Oh My Goddess: Anthropological Thoughts On the Representation of Marvel’s Storm and the Legacy of Black Women in Comics

Abstract

This study presents a qualitative analysis on the representation of black women in comic books using a sociocultural approach to their production-release background. We study the X-Men mutant character Storm, whose path reinforces and questions the social roles these women enact. We state that the analysis of cultural assets aimed at entertainment, like comic books, helps us consider the relationship between gender and ethnicity in our society.

Visual Pathologies: The Semiotics of the Patient and the Practitioner in Comics

“…The author pays no homage to a binary gender system, though realizes these comics were created in a society where such a system is upheld by the cultural majority. Just as Dalbeto and Oliveira [38] located cultural stereotypes of women of color through visual analysis, this study found stereotypes of women in medical practice; within the male and female stereotypes as represented in these comics, doctors are always portrayed by men, and nurses are always portrayed by women. In the four closely dissected comics, and throughout the entire data pool of 24 comics, the results remain the same.…”

“…Whereas these comics may be a representation of the author's beliefs and a reflection of cultural beliefs in general, just as Dalbeto and Oliviera have found [38], these comics are in distributed newspapers worldwide and may have a sizable impact. After all, comics are a product of the culture they are created in, and the artistic choices of the authors offer valuable cultural insight and potential to influence readers [38]. It is no longer assumed that the media has such an intrusive influence on the life of the individual; it is suggested that this discourse may aid in the framing of represented participants [1,3].…”

“…Taking into consideration media theory and the analysis of the comics, medical associations and practices may find valuable insight into the opinions and beliefs of not just the authors of these comics but of society as a whole. According to Dalbeto and Oliveira [38], "a critical analysis of comics, and of any cultural asset, is necessary because […] they are not free of ideologies." With this in mind, the themes of doctors as more powerful and more important than patients, doctors presenting as one of the two culturally accepted genders rather than the other, aloofness of doctors on the job, and distrust in doctors and the medical system were interpreted.…”

“…The compositional metafunction also looks at modality or whether or not the images are convincing in general [1]. This analysis gains inspiration from the related works of Kaplan-Weinger [34], Juricevic and Horvath [36], Kowalewski [37], and Dalbeto and Oliveira [38], to name a few. This research uses methods founded in the humanities to seek insight into the medical industry and the surrounding ideologies, as well as how these ideologies are conveyed in graphic narrative.…”

Comics, questions, action!

“…These student questions and responses to the article excerpt may also indicate when it is time to update the article we use. Over the course of the three summers of the CQC we have used two different academic journal articles that treat comics as subjects of scholarship, helping to connect our use of comics in the classroom to the larger landscape of academic research (Dalbeto & Oliveira, 2015;Rivera, 2007). It is our hope that, through the time spent with us working with comics and questions, students start to see a place for themselves and their interests in academia.…”