A new meme emerged on Tumblr this weekend, and it is fabulous. It started when Hoursago posted the picture above, switching Black Widow's position with Hawkeye to highlight the silliness of the pose. Then Gingerhaze suggested other questionable female poses should be Hawkeyed as well. Soon several people were drawing sexy Hawkeye versions of the ridiculously-distorted, impossibly-posed, and over-sexualized depictions of women in comics of the type you'd find at Escher Girls. All of these Hawkeye drawings were tagged "The Hawkeye Initiative", and a new single serving Tumblr aptly titled The Hawkeye Initiative collects them.
Anatomically-challenged drawings of female characters with broken spines to show T&A simultaneously isn't a new thing in comics. See this gallery, Kate Beaton's Strong Female Characters, and the Catwoman zero parodies for more examples. Yet something about inserting Hawkeye into all of these comics is just so right. Just look how empowered that sexy Hawkeye is.
Check out our favorite 30 entries to The Hawkeye Initiative below, with credits to each artist under every photo.
Fair warning, some of these may be borderline NSFW. There's no nudity, but it's almost like he's wearing nothing at all... nothing at all... nothing at all...
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Looking at this makes me wonder how much of this is sexism and how much of it is just bad understanding of anatomy.
Both, but mostly the first. It’s tempting to give the benefit of the doubt with some of these, but then all you have to do is look at how much the butts are emphasized. I think by now we’ve seen more Hawkeye-butt than Black Widow.
Just so we’re clear: I meant the originals, not the parodies.
For all those who say these poses are impossible, I suggest you look at these pics.
[smokingsection.uproxx.com]
And then, like me, go look at them again. and again.
Yep, I was aware. I was talking about the originals too – butts are laughably the focus of a lot of poses but because we’re so used to seeing it that way in comics, we don’t actively notice it.
Honestly, it always stands out to me. I mean, I get it to some degree: I see plenty of horny teenagers at my FLCS. But it’s a bit disappointing.
It really is. Equally disappointing are the people that deny it’s an issue by insisting comics are made for men and are therefore exempt from this criticism. :/ Even with this small group of people commenting on this non-threatening and funny method of encouraging comic fans to look at things in a different perspective, at least two have gotten up in arms over it.
There is no sexism here. You clowns just need something to cry about. If it’s not one thing it’s another. Nobody will buy comic books with fat guys with beer bellies, and ugly fat women in non suggestive poses. This is nonsense you have nothing to stand on here nothing.
What, you mean Harvey Pekar’s work? Or Paul Chadwick’s Concrete? Or Sina Grace’s “Not My Bag?”
Your little hissy fit is cute, but this isn’t Newsarama.
Stupid sexy Hawkeye!
Those cartoon chicks WANT us to stare at them, otherwise they wouldn’t wear such suggestive outfits.
a couple of the more action oriented poses would work for a male character like Spider-Man. just sayin…
Yet in most of the cases where a handful of poses aren’t as bad as the others, there’s almost always a hilariously, impractically revealing costume to accompany it.
Good lord. DAT SPINE at #21.
Liefeld strikes again.
Oh man, this is magnificent. Also I have a couple of the trading cards featured herein.
Wow – Mr. Eye has quite the turd-cutter, doesn’t he?
OMGOMGOMG STEAMING PIZZA HEAD DOG!!!!!!!!!!!
It doesn’t matter how ridiculous it is the buyers want to see sexy superheroines. The vast majority of comicbook readers are male. When women buy comics in bulk they can have a say. Until then shut up. Money talks BS walks.
Dmoney, just wondering, what kind of marker do you use to write your ‘no girls allowed’ signs? Crayola or Roseart? I always preferred Crayola myself.
Whatever clown, I don’t tell women to have realistic looking men on the cover of their romance novels. I’m not excluding anybody, I’m protesting the ridiculous assertion to spread feminism to the fantasy world of comic books. Comics are meant to be fake and super heroines should be sexy because they represent the nerds wet dream. It is selfish for these feminist to make everything about them.
I am so friggin sick of this politically correct, metrosexual, hipster garbage attitude that women in comic books can’t be sexy anymore. People get all happy when Anne Hathaway is cast as Catwoman because OMG BIG TITTIES, but if Catwoman is drown to look like Anne Hathaway, SEXIST!! We’re talking about comic books where people fly and shoot lasers out of their eyes, but Powergirl’s rack is not realistic!! Oh, shaddup. I’ll take these moronic complaints seriously and you start acknowledging that the men are drawn the exact same way. Every male in comic books has abs of steel, pecs for days and a rock hard ass. But that’s fine, we love male ass, just keep those icky breasts out of it! The day Batman has a beer belly and a double chin, then go ahead, make Wonder Woman a flatso.
When you finally have your aneurysm, make sure you fall in a sexually suggestive pose.
I believe the complaint is less about the body types and more about the poses and the costumes. Dunno if you actually looked at the images in this slideshow but that was the point of nearly all of them.
As for the rippling and bulging men, the rebuttal you usually hear to that argument is that that’s a “power fantasy” for the male artists who draw the stuff. In other words, female characters are drawn voluptuous and scantily-clad to appeal to the male reader’s sex drive, and male characters are drawn studly buff, well-clothed, and occasionally armored, to appeal to the male reader’s power ideal. You may disagree about the “power fantasy” part, since it’s kind of a complicated idea; but it’s impossible to argue against the fact that most female superheroes designed by males prioritize sex appeal over practicality or physical strength in their designs. Which is, again, the point of this “Hawkeye Initiative”
And I’ve never heard of anyone refer to Anne Hathaway’s titties as being particularly big.
JJ has it down exactly. It’s not that women can’t be sexy, it’s that the poses they’re put in are so ridiculous, they become caricatures. We are desensitized to how silly they look because we’re so used to seeing female comic book characters portrayed in that manner, but by replacing the character in each pose with Hawkeye, it exposes how unnatural and hilarious the poses actually are.
Pure awesome. It’s a rare meme where every one of them makes me laugh.
This is amazing. So much support behind it already. The ultimate goal is to clean up imgur & 9gag, so much women hate from there. Also anime needs to go, or just the chunk of it that supports rape culture, which is actually most of anime.
Is there nothing sacred anymore? Stop women leave comics alone please.
Lady Hawkeye should be called “Stinkeye”