Pwning n00bz

Pwn is a leetspeak slang term derived from the verb own, as meaning to appropriate or to conquer to gain ownership. The term implies domination or humiliation of a rival (Wiki).

If you aren't 12 or a member of the LAN party in your basement, you may not be too familiar with the term pwn. And there's good reason for that; its not used in the professional, mature, real world. But the spirit of it- an incredibly immature version of dominating over another and humiliating them- is probably very familiar. And so I bring to you- religious or social commentary comics, which, often unknowingly, have a very bad habit of showing males dominating over stupid females. If you have an atheist comic, the man is the intelligent atheist while the woman is the brainwashed Christian; if you have a Christian comic, the man is the wise, moral Christian while the woman is the idiotic atheist.

You don't have to be an adult to humiliate grown women.

1. Quick Google Images search of atheist comics: first row, 1/6 had a female as a main character, that one had her not as the atheist hero. Second row, 2/7 had a female as a main character- one had her as a stupid person (along with a male), the other also had both genders be stupid, but with more males than females. Third row, 3/8 had females- one comic had a female in a positive atheist portrayal; another had a female in a very negative position (against a positive male); another had a female in a negative position (against a slightly more positive male).

So in the first page: 6/21 had females (29%, while women are about 50% IRL). 5/6 (83%) of those portrayals were negative. Want me to count the instances where only negative male portrayals were listed? 5/21 of those portrayals were solely negative (24%).

2. Same thing with search term being Christian comics. First row: 2/7 females, 6/7 male. Second row: 1/7 females, 5/7 male (lots of animal comics). Third row: 1/7 female, definitely negative, 6/7 male.

While Christian comics had less negative portrayals (less mocking of atheists than atheists mocking Christians), they also had less women. 4/21 female- 19%!! And since this doesn’t exactly prove my point, let me look up….

Those silly womenz, always spending

 
3. Search term conservative comics. First row: 0/6 female characters, 5/6 male. Second row: 1/6 female characters- surprisingly, this one was female vs male where the female was actually positive with the male negative. First one like this. 6/6 male characters. Third row: Most of these were actually against conservative comics. But I’ll count em anyways- 1/7 female, 5/7 male.

And what are my findings? The counts are: 2/19 characters female- 11%, with 16/19 male (84%).

4. Last several sets of NPR's chosen political comics. First one: 4/4 characters male. Second one: 6/6 characters male. Third one: 1 female (out of 2)! She even takes on a completely neutral, totally unnecessary, essentially invisible role instead of a derogatory one! Fourth one references 5 characters, all male. Fifth one, despite supposedly being about a female political figure, has 2/2 characters as male. Sixth one: 6/6 characters male.

So NPR, despite being allegedly forward thinking, has a grand total of 1/25, or 4%, of their characters be female, despite a 50% existence rate.

I started out looking for derogatory depictions of women in satire and comics, but there were so few women listed at all that I could barely find any.

So out of the 73 comics I read, 23 had women in them (32%). In most of these comics, there was only one token female character, with most of the main characters being men (see the NPR comics).