Spider-Man in a thong? Indian artist highlights sexism with her imaginative drawings

While we have heard our celebrities talk about the sexism that exists in our societies and we have heard singers release albums against sexism, today we have come across a drawing that puts sexism into perspective. A 21-year-old graphic design student, Shreya Arora made six drawings and juxtaposed them with the original covers of comic book giants, Marvel and DC Comics that show scantily-dressed women in sexually suggestive poses.

The images she drew as part of the revamped comic book aim to highlight the "sexist" depiction of superheroes. "I have been reading comic books for a while but increasingly I noticed that while the stories inside had become a lot more inclusive and empowering to women, the covers did not necessarily follow," she told a leading news agency. "I decided to take the covers with really demeaning or sexist portrayals of superheroines and recreate them as superheroes ... I wanted the shock value to get a conversation started," she added.

Critics have long accused the male-dominated comic book industry of representing women as hypersexualised objects of desire, given secondary roles and less dialogue than men in superhero movies and movies in other genres as well. One of Arora's drawings shows a bare-chested, masked Spider-Man in a thong, holding a strategically-placed beach ball in front of his groin, while another has Iron Man crouching in a pose that accentuates his apple-shaped posterior. Now, that's one strong statement she has made, right?

Arora said her next targets are Indian comics, which often depict women as accessories or as annoying wives, and to teach children about feminism to help curb sex attacks in India. “You can look at sexual assault as a problem but it is basically because of rape culture that exists in our country and I want to get to the root of the problem - combat sexism and misogyny from a young age,” Arora said.

Shreya, we absolutely love what you're doing...