Tank Girl, The Male Gaze, and Co-opted Art

Growing far past their origins of Superman and American wholesomeness, comics are a place for storytelling, heroes, entertainment, and justice. But female comic heroes are still overwhelmed by their male counterparts and, when they do appear, often still embody gender stereotypes and serve mostly as sex symbols. Cat Woman, Wonder Woman, and She-Ra, while badass and sexy, are definitely kept firmly in their place as sidekicks or beautiful, tragic heroines.

Enter Tank Girl: a swaggering, swashbuckling heroine who isn’t here for anyone’s sexual amusement. Tank Girl was created by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin, British comic artists who debuted the character in 1988. The story of Tank Girl is a loosely-based science fiction and dystopian future story that takes place in Australia. Rebecca Buck, AKA Tank Girl, drives and lives in a tank, shaves the side of her head, dates a mutant kangaroo, and is constantly on the run from the law because of her sexual appetite and love for booze.

The stories of Tank Girl employ tropes like metafiction, stream-of-consciousness, surrealism, and collage. They also tend to be very psychedelic. Thus, it is hard to determine a set narrative or lineage within the stories. What does stand out is the series’ place in the canon of punk rock literature and experimental fiction and the artists’ drive and desire to produce a female character completely on her own terms.

A glance at Tank Girl reveals a punk, devil-may-care woman in torn-up shorts and a tank top. Her actions in the comic and her outward appearance point to the idea that she lives completely by her own rules, sleeping with whomever of whatever gender or species, drinking what she wants, living free. But the truth is, Tank Girl is a fictional character created by two male comic book artists.

Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin were two college buddies creating comic art for fun and playing in punk bands. Her character was inspired by a song Martin wrote in college called “Rocket Girl,” an ode to a classmate he had a crush on. Although Tank Girl is a badass who apparently answers to no one, she still answers to the two men who dreamed her up, orchestrated her every move, and made her into a counter-culture sex symbol.

Is all this a bad thing? Not necessarily. There is certainly some strength in being sexy and a sex symbol, especially in a counter-culture movement. And of course, Tank Girl is meant to be sex positive and would probably proudly claim the label herself. But the fact remains that straight men made this comic, not women who wanted to celebrate sexy and also elevate their own status as a second-class gender.

Eventually, Hewlett and Martin lost control of their creation and watched as Tank Girl went in a totally different direction. But it wasn’t because the plucky, spunky, character picked herself up off the pages and escaped the ever-present male gaze. It was because the creators sold the movie rights, mistakenly thinking the worst that could happen would be a so-good-it’s-bad, low-budget sci-fi thriller.

“We thought it would be ironic, there would be some humor in it and everyone would appreciate it anyway,” Martin told
archive.is in an interview about the comic. “However, unfortunately they tried to make it cool. They argued over what was cool and what wasn’t cool. When you go to Hollywood and you see a bunch of fat businessmen sitting in offices arguing what’s cool, you just think, ‘No, mate. Whatever you are going to come up with you’re wrong.’ The struggle just ripped the heart out of the film and it ended up not looking like anything really.”

More men were now sitting around discussing how Tank Girl would behave, and this time they were much more out of touch than the original creators. The end result was an incoherent, disjointed feature film.

So is Tank Girl a hero? Yes, very much so. Her stories are crass, funny, and relatable, and she has inspired millions of readers. But is Tank Girl a product of the male gaze, corporate consumerism, and the powers that be? Of course. It will take even more comics and comic writers to pave the way for completely feminist heroines and heroes. Luckily, in today’s age, and based on the stacked line-up of LGBTQ-positive and boundary-pushing guests at Denver Comic Con, we will be getting more woke comics and stereotype-destroying stories every day.