Dead Girls Sell (trigger warning?)

[IanEye]

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[JackRiddler]

DC Comics Wants Artists Skilled at Killing Off Naked Women

http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/09 ... -dc-comics

The comic book publisher launched a talent search asking for drawings of a naked female character committing suicide.

September 7, 2013

Andri Antoniades
A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades has previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and a medical writer.


Harley Quinn The character of Harley Quinn, still alive. (Photo: Tumblr)

DC Comics isn't making any new fans this month: Last week, the editorial team responsible for Batwoman resigned after the comic book publisher refused to let them show their main character Kate Kane's long-awaited same-sex marriage on panel. And on Friday, just a few days shy of National Suicide Prevention Week, DC initiated a talent search asking aspiring artists to submit drawings of villainess Harley Quinn, naked and taking her own life.

The obvious discrepancy is glaring to some fans: Same-sex marriage for a character who's long been an out lesbian isn't allowed, but objectifying a mentally ill female figure in a gratuitously naked death scene is a moment to be celebrated.

The open contest invites the public to "Break Into Comics!" by submitting four panels depicting Harley Quinn in various suicide attempts, the last taking place while she's naked in a bathtub surrounded by plugged-in appliances like toasters and blenders. The winner will have their work appear in an upcoming issue.

The comments underneath the announcement on DC's website are mixed. While some readers defend the publisher's choice, messages that have received the most "Likes" include ones like the following:

This is disgusting and you should feel disgusting. Suicide is not sexy and it's not funny and it should NEVER, EVER be played as either and it should not be used in this manner. Anyone from DC that is voluntarily involved in this should feel like horrible people for it.

No, DC, you've *already won* Alienate Your Audience Bingo. You don't have to keep playing! You can stop now!

I named my kid after Harley Quinn and you think that I'll come even close to drawing this crap?

Some Tumblr users are attempting to make the story go viral to not only launch a boycott of DC, but spam the company's inbox with protest art.

In order to participate in DC’s latest talent search, you have to draw a female character committing suicide naked.

I’m gonna assume I don’t have to explain what’s fucked up about this.

But guys, they left an open submission form on their page! They claim they will personally review every submission!

I see this as an opportunity to spam their box with a Hawkeye-Initiative style inversion of genders. Or just give them an angry letter. Whatever you want.

I say we make this viral and shame them out of this talent search.

What does DC have to say for itself? Not much. Harley Quinn's writer, Jimmy Palmiotti, however, responded briefly on Twitter. Ignoring criticisms that the contest objectifies women, and sexualizes mental illness and suicide, he posted:

Jill Thompson @thejillthompson @jpalmiotti oy

Jimmy Palmiotti @jpalmiotti @thejillthompson I know. When did everyone become the morals police...? lol 6:16 AM - 6 Sep 2013

Let the boycott begin...

[elfismiles]

Texas Business Creates Truck Decal Of Woman Bound And Tied To Bring In New Customers.

A Texas sign company, hoping to get some extra attention for its business, has created a truck decal featuring a woman bound and tied.
texas truck decal woman

The decal shows a blonde woman in jeans curled up on the bed of a pickup truck, her hair obscuring her face and her hands and feet tied with rope. It's meant to be slapped on a truck's tailgate, creating an optical illusion of an actual woman lying in distress.

KWTX News 10 in Waco, Texas reported that Hornet Signs put the decal on the back of an employee's truck to show how realistic its signs are. A female employee volunteered to be tied up and photographed for the promotional material.

"I wasn't expecting the reactions that we got, nor was it really anything we certainly condone or anything else," Hornet Signs owner Brad Kolb told KWTX. "But it was just something...we had to put out there to see who notices it."

Kolb also claimed that since the controversy, he has seen a rise in decal orders.

KWTX said it asked viewers what they thought of Kolb's marketing stunt, and the responses the station received were pretty "one-sided" against it. Some viewers said they even called the police when they saw the decal, thinking a woman was truly in trouble.

Julie Gerstein at the Frisky adds, "The sad thing is, this isn’t even an original idea. Similar truck decals featuring hogtied women, like this, and this, all contribute to a culture of violence against women. Plus, this can’t be making local police happy. How many false 911 calls have been made because of these things?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/0 ... 81700.html

[mulebone]

A Texas sign company, hoping to get some extra attention for its business, has created a truck decal featuring a woman bound and tied.

Nothing new. The old pulps such as Weird Tales, Black Book Detective, etc. were constantly using bondage covers to sell product.

Page through this gallery:

http://home.comcast.net/~pulpgallery/welcome.html

& you'll find literally hundreds of examples.

Also, bondage covers on men's detective magazines are so ubiquitous they're categorized on Ebay by the term "bondage cover." These things were everywhere that they sold comics when I was a kid. As a matter of fact, they probably provided my first glimpse of forbidden sexuality.

There's a gallery here:

http://www.detective-magazine.com/gallery.php

but it's not for the easily offended.

These detective magazines are particularly twisted because they give the reader his titillating bondage fix under the guise of "law & order."

I really don't think much has changed. When a rah rah law & order show like America's Most Wanted used to air, they often had staged reenactments of sex crimes, with hot young girls strapped to their beds while the leering rapist circled them. All done under the guise of "catching the perp," or some such nonsense.

[jlaw172364]

Sorry, I don't have time to read through the whole thread, so here's my two cents.

First, I'm not sure if anyone on here mentioned Romeo and Juliet?

Second, and the real meat of my two cents: sex and death are intertwined. People are equally fascinated by them. Most religious taboos pertain to them. So, since sex and death sell, why not put them in their sexiest form by incorporating youth as well? It also adds tragic emotional overtones at youth taken away too soon, plus your immortalize someone with a story when they are still beautiful, and thus more memorable. Old people dying is no surprise. Young people dying is unexpected. It shocks. Plus, then you also have voyeurism and necrophlia as well. A dead person can't look back at you as you ogle their corpse, which of course, is always eroticized as almost-alive, or fresh, as opposed to the morbid realities one encounters in the morgue and the funeral home. So, dead girls push all the right buttons at the same time. No big mystery there.

[JackRiddler]

jlaw, I think it's all valid, what you say. And yet not covering everything of import to the question. But the thread largely has, I believe.

[JackRiddler]

Crosspost from the zombie thread... obvious connection.

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It looks like being alive just isn't cool anymore;



From the comments;

What the f**k is wrong with this world were living in?!?!?!?

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