When people say it out loud, you know it's spelled XTREME! in their heads. You'll hear people exclaim about how, for example, covers on history titles have to be more XTREME! because that's what boyz want. The dual argument is that boyz don't read, so comics have to be designed for boyz; and that comics should be designed for boyz because only boyz read comics. I've never been certain whether the honest, deep-down belief is that girls will buy and read these books because that's all there is on offer and girls will learn to accommodate; or whether there is no interest in girl readers at all. I wouldn't think anyone who wants a bigger share of the profit pie would be content to say, "Oh, the girls will just go read catboy manga."
It probably just comes down to the fact that it's dead easy to get someone stirred up with an image of violence or sex or the two in tandem. You'll get more box office for the gladiator bouts and the executions than for the new production of Sophocles or Euripides with genuine flying deus ex machina. And this is why we remember the names of the gladiators. Oh, wait, we don't. But then, who cares, when you need a quick box office boost to keep quarterly profits up. I dunno, I've worked at places that sold tens or hundreds of thousands of copies of books that didn't have a single wacky-pose woman in them. But that does take more effort than inflating a pair of boobies and parking an enraged muscle-man with big knives behind them (in case you can't tell from the scan above, that's what's going on behind the woman.)
I think what our nation's school libraries need is a book cover showing Lewis & Clark screaming war cries as they battle a giant bear that's threatening a scantily clad and cowering wasp-waisted Sacagawea. These books I have on drawing will have exactly the right poses.
[rant!]
It probably just comes down to the fact that it's dead easy to get someone stirred up with an image of violence or sex or the two in tandem. You'll get more box office for the gladiator bouts and the executions than for the new production of Sophocles or Euripides with genuine flying deus ex machina. And this is why we remember the names of the gladiators. Oh, wait, we don't. But then, who cares, when you need a quick box office boost to keep quarterly profits up. I dunno, I've worked at places that sold tens or hundreds of thousands of copies of books that didn't have a single wacky-pose woman in them. But that does take more effort than inflating a pair of boobies and parking an enraged muscle-man with big knives behind them (in case you can't tell from the scan above, that's what's going on behind the woman.)
I think what our nation's school libraries need is a book cover showing Lewis & Clark screaming war cries as they battle a giant bear that's threatening a scantily clad and cowering wasp-waisted Sacagawea. These books I have on drawing will have exactly the right poses.