Teen Titan's Raven

As a child, I was always watching Cartoon Network's Teen Titans. It was definitely one of my favorite shows (and probably the only superhero show I watched beside The Powerpuff Girls) for no real reason than the characters themselves. I shipped Starfire and Robin even at such a young age, as well as Terra and Beast boy (I preferred them over Starfire and Robin to be honest) but Raven and Beast Boy's friendship was amazing to me. Raven was always my favorite character, though. Just how she was so real as in how she wasn't all peppy and cheery all the time like cartoon character girls (and girls in general) were typically portrayed. I was always drawn to those female characters who were on the darker side and unemotional (as she was to protect herself and others). I even remember a time I tried to be like her, memorizing her meditation phrase "Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos." and pretended I was levitating off the floor. Though, she is one of the darker and more covered characters and female superheroes, her costume still showed a bit more. Now, I'm not saying her outfit is horrible, it's probably the only superhero I would dress up as if I did, but her costume tends to sexualize her in those moments she was without her cape.

Raven's costume consists of an indigo cape and a black long sleeve leotard with a red jewel belt around her waist. At least half the time in the original Teen Titans, Raven was shown in her cape covering her body, the other half being with the cape open and not on at all. Raven's leotard, while it is longsleeved, shows every bit of her legs as possible. Being a dancer, this is not uncommon for a leotard to cover very little of the thighs and legs as it is supposed to bring attention to the technique and strength in the legs while dancing. Though, since Raven is a cartoon superhero, the lack of coverage on the legs and emphasis on the hips and upper thighs is a more subtle sexualization of her character. As well as the fact that her breasts are highlighted through her leotard, which, again, being a dancer that doesn’t happen. Even if the leotard is skin tight, there is no way for the breasts of anyone, as small as Raven’s body is, to be outlined that much. If anything it would flatten and push up her breasts underneath and have that weird bit of stretched material going from under her breast to her stomach where the fabric tries to fit. In the original TV series her body is shown, but is pretty subtle in her assets they are portraying. In the new Teen Titans GO! (I have only seen a few episodes while babysitting), however, there is one screenshot from an episode in which Raven’s cloak is stolen by Cyborg and gets stuck, but this is the first time she is seen by the team without the cloak. In this picture, Cyborg is in the background repeatedly hitting a bowl of meat while intensely staring at Raven’s legs. On his apron, though, it reads “food pun” which ultimately leads to the understanding of the pun being he is “beating his meat” to Raven’s legs, overly and openly sexualizing Raven for nothing more than her bare legs.

While I love Raven and the original show (I hate the reboot), the subtle emphasis of her body is a bit much, but mainly just with how our society takes the smallest things and oversexualizes and fantasizes over things that they shouldn’t. Raven will forever continue to be my favorite character in the superhero universe regardless, just as long as the reboot stops making her and everyone else look like idiots as if it was written by a 10 year old.