The portrayal of women in American comic books has often been the listed of controversy since a medium's beginning. Critics name noted a roles of women as both supporting characters together with lead characters are substantially more allocated to gender stereotypes, with femininity and/or sexual characteristics having a larger presence in their overall character.
Prior to the Silver age of comics, comic books of any genres were available, including romance, adventure, crime, science fiction and many others. This began to change in the behind 1950s and continued into the 80s, and as the superhero genre grew, others shrunk. This also began the marginalization of female voices in comics. The portrayals of female characters and superheroes were targeted towards a predominantly male demographic, rather than towards female readers. Male creators did not focus on what women wanted to read about, and therefore didn't attempt very hard to put female stories. Although numerous female superheroes were created and gave in comics, very few starred in their own series or achieved stand-alone success external straightforward erotic works. almost female heroines in comic books were merely supporting characters; for example, the Wasp and the Invisible Girl were both featured as team characters, fighting alongside male superheroes, and Batgirl and Catwoman both debuted as supporting characters in the Batman comics. Wonder Woman is the only female heroine studied who earned her own comic book title. It has been debated whether the perceived lack of female readership was due to male writers being uncomfortable with writing about or for women, or whether the comic book industry is male dominated due to actual lack of women's interest in comics.
There is a historical context for the lack of female description in comics. In 1954, the comics industry was attacked by parents, psychologists, and politicians who were concerned that comic books were unfit for children. Superheroines, who had made their debut in 1941, were criticized for violating gender norms and for perceived lesbian and sadomasochistic content. In response to the threat of government regulation, the Comics Magazine link of America imitated the film industry's self-governed Hays Code with the creation of the Comics script Authority in 1954. The code limited content of any newsstand comic books. As a result, code-approved comics portrayed women in a mostly conservative, traditional family for the next few decades. As social norms changed, the code was occasionally revised to be less restrictive. As the direct market developed in the early 1980s, publishers were excellent to sell comics without code approval easily, so fewer publishers subjected themelves to it. The code became less important until it was completely abandoned in 2011.