Striking A Pose (Women and Fantasy Covers) [View all]

[MadrasT]

Striking A Pose (Women and Fantasy Covers)

A while back, we had a discussion on the blog about the cover art for my princess novels. For the most part, I really like these covers, but they’re not perfect.

Now I could talk about the way women are posed in cover art … or I could show you. I opted for the latter, in part because it helped me to understand it better. I expected posing like Danielle to feel a little weird and unnatural. I did not expect immediate, physical pain from trying (rather unsuccessfully) to do the hip thing she’s got going on.

I recruited my wife to take the pictures, which she kindly did with a minimum of laughter.





My sense is that most of these covers are supposed to convey strong, sexy heroines, but these are not poses that suggest strength. You can’t fight from these stances. I could barely even walk.

Guys, you should try it sometime. Get someone who won’t laugh at you too much to try to help you match these poses. The physical challenge is far more enlightening than anything I could say. (Wardrobe changes are optional.)

More here: Striking A Pose

And the follow up where he tries men's poses is here: Posing Like A Man

Posing Like A Man

I’m certainly not the only one to talk about these issues. Tor.com did a post just last week: Hey Everyone - Stop Taking This Picture. As usually happens in these discussions, some people responded with, “What about romance covers?” and “Men are objectified too, you know!”

Well, sure. Men can absolutely be objectified too. But is it the same kind of objectification? Are we contorted into similarly painful, impractical, and improbable positions? Is the posing of men in book covers really equivalent to the posing of women?

There was, of course, only one way to find out…

In Conclusion

1. Men on book covers are indeed posed shirtless in ways that show off their musculature. However…
2. Male poses do not generally emphasize sexuality at the expense of all other considerations.
3. Male poses do emphasize the character’s power and strength in a way many (most?) female cover poses don’t.
4. When posed with a woman, the man will usually be in the dominant, more powerful posture.
5. Male poses do not generally require a visit to the chiropractor afterward.
6. See also ocelott’s post comparing male and female poses. She comes to pretty much the same conclusions as I did.

So are men objectified and sexualized on book covers? Sometimes, sure … but not in the same way, and not, I think, to the same extent. I’ll admit that going through these poses made me feel like I should spend the rest of the day doing push-ups and sit-ups. But overall, to suggest that the posing of men on covers is anywhere near as problematic as the posing of women seems, well, ignorant and wrong.

More at: Posing Like A Man