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Okay, when I say Power Girl, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Let’s
be honest, you probably thought of her iconic boob window! And there’s no shame in that,
for those that don’t know who Power Girl is, this is her. Yeah, pretty noticeable cleavage,
I know. So, why is this here? Why on Earth-Two does she have this boob window?!
Hello and welcome to the Show With Issues, I’m Auram, and Power Girl, also known as
Kara Zor-L, is traditionally the Earth-Two counterpart to Supergirl, Superman’s young
cousin. She was sent away in a rocket during the destruction of Krypton, her homeworld,
and was kept in stasis for sixty years before landing on Earth. During this time period,
Kara was fed all the life experiences and knowledge that an average Kryptonian would
have. This was basically a plot device set in place so that Power Girl could just be
immediately introduced as a fully fledged superhero with little-to-no explanation required.
Of course, since this is DC, there were many retcons and retellings of her origin, but
this is the most basic one out there. All you really need to know about her is that
she’s an older, boob-windowed Supergirl from Earth-Two.
So there’s really not any reason for the boob window in her comic origin, she just
kinda showed up on Earth with the costume and became one of Superman’s well-kept secrets
for years. Wally Wood, one of Power Girl’s creators; however, had allegedly did something
behind the scenes in relation to her huge chest and boob window.
In an interview with comicsalliance.com, Jimmy Palmiotti, a longtime Power Girl writer, said
this, “When the character was created, Wally Wood was the artist that drew Power Girl,
and he was convinced that the editors were not paying attention to anything he did. So,
his inker said every issue I’m going to draw the tits bigger until they notice it.
It took about seven or eight issues before anyone was like hey, what’s with the tits?
And that’s where they stopped. True story.”
As hilarious as that is, it may not actually be accurate. It’s one of those infamous
comic book legends, no one really knows if it’s true or not, but we can look at that
era of comics, from her debut in All-Star Comics #58 and the next few issues, to see
if there’s any merit behind what Wally Wood and his team did. Look at these eight images
and try not to giggle at the fact that we’re analyzing a fictional character’s breast
size. They look relatively consistent to me, which would put an end to the Wally Wood story
in my eyes. But, of course, we have no confirmation on this, so it’s really up to you.
Regardless, that’s as far back as we can possibly go here. Those images were from her
first appearance and the seven issues that followed. No strong reason for her window
here other than it simply being part of her initial character design, so let’s jump
ahead a few years to, say, 1992! In Justice League Europe #37, after Power Girl had undergone
some wardrobe changes, she had this to say after someone asked her why she has the signature
window, “This costume shows what I am, female, healthy, and strong. If men want to degrade
themselves by staring and drooling and tripping over themselves, that’s their problem. I’m
not going to apologize for it.”
To me, this sounds like a reasonable explanation. She wears her costume because she likes it
and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. This is a very empowering idea, it lets people
know that they can wear whatever they want and feel good about it. Let’s get another
perspective though, since this is kind of a touchy subject that I am in no way qualified
to preach about. I interviewed my friend Celeste on this topic and she had something to say
on this specific explanation.
I think a lot of women, um, they feel empowered by -- okay, so, basically. There’s a lot
of cultural forces in the world that try to be like, “You should be ashamed of your
body.” So, kind of, showing your body in a way that you are in control of can be more
powerful. Kind of like a really big trend right now to wear, like, mesh clothing. Like
mesh dresses and a lot of women feel like that makes them like sexy and fun. And because
they’re in control of how much they show, that gives them power over -- I guess like,
the male gaze. So this -- I could see that, but, like, four names are on here and one
looks like a woman. I don’t know if this portrayal of her was like necessarily complete,
like, in a vacuum. Like, it wasn’t just like, the male gaze was completely removed
from the artistic process. So, I mean I could see that argument, but also at the same time,
ughhh a little bit, like ughhh!
So, yeah, it’s not a perfect explanation, especially seeing as, like Celeste mentioned,
it was manufactured by a male-dominated industry. It was an explanation that was slapped on
for the sake of making people stop crying about the costume. That’s comics though,
things appear with no explanation and are later given context and story based on fan
reaction. Of course, this has changed throughout the years with stories being planned years
in advance with less new concepts and characters being introduced, but during Power Girl’s
debut, the “make it up as we go” model was the status quo for comics.
So, Power Girl didn’t really touch on the subject for years, probably because she was
exclusively used as a member of the JSA for the most part which didn’t give her much
time in the limelight. This didn’t stop another character, namely Cyclone, for giving
us another reason for the boob window, however. She talked about how she loved Power Girl’s
costume, especially the window, “It’s all about contradictions. The hole draws the
eye precisely where everyone knows they’re not supposed to look -- putting anyone you’re
dealing with off-balance, the name says girl, but the costume says woman... And not just
woman, I mean. It says, ‘I’m tough enough to handle everything I am. Are you?’”
This is pretty much the same explanation as the last one, except it’s shoved down our
throat by another character, a young girl in fact, I guess to give it more credence
or something. Kara pretty much shrugs it off by saying that she never thought of it that
way and it isn’t really touched on again, until the most infamous explanation in 2005’s
JSA: Classified #1.
In the issue, Kara and Superman are talking about her current disdain for Supergirl and
she pretty much just says this out of nowhere, “People always ask me why I have this hole
right here. They think I’m just showing off… or just being lewd. But the first time
I made this costume, I wanted to have a symbol like you. I just… I couldn’t think of
anything. I thought, eventually I’d figure it out. And close the hole. But I haven’t.”
I can’t even begin with this one… Why wouldn’t she just cover the whole with a
blank white slate? That would better represent the idea of not having a logo! Honestly, the
way it is now it just looks like her cleavage is her logo. This explanation is heavily criticized
and for good reason, it just doesn’t make sense and really discounts the previous explanations,
which were already suffering from lazy writing.
This makes me wonder though, in today’s extremely socially conscious and sensitive
world, how is something like this still a thing? Now, this might blow your mind, but
with Kara’s latest “rebooted incarnation” in the New 52, she started off without a boob
window! For whatever reason, whether it be the fans didn’t like it, or DC didn’t
like it, Power Girl was soon put back into her old costume. So, is she just cursed? Has
the boob window become so iconic at this point that any attempt to change it would be immediately
met with disgust?
Hell, she’s been around for over thirty years now, maybe she’s just a product of
her time and DC doesn’t wanna change it because of this! Regardless of how stupid
that reason is, it does hold some credence today. I mean, just look at how much people
cry about the “source material not being respected” in comic book movies and the
like. I’m gonna let Celeste talk about this while I cool down a bit.
Well, I think everyone is a little bit “product of their time,” but that doesn’t mean
you’re excuses from having these kinds of views. Like, even today, I am like a product
of like I guess a more social, online world, but that doesn’t mean I can just do whatever
I want and blame it on like the internet or video games or whatever. My choices and what
I do still matter, even if I were to evaluate them twenty years from now. Like my choices
today were still me making those choices. Not like, the internet forced me to give her
a boob window.
Again, very arbitrary reason for keeping a specific aspect of a character around. I mean,
mainstream comics have been around for over seventy years now, we can’t keep telling
the same stories with the same looking characters. Why do you think we always get these huge
earth shattering events that shake up the universe and almost always come with new costumes
and books?
Power Girl seems stuck in this one, oversexualized costume though. Whenever she tries something
new out, it gets changed back, no matter what. Maybe this is just something we have to accept
at this point. Comic books will always have men and women with impossibly unachievable
body types wearing ridiculous costumes that they fight in. Let’s see what Celeste had
to say on this subject.
Well, one of the arguments that I have read a lot is that there’s a difference between
how women are portrayed and men are portrayed. Men are portrayed with like really big muscles,
blah blah blah, but that’s more of a power symbol than a sex symbol. Like, yeah, abs
are hot or whatever, but when it becomes like big hulking muscles, that’s not necessarily
just sex, it’s about power and control and how strong they are as men. But, women, even
extremely strong ones, are still portrayed sexily. So that’s a really big difference
between how they’re portrayed. It’s a difference between power and as an object.
It’s a possible sad truth that this is something we just have to deal with. We have to suspend
disbelief and ignore whatever’s going on here... Y’know, what, no! I refuse to believe
that we can’t make a difference here, screw the status quo that’s been set for seventy
plus years, we can change the way that women are drawn in comics and, more importantly,
the costumes they’re put in!
In fact, here’s an amazing example of how DC has already executed this. Take a look
at this picture of Starfire from the start of the New 52 reboot. Awful, I know, but look
at this updated costume that she wore for her solo series! Not great still, but better
and closer fits her character’s personality! Jump forward a year or two and BAM DC Rebirth!
This is a great suit that pays homage to her previous costumes and color schemes while
remaining not incredibly sexualized. If that wasn’t enough, look at the very new character,
Jessica Cruz, one of Earth’s Green Lanterns. Next-to-no skin showing and she looks just
as iconic and great as anyone else from the Lantern hall of fame.
This video went to a very different place than I expected it to... Oh well, what do
you guys think? Do you think that Power Girl’s boob window should be done away with in this
day and age? Or at the very least have a good explanation? Talk about all that in the comments,
seriously I’m sure it’s gonna be a hoot down there.
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thank you so much for watching! Next time I get crazy muscles and wear a super skintight
suit and that’s my look for just the rest of this show.
Feminism. Dot com.