Just Who the Hell Is She, Anyway?

The original She was launched as a regular comics feature of Mirabella in 1993 and quickly became a reader favorite. Here, Acocella continues her efforts to create a character that embodies the cultural history of a generation of upper-middle class white women. A post-feminist everywoman, She is impatient with the status quo even in the womb. A child of suburbia stuck with gender-based expectations, She manages to both laugh at and deconstruct these conventions, wryly acknowledging the role they play in shaping her life (``Barbie did introduce the concept of `man as accessory'""). She wants to play with the boys in every sense of the word, and, after leaving home (and her ``(s)mother''), she gets her chance by joining the corporate media world. But for all her revolutionary rants, Acocella's heroine is just a neo-material girl with a rebel attitude cum pose. Which shallow trend shall I choose to be now, she seems to say-the sad result of viewing life as a succession of pop phenomena. She's pissed (like other ``power babes'' in her circle) that boys have all the fun but that's about it. She is fun, but ultimately is more about social climbing than social change. Acocella's drawing is barely adequate, but her page layouts are lively and carry the story well. (Oct.)