I keep seeing Dick fans in this poll mention when he was raped by Tarantula as if it at all proves he’s been sexualized in comics and it’s gotten to the point where I feel like something has to be said about what the word sexualization even means and why many people in the tags and comments of this poll are failing to correctly identify it.
Trigger warning for discussions of rape.
I can only assume Dick Grayson fans are repeatably bringing this up because they either 1) don’t understand what the word sexualization means and think depictions of rape == sexualization, 2) they haven’t actually read Devin Graysons Nightwing run and think his rape was sexualized (which it wasn’t), 3) because they’ve been seeing fans arguing for different female characters on this poll bring up those times that those characters were sexually assaulted or harassed (while they were actually sexualized), or 4) because they believe certain sexist lies about Devin Grayson.
The key difference here, the one Dick Grayson fans who keep bringing up the time Tarantula raped him don’t seem to understand, is what sexualization means and when it occurs.
Sexualization of a character is the portrayal of that character in a way meant to titillate the audience, a portrayal aimed at inspiring lust in the reader at the appearance and mannerisms of a character.
Depictions of Rape do not automatically entail the Sexualization of the victim. There are plenty of depictions of rape in art which are not meant to make the viewer see the victim as a sexual object. Dick Graysons rape in Nightwing #93 is one of those depictions. There is nothing titillating about his assault. He is not sexualized in that scene.
How do I know? Basic reading comprehension for one, but because I understand that is in short supply among many of the people engaging in this poll I’ll generously provide some examples.
Dick Grayson is not shown directly during the rape, he is not posed provocatively, there are no panels zooming in on various body parts. He is shown curled in on himself and in the shots where he is lying down the ‘camera’ doesn’t hover over him, it remains at a distance. Dick is a silhouette or out of frame in all the panels that take place during the rape itself, we can’t see him. The roof is shadowed and rainy. His body is not on display. His misery is not something the viewer is being invited to act as a voyeur to.
Also, importantly, Dicks feelings, as they have been for the rest of this arc, are centered. We are invited to sympathize with him as he breaks down, we get to look inside his head.
The issue where Dick is raped by Tarantula is not sexualized, and it certainly does not sexualize Dick Grayson.
If you’re still not sold, let’s look at a scene that doesn’t contain sexual assault but which does sexualize a character.
Notice how her breasts are emphasized beyond what would be at all realistic for her costume. Notice how her body is stretched out and put on display. Her cape is inexplicably stretched to the right in a multitude of panels, so that her body is clear to see and unobstructed. Notice how in the panels where Steph is on the floor her full body is still on display, that her face her open and viewable, that her arms are splayed away from her body to show the reader as much as possible. Contrast that to the scenes where Dick was prone, where the reader saw nothing. Both scenes take place is dubiously shadowy locations, but the shadows in Steph’s scene only serve to emphasize her curves, while the ones in Nightwing (1996) cover and conceal Dicks body.
Stephanie is a child, 16 in this issue, and being actively tortured to death, but none of that stops this comic from sexualizing her to an egregious degree. I’m hoping this - and how different it is to the oft sighted Nightwing rape scene - helps illustrate the difference between a scenario with sex (and in the Dick example, rape) and a comic that is actually and actively sexualizing a character.
The point here isn’t that Dick Grayson has never been sexualized ever, but that many of the people voting in and discussing this poll do not seem to understand the question being asked or are otherwise incapable of actually recognizing sexualization in comics.
This isn’t just an issue with the rape scene Dick fans keep bringing up, this is a more general issue. Case in point, the person being cited in the tags mentioning ‘the weird thing they did with catwoman’ as evidence of Dick being very sexualized. I can only assume they mean the issue of Nightwing where Catwoman briefly flirts with him to try to make Batman jealous.
Dick Grayson is not portrayed as a sexual object in this issue, his attractiveness is not textually significant or drawn attention to - Catwomans flirtation is not borne out of attraction to Dick but of convenience. More than that, the comics art does not seek to sexualize Dick, but Selina. The “camera” pans over her half naked body as she stretches out, her body open to the eye. Panels focus exclusively or near exclusively on her stretched out body while Dicks body is kept out of frame. Large emphasis is placed on her breasts and butt through awkward posing, through the ways her costume seems to be almost painted onto her skin, literally segmenting each of her breasts. She and Dick both wear skintight costumes but only Selina’s costume shines in this issue, only her body is so strangely emphasized and contorted, only she is shown posing half naked, only her nipples emphasized through her costume. The reader is not directed to sexualize Dick in this issue, to see him as a sexual object to be admired and desired, the person being sexualized is Selina.
For another example, someone in the tags fighting for Bruce claimed the fact that female villains were always throwing themselves at Batman is proof of his sexualization in comics, like the portrayals in every single example of they are gesturing at aren’t actually just sexualizing the female villains. They are the drawn ones boobs out, donning at times little more than a leotard (and sometimes even less), they are the ones being posed and framed provocatively. He is portrayed as a stoic ideal of masculinity.
Easy example from Batman: The Widening Gyre. Reading comprehension question time! Poison Ivy is hitting on Batman in this scene, but is he the one being sexualized? How is he being portrayed? What are the things he is saying, doing? How is he drawn? How does the “camera” focus on him? What is he wearing? Now, What about Poison Ivy?
I’m not saying it’s impossible for a male character to ever be sexualized in DC comics, (though I do think the idea that Dick Grayson should be at all winning this poll is absolutely laughable at best and downright misogynistic at worst), I just want the people discussing this poll to actually engage with the question, to actually consider which characters are being sexualized in comics, because as some very smart people in the tags have pointed out, the sexualization of female comic characters is so routine and constant that many people stop noticing it entirely. When, as comic fans, we're inundated with sexualized depictions of female characters, it is dangerously easy to become desensitized to the misogynistic realities of comics and only acknowledge sexualization (or "sexualization" in a lot of the examples being brought up in the notes) of male characters because it defies the expectation of dignity generally afforded to male characters, which female comic book characters have been consistently robbed of, time and time again. All I'm asking is for a little more critical thinking on what "sexualization" is actually occurring in comics, and who it is happening to.
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