Policital Art woes!

So, for my printmaking class this semester, I'm creating a group of Superheroes (Social Justice, Social Construct, and Thundersnow) to do battle with the Systems of Oppression (Eurocentrism, Gender Binary, and White Patriarchal Capitalism) across the Grinnell campus in the form of vinyl cutouts stuck to various windows.

Here are the character designs as they were originally:


I was really excited to get started on the vinyl versions, but of course, it's never that easy. Now for the rant:

Doing politically based art is hard. Just when I was excited about finally having completed character designs for all my Superheroes and villains, someone in critique commented that people doing social justice work on campus might be offended becuase I was making fun of the work they're trying to accomplish.

No, I'm not. I think things like the Gender Binary, Eurocentrism, and White Patriarchal Capitalism need to be fought and challenged. However, I feel that the way in which we discuss these concepts in a collegiate setting is inherently elitist. I mean, just look at the terms! "Eurocentrism" "White Patriarchal Capitalism" They're all words that fit very well in academia, but not in the real world. There are many people in the world who need to and should be brought into the discussion that haven't had a college level education, and talking about these problems in such a way excludes them.

I'm also trying to use the troupe of Superheroes, which are generally used to enforce the status quo rather than do progressive work (though some heroes have been coming out of the closet recently, so we're moving in the right direction). So additionally, I'm attempting to use the very common and immediately recognizable (in America) symbol of the Superhero to talk about social justice issues.

So I'm not making fun of social justice work. What I'm trying to do is, through satire, trying to show that we need a new way of talking about these problems that doesn't exclude those without the benefit of a degree from a liberal arts college.

As it is, my Prof. has suggested that I simplify the character design and not use text, so as to make it as universal as possible. So some of my critique of academic-speech will be lost, but I hopefully won't horribly offend anyone either.

This is why I've never made a comic. Geez.

I've started re-designing them. Here's what I've got thus far:
As you can see, Thunersnow has become a woman. This is becuase I wanted Social Construct to be gender ambiguous, but I also wanted a woman on the team. So Thundersnow grew boobs. I think I failed at making Social Construct look gender ambiguous though. I feel like ze just looks like a kid instead. Hrm.

Anyway, if any of you social justice minded individuals can let me know if you're offended, and if so, what I can do to correct anything, I'd appreciate it so I don't get chased off campus when these start going up. Thanks!