Left on the Sidelines: How Women in Watchmen are Marginalized

It seems that no matter where you turn, women just can’t seem to get a break. All throughout history, women have been left on the sidelines and seen as lesser than men. While things are much better than they used to be nowadays, the marginalization of women is still a huge problem, both in our world and in popular culture. The comic book/graphic novel world is one place that especially has problems with trivializing women. On top of being left on the sidelines and overshadowed, it seems that any female characters that do make appearances in the comic world are presented as a weak, emotional, sexualized object of a woman, a sort of stereotypical woman of the past rather than as a strong, independent, smart, modern woman of the present and future. Watchmen, a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, has female characters who are present but relatively unimportant and often only there to move the story along or to conform to the old stereotypical gender roles of a woman. In the graphic novel Watchmen, the female characters are marginalized by the way the male characters treat them, by the minimal importance they serve to the plot of the novel, by how they are treated as inferior by the media and general public, and by their emotional and physical portrayals.

One way in which women are marginalized throughout Watchmen is by the way they are treated by men. We see many female characters throughout the novel and almost all of them are treated badly, unfairly, and unequally by men. One example of this is the almost rape of Sally by the Comedian, seen in Chapter 2 on pages 6 through 8. The Comedian automatically assumes that because Sally said she was going to change and because of the way her costume looks she was begging for attention and wanted to have sex with him. On top of this, even after Hooded Justice saves Sally from the rape, he too blames her and tells her to cover herself up. This illustrates that women are seen and treated as lesser than by the men of Watchmen because Sally is nearly raped by The Comedian and yet somehow it is still her fault because of the way she dresses. The situation likely would’ve been very different had Sally been a man, a man wouldn’t have been able to be dominated and beaten so easily and a man wouldn’t have been blamed and accused of asking for it. This is clearly illustrated by Jon, who walks around practically naked in the third edition of his costume, seen in Chapter 4 page 20, yet no one assumes he is asking for sex nor does anyone try to rape him. Another example of the poor treatment of women by men is the way Jon treats his first love Janey, seen in Chapter 4 on page 18. As soon as Jon meets Laurie, he’s infatuated with her and he treats Janey as if she’s disposable old news, thus making it seem as though women are just as disposable as trash bags. An example that further illustrates this is in Chapter 5 on page 10 when, after Jon has left for Mars, Laurie comments on how she feels disposable. Jon just takes off to Mars and leaves Laurie behind as if she means nothing to him, he doesn’t even spare the time to tell her that he’s leaving. The treatment of Janey and Laurie by Jon illustrates how Jon treats women like they are disposable and lesser than him. Part of the reason the women of Watchmen are treated so badly is because they are nowhere near as powerful or significant as the men are. Charlotte E. Howell helps shed some light on why this may be in her article “ ‘Tricky’ connotations: wonder woman as DC's brand disruptor,” from Cinema Journal. In this article she explains why Wonder Woman has been called a tricky character and why female heroes in general aren’t very popular. She believes that the unpopularity of female heroes may be because most female heroes have “close ties to feminism,” and thus are “seen industrially as unmarketable,” primarily because of the main fan base of superheroes, which is young men. Men typically don’t want to see a powerful, strong, feminist hero, because they can’t relate to that, they’d rather see strong, powerful, relatable male heroes. Thus, women, even if they are superheroes, are still primarily treated unfairly by men and are generally marginalized, as seen with Sally and Laurie in Watchmen. The way that women are treated by the other men in Watchmen illustrates one way that they are marginalized throughout the novel.

Another way that women are marginalized in Watchmen is by the minimal importance they serve to the overall plot of Watchmen throughout the novel. Women in Watchmen are very often used simply to move the story along, as illustrated in Chapter 2, page 14 of Watchmen. The pregnant woman that the Comedian shoots isn’t even given a name, she’s simply a plot device used to further the story and further the character development of the two male characters Dr. Manhattan and The Comedian. Another example of women serving little importance to the story is seen in Chapter 5 on page 14. Veidt’s assistant is shot and killed, yet she’s not even given a second thought, everyone focuses heavily on Veidt instead and her death is simply ignored. It’s like she didn’t matter at all and everyone seems to focus on the fact that Veidt almost got shot, not that his assistant did get shot and murdered. Amanda Sheppard’s article “Gender Evolution in Graphic Novels” from Critical Survey Of Graphic Novels: History, Theme & Technique, takes a look at why women serving little importance may be and she discusses the history of how females, males, and the characters in between have been depicted. She explains how the “traditional view of femininity” has been a huge part of the way women have been depicted in graphic novels and that, in general, “women are of little value in their world (page 96).” This rings true in Watchmen as the female characters have no real personalities or character development, they exist and are there beside the men but they aren’t important nor do they do anything really significant that isn’t to develop the male characters more or to move the story along. The minimal importance women serve throughout the novel is significant because it illustrates how they are marginalized and cast aside throughout the novel.

The male Watchmen are always the ones being focused on by the media and general public whereas the women rarely ever get mentioned, thus illuminating another way that the women of Watchmen are marginalized. An example that illustrates this can be seen in Chapter 8, page 10 of Watchmen. In this scene, we see a newspaper featuring three of the male Watchmen, but, of course, not Laurie. This illuminates how she and the other female Minutemen of the past aren’t seen as as equally important as the male Watchmen are. Another example of the media only focusing on the men is seen in Chapter 10 on pages 29 and 30. As Veidt thinks about possibly expanding his line of action figures, his marketing man discusses adding Rorschach, Nite Owl, and Moloch, but never is Laurie even mentioned despite her too being a member of the old Watchmen. This serves to illustrate how Laurie isn’t seen as equal to the male Watchmen by the public and media. It seems that Laurie, despite being as much a hero as the other men are, isn’t seen as much a hero as they are. In Alex Link’s article “The Secret Of Supergirl's Success,” from the Journal of Popular Culture he discusses how what is expected of female superheroes is less than what is expected of men. He also discusses how Supergirl, despite having the same exact powers as Superman, “lives in Superman’s shadow, and is understood by many to be simply a Superman for girls,” as well as Supergirl’s character being, “derivative” and “uninteresting (page 1177).” This illuminates the fact that even a woman with the same exact powers as a male will still be seen as lesser than the male character and also that it seems even the most promising superheroines still struggle with marginalization by the public, thus Laurie and the other female Minutemen of the past had no real chance despite their efforts to help because they were never going to truly be respected, treated as equal to the men, or adored by the media if even someone with the same incredible powers can’t be treated equally. The public of the Watchmen world too seem to view the female heroes as lesser than and unequal to the male heroes.

The portrayal, emotionally and physically, of the female characters in Watchmen is another way in which they are marginalized. The biggest examples of their physical portrayals marginalizing them are Sally and Laurie’s superhero costumes. Sally’s costume can be seen at the very end of Chapter 9 in the news article taken from Daily World and Laurie’s costume can be seen in the middle panel of Chapter 7 on page 24. Both of their costumes are extremely revealing, sexual, and impractical for the life of a hero. This illustrates how they are marginalized because they are constantly treated as lesser than because of their ridiculous outfits. Yet, when Jon switches his costume to be little more than underwear, no one treats him any differently, thus it seems only the women are treated differently because of their outfits. One example that illustrates this is the degrading pornographic comic that a fan made of Sally, seen in Chapter 2 on page 8. Another example of this is how Sally is practically accused of asking to be raped by the Comedian because of her outfit, also seen in Chapter 2 on page 8. Both of these examples demonstrate ways in which the women are seen and treated as lesser than simply because of their outfit choices, yet when someone like Jon chooses to wear almost nothing, no one cares. This is extremely unfair to the women, yet this just seems to be the reality they live in throughout the novel. The women in Watchmen are also marginalized physically by the positions that they’re depicted in. In Chapter 9 on page 3, Laurie is depicted in a sexualized position that also makes her appear lesser than Jon, she is depicted down on her knees at his feet. In Suzanne Scott’s article “The Hawkeye Initiative: Pinning Down Transformative Feminisms In Comic-Book Culture Through Superhero Crossplay Fan Art” she discusses a movement called The Hawkeye Initiative and the goal of this initiative, which is to “illustrate how deformed, hyper-sexualized, and impossibly contorted women are commonly illustrated in comics.” This movement takes a look at a problem seen all throughout Watchmen--the oversexualized and unrealistic depictions of women that illustrate one way they are marginalized. The women are also marginalized by their emotional depictions, illustrated in one instance in Chapter 12, page 8 of Watchmen. Laurie is depicted here as an over emotional mess, barely able to get her words out as Jon calmly assesses the situation around him. Another example can be seen in Chapter 12 on page 30. Despite the fact that the Comedian was a terrible, awful man who tried to rape her, Sally is still depicted to have loved him. Both of these examples make the women seem ridiculously emotional whereas the men never seem to show much emotion at all, always remaining calm and cool headed in the face of danger whereas the woman seem to be depicted weeping and whining left and right. In Jonita Aro M.”s article “Constructing Masculinity: Depiction Of The Superheroes Superman And Batman,” from the IUP Journal Of English Studies, she discusses how the stereotypical masculinity, though expected, is admired and liked by the audience and that men are expected to be strong, leaders, and dominant while women, on the other hand, are expected to be docile, emotional, and subordinate to men. In it she also explains how, generally, “To be strong and tough is masculine, being weak and soft is normally associated with feminine (page 34).” Almost never throughout the novel are any of the male watchmen seen acting emotion and weak, whereas it seems Laurie is crying every chapter, and thus it seems that only the women are really depicted in this way. Because they’re constantly weeping or whining, the female characters are easily overshadowed by the tough, strong, calm men. The women of Watchmen are portrayed as ridiculous, sexualized, over-emotional characters throughout the entirety of the novel, and thus they are easily completely overshadowed and sidelined throughout the novel as well.

All throughout the graphic novel Watchmen, the female characters are depicted as lesser than and inferior to the men in many ways. It’s not only the women of the Watchmen graphic novel world either; it's almost all superheroines and other female characters that exist in the various comic book worlds. While in Watchmen the female characters were likely marginalized on purpose since it’s a parody of superheroes, characters like Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and Black Widow from the DC and Marvel comic worlds have been marginalized and overshadowed far too much and far too long despite their widespread popularity with the public. After being marginalized and pushed to the sidelines for far too long, things are finally starting to change for some of the popular female characters this year and in the upcoming years. Their characters are finally starting to see some justice, with DC’s Supergirl getting her own TV show, DC’s Wonder Woman getting her own movie, Marvel's Jessica Jones getting her own show, Marvel’s Captain Marvel getting her own movie in 2019, and Marvel’s Black Widow possibly getting her own movie finally being considered and discussed. While these are definitely some large improvements and some large steps in the right direction, there are still so many characters that exist in these worlds that also deserve to be seen and shared with the world as equals, not as a shadow duplicate of some male character or a hypersexualized, emotional pinup woman of the past.

Works Cited

Howell, Charlotte E. "Tricky' connotations: wonder woman as DC's brand disruptor." Cinema Journal 55.1 (2015): 141+. Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Nov. 2016.

Link, Alex. "The Secret Of Supergirl's Success." Journal Of Popular Culture 46.6 (2013): 1177-1197. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics, 1987. Print.

M., Jonita Aro. "Constructing Masculinity: Depiction Of The Superheroes Superman And Batman." IUP Journal Of English Studies 11.1 (2016): 32-38. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.

Scott, Suzanne. "The Hawkeye Initiative: Pinning Down Transformative Feminisms In Comic-Book Culture Through Superhero Crossplay Fan Art." Cinema Journal 55.1 (2015): 150-160. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Nov. 2016.

Sheppard, Amanda. "Gender Evolution In Graphic Novels." Critical Survey Of Graphic

Novels: History, Theme & Technique (2013): 95-98. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 26 Oct. 2016