THE REAL ARCHIE

[peur_evol.insanejournal.com]

Lately, with all of the other Archie posts, the question was raised, "Was Archie always a Christian dickweed?".
The answer is NO, he's usually a secular dickweed.

from BETTY AND VERONICA #39, November 1958

Comments

Re: Lantis or Eagle > Betty or Veronica

[dejadrew.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, Archie occasionally has Betty and Veronica stepping out of their usual roles, especially these days, and props for that. But they keep going back to them, because this is Archie, and nothing can be allowed to change too much.

And status quo is that Betty and Veronica are both gaga for Archie, even though they are attractive and remarkable (Ronnie wealthy and sophisticated, Betty smart and kind and active in her community), and he is... not. At all.

And that really really bugs me, for some reason. Shoujo manga has it's own issues, OH MY GOD does it have issues. But at least the guys, while occasionally douchebaggy and messed up, are at least recognizably female fantasy objects. They exist for the female heroines and for the female readers. Not the other way around.

Re: Lantis or Eagle > Betty or Veronica

[luxshine.insanejournal.com]

But the fact is that the male characters in a lot of shojo exist not just as the female fantasy object, but as the stand in for what *Every single female must want or her life won't be worth a damn*. Especially in modern shojo. sure, you get the odd Utena from time to time, but in a sense, many shojo heroines only live to get married to a cute guy. Not to mention, that many of them only live to be *saved* by said cute guy.