Week 8

This week we were supposed to talk about the idea of a stereotype in not only comics, but other forms of literature and entertainment. I personally have an issue with it that I have expressed in class due to the examples that were shown. We were looking at some of the ways that Eisner represented his stereotypes and how most races are considered easy to stereotype with certain features. When Eisner did these stereotypes, his reasoning was to keep his work simple enough to focus on the story he wanted to tell. He was able to focus on writing, posing, and camera movement. That being said, the weakest part about everything that Eisner and most people who use stereotypes is that they have no inherent sense of design.

If you're a good designer, whether it's for characters, games, comics, environments, etc. a lot of times you can pick and choose what it is that you should consider for your work that may fit into a "stereotype." For instance, the example that was brought up in class was the character Lara Croft. In the older iterations of Lara Croft, she was none other than this badass long legged, big chested woman who represented a male's interpretation of a sexualized badass that looked hot while she beat people up.



This was during a time when the concept artists/designers didn't do their job correctly and reverted to stereotypical "hot shallow badass girl" tropes. Now with the new design, there is a reason to care for her. She has personality, power, charm, and is overall a better character without the use of stereotypes to cheapen the effect.