I don’t think anyone who knows anything about history and anything about comics is at all surprised to know that Frederic Wertham’s book “The Seduction of the Innocent” came out around the same time as McCarthyism was prevalent in America (this wasn’t as bad here in Canada, but still getting labelled a commie was bad news for anyone in North America those days.) The general level of xenophobia to the other or to something new literally terrified people, and in this ripe ground onto the public stage stepped Wertham. To be fair in those days people still believed that psychologist were almost like magicians. They knew secrets about the human brain and using tricks could make humans do whatever they wanted. Of course 60 years later with such failed concepts as electroshock therapy behind them the discipline is becoming a bit more respectable, and I don’t think anyone these days thinks it is possible to brainwash people (at least not in the Manchurian Candidate kind of way.) But back to the 1950s this was indeed the case, and its not surprising considering how recently some respected scientists had worked in the academic fields of craniometry or eugenics.
At this time there was also a lot of change going on in society. For instance women had joined the workforce and with increasing professional power came more social power. Hemlines rose and necklines dropped. People seeking more traditional roles and norms fought back against these new forces in society, but as with most people fighting change in history they were losing. And so along comes the psychologist, with the supposedly omnipotent power to understand the human brain who decries that comic books are corrupting our youth. And what does he come up with? Basically just meaningless drivel, a lot of it aimed against homosexuals, presumably with the ridiculous concept that it is possible to corrupt someone into being gay. Wonder Woman was identified by Wertham as a lesbian and Batman and Robin were insinuated to be gay lovers. Along with other accusations which leaves one shaking their heads these days (like that Superman was an anti-American fascist) the book took off and had a hand in leading to the establishment of the Comic Books Code.
I personally never liked the comic book code, if for no other reason that I didn’t like seeing a little postage stamp like thing on the cover of old comics. Even though I didn’t know what it was at the time I was still sceptical as to what it was doing there. The thing about Wertham and his claims about homosexual influence in comic books is that he was right, but not in the way that you might think. In the 1980s and before the internet, my mom was a big fan of mail order catalogues (just as today she is addicted to EBay and Amazon.) If you leafed through the book related catalogues you would find a substantial amount of gay literature, books on the photography of naked men and so on. What’s the point? That’s its not easy in life to be something which the entire society which you grew up in has a problem with. Even in the 1980s it took a lot of courage to walk into a bookstore and look at the gay literature section (I think it still takes some courage to do so today). It was a lot easier to order it by mail and enjoy your anonymity. So back in the 1950s and before Barnes and Nobles catalogues I am sure a lot of want-to-be anonymous people found some outlet in the relationship between Bruce and Dick or in Diana’s adventures, but that doesn’t make the characters gay. Even this statement does a great disservice to fans who may have been homosexual. They were infinitely more likely to be picking up the book for themselves or their kids for the entertainment value. The influence of Wertham though was successful to keep a lot of themes out of comics. Not just homosexuality but also a lot of other ones. This led to a few small changes (Alfred was replaced with Aunt Harriet – I think that was her name) but in the end had no real effect on the overall readership of comics. More so I would argue that the attempts to push any type of quasi-accepted behaviour back into the shadows only creates a ticking time bomb, and with rampant censorship and recrimnation in the years after the Second World War, the gay movement finally broke out during protests, rebellions and even riots in the late 1960s. In a comic book sense, those who identified themselves as “other” for whatever reason, found a home in the resurgence of Marvel Comics. Here Spider-Man and the X-Men were heroes who knew what it meant like to feel like on the outside, and all fans who were outsiders found characters to relate to, regardless of their sexual orientation.
This brings us to the modern age. First I should say that my personal belief is that it is not possible to convert someone to becoming a homosexual, but for those who do believe they are usually among the same crowd as those who believe it is possible to convert homosexuals to being straight. Someone’s sexual orientation is a part of them which is unchangeable. Despite the comic books code (which companies don’t really adhere to anymore anyway) there are more homosexuals in comics these days, but I don’t generally agree with how they are presented. All too often a character just “becomes gay” as a plot device (in fact the powers that be at Comic vine should add this to the quest set for “Comic Book Cliches”). My knowledge of Marvel or other companies is not as deep as for DC, but I know Tasmanian Devil, Icemaiden and Obsidian all stated their homosexuality for mostly no other reason than it was added lazy and convenient way to a bit of depth to their character. Maybe writers think that by the characters declaring their homosexuality are automatically more interesting. In the first two cases I listed the characters expressed an interest in their own gender and then no reference was ever made to it again. For me this is a fairly important point in someone’s life to continually overlook. For me though seeing Obsidian (who is consistently written as being gay) profess his interest in men is even worse. It is about as interesting as if Hal claimed to be dating a member of yet another alien race. My main point is this - “WHO CARES?” I don’t care what gender, species, shape (etc.) the character I am reading about is dating, just make the story interesting and I will enjoy reading it (this is true for me even if the relationship is one I don’t want to see, like when Selena had her baby with someone other than Bruce.) If it is a hollow relationship as most of these revelatory homosexual proclamations are which are just meant to sort of shock the reader while also making the comic book company look avant garde, then I think they would get a lot farther with something like a redesign of Wonder Woman’s bracelets.
Have the companies tried to introduce something a bit more realistic? I would say they are getting there. The Batwoman/Question relationship for me is heading in the right direction. A lot of people might complain and say it is not realistic to depict in the media that all lesbians are lipstick lesbians and that this represents a safe avenue for male fans because both of the characters are attractive and thus seeing them together doesn’t conjure negative images. Its not a good argument though. Bruce Wayne with his seemingly sculpted muscles and Selena Kyle with her more than perfect hourglass figure present such an equally unlikely couple as well. Comic book characters are just generally attractive, and this wouldn’t change just because they are gay. What is missing is a major gay male character in either of the main two companies. Is it coming? Probably. Will his relationships be depicted as something real and not just a gay stereotype? I hope so.
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