Yeah, I know, imaginative title, huh?

So I've just been watching this whole Playboy thing play out on the internets.  For those of you who live under an even bigger rock than I do, take a look at the latest issue of Playboy.  It basically depicts a reality-TV star, naked, with Wonder Woman-themed body paint.

Now, I don't like the images.  They seem tacky to me, especially the close-up facial shot with erect nipples and that blase, blowing-about hair thing that has become mandatory for every picture of a woman in existence ever.   I find the poses dull and contrived and if body paint is the bestthey could do, missing out so much of the other costume elements, then they really didn't try very hard.  But I can't honestly say I'm feeling outraged, or even particularly disappointed at the idea of Wonder Woman the Porntastic.

Yes, Wonder Woman is a feminist icon.  Yes, she was conceived as such and her current writer, Gail Simone, is made of such awesome feminist goodness ON TOP OF arse-kicking creative talent that the feminist, comics-reading community are all passing out with delight.  Yes, it is objectifying and does detract from te idea of Wonder Woman.

But...

It's a fap-mag.  I personally am not against porn, per se, only against the strang enotion that seems to be going around that our entire world must be a great, throbing mass of PORN PORN PORN at all times, in all places, however innappropriate or icky, that we must all be porn-worthy in behaviour, appearance and sexual availabilty and that anyone who dislikes any porn ever in their daily lives is just frumpy or jealous.  Ahem.  Anyway...

I am not against the existence of porn.  I am not against sexual fantasies and people enjoying them.  I'm sure there are more than just a few men and women out there whose favourite adolescent fantasy involved Wonder Woman and her lasso, and it's only natural for the porn industry to want to cash in on this.  Shit, they cash in on everything, and the bondage-tastic Wonder Woman is about as hard to turn into porn as Brokeback Mountain was.

Admittedly, I would have more respect for the magazine if they had made the photoshoot even slightl witty.  Wonder Woman tying up bad guys, helpless from being "chained by a man", Wonder Woman doing anything that could be thought of as a nod and a wink to the story behind the character, the implied bondage inherent in the early series, or ANYTHING.  But, then again, I wouldn't expect it.  Most of the mainstream fap-mags are nothing but an endless stream of the same dull, unimaginative and contrived poses with "gothic" meaning "wearing dark eyeshadow and a spikey bracelet", "fetish" meaning "wearing a thong with a tiny, tiny chain attached" and "lesbian" meaning "in vague physical contact with another woman".  And if you thought that porn with Wonder Woman in might, perhaps, involve porn about a woman being in power, think again  (WARNING- images NSFW and really quire wrong).  Once more, most porn  will just take a generic fap-worthy image and stick a costume on it.  And that is all that was done here.

So, while I don't like the pictures, have no fondness for the "article", I can't really say I'm particularly offended.  This is just the porn industry doing what it alwasy does, and I'm happy to let them continue.  It's only when porn invades my life when I'm trying to just enjoy a movie, or read a comic, or walk down the street, or shop for clothes etc that I'm bothered by it.

...

On a lighter note, I found this when googling for images to use.  Now, if comics had their men all dressed like this?  THAT would silence my argument that the portrayal of male and female comic characters is unequal.#

EDIT

Okay, Ragnell just clued me into what the REAL reason for the angry is.

From now on I think I should maybe read more widely before blabbering.