love a service that can serve up everything from Thomas and Clifford to Knight Rider and Quantum Leap with the touch of a button?

That doesn't explain the rest of the week - we won't talk about the nasty cold I had - but it's much more fun to just blame it on the Wii, anyway.