Anita Blake

Some quotes from your blogs (some themes were repeated, and some people had not posted yet, so do not feel bad if you are not represented here):

Anita also does not take any sexual harassment. When called a fine piece of tail she replies by saying "Lets get something straight I am not a piece of anything, nor am I a bedwarmer."

Another example of the male gaze in this book is shower scene in volume two. During this scene the whole page is just Anita Blake taking a shower. This seems unnecessary and doesn’t pertain to the story at all and most likely is there to increase the stories male gaze.

I fully intended to hate it, but who doesn't love viewing a hyper-sexualized woman kicking ass and taking names?

How odd, that the person drawing felt that she should appear so fragile. Do they have a prejudice against women being powerful, or do they secretly yearn for the "bad guys" to win?

I also found that, with all of the male gaze, there were a surprising amount of homoerotic scenes throughout the work. The more we read into different vampire texts, the more I notice and become interested the idea of using a genre typically used for fear inducing as a vehicle for social commentary or metaphor or allegory, etc.

I was really annoyed with how most of the characters looked like models--the men with their chiseled abs (the female and male gaze)--and the women with the almost porn-star-like bodies--big boobs, hips, lips, long flowy hair (male gaze).

Nikolaos is a very stark contrast to the stereotypical male head vampire, such as Dracula. Where Dracula had many wives, Nikolaos had many male followers that would do her bidding at her command.

The second [definition of femme fatale] reads, "...remains an example of female independence and a threat to traditional female gender roles." And I think Anita Blake does this, or at least tries heavily to attempt to do this.

At times I felt almost nostalgic reading in this comic book style. That is until I came across a shower scene or a half naked man. I can’t say that any of the homoerotic nature of some of the scenes made me uncomfortable, but I didn’t see how it bettered the story at all.

One major difference I have found in this novel in comparison to the others we have read is the lack of romance present.

In Asian areas, people like to draw much more positive stories about vampire. There are always a group of good vampire or there are all good vampire. There are also less violent and terrific pictures in the books. Of course, there will never be a shower picture in comic books that can be published.

Another interesting point is that Nikolaos is similar to the character Claudia in Interview with a Vampire. They both us their childlike charms to trick people and use their looks to their advantages. Nothing is scarier than a cute, very young child that you find out its an all powerful Master (referring to Nikolaos) that is willing to kill anyone who gets in her way.

I'd like everyone to consider in what ways Anita Blake and Buffy are similar or dissimilar, since we've watched a bit of Buffy now. I plan to show a bit more Buffy in relation to True Blood as well (some episodes featuring her relationship with Angel).

I think that there is a lot to criticize in the visual representation of Anita Blake, and admit that I was initially turned off of the graphic series because of this, but I agree with some of you that she is still a kick-ass character (compared with other women we've encountered) and that despite the sometimes objectifying male gaze, the artwork is well done, and I appreciate the homoeroticism as not so much a counter to the male gaze, but a broadening of it: let us over-sexualize everyone! It would have been interesting to see this in a more minimalist art style, or a style that created a variety of physical types. The fact that it is oversexualized, though, emphasizes the sexual nature of most vampire lit. That's part of why its so popular: it's about seduction. It is also part of why Anita seems so Kick-Ass: she does not succomb to seduction, despite the fact that everyone around her is obsessed with it.