It's kind of funny. I consider myself a feminist. Absolutely no doubt about it. But when I'm asked to consider what a hero means to me, my mind automatically jumps to a man wearing a cape. There are two things wrong with this picture; 1) why does it have to be a man? 2) everyone knows capes are an impractical garment to wear while saving the world. In the word's of Edna Mode from the movie Incredibles: "No capes!"
Perhaps my skewed notion of a hero is due to the fact that this isn't a subject I really think about a lot. But more than that, I feel as though my pre-conceived and subconscious notions about what makes a hero really shows what I've been taught and exposed to growing up.
Who saves the day? Superman. Who protects the city of Gotham? Batman. What do most super-women do? Fall in to peril (kidnapped by the bad guy is a popular option) only to be saved by the super hero, who they usually fall in love with by the end of the movie/book.
Is that the vision of a hero we want young girls being exposed to? As women, we are taught to want to be saved. The Damsel in Distress is a very desirable figure. But why? In this day and age, why must we continue to focus on the Lois Lane's and not the Wonder Women?
More than superhero's though, are simply every day men and women serving as role models for average children. For many kids the President of the United States is the closest thing they get to a real life "hero". But how many female presidents have we had? Exactly. None.
To me, it seems as though the portrayal of the female hero still has a long way to go. For now, we can continue wearing lingerie like Wonder Woman costumes for Halloween, and not questioning Mystique's scantily clothed body in the X-Men movies. Though there may not be a great Marvel female hero, at least we can look to the every day women who are kicking butt around the world.
You're absolutely right that heroic literature--and especially superheroic literature--has been dominated by a masculine model of "hero." (The emphasis on male superheroes and scantily clad sidekick-style female superheroes may be due in part to the perceived primary audience for the genre--preadolescent and teenaged boys, and the grown-man version of same. But that audience has surely been changing over the years--I've met plenty of female Uni students who are impressively well versed in comic-book heroes and their stories.)
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons I wanted to have _Wool_ on the syllabus for summer reading in the fall was because it focuses on a strong female hero who embodies pretty much all of the stereotypically male heroic characteristics (physically strong, no-nonsense, mechanically adept, emotionally stoic). Near the end of the course, we'll encounter what in my view is one of the strongest and most impressive examples of heroism on our syllabus in the woman at the center of _Room_--but I don't want to say anything now that might spoil the story!
After reading the first bit of Wool, I liked it so much I decided to finish it. Right now, I'm about 70% of the way done, so if anybody reading this wants to read it, skip the rest of this paragraph. I agree, Juliette is "masculine" in a lot of ways (plus, for a while, we are led to believe that she is a bit of an old maid), which could be grabbed and held up as an example of sexism, accompanied by this argument: "Look! We finally have a heroine, but she just seems like a man! Not so empowering!" However, as we find more out about her, we see learn about relationship with Lukas and her previous lover, and she becomes a character that is definitely sexually a woman (that sounds kinda weird, I couldn't figure out a good way to articulate it), but also can take care of herself and is resourceful, etc. I find this juxtaposition to add power to an already competent female character.
DeleteSiena, in a more general response to your post, since you approached it from the angle of superheros, I wanted to add the annoyance of characters such as She-Hulk and Spiderwoman, who literally defined by a man. But there are totally kick-ass women in traditional superhero stories. The X-Men universe has a bunch of women, with Phoenix arguably being the most powerful of all the mutants, and Catwoman, while perhaps more of an anithero, gives Batman a run for his money a number of times. Still, they are too few and far between.
I second your disappointment in the lack of strong female heroes. Even in movies where a girl is the protagonist, like the Disney princess movies, there is oftentimes a boy who is the actual hero. For example, Sleeping Beauty is just a pretty damsel in distress waiting for Prince Phillip to save her. I think this is why books like Divergent and The Hunger Games are so popular now with girls, because it's refreshing to see a strong female character.
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